The Tragic & Tragedy in Drama

Stagg (1994) has defined a tragedy as having two basic elements: 1) a hero with enough stature to make his or her suffering significant, and 2) a course of action by the hero that produces enlightenment to his or her situation. Aristotle, who was one of the first great philosophers to be recorded discussing drama, said that a tragedy must ôimitate actions arousing fear and pityö (quoted in Adler & Wolfe, 1959, p. 30).

Historically, SophoclesÆ Oedipus Rex has been the story that defined tragedy as its strengths have been pointed to repeatedly by many notable authors, as well as cited by Aristotle in his Poetics (Lewin, 1997). More recently, Arthur MillerÆs Death of a Salesman has been perceived as being a modern tragedy, that is the tragic tale of the loss of one manÆs dreams for his life and his family. On a surface level, this may seem to be similar to tale of loss told by Oedipus, who also had dreams and goals for himself and his f

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murdered King. And on the murderer this curse I lay (On him and all the partners in his guilt):-- Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness! And for myself, if with my privity He gain admittance to my hearth, I pray The curse I laid on others fall on me (lines 236-249). The curse does fall on Oedipus as he blinds himself in self-defilement and appears to lose everything, although Sophocles has him still alive and being led back into the palace at the end instead of dead and/or banished. However, at this point Oedipus has been humbled and may have attained some wisdom about how the gods work in the lives of mortals. So, he would fulfill StaggÆs second criteria, of achieving some type of enlightenment in the course of his ordeal (Stagg, 1994, p. 1). The fate of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, while not the same, can be seen to be similar to that of OedipusÆ, indeed, Stagg (1994) has called it an ôOedipal ritualö (p. 1). First, Willy Loman is an average man. He has no great stature other than being called ôprinceö occasionally by the other characters because of his dreams and goals. However, his goals are lofty for they are the great American dream and Willy Loman has become enamored of that dream. So while he, h
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Approximate Word count = 1793
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)