Arthur Miller makes some good points in his article Tragedy and the Common Man. His main argument is that tragedy is only for the upper, or lower class. "For one reason or another, we are often held to be below tragedy--or tragedy above us." He goes on to explain that in most tragedies, the character(s) are trying to "gain his "rightful" position in his society." To add to this, the character usually has a personality flaw that gets in the way of making good decisions. This character is usually brought upon the character themselves, for example; the "unwillingness to remain passive".
This article didn't necessarily change my views of tragedy, however it did help to clarify, things, and help me see another side of it. It showed me that every tragedy I have read, has the same type of self destructive characters, and a similar scenario. Every character in a tragedy is self destructive whether they realize it or not. They make stupid decisions, and don't account for their future or what the outcome could be. There is a pattern that I never realized was there, and I think that this article really shows that as a fact for every tragedy. Looking back on all of the tragedies I have read in the past, this pulls everything together. There is a formula for writing tragedies, the characters aren't always being stupid just because the writer wanted them to, they are supposed to be obsessive over minor things. They are supposed to be just a little bit insane, and blind to what the other characters are doing, causing poor decision making. I like this article a lot, it helped me see the other side of writing a tragedy, and that every single one is particularly put together. This article was helpful in exploring all of the different aspects of a tragedy, and showing how they are all similar, and connected in a way.
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