Tragedy And The Common Man :: essays research papers

In Arthur milling machines 1949 probe, "Tragedy and the Common Man," milling machine began by saying, "In this age few tragedies are written." This particular essay was published in the New York Times, was also the preface that was prepared for " finis of a Sales humanness" in 1949. Before Millers " stopping point of a Salesman," there was only one type of cataclysmthat which fit Aristotles definition. For Aristotle, plays of tragedy had to revolve around kings, gods, or people of high class. In these classic tragedies, the diction must be elevated and fitting of the characters.Arthur Miller challenged still about every belief and convention that had previously been true about tragic plays, as in Shakespeares "Hamlet"which could be considered the paragon of tragedies. In claiming, "The tragic mode is archaic," Miller explains "that the commonalty man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest maven as kings were." Thi s very notion that regular people are just as fit to be main characters in a tragedy as royalty was also applied to the listenings ground of a tragic play. If the play was supposed to be about u people, and was spoken in a vernacular that was only known to the high-bred, how were the common people who saw these plays supposed to comprehend their meaning? The only musical mode for this problem to be solved, according to Miller, was to present a character to whom the audience will readily relate. Miller did this by presenting Willy Loman, the main character of "Death of a Salesman," who was a common workingman with a wife and two kids.The causal agency that there is such an absence of tragedies in this day and age, is that "the turn which forward-looking literature has taken toward the purely psychiatric view of life, or the purely sociological," has been one that creates skepticism. With so much thinking involved, and analyzing, no one brush off really enjoy a play for what it ispure entertainment. By invariably trying to figure out a reason for why something happened, the audience can no longer accept tragic action, let exclusively heroic action. This, along with the societal belief that in order for a protagonist to be recognized as a character he must be faultless, has made tragedy nearly impossible. Every someone has his/her faults, even the great Hamlet had his downfall his ambivalence and indecisiveness brought him down. unspoilt as Willy Lomans lack of self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy are what undone him.