ipl-logo

Nietzsche's Notion Of Strong Pessimism

1323 Words6 Pages

Nietzsche’s notion of “pessimism” is perhaps a defining change in philosophy and classic thought, since the advent of tragedy itself. While the implications of such a statement may be controversial in many spheres of academia, I believe that Nietzsche’s use of “Strong Pessimism” opens up a world of critical analysis of Greek and modern tragedy, that questions the fundamental underlying assumptions that have been assumed for so many years in classics studies. In dissecting the role that tragic heroes partake in tragedy, a theory arises that the tragic hero empowers the play of civilizations only through the acceptance of their own destruction, and in so doing both surrender and realize themselves, temporarily transcending their being to obtain …show more content…

Having the desire to know all possible knowledge in the “little bag of dreams” the King’s wish is granted, but his reaction indicates that he is not prepared for the weight of such knowledge. The King’s action may seem like proof of his drive towards “Strong Pessimism”, but it could be argued that although he embraced the knowledge of the Druid, his despair afterwards is not characteristic of the “gaiety” shown in “Lapis Lazuli”. Whether the visual sign of gaiety or drive is a pretext for defining him as a Superman, the implicit belief is that his move to take direct action in making his choice is representative of the transformation from the Apollonian to the Dionysian. The King took direct action in making his choice and did not just remain King, because it was expected of him as the heir of the throne. The transition to “Who goes with Fergus” provides a deeper discussion of Nietzsche’s “Strong Pessimism”, by engaging the wider reader and audience in pursuing Fergus’s noble decision. Challenging the inconsequential “brooding” of petty fears, to a sadder melancholy “brooding” of knowledge and universal mystery, Yeats hopes to draw upon the equilibrium of the Apollonian and Dionysian. Therefore the construction of the Übermensch, the Superman who has over mastered mastery, is made attainable to the reader as an alternative to one's current state of

Show More
Related
1124 Words | 5 Pages

Miller is of the opinion that twentieth century tragedies contain more optimism than those under Aristotles’ definition. There must be a brief moment when the hero has the possibility of overcoming his

Read More
978 Words | 4 Pages

Greek literature has forced a theme of tyrannical nemesis upon its contents. It is shown that fate and its agents have controlled the Greek sense of justice in a strictly one-sided method. This “dictatorship” of punishment has lead to countless deaths of innocent, and the release of guilty based on the decree of an individual. Sophocles introduces an opposition to the former ideal by presenting a seemingly unresolvable scenario. Neither the revenge of the Furies nor the compassion of Apollo can grant justice single-handedly upon the crimes of tragic Orestes.

Read More
931 Words | 4 Pages

¨All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong.¨ This is one of the many concepts that tragic hero's fail to understand in greek tragedies. A greek tragedy is a play in which the protagonist, usually a man of importance, falls to disaster through the combination of a personal failing and circumstances that he cannot control. In greek theatre this protagonist is called a Tragic Hero. A tragic hero is someone who is born into nobility, and through his own doings, losses everything in the end..

Read More
1484 Words | 6 Pages

Across literature, the tragic hero whose qualities have been eclipsed by fatal flaws has been the center of downfalls and redemptions in stories. In examining this, we loop into the complexities of human nature, the interplay of destiny and fate, and the enduring effects of one's actions. Through the tragic hero's journey, we are confronted with the tragic downfalls and uplifting triumphs they face. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo’s character is one who demonstrates the many tragedies and unfortunate events tragic heroes face. Through impulsive actions, fate and potential for vice and virtue, Romeo causes consequences for himself and others In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, The character of Romeo emphasizes a true Shakespearean tragic hero through

Read More
225 Words | 1 Pages

According Aristotle, tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, beautiful with the use of language, performed by actors, arousing the emotions of pity and fear, and afterwards purified these emotions. When audience watches a tragedy, the feelings of pity and fear are evoked. The audience feels sorry for the characters who come to an undeserved suffering. the audience, furthermore, is afraid that it might come to misery like those characters. Nevertheless, the audience will have its catharsis, which is the purgation of the emotions of pity and fear, through the play.

Read More
2070 Words | 9 Pages

The Essence of Tragedy: Loss and Lesson Every tragedy has a lesson equal in significance to its sorrow. When our lives are faced with perilous situations beyond our control, it is up to us to take from them what we need to. By distancing ourselves from the initial feelings of misery, we are able to take away lessons that we would not recognize otherwise. The use of tragic elements in A Separate Peace impacts the audience in a way other novels cannot, by using tragedy to invoke deeper meaning and sympathy within the reader, which in turn instills teachings that cannot be forgotten.

Read More
476 Words | 2 Pages

“When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways- either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength…” -Dalai Lama. In two of Sophocles’ famous plays, Antigone and Oedipus, the King, the character Creon is the victim of an unparalleled tragic fate that exemplifies Aristotle’s “tragic figure.” His definition being a character whose “tragedy should evoke pity…[they] must be essentially admirable… [their] demise must come as a result of some personal error…” (Simpson 1).

Read More
1105 Words | 5 Pages

Ancient greece evoked many things, and one of them was tragic hero. Tragic hero is someone who can be noble, tragic flaw, reversal of fortune, suffers, recognition, and catharsis. Noble, is someone that is important, they have a high status, and hold an official title. Reversal of fortune is when someone’s life is good at the beginning and ends up being bad or someone life is bad and ends up good. Suffering, is someone who is feeling pain and hurting.

Read More
415 Words | 2 Pages

Mason McCabe Period 1 Mango Street Essay Thingy On the topic of ‘gender’ in relation to House on Mango Street (by Sandra Cisneros) is quite the fiery one, as Esperanza, along with other women in the book, faces the problems of sexism-related depravity quite a few times. In ‘My Name’, pg. 10-11, Esperanza talked about how her great grandmother was kidnapped and forced to marry her grandfather, having her whole life shut down in the process. She mentioned that she ‘doesn’t want to inherit her place at the window’, because her great grandmother looked out of the window of their house sadly for the rest of her life.

Read More
1200 Words | 5 Pages

One is familiar with Shakespeare’s tragedies such as “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet”, “The Tragedy of Hamlet” and so forth. Shakespeare’s tragedies have been known for centuries as a reflection of the societies in different eras which appealed to many until today. They express the darkness that lies within the human’s soul and mind. “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth” are both remarkable works of Shakespeare’s that although they are of different plots, they both share indistinguishable characteristics and themes such as a tragic hero, tragic flaw and hero’s downfall. It had been noted that all Shakespearean tragedies reflect a flaw in the main character or a conflict with an overpowering force that can be observed in the characteristics of Julius Caesar’s, Brutus’s, and Macbeth’s.

Read More
1931 Words | 8 Pages

In his work, The Poetics Aristotle reflects on the role of pity and fear in tragedy, stating, “Tragedy is essentially an imitation not of persons but of action and of life; of happiness and misery. Add human happiness or misery takes the form of action… Character gives us qualities, but it is in our actions that we are happy or the reverse… The tragic pleasure is that of pity and fear” (Aristotle, The Poetics). Aristotle is probing one to conclude that tragedy is characterized by the pity and fear one evokes when individuals go against their presumed character and commit detrimental acts. Throughout his play Macbeth, Shakespeare, reminisces on the actions that gravitate an audience to render both fear and pity, which characterize a tragedy.

Read More
1170 Words | 5 Pages

Besides the author and the reader, there is the ‘I’ of the lyrical hero or of the fictitious storyteller and the ‘you’ or ‘thou’ of the alleged addressee of dramatic monologues, supplications and epistles. Empson said that: „The machinations of ambiguity are among the very roots of poetry”(Surdulescu, Stefanescu, 30). The ambiguous intellectual attitude deconstructs both the heroic commitement to a cause in tragedy and the didactic confinement to a class in comedy; its unstable allegiance permits Keats’s exemplary poet (the „camelion poet”, more of an ideal projection than a description of Keats actual practice) to derive equal delight conceiving a lago or an Imogen. This perplexing situation is achieved through a histrionic strategy of „showing how”, rather than „telling about it” (Stefanescu, 173 ).

Read More
1379 Words | 6 Pages

Because of these similarities, it can be hard to distinguish why some plays are more comic or tragic, and while there is no clear-cut formula to differentiate these genres, Shakespeare’s comedy, Twelfth Night, and Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus Rex, are the baseline needed to understand each genre’s unique distinctions. Let us assume that a tragic play is one that evokes piety and fear by means of the plot, as described by Aristotle over 2000 years ago. Additionally, let us assume that Oedipus Rex is the real-world application of Aristotle 's definition of a tragedy. Finally, let’s assume that Twelfth Night is the exact application of the definition of comedy, regardless of what that definition may be. With these assumptions, let us analyze the characters of Malvolio and Sir Andrew (the ones considered ‘tragically comic’) in the context of the perfect tragedy, Oedipus Rex, in

Read More
943 Words | 4 Pages

A tragic hero is a multifaceted, admirable character with a tragic flaw that turns his life from glory into suffering. Hamlet is an example. ‘Born’ personality, shifting mentality, and inevitable fate leads to its tragedy which eventually triggers audience’s pity. Unlike other tragedies where tragic heros discover the truths by their own actions at the end of the story, realizing that the reversal was brought by their own actions. Hamlet begins differently by knowing the truth from things happening to him.

Read More
1708 Words | 7 Pages

Most of us find it difficult to define what happiness is but we can recognise it when we feel it. Likewise we can immediately identify unhappiness when it is felt. There are widely debated issues around happiness over the past decades as philosophers struggle to analyse what it means and how to define it (Warr & Clapperton 2010).The advance of positive psychology in recent years has drawn attention to happiness and other positive states rather than previous studies which focused on illness, depression and other negative outcomes and experiences (Fisher 2010). Happiness, in the form of joy, surfaces in every category of ‘basic’ human emotion and feeling happy is essential to human experience (Diener 1996). The purpose of this essay is to show

Read More

More about Nietzsche's Notion Of Strong Pessimism

Related Topics

Open Document