10/31/2017 0 Comments Tragedy and the Common ManArthur Miller discusses tragedy, and how it relates to the society of today in his piece, "Tragedy and the Common Man." He opens by stating that "In this age, few tragedies are written." He attributes this to a lack of heros among us, as well as a lack of belief. He argues that, as a society, we have come to associate tragedy with the "archaic", or with those we deem to be higher than us. He then goes on to discuss why this is not, and should not, be true. "More simply, when the question of tragedy in art is not at issue, we never hesitate to attribute to the well-placed and the exalted the very same mental processes as the lowly." This quote nicely sums up the remainder of Miller's arguments on this particular subject. Miller then goes on to describe tragedy, and what it means to him. Paraphrasing his words, his main point is that tragedy cannot exist without the possibility of success. It is only truly tragic when the protagonist has a shot at success, but fails anyways. The protagonist, Miller argues, must also be ready to lay down his life to secure his personal dignity. These points really got me to thinking about my own definitions of tragedy, and what I imagine it to be. I had never really considered the point of the hero needing to be willing to lay down his life until now. The way in which Miller executed his argument and point has enlightened me. I had also toyed with the idea of success and failure and tragedy before, but had never put it together into a cohesive thought before. The prerequisite for the possibility of success was something that I had always known, but it was nice for Miller to put the thought into words that actually make sense. Overall, this article was extremely eye-opening, and has changed the way I think about the genre of tragedy.
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