TragedyIn English Literature

The CausesBy Drew Wilson

Sourced from Adrian Poole ‘Tragedy; A Very Short Introduction’

Who is to Blame?

Consider who is to blame for the following? WarFaminePlague

Can we simply blame Fate, the Gods or the ‘Government’?

Blame

Tragedy presents situations in which there is a desperate urgency to assign blame.In Oedipus Tyrannus, the search to assign blame for the plague is the driving force behind the plot.In Bacchae, the Thebans have grossly offended the god Dionysis and they duly get their comeuppance .

The Causes

One explanation is that the blame is the cause of the ‘tragic hero’ or ‘protagonist’

Another, that it is the gods or some other force (such as Fate, Fortune or ‘the stars’) that has the irresistible force to determine our lives.

The Causes

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the chorus introduce the two lovers as being ‘star-crossed’.

We then learn of the ‘The fearful passage of their death mark’d love.’

But ultimately, it is Romeo who states, ‘Then I defy you,stars’ (V.ii.1)

The Protagonist

Aristotle created the influential concept of Hamartia.It is sometimes thought of as the ‘fatal flaw’ within a character.But Aristotle’s focus was on the possible types of tragic plot (mythos).Hamartia is concerned with what people do rather than who they are.

The Protagonist

According to Aristotle…

The best kind of plot is one that most effectively excites the emotions of pity and fear.

This is not best achieved by showing the fall of a good man or the rise of a bad man, or indeed the fall of a bad man.

The Protagonist

Aristotle believed in the figure who falls between these two types - ‘such a man is one who is not preeminent in virtue and justice, and one who falls into affliction not because of evil and wickedness, but because of a certain fallibility (hamartia).’

Hamartia, therefore, can be translated as the ‘fault’, ‘mistake’ or ‘error’ made by the everyday human being.

Task 1

This task will help you to identify the notion of Hamartia in the text(s) you are studying.

You will need to consider the choice, or error, albeit in ignorance, that the protagonist has made and why they have made that error.

Cont.

Task 1

Consider the following model.

Where

When Why

Choice / Error

The result

Cont.

Task 1

Work through the plot and detail the error(s) that are made by the protagonist. Investigate if there is more than one.

The Protagonist

Error(s) made

________________________________________________________________________________

Alternative actions

________________________________________________________________________________

The Protagonist

It is clear therefore, that acts undertaken by protagonists are done so with very different degrees of volition, understanding and consciousness.

However, they take place, or are represented again, in the play’s present.

And so the audience is made fully aware of them.

Examples

Philoctetes wanders into a sacred shrine.Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother.Heracles and Agave kill their own children.Creon in Antigone refuses to bury Polyneices.

The Protagonist

But what of Medea and Macbeth? They seemed to know what they were doing.

Could it be that their treatment of the causes (as evidenced by their justifications) is where their ‘fatal flaw’ lies?

Could it be that they are aware of their acts and the reasons behind them, but not the consequences of their actions?

The Protagonist

But how successful is Hamartia?How far does it address the intensity and complexity of guilt, or the punitive judgements we endure in ourselves and pass on to others?We suffer judgements for things we did unwittingly, for things we should have done but didn’t, for things someone else did - our parents, children, colleagues or anyone from whom we fail to disassociate ourselves.

Pollution

Tragedy therefore, will introduce a sense of unavoidable miasma, pollution or stain on both the agent and the location.

Could this be where the connection lies for the audience to be able to experience ‘Catharsis’?

The Gods

However, the Hamartia committed by a human being seems trivial in comparison with the decision of a god or goddess to make something happen.

Greek tragedy does not tell us what to believe concerning the gods, but rather, it asks us to debate them.

The Gods

The suggestion in Greek tragedy is that it takes two to make the tragic act happen - both the human agent and the divine or non-human.

Hamartia, therefore is never quite so simple.It is not a single human error - there may be a whole complex chain or sequence of causation.

The Gods

The stage offers opportunity for everything that has to be excluded, or at least tempered in the rational everyday lives we lead.

Tragedy is full of fantasy, appetite, desire, fear, sex and violence. The characters are primitive, barbaric and monstrous. They represent all that we have to overcome in the cause of culture and civilisation.

The Gods

The characters in tragedy can act as a kind of ‘scapegoat’ for our crimes - or unacted desires.Their ‘Hubris’ (excessive pride) attracts the hostility of the gods, and indeed ourselves.Tragedy allows them to expend on a single figure their need to punish and assert power over us.

The Gods

If the gods are involved in the blame, and the character is seen to suffer -

Then the focus can shift to the effect - the Catharsis.

The audience are cast as judges.

This process helps ‘save’ the rest of us.

The Cause

Silence can be beautiful, blissful, heroic, agonised, crushing. It all depends on where and when.

Tragedy depends on words and sounds, desired and feared, that we might hear and don’t.

Silence

Consider Hamlet’s last words, “The rest is silence.”

Or King Lear to the body of his dead daughter, “Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, / And thou no breath at all?”

Silence

Silence within a text is key to the creation of tragedy.

Tragedy allows the audience to question the silence barriers and search for the answers ourselves.

We experience and witness pain and fear when characters fail to communicate.

We ask ourselves, “What if…?”

Task 2

In pairs, examine the use of silence within the text(s) you are studying.

Where and how would ‘breaking the silence’ between characters change the tragedy?

Tragedy

Tragedy is concerned with the difficulties and possibilities of justice, truth and reconciliation.

But it does it in a way that offers no simple answers.