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.

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.