Talking Tragedy
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Antigone, the "sequel" piece to Oedipus Rex, is obviously a tragedy. It is about the new ruler, Creon, and his struggle to do what is right in face of the law, his beliefs, prophecy, and family ties. He truly struggles with the responsibility that falls on his shoulders. The tragedy of this piece falls in all of the senseless deaths that occur throughout its course. Antigone hung herself, Haimon killed himself when faced with the dead body of his fiance, and Eurydice also committed suicide when she heard the news that her son had perished. This is tragic because Creon was on his way to make amends with Antigone and bring her back home after having already blessed and buried her fallen brother's body when he is faced with her suicide and then promptly after his own son's tragic end. This is super tragic because, from a reader's standpoint, it truly seemed as if maybe all could end well, that everything would work itself out for once. This once again is a play on that crucial possibility of success that makes all tragedies actually tragic. Here is a website about tragedies. Even though Creon had been rather horrible throughout the drama, in the end reader's do feel at least a little bit bad for him. He feels like he is responsible for the suicides of his wife and his son, which is a burden that absolutely no one should have to face. The ending of this play leaves the readers feeling a little hollow inside, which is how you know that it had been an effective tragedy. The fact that we feel strong sad emotions aimed toward the play's antagonist is truly an effect of a well done tragedy- unfortunate events touch us all.
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This time, I will be discussing a TED talk entitled "Are We in Control of Our Own Decisions" by Dan Ariely, and how it specifically relates to the topic of tragedy. This TED talk was about how certain aspects impact the decision making process of human beings. What may feel like free will to us may not actually be, due to the way the brain is wired. Ariely talks about how to influence the decision making process, and how certain options become more popular to us when we are presented a very slightly worse option that is otherwise identical. In his example, he gave a survey to people asking whether they would rather go on a totally free trip to Paris or a totally free trip to Rome. As you can imagine, the results were split fairly evenly; it all came down purely to personal preference. However, when a different group of people were presented with three options, a free trip to Paris, a free trip to Rome, or a free trip to Rome excluding free coffee, a majority of people suddenly apted for the Rome with coffee option. By including the slightly worse deal of Rome without coffee, Ariely caused the inclusion of free coffee to seem like a much, much better deal that it really was, causing people to gravitate towards that choice. These principles do apply to tragedy, and, using it as an example, Oedipus. By hearing of this awful prophecy, Oedipus was inclined to do something that he perhaps would not have originally considered doing; he left home and traveled far, far away. If he had not heard of his fate, he would have remained in his hometown and might not have ever even met his birth mother or father. This is comparable to the people choosing Rome with coffee when presented with the coffeeless option, even if their plan was to pick Paris in the first place. Sometimes, more information can be our downfall. Thinking that you're getting a better deal out of something is also a topic that was discussed by Ariely during this TED talk. By having an option to get more out of a situation, people will be more likely to choose that option, even if they are getting stuff that they don't really want or need. When we look at Oedipus, this is exactly what seemed to be going on with him. Certainly leaving his home seemed like the best option for him; he would not have to worry about sleeping with his mother or murdering his father if he was nowhere near where he grew up. This was not actually the case, though, and these so-called 'benefits' turned out not actually being anything at all, as he ran towards his birth parents rather than away from them. Dan Ariely delivered a very interesting presentation. While not outright, it definitely does have some ties to tragedy. Overall, this was the most fun topic to write about, and I feel like it has been the most helpful piece of media that we have listened to so far. It caused me to think about the connections, and enabled me to come to conclusions that I am quite happy with. It has been a good experience. Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, is without a doubt a tragic story. But, what is it specifically about this tale that makes it so, so tragic? In the play, king Oedipus is unaware that he has murdered his father and married his mother. Most people know how the story goes, so I will spare you the rest of the summary. For me, the most important thing about Oedipus Rex is that, at the beginning of the story, our hero and main character has no idea what he has done or that he had in fact fulfilled the dreaded prophecy that he had been given. This is tragic in and of itself, but what truly gives this ancient play the makings of a tragic tale is the fact that Oedipus was certain that not only was he not Laius's murderer, but whoever had committed the heinous crime should be exiled or else murdered. The possibility of success was there for him, it drove him. He so badly believed that justice would be served for the late king. However, things obviously do not go as anyone had planned. When it begins to come out that Oedipus had murdered Laius, more tragedies than just that are unveiled. The old prophecy that Oedipus had been ignoring and avoiding had, in actuality, become reality. He had unknowingly married and had children with his biological mother. Taking a segue off of this point, is it not also tragic that Oedipus had just found out that the two people who had raised him since he was but days old were not who he had always assumed they were? Tragedy is, by a loose definition, something sad or sorrowful that befalls a person or a character. It is as plain as day that that is indeed what has happened to poor, sorry Oedipus, who was left to cope with the facts that he had murdered a king who had turned out to be his father, married and had four children with his birth mother, caused the horrid plague of awful events to torment the town, been raised by complete strangers, severely punished himself for the crime that he had committed by gouging out his own eyeballs, and lost his title to his brother in law, Creon. The punishments that he inflicts on himself sting the most. Oedipus was a very just, kind, thoughtful ruler. Having done all of these terrible, inexcusable things was worse than death to him. Having to live with the knowledge of what it was that he had done is, perhaps, the most tragic thing of all. In the piece "Tragedy and the Common Man" by Arthur Miller, Miller discusses tragedy and how it affects people. He begins his paper by talking about how there are fewer tragedies being written today than in the past. He states that this is because common people today hold tragedy below them, or themselves above tragedy. Miller also tackles the belief that tragedy is for kings or powerful individuals, saying instead that to have a tragedy befall you one must simply be in the correct emotional state under the correct circumstances. Anyone can have an Oedipus or Orestes complex, not just royalty. He also talks about why tragedy happens and what it means. According to Miller, to be flawless one must be totally passive in their lives. This was rather shocking to me, but upon further thought it began to make a strange kind of sense. No one likes anyone more than an individual that does not complain. Miller also went on to say that in order for a tragic piece to be truly effective, it must contain the possibility of success or, in other words, there must be some possibility of something going right that the hero is looking forward to or desires. Without this element, there is no tragedy. Imagine applying for a college that you know will not accept you based on your grade point average. You have a zero percent chance to get in, but your parents want you to try anyways, so you do. You submit your application and, after a few weeks pass by, you get your predicted letter of decline. You're not heartbroken because you knew it was hopeless from the get-go. However, if that zero percent chance were replaced with a twenty percent chance, your mood may be different upon being declined. This is why the possibility of success is crucial to a tragic story. Honestly, I hadn't considered things from this specific perspective before. To me, all a narrative needed in order to be considered a tragedy was a sad plot or story. But, after reading up on Arthur Miller's point of view, I find myself agreeing with him. Everything that he has said makes sense when it is applied to the people of the modern world. For some reason I had never even considered that the possibility of success was something that had to be present in a tragic story, but it totally makes sense. Actually, there's a lot about tragedy that I have never considered before. I cannot imagine a story not including these elements having any tragic persuasiveness whatsoever. This has been a very interesting read for me, and I feel that I have indeed learned a lot about tragedies. We listened to a TED Talk by Alain de Botton yesterday. In his TED Talk, he discusses failing, failures, losers, and losing. He talks about how society as a whole has evolved from blaming failure on consequences or unappeased gods and instead now has begun to hold each individual accountable for their own shortcomings. He also explains how society sees people who have fallen on hard times as "losers" rather than people who have lost, which hold wildly different connotations. He then talks about snobs and snobbery. He explains to us that a 'snob' is someone who makes assumptions based on a person, situation, or thing from their very first glance. Going further with this description, he states that these snobbish people are dripping with envy. That is why they are so cruel; to make themselves feel better about their own lives. He states that it is only natural for human beings to feel envious of others, especially if they are easily comparable or relatable to yourself. People naturally are less likely to feel jealous of those that they feel are not similar enough to compare to. These ideas are then tied into the concept of a society based solely on what an individual has achieved and is worth. If you work hard enough, you will rise to the top no matter what other situations may arise. However, the opposite is also true in that if you do not work hard enough, you will always remain on the bottom no matter what else may happen. While seemingly ideal, there are issues. This society format would cause the people who were on the bottom to be real life losers. They would appear as failures to everyone no matter what, because they seem to have decided that the bottom is where they wanted to be. Now, we move into the tragedy section. de Botton compared tragedy on stage to tragedy in real life. Heroes in tragic plays and stories are never considered to be losers, yet people in the real world are told time and time again that they are losers or failures for not succeeding at every given task they are handed. Most of the time, people even ignore their successes in favor of berating them for failing. Through the exploration of tragedy, people will hopefully learn that you do not lose because you are a loser. There are multitudes of reasons for loss or failure, and it happens to every single one of us, no matter how accredited or perfect someone may seem. By learning to define failure for ourselves, society as a whole will become much better, and more comfortable to be a part of. This way, no one will have to go around wondering if they will be isolated due to their failures and can instead focus on fixing their issues and beginning to correct all of their past mistakes. It could potentially be dangerous if people continue to feel like they are nothing but failures. If a person feels like their life has literally amounted to nothing, they will often become depressed and possibly will attempt to or actually commit suicide. This is the main reason that it is important that people understand that they are not failures, they have simply failed at certain things in the past and always have the opportunity to either make up for their past errors or clean their slates and start fresh again. It is never too late. You are not a failure. What is tragedy? When people hear the word tragedy, they probably will all think of similar things, darkness, sadness, death or loss of love, etc. It really goes without saying that tragedy is never going to be a happy or uplifting topic. But what is it really? For my personal definition, I would classify tragedy as a story presented in one out of a variety of mediums in which various or striking tragic events are present throughout the presentation. What comes to my mind is, naturally, Shakespeare. After doing some research, I stumbled upon this wiki page about Shakespearean Tragedies. It is pretty interesting if your mind also goes to Shakespeare when thinking of tragedies. After looking up the actual definition of a tragedy, "a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character", I have had my opinion confirmed. While I would disagree that a tragedy must be in play format, it is understandable that that would be included in the description of what it is fundamentally. In the old days of the famous tragedy writers, plays and stage performances were some of the most common ways of communicating a story to a large audience. Tragedy is an interesting topic for me. Even after doing just the most basic wiki searches, I am excited to continue this unit and learn more about this form of storytelling. When I was younger, I was always more interested in tragedy than comedy, so this will be the perfect opportunity for me to finally explore what it us all about. |
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