In Arthur Miller’s essay "Tragedy and the Common Man", he takes a deep look into tragedy in literature. He begins with stating how we connect tragedy with nobility or royalty. We see tragic heroes in literature like Hamlet from Hamlet and Oedipus from Oedipus Rex who are people of great power go through their own tragedies and in turn forget that “common people” can live through similar tragedies. We think that we are above tragedy but Miller argues that common people can experience it too.
He then explains that we can relate to tragedy because of the feelings that we experience with it. Tragedies are defined by heroes struggling to "gain their 'rightful' position in society". The characters are ready to do anything to protect their dignity, even die. The story is usually about the character attempting to gain dignity because he lost his place or longs to gain a higher position. Then the “tragic flaw” which is something that stands for the character's unwillingness to ignore whatever challenges his dignity comes in and shakes the story up. The flaw is used to help the character question things in the world they have never questioned before. The "underlying fear of being displaced" can help the readers connect to the character and really help make the character more human. This kind of relates back to my last blog post where I discuss how humans fear judgment. We wait around in fear that people will not like us due to our failures, which in turn makes us think that we are failures. The world is a tragic place full of successes and failures, but most of all judgment.
The revel of the character’s moral compass is also a thing that comes out of the tragic flaw. This allows the character to see how far they are willing to go to regain their dignity with the characters fears and growth.
Lastly, Miller claims that even though a tragedy has a "sad" ending, it can actually be rather optimistic. The story shows how the hero in a tragedy will throw himself into his situation in order to achieve what they think is their rightful place. Tragedy shows a possibility for victory. But if it does not, then it is pathos rather than tragedy where pathos is defined as characters fighting battles they have no chance of winning. “Pathos truly is the mode for the pessimist. But tragedy requires a nicer balance between what is possible and what is impossible,” Miller says. Tragedy can be applied to common people.
Miller’s ideas of tragedy really apply to the world. Not everyone is a royal, and people need to realize that tragedy can strike their life too.
He then explains that we can relate to tragedy because of the feelings that we experience with it. Tragedies are defined by heroes struggling to "gain their 'rightful' position in society". The characters are ready to do anything to protect their dignity, even die. The story is usually about the character attempting to gain dignity because he lost his place or longs to gain a higher position. Then the “tragic flaw” which is something that stands for the character's unwillingness to ignore whatever challenges his dignity comes in and shakes the story up. The flaw is used to help the character question things in the world they have never questioned before. The "underlying fear of being displaced" can help the readers connect to the character and really help make the character more human. This kind of relates back to my last blog post where I discuss how humans fear judgment. We wait around in fear that people will not like us due to our failures, which in turn makes us think that we are failures. The world is a tragic place full of successes and failures, but most of all judgment.
The revel of the character’s moral compass is also a thing that comes out of the tragic flaw. This allows the character to see how far they are willing to go to regain their dignity with the characters fears and growth.
Lastly, Miller claims that even though a tragedy has a "sad" ending, it can actually be rather optimistic. The story shows how the hero in a tragedy will throw himself into his situation in order to achieve what they think is their rightful place. Tragedy shows a possibility for victory. But if it does not, then it is pathos rather than tragedy where pathos is defined as characters fighting battles they have no chance of winning. “Pathos truly is the mode for the pessimist. But tragedy requires a nicer balance between what is possible and what is impossible,” Miller says. Tragedy can be applied to common people.
Miller’s ideas of tragedy really apply to the world. Not everyone is a royal, and people need to realize that tragedy can strike their life too.