(2016 final exam assignment)

Sample Student Final Exam Essays 2016

Essay 2. Learning about Tragedy
LITR 4370 Tragedy 

Model Assignments

 

Ty Beverly

Tragedy: the Immortal Genre

          Tragedy is not generally described as a favorite genre by many people and attempting to bring it up in friendly conversation usually results in the changing of topics or the relocation of people away from your presence. Despite one’s initial aversion to topics that can be considered a “buzzkill,” Tragedy has always been an unchanging reality of the world and is realistically still around in many art forms. In classical Tragedy, we are given great men; kings, princes, and conquers, not peasants and everyday folk, who face trials that permanently scar their former sense of greatness. These prominent characters are faced with challenges that involve the fates of not only themselves, but their families and society as a whole. By learning about Tragedy, we are able to accept the world for what it is and not only what we feel it should be.

          Tragedy begins with “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude” (Poetics VI), it must start off with a problem that is large enough to encompass the fall of a great man. Agamemnon murdering his daughter and Oedipus unknowingly falling in love with his mother and killing his father are substantial problems, problems that no one is likely to scoff at in a “not a big deal, get over it” sort of way.  The problems are serious enough to inspire “pity and fear” in the Audience, which will enable “the proper purgation of these emotions” (Poetics VI), or catharsis. The death of Ezra Manning in Mourning Becomes Electra modernizes the cathartic emotion found in Agamemnon by having the cause of his murder be through his living daughter’s love for him rather than an infanticide, while the death of the baby in Desire Under the Elms causes a similar terror. Both parties subjected to death in these modernized stories are shown to be innocent, which may lessen the Audiences inclination to pity and spark more of an outrage of injustice. In classical Tragedy, the characters that fall at the end should remain in a middle area, between fault for their actions and their inability to escape their fate.

Aristotle believed Catharsis to be the true goal of Tragic works, this idea that submitting oneself to negative emotions in order to be free from them is also used in psychology, as a person must recognize the basis of their problems in order to move on and heal from them. Although Nietzsche does not view pity as a positive element to humanity, he does agree in the essence of suffering leading to wisdom. He claims that “the whole world of torment is necessary so that the individual can create the redeeming vision” (Nietzsche 26). Before the presence of Dionysus, the Apolline created an illusory art form that shielded humanity from experiencing the darker truths about life. The greatness of Tragedy remains in its ability to show humanity in all its forms, with the Apolline and Dionysiac working together to achieve this aim.

          The Tragic Hero lives in a grey area, he “is a man who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty” (Poetics XIII), he is, at the same time, responsible for his outcome and yet considerably blameless. The worst outcomes of life, even to this day, are often blamed on ignorance. In multiple cases after WWII, the remaining Nazis pled either ignorance to the horrors perpetrated by their cause or cast themselves as unwilling victims that were forced to aid in the destruction. The defense of being powerless to not aid in genocide, or being bound to follow orders, attempts to displace the blame of the soldiers by placing it on the organizations that led to their crimes. While putting people in positions of war will lead to death, we have “a common human impulse to isolate or localize blame in the faults of individuals instead of larger social systems or institutions” (Tragic Flaw Page), and find it easier to blame a person for their own downfall rather than the society that helped lead them to their fate.

 Unlike the Nazi defense, Oedipus and Agamemnon follow the courses they feel will lead them to their best outcome but end up foiled by their Tragic Flaws. Agamemnon’s sense of pride is a part of his strength, an asset in leading his people, however it also leads him to believe that his wife loves him as much as his followers.  The sacrifice of his daughter to the gods was not done out of malevolence but in his attempt to do the right thing for his country, although it leads to his demise when he fails to see his wife’s hidden malice. As with Oedipus, who cleverly solves the Sphinx’s riddle, his belief of escaping his fate leads him to the false comfort of life with his mother as his wife. The horrifying realization of his mistake is made worse for the Audience in light of the man’s obvious cleverness and evident attempts to change his destiny. If an intelligent and respected character like Oedipus can end up in this position, the normal members of the Audience must fear the possibility of their own unfortunate fates, with the direct attempt of escaping fate through free-will leading to unfortunate ends.

Teiresias pushes Oedipus to anger for not revealing his doom, claiming “It is not your fate to fall because of me. It’s up to Apollo to make that happen. He will be enough” (452-454). His understanding that his words will not bring any change to the story results from the inability of free-will to overcome what the gods have planned. However, he is fated to have this discussion with Oedipus even though he knew it would bring “no benefit to the man possessing it. This [he] knew, but it had slipped [his] mind” (375-377); this forgetfulness of a man who is gifted with prophecy further allows the Audience to accept Oedipus as a predestined character worthy of pity; if a man who is able to actually see the future is unable to prevent it, how can one who is simply played with by the gods be expected to escape his fate? 

          In Antigone, hamartia is evident in Anigone and Creon, leading them both to tragic ends without direct interference from the gods. While the free-will of Oedipus is lacking in Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, the characters in Antigone are led by their personal views of right and wrong, with Antigone sacrificing herself for the last rites of her dead brother and Creon’s pride in the law causing the death of his wife and son. As with Creon in Oedipus at Colonus, after taking away Antigone, he claims that “Nothing shall curb my will; though I be old And single-handed, I will have this man” (909-910) and he again denies the power of the gods in Antigone when he would refuse the burial of Polynices even if “Zeus’s eagles should choose to seize his festering body and take it up” (Antigone 1160-1161). The actions of Antigone and Creon are not prophesied but created through their flaws, making it appear that they had more power to avoid their dire situations. They are pitied due to their individual feelings of right and wrong.

Nietzsche lacks appreciation for Eurpides, believing he caused the death of Tragedy by his comedic approach to the gods and his less important chorus. In Hippolytus, Aphrodite claims that, like people, the gods are compelled to want admiration, even at the cost of human lives. The gods are given human personalities and have a more direct influence on the plights of the characters. While Eurpides incorporates the chorus into Hippolytus, it does not serve the same function as it did in the plays that preceded him, it really does not seem to serve much of a purpose at all. It is not an “integral part of the whole” and does not “share in the action,” (Poetics XVIII), the verses, while poetic, do not propel the story or give deeper insight to the trouble of the characters, they simply seem stuck in the background.

The higher characters in Hippolytus are placed on a level playing field with the servants, or lower characters, with the Nurse being the cause of Phaedra’s destruction. Aristotle’s views on Catharsis are impeded in this play, for while the characters undergo a tragic end, the flaws of the characters are not entirely reasonable as flaws, as the only wrong Hippolytus seems to commit is his upheld sense of virginity. It is also hard to accept that Phaedra’s love for his stepson is her flaw when Aphrodite herself accepts it as her own deed in the beginning.

          Tragedy is perhaps not the greatest genre in the sense of simple enjoyment; it receives greatness and power through the response of its Audience. But while human beings are naturally inclined to be enraptured by a Comedy or Romance, Tragedy has always held down its place in history and will likely continue to do so in the future. In Eric Anderson’s essay “Part Two: Staying Power: Comparing Ancient Tragedy and Comedy,” he states that “Death, the focus of tragedy and the universal end which we all share, remains an obsession to this day. Humanity can neither solve it nor get shut of it. A persistent mystery, it triggers the extremest pity and fear. Learning being the greatest pleasure, we are denied by death because it does not divulge its secrets.” Whether human beings want to be reminded of it or not, Death is and always will be a part of life. No matter how great or low a character may be considered, we all face the same fate. We look at Tragedies in the form of art, as a realization of our mortality and fragility, where our greatest strengths can become our greatest weaknesses and our darkest fears may well become our inescapable fate.