Jennifer Clary

Tragedy In All Its Greatness

Tragedy is and has been viewed as the one greatest literary genre for many valid reasons. One reason for its greatness is that tragedy gives the audience more than entertainment. Tragedy creates a memorable experience through the use or lack of spectacle, its taboo subject matter, and the moral issues it allows writers to raise.

            One of the greatnesses of tragedy is the difference between it and any other genre. Take tragedy as compared to comedy or romance through the use of spectacle. In tragedy, the spectacle is often repressed, whereas in comedy and romance, the spectacle is often anything but repressed. Take the play Oedipus the King for example, in which the suicide of Jocasta and the gouging out of Oedipus’ own eyes takes place offstage. As a viewer of the play, we are only made aware of these horrid actions through the voices of messengers. I have learned through this class that the absence of the actual spectacle itself allows the viewer to focus on the remainder of the play and not simply on the horrid nature of the tragedy. The imagination is peaked as moral questions are internally asked by the reader or viewer.

Although suppression of spectacle within a tragedy is a norm, it is a convention and not a rule. Three examples of the bending of conventions, as far as spectacle is concerned, can be seen in the play Agamemnon. Example one takes place when the audience is given the chance to see Agamemnon walking on the palaces exquisite red and purple tapestries. Example two takes place when the audience is actually able hear Agamemnon’s screams from inside the palace. And example three comes when the palace doors are opened revealing Clytaemnestra covered in blood while bodies lay at her feet. In this instance the audience is given the full effect of the spectacle and is forced to deal with the horror head on. The audience is also left questioning what is morally “right” or “wrong” with these characters.

            Another interesting aspect of tragedy is its ability to handle the issue of incest through the use of the Oedipal and Electra complex. Through the figures of Hamlet, in Hamlet, written in 1601, and Lavinia in O’Neill’s trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra, written in 1929, audiences are not only introduced to a taboo subject, but a taboo subject that has traveled through history and stood as interesting throughout the test of time. This teaches that dramatic tragedy is timeless.

Prior to our LITR 4533 class, I had been exposed to tragedy through other literature courses, but never as in depth as in this class. Most literature students know that the magic element of tragedy lies with the tragic hero and his one tragic flaw. However, tragedy is so much more. One element of tragedy that had never crossed my mind was the fact that people don’t watch or read tragedy to escape from the world around them. Tragedy forces people to face uncomfortable issues such as death, self-mutilation, and incest. Tragedy also has a way of using irony to show us ourselves within its characters. Tragedy forces students to cross the line between “liking” and “learning” of literature through the educational field.