The terms tragedy and tragic get used often in the media recently, especially after the attacks of September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.. These have become terms synonymous with bad things that have happened to ôgood peopleö. Yet, there is still the question of what these words really mean, chiefly in regards to the world of drama and literature. Once defined, how do these words effect the notion of what consists of tragic elements in the story and what makes a character tragic.
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 family. Yet these two characters were very different from one another, although both tragic in their own ways. This paper will compare Oedipus and Willy Loman and explore the different ways that they are tragic figures.
Oedipus is considered one of the best examples of a tragic figure since he appears to have everything, yet loses everything. As the play opens, the audience learns that a plague has settled upon the city and the Priest of Zeus, as we...