Tragedy
1. Definition of "Tragedy"
2. Classical Tragedy
3. Renaissance Tragedy
4.
Modern Tragedy
5.
Useful definitions for studying Tragedy
"It
is curious, although edifying, that the plays we revere, century after century,
are the tragedies. In them, and in them alone, lies the belief-optimistic, if
you will-in the perfectibility of man."
Arthur
Miller
Tragedies are perhaps the most sublime form of drama that we have.
Many
great scholars analyze tragedy.
Aristotle of ancient Greece was the first to define tragedy, in
his famous Poetics (500 BC):
“Tragedy
is a form of drama, characterized by seriousness and dignity, and involving a
great person who experiences a reversal of fortune (peripeteia). This reversal of fortune
must be caused by the tragic hero’s hamartia, which is often mistranslated
as a character flaw, but is more correctly translated as a mistake.”
Two
other notable scholars are the English writer A.C.
Bradlev, whose book Shakespearean Tragedy
is probaby the single most influential work of Shakespearean criticism ever
published, and Northrop Frve. a Canadian, one
of the most distinguished literary critics and literary theorists of the
twentieth century.
According
to Aristotle's Poetics,
tragedy involves a protag onist of hig h estate ("better
than we") who falls from prosperity to miser through
a series of reversals and discoveries as a result of a "trag ic flaw," generally an error caused by
human frailty. Aside from this initial moral weakness or error, the protagonist
is basically a good person: for Aristotle, the downfall of an evil protagonist
is not tragic. In Aristotelian tragedy, the action generally involves
unanticipated reversals of what is expected and the discovery of something hidden (think of Oedipus). Tragedy evokes pity and fear in the
audience, leading finally to catharsis (the
release of these emotions).
A.C. Bradley believes that Renaissance tragedy comes less from
medieval tragedy (which randomly occurs as Fortune spins her wheel) than from
the Aristotelian notion of the trag ic flaw.
Unlike classical tragedy, however, Renaissance tragedy tends to indude subplots
and comic relief. In his greatest tragedies (Hamlet,
Othello, King Lear and Macbeth), Shakespeare
transcends the conventions of Renaissance tragedy, imbuing his plays with a
timeless universality.
Bradley's emphasis on the Aristotelian notion of the tragic flaw implies that Shakespeare's
characters
bring their fates upon themselves and thus, in a sense, deserve what they get.
Northrop Frye distinguishes five stages of action in tragedy:
1.
Encroachment. The protagonist takes on too much, and makes a
mistake that causes his/her "fall". This mistake is often unconscious
(an act blindly done, through overconfidence in one's ability to regulate the
word or through insensitivity to others), but still violates the norms of human
conduct.
2.
Complication. The
building up of events aligning opposing forces that will lead inexorably to the
tragic conclusion.
3.
Reversai. The point at which it becomes clear that
the hero's expectations are mistaken and that his fate will be the reverse of
what he had hoped. At this moment, the vision of the dramatist and the audience
are the same. The classic example is Oedipus, who seeks the knowledge that
proves him guilty of murdering his father and marrying his mother; when he
accomplishes his objective, he realizes he has destroyed himself in the
process.
4.
Catastrophe. The
catastrophe exposes the limits of the hero's power and dramatizes the waste of
his life. Piles of dead bodies remind us that the forces unleashed are not
easily contained; there are also elaborate subplots (e.g., Gloucester in King Lear) which reinforce the impression of a
word inundated with evil.
5.
Recognition. The audience (sometimes the hero as well)
recognizes the larger pattern. If the hero does experience recognition, he
assumes the vision of his life held by the dramatist and the audience. From
this new perspective he can see the irony of his actions, adding to the
poignancy of the tragic events.
The American playwright Arthur Miller (author
of Death of a Salesman) says in his essay Tragedy and the Common Man:
"The
tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who
is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing—his sense of
personal dignity. The tale always reveals what has been called his "tragic flaw." The flaw, or crack in the
character, is really nothing—and need be nothing—but his inherent unwillingness
to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his
dignity. But there are among us today, as there always have been, those who act
against the scheme of things that degrades them, and in the process of action,
everything we have accepted out of fear or insensitivity or ignorance is shaken
before us and examined, and from this total onslaught by an individual against
the seemingly stable cosmos surrounding us—from this total examination of the
'unchangeable' environment—comes the terror and the fear that is classically
associated with tragedy."
From: Guth, Hans P. and Gabriele L. Rico, Discovering Literature. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1993, pp. 1461-1464.
Catastrophe: The
final event of a tragedy in which the protagonist is overthrown and dies.
Catharsis: A purging in the audience of the emotions
of pity and fear. The purpose of tragedy, as believed by Aristotle.
Hamartia (trag ic flaw): The
capacity of the tragic hero to make a disastrous error of judgment, which leads
to his own destruction.
Hubris: Arrogance.
A person who was too happy would attract the jealousy of the gods who would
destroy him for thinking he was as powerful as they were.
Nemesis: The righteous indignation of the gods at
the arrogance of man; the force which directly or indirectly strikes down the
person with hubris. (The principle of "just desserts"—you get what
you deserve.)
Trag ic hero: In classical tragedy, a man in a high position whose actions therefore have widespread consequences. He is of greater than average qualities, usually of surpassing physical attractiveness and personal qualities. However, he possesses a tragic flaw, which combines with circumstances to lead him to make an error in judgment that leads inevitably to his downfall. He becomes possessed of hubris (arrogance) and is struck down by nemesis or the agents of nemesis. He has become gradually isolated and he dies in the catastrophe. The audience, which has undergone a catharsis of pity and fear, feels a deep sense of waste. The hero is somehow redeemed at the end and the audience feels that things have turned out as they were meant to.
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