Aristotle defines tragedy as “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude… with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of such emotions.” In John Irving’s tragedy, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Owen Meany is a boy who believes he is the instrument of god. Near the beginning of the book he hits a foul ball that kills his best friend’s mother. As both boys grow up, Owen begins to have ‘visions’, one of which is a vision in which he sees his future gravestone with the date of his death. He also has a reoccurring dream of his death, which turns out to be true.
both use the literary device irony throughout the stories’ main characters' eventful adventures. Using irony through these stories gave the opportunity for the main characters to prove their worth and to be accepted by their homeland. For example, Odysseus said, “Because I am all dirty, dressed in rags, and begging through the town? I have no choice. This is how homeless people have to live.”
Tragic play is similar to tragedy means, “drama that deals with sad or terrible themes, as opposed to comedy.”(SD,332) A tragic hero normally has the characteristics of a person of noble stature, not an ordinary person, someone who is good but not too good, causes his own destruction for a greater cause, and the death will be seen as a waste of human potential. The tragic hero in this play would be John Proctor because he has a high social status, is good but not too good, and the audience shows pity for him. John Proctor has been illustrated to have a high social status in Salem, Massachusetts by owning land and having a well respected name. In the sixteen-hundreds owning land gave you high social rank.
A tragic hero, according to Aristotle, is usually noble by birth, has hamaria, has peripeteia, his actions usually result in self awareness, and the audience feels pity or fear for him. A more modern tragic hero would be a man of noble stature or is extraordinary, good but not too good, his destruction proves a point, and his downfall is his own fault but also his own choice. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the protagonist,
The feeling of pity and sorrow towards the main character is something that needs to occur more in the Hero’s Adventure archetype according to author Joseph Campbell in “Episode 1: The Hero’s Adventure”, and it is shown in the book The Odyssey where Athena feels pity for Odysseus and tries to help him remember his child Telemachus which also enforces the Greek value of family. Joseph Campbell recommends that we should feel sympathy for the hero’s challenges rather than just appreciation for their achievements because the Hero’s journey can be difficult and rough path by saying, “We ought to feel pity for the hero instead of admiration, so many of them have sacrificed their own needs and very often what they accomplish is shattered by the inability
(page 1322) In communicating these feelings to Mr. Rand, Troy is standing up for that which he believes is fair and is combatting the system which he feels demeans him; an action that Miller would consider to be consistent with a “tragic flaw.” In describing a tragic flaw, Miller writes, “The flaw… is… his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status.” (page 149) With these words, Miller presents his idea that a tragic hero has the capacity to embrace that which he thinks is unfair and to advocate for himself and attempt to make a change. Instead of being passive and letting himself be controlled, a tragic hero is flawed and, unlike the average person, actively promotes himself and his needs.
Throughout history there have been instances where individuals inflicat chaos to gain their desires. The dramatic play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller was written in the 1950s but takes place in the last 1600s during the Salem witch trials. These trials are notorious for the public hysteria it caused and drew out. Due to individuals greed and deception many innocent were accussed and sentenced to death for witch craft. This only subsisted the hysteria and caused several unjust deaths.
In the Ancient Greek tradition, a tragedy includes Hamartia which is, Peripeteia, Nemesis and Hubris. Hamartia is the hero’s tragic flaws. Peripeteia is when the hero has a reversal of their fate, nemesis is the consequences of the hero’s actions and hubris is an overwhelming pride. An example of a tragic hero would be Walter White from Breaking Bad. Walter White goes from loving family man to a drug kingpin in a short couple of years, showing his ultimate undoing and demise.
Nunn 1 Kaitlyn Nunn Dessert American Lit and Comp Per 2A 7 December 2015 The Crucible Character Analysis: Abigail Even though Abigail was a lot younger than John Proctor he still cheated on his wife Elizabeth with her which is lechery and considered a huge sin especially in a city full of Christians. That is where it all started, from that point Abigail became obsessed with John and wanted him to herself, and when he didn 't want her back that 's when Abigail got mad, and started trying to get back at them. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail is a deceptive, selfish, and manipulative because if she wasn’t in this play none of the convictions or deaths would have happened. Arthur MIller uses two methods of characterization to illustrate Abigail 's deceptive ways.
“The Crucible” by Arthur Miller is commonly referred to as a tragedy. In the center of most tragedies, there emerges a tragic hero. A tragic hero can be defined as “a good man with a minor flaw or tragic trait in his character… the fall and sufferings and death of such a hero would certainly generate feelings of pity and fear” (“The Tragic Hero”). In other words, a tragic hero is a man who is thought of as noble or brave, acquires a flaw or misjudgment, and experiences a downfall into death as a result of his flaw. The first ingredient in the recipe of a tragic hero is the character’s traits and characteristics.
Tragedy has been a part of drama since the time of the ancient greeks, an example of such a tragedy is Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. Since then tragedy has been adapted to adhere to different societal views and conventions, such that of the american theatre. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, is an example of that. Both plays fall into the category of tragedy, but exemplify it through different aspects in their respective heroes. The roles of Oedipus and Willy Loman as tragic heroes convey the meanings of the works as wholes through the use of the literary devices dramatic irony and imagery.
“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).
Dramatic irony is usually an over the top, tragic form of irony. Both Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are great examples of an ironic situation. Every expresses the common theme in their own way. Although both of these literally pieces provide us with the theme of irony, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" gives the reader a sense of suspense with the irony that proves to be more effective. Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" emphasizes on how a man’s thoughts and perception can affect oneself and other’s lives.
Tragedy is the most refined version of poetry as it deals with lofty matters. And it is the ultimate form of our innate delight in imitation. It is in the form of dramatic and tragedy is not to tell but to show or perform. According to Aristotle “Tragedy is an action that is serious attention, complete in itself, and of some magnitude; in language enriched by a variety of artistic devices appropriate to the several parts of the play; presented in the form of action, not narration; through pity and fear bringing about the catharsis of such emotions” (Poetics, chapter.6). The novel “Things Fall Apart” resembles Aristotle 's idea of a tragic hero because the main protagonist, Okonkwo, meets all of Aristotle’s criteria of a tragic hero by being a perfect man in his society until he makes a mistake and is exiled for it only to return seven years later to find his village completely changed and his life goal thus meaningless.
A tragedy is defined in the dictionary as “a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability
