What is Tragedy?
Tragedy is defined as an extremely sad or fatal event or course of events; a story, play, or other literary work which arouses terror or pity by a series of misfortunes or sad events. The first important tragedies appeared in ancient Greece in the 400s B.C. with works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. There were various views of tragedy and Aristotle, Richard B. Sewall, Arthur Miller, and Robert Silverberg each had their own different views. Aristotle laid down the basics principles of tragedy in his Poetics. He wrote that the purpose of tragedy was to make the audience feel "pity and fear" for the characters. Aristotle believed that tragedy brought about a catharsis of his emotions. Catharsis is something that arouses solemn emotions, but is not depressing. The hero of any ancient Greek tragedy was a great man who suffered because of a tragic flaw, or error in judgment. The hero was a person of noble stature, but was responsible for his or her owndownfall. The fall is a not pure loss. There is some increase in awareness, some gain in self-knowledge, and some discovery on the part of the tragic hero. Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is one of his best-known plays, but it created a big controversy. "I believe that th
Sewall explained his view of tragedy in The Tragic Form. He compared King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, Prometheus, Agamemnon, and Oedipus to the lives of Roger and John. Everyone is entitled to their own their opinions and views. In the past, especially in the era of Sophocles and Euripedes the tragedy involves royalty and the upper class, and doesn't have anything to do with the common man. Greeks defined tragedy as a hero who tries to achieve a great thing, but fails because of a flaw in their character. I can agree with any of these previous views on certain parts, especially Aristotle since he laid down the basics of a tragedy. Another view of tragedy, according to Arthur Miller, is the "tragic flaw" that the main character has. School fights, traffic accidents, and AIDS are all examples of tragedies, but they are not a traditional tragedy in literary terms. Pride goes along with this, which is also a major part of many of Miller's view. "Tragedy makes certain distinguishable and characteristic affirmations, as well as denials, about the cosmos and the man's relation to it; the nature of the individual and his relation to himself; the individual in society;" (Sewall 166). Robert Silverberg believed that the deaths of Roger Zelazny and John Brunner provided an illustration of the meaning of tragedy. The tragic flaw is the characteristic that the character has that makes him fail, anything. Each of these writers had their own views, but had the Greek definition of tragedy in common. Miller's view that the character fails because he tries to overcome a tragic flaw, but does not succeed is also a meaning of tragedy to me.
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