When Greek playwrights and philosophers defined the first tragic characters in Oedipus and Antigone, they created an archetype that would inspire writers long after their time. The idea that the powerful wish of a noble hero faces inevitable limits satisfies readers who search for a relatable character. While such a premise designates that the tragic hero faces suffering, the style of the artist and the culture of the time influences the circumstances of the hero. An example of the modern tragic hero is Leonard Shelby, protagonist of Christopher Nolan’s detective noir film Memento. Shelby is an anterograde amnesiac, whose powerful wish requires him to internally overcome denial and externally the societal perceptions of his condition.

         Leonard’s determination to solve the complicated case of his wife’s murder, which would be a challenge even for somebody memory-intact, indicates how out of touch he is with reality. Hubris is a defining trait among tragic heroes. Extreme haughtiness or arrogance contributes to the downfall of the character. If Leonard’s downfall is the acceptance to use violence against Teddy because he will not remember, his overestimation of his own competence and capability to control his anterograde amnesia is the hubris that set him on his unrealistic journey where he finds himself taken advantage of several times. In the one-road city where Shelby takes on his investigation, he lands himself in a complicated web of plotting. Everyone wants something from the other person, and when Shelby gets personally involved by asking the cop Teddy for help, he is bound to help Teddy with his own schemes later. Nolan creates this diegetic world of interconnected relationships as a particularly hostile environment for an anterograde amnesiac who cannot remember every individual. Nolan does so to clearly demonstrate how disabled people are viewed and used in a wider society driven by opportunities for personal gain. The fact that Shelby is a tragic hero who endures suffering not from real badness but rather a mistake adds to the effect of the pathos.

         Leonard Shelby’s powerful wish is to have his old life back and to be normal. To get closer to achieving his first wish, Shelby lives a life of denial. He purposefully deceives himself. What Shelby believes to be the story of Sammy Jankis is actually a conflation of real events with events from his own incident. Viewers learn this when Teddy forces Leonard out of denial by harshly reminding him of the truth. At this point, real memories resurface. Leonard sees himself for a brief moment administering insulin to his wife, but quickly replaces the image with one of just pinching his wife out of grief again. Nolan has two purposes in using the story of Sammy Jankis. First, its relationship to the plot has dramatic purposes. When viewers learn that the element is false, they must reconstruct what fit in nicely. But more importantly, Nolan depicts a phenomenon with memory that presents limits for more than the tragic hero. To rely on the mind is to rely on something that is prone to blur the distinction between reality and fiction. Until Shelby is able to recall and come to terms with the truth, he will never truly heal and achieve his wish.

         It is not until after Leonard Shelby indignantly kills Jimmy Grantz, the drug dealer thought to be his wife’s murderer, does he recognize that his powerful wish is unattainable. The lack of satisfaction he feels after the revenge means that he attacked the wrong person. And when Shelby sees Teddy, it is finally clear that he must have been led to commit the violence. The clothing change in the mise-en-scene represents the tragic hero’s anagnorisis. Shelby realizes that he actually has no control over his condition. He has such a great potential to be dangerous that there is no possibility in being normal. Since this is inevitable, he will choose to use it against other people rather than to be a victim of it. Shelby puts on the suit and takes the car of Grantz to formally assume this new mindset. What Shelby was ignorant of, he is now aware; what he thought was a bond of trust with the cop, is now hate.

         By determining that his powerful wish cannot be achieved with the set limits, Leonard Shelby reaches the anagnorisis which guarantees the completion of his journey of a tragic hero. From here, the downfall of the tragic hero is inevitable. With the realization that his condition is uncontrollable, Shelby goes onto direct his violence towards Teddy. Shelby deceives himself into thinking Teddy is his John G in order to follow up with the pursuit whole-heartedly. The story is full circle. What began as a task that Shelby needed deception to initiate finishes and begins anew, with the protagonist accepting that he needs to lie to himself in order to live.