Talking Tragedy
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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.
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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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