“Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly.” This quote is from the essay “Tragedy and the Common Man” By, Arthur Miller. In this essay Miller discusses the importance for humans to understand that tragedy is caused by a human's desire to be needed in society. Humans are tragic in a sense that they evaluate themselves based on their want from someone else. They become distressed when they are useless to society. This stress causes them to be depressed and self pity, which in turn causes them to be stuck in a tragic mindset. However, there can not be tragedy without hope. To quote Miller “The possibility of victory must be there in tragedy.”
The thing that really challenges my perspective on tragedy the most about this essay was the belief that in every tragedy there is a sign of hope. Never really have i had such an outlook on literature that has been deemed tragic. However, this statement by Miller in my opinion seems very accurate. When something tragic happens, there is room for hope because hope in this case is the prospect of recovering from the tragic event that just took place. For example, in a the novel “The Fault in our Stars” By John Green, it is tragic that Hazel's lover Augustus dies. However, there is a glimmer of hope in the novel because of the prospect that Hazel will grow as a person from her grief over Augustus and in the long run be okay.
I think if had to state my favorite thing I’ve learned about tragedies so far it would be that there is hope in all of them. To me this seems like such an ironic thing in a piece of writing about sorrow and makes me have more of an appreciation to tragedy literature.
The thing that really challenges my perspective on tragedy the most about this essay was the belief that in every tragedy there is a sign of hope. Never really have i had such an outlook on literature that has been deemed tragic. However, this statement by Miller in my opinion seems very accurate. When something tragic happens, there is room for hope because hope in this case is the prospect of recovering from the tragic event that just took place. For example, in a the novel “The Fault in our Stars” By John Green, it is tragic that Hazel's lover Augustus dies. However, there is a glimmer of hope in the novel because of the prospect that Hazel will grow as a person from her grief over Augustus and in the long run be okay.
I think if had to state my favorite thing I’ve learned about tragedies so far it would be that there is hope in all of them. To me this seems like such an ironic thing in a piece of writing about sorrow and makes me have more of an appreciation to tragedy literature.