Student-designed final essay sample d

New Dramatic Theory: On American Tragedy

            When discussing of Tragedy as it pertains to dramatic works, there is an invariable lurch to consider Aristotle’s measures of a play.  The Aristotelian values as they are commonly accepted stipulate that the play takes as long as the audience is watching.  The action involves the solving of a singular issue.  The main character, the tragic hero, suffers a fall from a high place to almost total loss due a flaw within their character, often pride.  The witness of these events creates a purging of fear and other associated negative emotions by the audience, known as catharsis.  In some periods of theatre, this theory is well and good.  Yet, in considering contemporary American tragedy, the qualities are continually ignored.  Since the theory is sound, and since the plays being produced are still considered tragic, another theory must emerge to explain the change. 

Albeit brief, this essay is an exploration of a new tragic hero, first seen in Hamlet.  This theory then appears largely in American theatre, in examples such as A Raisin in the Sun, ‘night, Mother, and Long Day’s Journey into Night.  In these plays, there is no height from which to fall.  In many cases, the fall has already occurred.  However, the characters still create a catharsis in each work.  From this, one ventures the new theory: the tragic hero does not fall but fails to rise due to a circumstance within their character.  This failure to promote is tragic to Americans, because of the American Dream.  Said Dream endorses hardworking, morally upright individuals who overcome the odds, simply because it is what they are expected to do.  However, a capitalist society can only allow the promotion of the strongest and fastest.  In watching the failure of the American tragic hero, the American audience is reminded of the stipulations of the American Dream.  The catharsis comes in the bitter reminder to work harder.

Although it is considerably older than the other works, the new tragic hero finds its first model in Hamlet.  The fall has already occurred, as Hamlet has been prevented from ascending the throne following his father’s death.  Furthermore, the solution to this issue is made plain to Hamlet at the beginning of the play.  However, it is Hamlet’s lack of ruthlessness that prevents his desired promotion.  As a result, the entire economic system falls to ruin, with all of the major advisors and positions slain, save Horatio, who helps Fortinbras in his takeover. 

Despite the loss of life suffered on the part of almost every character, Hamlet suffers no fall.  He begins the piece as a prince and ends it as such.  The exile and attempted murder is foiled and no further harm is suffered.  Although a number of attempts are made on the prince’s life by his more ruthless uncle, each fails until everyone else has been slain.  In this sense, Hamlet finally fulfills the task set before him.  However, his inability to adapt to a cutthroat capitalist environment becomes his downfall.  While this is logical, there is still a sadness attached to his death.  In short, the audience wants to see Hamlet succeed and promote, because it is his place to do so.  Therefore, Hamlet is expected to live a life parallel to the American Dream.  This inability to overcome flaw in order to promote becomes extremely pronounced within the American works surveyed herein. 

            With regard to the theory and the American stage, each quality of the theory should be explored.  The first element is that the fall has already occurred.  In Raisin, the family is living in an apartment that is too small.  No one is currently in a career that promises promotion, and Ruth is expecting another child that will not fit within the apartment.  This fall has occurred from the day Walter Lee was born, because the apartment was only the right size for Mama and her deceased husband.  In ‘night, Jessie has already decided that she will commit suicide.  In fact, the play is mere hours away from the event itself.  This decision has been made based on years of disappointments.  Finally, in Journey, the family is already unhappy, the mother already a morphine addict, and the men all alcoholics.  Of course, this has been some twenty years in developing.  In each play, the characters are living below the social rank they desire.  The housing is either too small or too plain.  Even with the Tyrones, money is an issue.  While this socio-economic state may be a realistic portrayal of the average American family, it appears a little too dire.

            However, each family is hardworking and morally upright.  This is vital to the theory, because it makes the audience want to see the characters succeed.  Certainly, elements such as suicide and alcoholism are questionable, but they are dismissed as flaws in otherwise strong people.  Without these flaws, it is suggested that the characters would be strong, successful members of capitalist society.  In other words, they could fulfill the American Dream, if they only continued to work or worked a little harder.

            This is where the tragic flaw sets in.  As seen with Hamlet, it is the inability to overcome the flaw that prevents logical promotion.  The Youngers are given money to improve their social standing, but they do not have the skills to successfully use this money.  Instead, greed leads to independent success: Walter pursues the liquor shop, Beneatha education, and Mama a house.  It would take each member of the family working together to overcome the circumstances they live with.  Despite the love, they do not work together, and this is the flaw that destroys them.

            Interestingly, this flaw is similar to the issue within ‘night.  Mama has hidden Jessie out of pride, for fear of Jessie having an epileptic seizure in public.  She has hidden considerable amounts of information from Jessie, which has prevented her from succeeding into a promotion beyond her mother’s house.  As a result, Jessie assumed her epilepsy to be her downfall, attached to falling from a horse.  In truth, it was her mother’s dishonesty and lack of communication that failed to promote Jessie.  As a result, the suicide is planned, and Mama is punished for her hubris with the loss of her daughter.  Notably, the communication fault is absolved through the course of the play; this creates a semi-promotion when Jessie assumes control over her own life.  However, Mama is punished for her hubris with the loss of her daughter.

            Journey compounds the issue further, because the fall has been so long in coming.  At the beginning of the play, it appears the mystery could be solved, the problem prevented.  By the end, it is apparent that nothing has changed.  Furthermore, nothing will change.  After all, the title suggested the play would reveal the truth, by inevitable movement toward it.  In this work, despite the love and concern of the family, no one is able to overcome their unique flaw.  Everyone wants Mary to quit the morphine, everyone wants the alcoholics to release their bottles, but it will never happen.  The family is unhappy and has surrendered so completely to the misery that there is nothing left to do.  In a sense, Journey is the most like Hamlet.  The characters continue to hurt one another, despite their best efforts.  Ruthlessness would be the only means for repair, and none of the characters is ruthless enough.

            In conclusion, the new tragic hero does not suffer a fall before the audience’s eyes.  Rather, the fall assumes the form of circumstance, which the audience wants to see the hero overcome, promoting to a higher position.  However, the tragic flaw prevents this from happening.  Instead of falling to a lower place, the hero is left essentially where they began.  Although death would be unpleasant, lack of resolution is unsettling.  The catharsis achieves a more powerful effect then by denying resolution.  Instead, the characters are left, to continue to rise and fall in petty fashion, unable to improve their basic standard of living.  The Dream remains forever out of reach. [RL]