(2016 final exam assignment) Sample Student Final Exam Essays 2016 Essay 3. Special Topics on Tragedy Special Topic # 1: Tragedy Modernized

LITR 4370 Tragedy  Model Assignments

Ty Beverly

Modern Tragedy: Now Suitable for All Families

          In classical Greek Tragedy, there were great men being faced with great difficulties; respected and feared, with great strengths that became like paved roads for their downfalls. These timeless characters have been molded in the modern form of Tragedy, updated to be more inclusive and sometimes become unrecognizable. Although modern Tragedy still pays homage to the classics, lower characters are introduced into the position of the former noble Tragic Heroes. The Chorus is transformed and spectacle is used more freely, with comedy playing a larger role.

In Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman, the Audience is forewarned by the title of what to expect: Willy Loman, the Salesman, is going to die. Not unlike classical Audiences, who would know beforehand the tragic tales of the Oresteia, they are not stories that are meant to shock the Audience. However, Willy Loman would not, by Aristotle’s definition, be considered a Tragic Hero. He is essentially an everyday man with problems that could affect a wider range of people that do not hold up to the standard of nobility expected of the classic tragedies. Ezra Mannon in Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra, still holds a powerful position as a General but is still of a significantly lesser station than a King, more concerned with the position of his family rather than an entire society under his control. His estate, while still considered large, is not in league with the greatness of a domain of nobility.

Spectacle has transformed in modern Tragedy but is at times still held in check. Willy Loman does purposely die in Death of A Salesman but neither the Audience or the remaining characters witness the event. Agamemnon’s death is also not shown, however, while Willy Loman never enters the stage again and is buried in the next scene, Agamemnon is revealed as a bloody mess. The shown descent of Willy Loman in madness before the unseen scene of his death does appear to add a degree of spectacle that the classical Tragedies ignored. In Jorge Lozoya’s essay “Tragedy Forms: Classic and The New Classics,” he disagrees with Aristotle on spectacle having “an emotional attraction of its own, but…it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry” (Poetics VI), however he states that although “spectacle is sometimes over the top or better left to the imagination,” and is only concerned with an audience being awarded with “instant gratification.” While Mourning Becomes Electra may seem less gruesome to Lozoya, in the essence of it being a murder by poison rather than bloodshed, I feel like the spectacle is still greater than in Agamemnon, as we are allowed to see Ezra realize his fate, and personally witness Christine’s horrible act.

The Chorus that featured in the Oresteia is replaced by a Narrative voice and character interactions in the plays of Eugene O’Neill, the setting is described symbolically and the emotions of the characters are explained through this medium. In Act III, Ezra “leans over [Christine] awkwardly, as if to kiss her, then is stopped by some strangeness he feels about her still face,” this scene can be replayed on a stage but the emotions the narrator gives in the written form of the play seems impossible to fully act out. This narrative form of Tragedy goes against Aristotle, who claims that it is “in the form of action, not of narrative, through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions” (Poetics VI), modern Tragedy focuses more heavily on the narration of events and the descriptions of emotions rather than pure action. In Danielle Maldonado’s essay “Part B: Tragedy and its Updates,” she claims that the modern chorus in Mourning Becomes Electra “doesn’t exist in the same capacity…the chorus members are the townspeople” that are uninvolved with Ezra’s death. While I agree with this statement, I feel that the classical Chorus was also not involved with the murder of Agamemnon, and since Cassandra’s prophecies were fated to not be believed, there can be no blame put upon them. The Chorus seems to be changed in modern Tragedy by adapting a Narrative voice that is omniscient, revealing and foreshadowing beyond the character’s means.

Unlike the proud figure of Agamemnon, who is blind to the homicidal intent of his wife, General Ezra questions Christine on her feelings towards him prior to his murder. He appears to be knowledgeable about the undercurrent of hatred inside his wife, despite his character not having the blood of their child on his hands as Agamemnon had. Christine accounts for her loss of love in the birth of Lavinia, blaming both infant child and her husband for her extinguished feelings. In the modern Tragedy, it is more difficult to sympathize with the figure of Christine than it is with Clytemestra, who is understandably angered by the death of her daughter. Christine never gives an absolute reason for her hatred of Ezra, other than his love for Lavinia, which she claims drove the wedge between them. Ezra appears to have less pride than Agamemnon; he is able to recognize something amiss with his wife despite being innocent of infanticide. This modern update to the classical Tragedy inspires more pity than the case of Agamemnon, it reveals Ezra as an insightful character, one that cares not only about his well-being as a leader but as a valued member of his domestic family. His death is met with greater spectacle, not only by the onstage way it is performed, but by its innate injustice.

In Hamlet, the character is a Prince whose throne is overtaken by his murderous Uncle, making him not only of a lesser station than the previous classical heroes but threatening his possibility of gaining the rule he was born to have. There is no clear Chorus within the play, with the characters interactions revealing the plot. The lower characters of the grave digging Clowns act as a comedic relief as they argue over the death of Ophelia, for “unless she drowned herself in her own defense” (Hamlet 5.1), there is confusion over her being allowed a Christian burial. The playful banter in the midst of a serious situation offsets the tragedy of the situation while adding spectacle as Hamlet and Laertes leap into her intended grave and begin to wrestle with each other. The spectacle continues to overtake the story into the end, when a swordfight is played out to the sound of trumpets and cannon fire, along with the on-stage death of the characters.

  In Desire Under the Elms, Eugene O’Neill introduces characters that are farther from Aristotle’s ideal Tragic Hero than in Mourning Becomes Electra. The prize set upon by the character of Eben is farmland, not an empire, and their upbringing is considerably more humble, shown in the very dialogue they speak. Simeon and Peter, the half-brothers of Eben, are unconcerned with their father or their home, dreaming of the possible riches in California. They joke about their father “mebbe” being dead and concern themselves with food and alcoholic drinks instead. Their characters, while not outrageously comedic, are anything but serious and act as one unit, in constant agreement and without a divisible set of personalities. The spectacle is shown in a grotesque show of Cabot’s mirth as he dances and proclaims that all should “eat, drink, an’be merry” (Eugene 45), unknowing of the lonely fate that lies ahead of him. 

In the modern form of Tragedy, the characters are given the ability to show themselves, or at least their emotions, before their death. They are shown as being responsive of their fate before it comes to pass. Unlike Agamemnon, who feels himself safe with his murderous wife, Willy Loman, Ezra Mannon, Eben, Abbie and Hamlet are witnessed directly before their end. In the case of Hamlet, while he succeeds in avenging the death of his father, he has to watch the death of his mother before his fate is sealed. Ezra Mannon is intelligible of his wife’s betrayal before he passes, and Abbie and Eben walk out of the farm and life together to meet their fate. While the modernizations of Tragedy do not always hold up to Aristotle’s guidelines of the genre, there are still remnants its essence.