The Tragic Fallacy

Joseph Krutch, 1893, 1970

Many have an assumption about tragedy, thinking that it is simply a gloomy and depressing story. This, however, could not be further away from the truth. Quite the contrary, according to Joseph Krutch, tragedy celebrates humanity and everything it is capable of.

"Juliet died, but not before she had shown how great and resplendent a thing love could be; Othello plunged the dagger into his own breast, but not before he had revealed that greatness of sould which makes his death seem unimportant."

Tragedy is more than a simple sad story; it reveals the potential of greatness that we all possess. To become a tragic writer, you cannot have a dark outlook on life. If Shakespeare viewed the world like this (as many critics have imagined in his 'Dark Period'), characters such as Romeo, Lear, Othello, and Hamlet would not have come to exist. Optimism is inherent in tragedy. No man can even begin to comprehend it without the ability to beleive in the greatness and importance of man.

Other genres also have 'tragedy' in them. Comedy laughs at the faults of its characters; drama attempts to solve the problems which infallibly arise; melodrama tries to define good and evil, rewarding and punishing its characters based on its definition of justice. Tragedy, however, is the ultimate of all the genres. It uses the faults and ultimate tragedy of its characters to express a potential for greatness inherent in humanity. Unfortunately, also makes it the one of the more difficult of the genres to conceive.

These ideas come from the essay "The Tragic Fallacy", written by Joseph Krutch.