ROOTS OF TRAGIC EXPRESSION The ancient root of tragedy rises out of the tradition of the literary monomyth.

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Clarence McCormick
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1 AP Lit/Comp TRAGEDY Tragedy is a mode of literature, central to Western literature, in which a person of superior intelligence and character, a leader of the community, is overcome by the very obstacles s/he is struggling to remove. Tragedy (like the epic) depicts serious incidents in which protagonists undergo a change from happiness to suffering, often involving the death of others as well as the main characters, and resulting from both the protagonists' actions and the inescapable limits of the human condition. Pedestrian definitions of tragedy see it as a story which is intensely sad, calamitous, or fatal through a course of events. Tragedy is viewed as leading to disaster. Tragedy, in this sense, is a viewer evaluation of the outcomes of the events of the narrative according to their (audience s) emotional input into the play of situation and characters. For the most part, any narrative that evokes sadness or tears in an audience is considered tragic. The pedestrian view ignores the variety of emotions and outcomes that the tragic story evokes. ROOTS OF TRAGIC EXPRESSION The ancient root of tragedy rises out of the tradition of the literary monomyth. The monomyth (often referred to as "the hero's journey") is a description of a basic pattern found in many narratives from around the world. Joseph Campbell described the universal pattern of the monomyth in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). Campbell's insight was that important myths from around the world that have survived for thousands of years all share a fundamental structure. The structure depicts the story of a hero who ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow magic elixirs on her/his fellow humans. This fundamental structure contains a number of stages or archetypal plot, which includes: 1. A call to adventure, which the hero has to accept or decline 2. A road of trials, in which the hero succeeds or fails 3. Achieving the goal or "elixir of life," which often results in important self-knowledge 4. A return to the ordinary world, again as to which the hero can succeed or fail 5. Applying the elixir of life, in which what the hero has gained can be used to improve the world Two prevalent stages of the monomyth, Initiation and Return, are detailed below: INITIATION *The Road of Trials Once past the threshold, i.e. the hero accepts the call to adventure and begins the journey, the hero encounters a dream landscape of ambiguous and fluid forms. The hero is challenged to survive a succession of obstacles and, in so doing, amplifies her/his consciousness. The hero is helped covertly by the supernatural helper or may discover a benign power supporting her/him in her/his passage. *Marriage The ultimate trial is often represented as a marriage between the hero and a queen-like, or mother-like figure. This represents the hero's mastery of life (represented by the feminine) as well as the totality of what can be known. When the hero is female, this becomes a male figure.

2 *Female as Temptress His awareness expanded, the hero may fixate on the disunity between truth and her/his subjective outlook, inherently tainted by the flesh. This is often represented with revulsion or rejection of a female figure. *Atonement with the Father The hero reconciles the tyrant and merciful aspects of the father-like authority figure to understand himself as well as this figure. *Apotheosis The hero's ego is disintegrated in a breakthrough expansion of consciousness. Quite frequently the hero's idea of reality is changed; the hero may find an ability to do new things or to see a larger point of view, allowing the hero to sacrifice himself. *The Ultimate Elixir The hero is now ready to obtain that which he has set out, an item or new awareness that, once he returns, will benefit the society that he has left. RETURN *Refusal of the Return Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man. *The Magic Flight When the elixir's acquisition (or the hero's return to the world) comes against opposition, a chase or pursuit may ensue before the hero returns. *Rescue from Without The hero may need to be rescued by forces from the ordinary world. This may be because the hero has refused to return or because he is successfully blocked from returning with the boon. The hero loses his ego. *The Crossing of the Return Threshold The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real. *Master of Two Worlds Because of the elixir or due to his experience, the hero may now perceive both the divine and human worlds. *Freedom to Live The hero bestows the elixir to fellow humans. Tragedy grows out of the monomyth. In tragedy the Initiation consumes the tragic hero (protagonist) into the world of immorality and evil through temptation or the implications of fate, i.e. the hero ignores the power of fate. The hero must Refuse or Accept the Call of evil or fate. Usually the hero is tempted by the flesh, i.e. material gain or power or by selfish pride or skewed view of truth. The journey is outward and inward. The hero attempts to Return to the ordinary world but encounters obstacles because he/she has chosen evil over good or set him/herself against fate. In addition, he/she also encounters guilt within his/her own soul. The elixir the hero has chosen to bless his/her universe is selfish and ignores the common good. The disunity between truth and hero s subjective outlook leads to an expanded consciousness.

3 However, purification is too late. Fate reverses his/her fortune. The elixir is false and poisons the setting that leads to the hero s downfall. HISTORY OF TRAGEDY AS MODE OF EXPRESSION Aristotle in his polemic The Poetics was the first to definitively define tragedy. Aristotle based his conclusions on his observations of tragic plays during the festival of Dionysus in Athens. Once a year, Athens sponsored a playwriting contest as a celebration to the god of Fertility and Wine, Dionysus. The plays were written in trilogies, a set of three plays on one theme or subject. Only one trilogy survives: The Orestia Trilogy by Aeschylus. The Orestia is story of Orestes, the son of Agammenon, who enacts revenge on his mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, because they murdered Agammenon. The three plays of the trilogy are: Agammenon, The Choephori, and The Eumenides. Aristotle in The Poetics defines tragedy: Tragedy then is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, [...] through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. Tragedy. for Aristotle, must have these elements: a. A protagonist - literally first combatant. The audience s distance and privilege to the protagonist is narrow. The audience is privy to the exterior battles and interior strife of the protagonist. In Aristotelian philosophy the protagonist is a person of great importance to the state (e.g. a king) or possesses some quality of personal greatness. Thus, in regard the character the protagonist must be: 1) Good - shows moral purpose of any kind, purpose is good therefore the character is good. 2) Appropriate - manly valor, vicious cleverness is inappropriate 3) True to life - believable, able to achieve a reality albeit fictional 4) Consistency - act in consistent manners even if inconsistency is the consistency In The Poetics the protagonist of tragedy is called the tragic hero. b. Agere - literally to do - action was the most important element of writing in tragedy. Tragedy, to Aristotle, is an imitation, not of humans, but of action and of life, and life consists of action [...] not of qualities of character. Character determines human qualities, but it is only through action that humans are happy or the reverse. Action must be complete, whole, and of a certain magnitude. c. Harmatia - literally error. The protagonist possess a flaw in their nature with causes them to make some error in judgment due to ignorance or moral shortcoming. In Greek drama, the error was usually due to hubris or false or misplaced pride in human ability to control fate and the outcome of events. d. Peritpetia - literally sudden change. A reversal of fortune befalls the protagonist because of their harmatia. Usually the sudden change in the drama moves from prosperity to ruin. The consequences of the peripetia are integral to meaning. e. Nemesis - literally retribution. In Greek thought a personification of the gods (fate s) resentment and anger at human (the protagonist) insolence toward themselves. The tragic

4 outcome or the retribution that befalls the protagonist is the wellspring of emotion that audience feels toward the drama. Nemesis is the protagonist s punishment for hubris. f. Anagnorisis - literally recognition. A term used to describe the moment of recognition (truth) when ignorance gives way to knowledge. To Aristotle the ideal moment of anagnorisis coincides with peripetia. g. Catharsis - literally purgation - the outcome of drama is not sadness according to Aristotle - the outcomes are pity and fear. The audience pities the protagonist and fears the hubris in his or her own soul. The events of the play are pitied as fiction and the imitation of those events in life are feared. Any emotion that comes from staged-effect (e.g. special effects) is, in classical terms, pornographic because they appeal to the libido and not pity or fear. The drama is evaluated, then, given its consequence upon the audience. The audience feels emotional purging or purification as a result of their interaction with the drama. Although Aristotle s precise meaning for this term has been much disputed, clearly he believes that a person is made somehow healthier, even derives a form of pleasure, from calling up the emotions of pity and fear. Aristotle s definition of tragedy is classic that is, it is the first and thus all other notions of tragedy build from Aristotle. A classic tragedy is about a tragic hero who, through rational thought, decides on a course of action that brings the downfall of all around her/him. The tragic hero understands their error of thinking but cannot ward off the consequences of their decision. LATER MODES OF TRAGEDY The specific emphasis and character of tragedy has changed in different periods. In classical tragedy, the protagonist usually suffers through fate interwoven with human interests and passions as in Sophocles' Oedipus the King (ca. 428 B.C.). The earliest tragedies were part of the Attic religious festival held in honor of the god Dionysus (5th cent. B.C.). The most famous ancient tragedies are probably the Oresteia of Aeschlyus, Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, and Euripides's Trojan Women. Aristotle pointed out tragedy's ritual function: the spectators are purged of their own emotions of pity and fear through their vicarious participation in the drama. The dramas of the Roman tragedian Seneca were based on certain conventions-unity of time and place, violence, bombast, revenge, and the appearance of ghosts. In the Middle Ages, tragedy was associated with the downfall of eminent people through the inevitable turning of Fortune's wheel; their fall exemplifies the inconstancy of Fortune and the folly of placing trust in worldly goods rather than God's will as in Chaucer's "The Monk's Tale" (ca. 1387). Later, Seneca's plays served as models for such Rennaissance tragedies as Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine (1587) and Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (1594). These in turn prefigured the towering tragedies of the period: Marlowe's Dr. Faustus (1588); Shakespeare's Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear ( ), and John Websters's Duchess of Malfi (1614). All of these plays dramatize the conflicts of kings, conquerors, or, at the very least, geniuses. Change of Subject Matter Since the eighteenth century, most tragedy has dealt with characters from the middle or lower classes ("domestic" or "bourgeois tragedy"). This refinement, again rooted in religious drama-- springs from the mystery plays and morality plays of medieval France and England, of which Everyman is the best known--emphasize the accountability and suffering of ordinary, common people. The tragic lot of the common people is explored in such dramas as George Lillo's domestic tragedy The London Merchant (1731) and Georg Büchner's political tragedy Danton's

5 Death (1835). In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (1879) and An Enemy of the People (1882), ordinary people behave heroically, acknowledging their faith in the validity of the tragic vision, thus, tragedy bled into the realm of melodrama (discussed later in this handout). The cataclysmic events of the 20th century produced a radical diminution of that vision. In Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (1939), the characters are all social failures consoling themselves with whisky in Harry Hope's bar. They illustrate the need for illusions to make life bearable when one cannot succeed by the competitive and materialistic values of capitalist society. In such plays as another of O'Neill's tragedies, Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage (1941), Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1953), life is depicted as so horrible and absurd that heroic behavior is not only impossible, it is irrelevant. In other dramatic works, like the Italian composer Salieri in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (1980), protagonists suffer from commonplace misfortunes or their own inescapable mediocrity. DIFFERENT MODES OF PLOT Aristotle views tragedy as the manipulation of free will. Free will must be in placed to achieve tragedy, however the notion of the manipulation of free will takes many forms. For example, another view is that human begins often find themselves in situations, not of their choosing, in which guilt is unavoidable. What is desired of the tragic hero is not faith or hope but courage. Courage may not save the tragic hero, but their actions against guilt shows that the human soul is still alive and recognizes transgressions against humanity. In this case, there is no redemption; life is its own reward, even if the tragic hero faces death, thus, tragedy. A story about a person whose parents die and who must take the responsibilities of a family but ends up dying despite their courage. They relieve the guilt of their situation and redeem others but die in the process. An additional form of tragedy embraces the innocence of those who have the power for harm, but do not harm out of conscience. However, factors in life cause them to do harm even if they do not wish to. An example would be a story about a politician who embraces the notion of the greater good but must save his daughter from financial ruin by enacting legislation that harms society but improves the finances of his daughter. Through his action he creates guilt that can only be relieved through his death or the ruination of his social station. A further form of tragedy embraces the narrative of a character that has disdain for humankind, has the ability to relieve suffering or social strife and chooses not to. The character understands their social responsibilities and in the end decides not to change their environment even though they know better. This form of tragedy borders on the melodramatic (see below). In addition, a tragic hero accepts as his/her own guilt of society and sacrifices him/herself to lift a curse from society to transcend a state of being that oppresses. Through his/her actions, however, they bring their own death or downfall. The tragic hero does not compromise duty to avert selfsacrifice; rather, s/he faces death with open eyes. MELODRAMA AND TRAGEDY Tragedy must be contrasted with melodrama. The ends of melodrama are moral lessons. The lessons come in two types: 1. A lesson based on the choices a character makes in solving the problems of life or 2. The ends of the dramatic action where a character of low morality is defeated by characters of high morality

6 Thus, melodrama is akin to parable or allegory. A parable is a story understood as teaching some lesson or moral. For example, family is more important than seeking individual fame. An allegory is a story with a distinct meaning hidden behind the literal or visible meaning. For example, evil characters come to stand for the abstract idea of Crime, thus, when they are defeated, the moral is Crime does not pay. Melodrama is based on the interplay between innocence, viciousness, fate, virtue, and victimage. Characters cause chaos in a context because they are vicious, not because they make rational choices. Aristotle defined viciousness as the quality of being able to do transgression against society and not feeling guilt or remorse. Thus, the perpetrator of chaos never realizes his or her misdeeds and does that misdeed without a thought to alternative actions. The vicious prey on the innocent or people who, through no decisions of their own, come in contact or conflict with the vicious. Fate usually brings the vicious and the innocent together, i.e. neither plan nor cogitate their actions in life. Thus, the innocent become victims of fate and the forces of viciousness outside their control. The innocent are usually saved by the virtuous or heroes who do virtuous acts and love the virtue they act upon. They virtuous have no other alternatives in life but to be good. An important distinction between melodrama and tragedy is the effect the story has on the audience. In classic tragedy the effect is pity and fear; we pity the plight of the characters and fear the same misguided rationality in our own lives. In melodrama the effects are pity and power or relief. We may pity the innocent because they are the victims of fate, yet we are relieved in the end because the innocent is saved by the virtuous. Thus, we feel power because common sense morality or good reason wins in the end. Therefore, society is safe from the forces of evil so I am relieved and feel a sense of power over my station in the universe.

a release of emotional tension

a release of emotional tension Aeschylus writer of tragedies; wrote Oresteia; proposed the idea of having two actors and using props and costumes; known as the father of Greek tragedy anagnorisis antistrophe Aristotle Aristotle's 3