The word “tragedy” can be interpreted in several different ways. In literature especially, different authors have different ways of writing a tragedy. For example, for class, we had to answer questions about the essays that served as a transition between the novels we are reading. In this assignment, we learned about “The ‘Tragic Vision,’” “Tragedy According to Aristotle,” as well as “Arthur Miller’s Definition of a Tragedy.” The “Tragic Vision” said that in order for a story or play to be a tragedy, it had to include a catastrophic conclusion, a sense of inevitability, human limitation, suffering, and disproportion, and a learning process and acceptance of moral responsibility. According to Aristotle, a good tragedy had certain elements to it, including a single motive, the fall of a man whose character is good and high in power, an error caused by the protagonist, it should cause pity and terror in the audience, explore the actions of God towards mortals, purify emotions and possess unity. Arthur Miller’s version is similar, but different in ways such that the protagonist can be a common man who must be ready to lay down his life, the tragic flaw in unimportant, it must include an under-lying fear, and does not have to have an unhappy ending. In Oedipus and Hamlet, we see more of Aristotle’s version, rather than Miller’s. There is an unhappy ending in both, which results in many deaths in both plays. Both protagonists are in high power, Oedipus a king and Hamlet a prince, and both have a tragic flaw that ultimately leads to their downfall.
In society today, many people, including myself, believe a tragedy can happen to anyone, and it does. When a tragedy occurs in our world today, there is no set of elements that people go through before officially calling it a tragedy. The word “tragedy” is often used to describe a horrible event. Like 9/11, the Boston Bombing, or Sandy Hook. Those are all tragedies as seen by society.
When I think of a tragedy in society, I am the same way. I think of things that weren’t supposed to happen but did and ended up in untimely deaths. When I think of a tragedy in literature, I do think of the more Shakespearean idea of it. I don’t agree with Miller in saying that it doesn’t have to have an unhappy ending. Basically every story ever written has something go wrong in it, but that doesn’t make it a tragedy. I think tragedies are more related to deaths and unhappy endings like Aristotle discussed.
