Tamlin as Aristotle's archetype of the tragic hero
Disclaimer: I love Feyre. I love Rhys. I love Tamlin. For me, two things are true at once: (1) Tamlin failed Feyre, and Feyre was right to leave him. (2) Tamlin was traumatized and suffering, and doesn’t deserve to be labeled a villain in the story.
Basically, I didn't create this post out of love or hate of any character. It is purely an exercise in objective analysis and a way for me to form a hypothesis about Tamlin's future in the story (spoiler: he probably won't be getting a happy ending).
Okay, onward! Sarah J. Maas has set Tamlin up as a pretty close representation of Aristotle’s archetype of the tragic hero. According to Aristotle’s Poetics, a tragic hero is a noble, virtuous character of high stature who falls from grace due to a tragic flaw (hamartia), specifically an error in judgment. His downfall brings about a reversal of fortune (peripeteia) and ultimately, recognition (anagnorisis) of their mistake. The tragic hero evokes (catharsis) pity in the minds of the audience. Let’s dive in!
- High stature: a tragic hero is typically of high birth or high standing. As a High Lord, this is self-explanatory. Tamlin obviously has high standing within the narrative. He is not just an ordinary person.
2. Noble, virtuous character: tragic heroes must be inherently good. Despite his flaws, Tamlin has a good heart. He feels intense guilt over the cruelty and barbarism of his father and brothers.
Although Rhys's tone here is mocking, he does ultimately believe Tamlin has noble ideals, stemming from disgust of the brutality of his family:
>Thorns and Roses (chapter 39) “He never treated me like a captive— or a slave.”
“No— and how could he? Not with the shame of his father and brother’s brutality always weighing on him, the poor, noble beast.”
>Thorns and Roses (chapter 19) “A muscle feathered in his jaw, and I regretted the question if only for the pain that flickered in his eyes. “My father…” His claws gleamed at his knuckles but didn’t go out any farther. I’d definitely asked the wrong question. “My father was as bad as Lucien’s. Worse. My two older brothers were just like him. They kept slaves— all of them. And my brothers— I was young when the Treaty was forged, but I still remember what my brothers used to…” He trailed off. “It left a mark— enough of a mark that when I saw you, your house, I couldn’t— wouldn’t let myself be like them. Wouldn’t bring harm to your family, or you, or subject you to faerie whims.”
>Thorns and Roses (chapter 16) “But had I been old enough, I would have. Against slavery, against tyranny, I would gladly go to my death, no matter whose freedom I was defending.”
He also struggles internally with the fact that in order to break the course, he must manipulate and use Feyre:
>*Thorns and Roses (*chapter 12) “Tamlin turned away but whirled back a moment later, his teeth bared. “It was a mistake from the start. I can’t stomach it, not after what my father did to their kind, to their lands. I won’t follow in his footsteps— won’t be that sort of person. So back off.”
3. Hamartia (fatal flaw): According to Aristotle, hubris is not the only fatal flaw that defines a tragic hero. Aristotle actually emphasized hamartia (any fatal flaw) over hubris specifically. Tamlin’s fatal flaw is his desperate need for control. Tamlin, having just spent months Under the Mountain, is desperate to regain control. For Tamlin, control is masked as protection, fear of loss, and emotional repression.
>Mist and Fury (chapter 3) “We all heard your neck break. But you got to come back. And I doubt that he will ever forget that sound, either. And he will do everything in his power to protect you from that danger again, even if it means keeping secrets, even if it means sticking to rules you don't like.”
>Mist and Fury (chapter 7) “Training would draw too much attention," Tamlin said. "You don't need to train. I can guard you from whatever comes our way."
>Mist and Fury (chapter 10) “I couldn't save you before. I couldn't protect you from them. And when you said that, about ... about me drowning you ... Am I any better than they were?"
> *Mist and Fury (*chapter 11) “Protect, protect, protect—I could see the word in his eyes.”
- Peripeteia- a reversal of fortune, or fall from grace, brought on by the character’s fatal flaw. At the end of A Court of Thorns and Roses, Tamlin and Feyre are revered. They are the saviors of Prythian, and their love has saved the world. They are about to ride off into the sunset for their happily ever after. Their cachet even drew ambitious, power-hungry Ianthe back to Tamlin’s side:
>Mist and Fury (chapter 2) “And who had taken it upon herself to worship me and Tamlin as if we were newly minted gods, blessed and chosen by the Cauldron itself.”
Yet within the course of less than two years, Tamlin’s fall from grace is staggering. By A Court of Silver Flames, he has basically shifted permanently into his beast form.
>Silver Flames (chapter 14) "Eris looked toward the hills beyond the orchard, green and gold and glowing in the sunlight. "They say a beast prowls these lands now. A beast with keen green eyes and golden fur. Some people think the beast has forgotten his other shape, so long has he spent in his monstrous form. And though he roams these lands, he does not see or care for the neglect he passes, the lawlessness, the vulnerability. Even his manor has fallen into disrepair, half-eaten by thorns, though rumors fly that he himself destroyed it."
A fatal error is often the catalyst for the character’s peripeteia. It is often just a simple mistake on the part of the tragic hero, stemming from his hamartia, and eventually leads to the final catastrophe. Tamlin’s final, fatal error is quite clear: locking Feyre up in the manor. This transgression was one that Feyre simply could not forgive, and puts the final nail in the coffin of their doomed relationship:
>Mist and Fury (chapter 13) “But he'd ... he'd locked me up. Either he so deeply misunderstood me or he'd been so broken by what went on Under the Mountain, but ... he'd locked me up.”
>Mist and Fury (chapter 12) "It was all I could do to keep from screaming, to keep from shattering into ten thousand pieces as I sank onto the marble floor, bowing over my knees, and wrapped my arms around myself.
He'd trapped me; he'd trapped me; he'd trapped me-
I had to get out, because I'd barely escaped from another prison once before, and this time, this time- Winnowing. I could vanish into nothing but air and appear somewhere else, somewhere open and free. I fumbled for my power, for anything, something that might show me the way to do it, the way out. Nothing. There was nothing and I had become nothing, and I couldn't ever get out—
Someone was shouting my name from far away.
Alis-Alis.
But I was ensconced in a cocoon of darkness and fire and ice and wind, a cocoon that melted the ring off my finger until the golden ore dripped away into the void, the emerald tumbling after it. I wrapped that raging force around myself as if it could keep the walls from crushing me entirely, and maybe, maybe buy me the tiniest sip of air— I couldn't get out; I couldn't get out; I couldn't get out—
- Anagnorisis: The tragic hero’s actions result in an increase of self-awareness and self-knowledge. Here is where my argument is, admittedly, weakest. The tragic hero must admit to the mistakes that he has made, and take accountability for them. We have no canon in which Tamlin specifically acknowledges what he did wrong. However, Tamlin is part-way there. We do see evidence of remorse and regret:
>Mist and Fury (chapter 47) “Lucien’s mouth tightened. “It was a mistake. We all made mistakes. He’s sorry— more sorry than you realize. So am I.”
>Frost and Starlight (chapter 23) "Do you think she will forgive me?" The question was a rasp. As if he'd been screaming.
I knew whom he meant. And I didn't know. I didn't know if her wishing him happiness was the same as forgiveness. If Feyre would ever want to offer that to him. Forgiveness could be a gift to both, but what he'd done ...
"Do you want her to?"
His green eyes were empty. "Do I deserve it?"
No. Never.
He must have read it on my face, because he asked, "Do you forgive me—for your mother and sister?"
"I don't recall ever hearing an apology."
As if an apology would ever right it. As if an apology would ever cover the loss that still ate at me, the hole that remained where their bright, lovely lives had once glowed.
"I don't think one will make a difference, anyway," Tamlin said, staring at the felled elk once more. "For either of you."
Broken. Utterly broken.
We can also see Tamlin’s anagnorisis when he willingly acts against his own feelings of jealousy and possessiveness to bring Rhys back to life. His actions demonstrate that he won’t be the person to take anymore peace or happiness from Feyre:
> Wings and Ruin (chapter 77) "Be happy, Feyre," he said quietly.
And dropped that final kernel of light onto Rhysand.
- Nemesis: the unavoidable, often deserved, retribution or punishment for the hero's hubris and actions. Again, we see Tamlin’s existence roaming his lands as a beast, as his punishment:
>Silver Flames (chapter 14) "Enough with the double-talk," Cassian said. "Tamlin's staying in his beast form and is finally getting the punishment he deserves. So what?"
- Catharsis: the ultimate effect on the audience, who experience a release of pity for the tragic hero. The downfall must appear as a result of the hero's own actions rather than pure bad luck, yet the punishment should exceed the crime. I’ll let you all decide whether that is the case.