Tragedy...An Art

Images of Antigone and Oedipus

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The tragic tale of Oedipus is known to many. However, the story of Oedipus is not exclusively told by Sophocles. Many artists, taking inspiration from the tragic tale, have created their own renditions of the famed story. One striking example is a piece by James Mah, Teiresias Accuses Oedipus. Similar to Mah's piece, many artistic renditions of the tragedy focus on pivotal, emotional scenes in the play, the tragic moments. These are the moments that the artists can capture the essence of the characters, when the characters are at their weakest, most emotional moments. This drama is what draws us to these pieces, making them interesting to look at. We can clearly understand the tragedy in these pieces, but we also see a humanity that all of us fear.

Tragedy and the Common Man?

Arthur Miller, 1915-2005

Who do we generally see in tragedies? Many of the characters in classic tragic literature are royalty, or at the very minimum, high nobility. In Romeo and Juliet, the Montagues and Capulets are both wealthy, high standing families. The tragedy of Hamlet is centered around the nobility of Denmark. The people in tragedy are as such because we need them to be. The tragedy is when when these people, who are held to the highest standards, fall. We always hold tragedy in this regard, thinking we are below it, or it above us. Insisting however, that this is the 'correct' form of tragedy, that it is the only way, is clinging to the outward, and archaeic, forms of tragedy.

Tragedy applies to everyone. If it didn't, how would be able to cherish and relate to it, or even understand it? Tragedy is all about fighting for your 'rightful' place in society, something nearly all of us can relate to. We know what it is like to fight for something we feel we deserve.

"The tragic right is a condition of life."

 This comes from our underlying fear of being displaced from where we feel we belong. This appears in all tragedy.

A misconception of tragedy is that it is, by its very nature, inherently pessimistic. That it is simply a story with a sad or unhappy ending. Tragedy, however, must contain some glimmer of optimism, some chance for hope. Put simply:

"...the possibility of victory must be there in a tragedy."

If there is no hope, no chance, the hero would present no will to acheive his goal. Through this, we can see in tragedies that optimistic beleif that man can improve. Through this, we see that not only kings and queens can be a part of tragedy, but so can the common man.

These ideas come from the essay "Tragedy and the Common Man", written by Arthur Miller.

Success, Failure, and Tragedy

Alain de Botton makes a witty, eloquent case for finding success in our lives in a presentation he made at TED Global 2009.

In his presentation, de Botton talks about what failure is and how it relates to our lives. He starts by defining a snob. What is a snob? According to Botton, a snob is someone who defines you using only one aspect of your appearance or character to judge you. He then ties snobbery to envy. Envy is a funny thing. Think about the Queen of England. You should be extremely envious of her. She has a bigger house, expensive jewelry, and respect. You, however, are more envious of someone who you can relate to, is your age, of your standing. Because this is when you think, I could have done that. I deserve that too.

This trend thrives in a meritocratic society, or a society that rewards you based on your merits. That's a good thing, right? Take a little talent, add a lot of hard work, and soon, you're on your way to the top. It's literally the American Dream. However, this is a two-sided coin. If we say people are where they are because of their merits and abilities, sure, we say that the people on top deserve it and are wonderful people. Unfortunately, we are also saying that the people on the bottom deserve to be on the bottom, and they're horrible people. They're losers. Failures.

That idea is what many people equate to tragedy as well. Tragedy, according to Botton, is how people fail. So, if failure equals a loser, all of the classic heroes are losers. Romeo, Hamlet, Oedipus, they're all simply losers. This is not the case. Hamlet lost, but he was not a loser. Yes, he fell from his greatness, but it was not because he was a loser. It's this thinking we need to get rid of. Our notions of success and failure come from outside suggestion. We need to make sure that our notions of success should come from ourselves.

Tragedy...What is It?

Aristotle, what a guy.

Tragedy. We've all seen it (or read it). It comes in so many forms. There's the classic Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet. The opera, Phantom of the Opera. We recognize it when we see it, but what really defines something as a tragedy? If we ask Wikipedia (always right), its a form of art based on human suffering that offers pleasure to its audience. Pleasure...from suffering.

Here's our favorite Greek philosopher's opinion on tragedies, straight from the tragedy page on Wikipedia:

According to Aristotle, "the structure of the best tragedy should be not simple but complex and one that represents incidents arousing fear and pity--for that is peculiar to this form of art." To be a tragedy, this 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. "The change to bad fortune which he undergoes is not due to any moral defect or flaw, but a mistake of some kind." This bad fortune is the result of an inevitable but unforeseen result of some action taken by the hero. If a character’s downfall is brought about by an external cause, Aristotle describes this as a misadventure and not a tragedy.

Putting it simply, all tragedies have a few common components. To be classified as a tragedy, the main character must make a mistake. Due to this mistake, he/she will experience some form of bad fortune. In many tragedies, it is death, but this is not always the case. The mistake that the main character makes also cannot be due to any personal moral flaw or be caused by an external cause, otherwise it becomes a misadventure.