Modern Tragedy

Tragedy The traditional types of tragedy usually present the protagonist as a man of high rank, whose tragic downfall reflects the playwrights' confirmation that the disordered state of the world should be restored to its original equilibrium. But the writers of the eighteenth century began to write domestic tragedies and to offer as a protagonist a man from the middle or lower social rank who suffers a commonplace or domestic disaster. These writers thus present a tragic protagonist who radically deviates from the Aristotelian norm. From the late nineteenth century, this kind of a protagonist began to be popularized by the realist writers and became a typical character of most modern tragedies. Unlike the traditional type, this type of a tragic protagonist is usually described as a victim of modern society where the playwrights do not usually make a clear division of good and evil.

Arthur Miller and George Boas offer helpful guides in examining the nature of the tragic hero in modern plays. In "Tragedy and the Common Man" (1949), Miller discusses on the tragic protagonist in the context of modern society. According to Miller, the tragic flaw in the protagonist is "his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status" in his society. Aristotle considers the tragic protagonist's flaw an erroneous judgment which explains that the protagonist is, although a man of high rank, imperfect like other human beings. This intellectual flaw therefore keeps the Aristotelian protagonist on a human level and helps evoke sympathy in the audience. However, Miller views the tragic protagonist's flaw as a factor which enables the protagonist to fight against his uncongenial environment. Since this kind of tragic course is "not beyond the common man" in modern society, an ordinary person is "as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were." Miller then explains that our pity is evoked "when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing--his sense of personal dignity...to gain his `rightful position' in his society"; and that our fear is evoked when the protagonist is defeated by "the seemingly stable cosmos surrounding us--from [the] total examination of the `unchangeable' environment."

In "The Evolution of the Tragic Hero" (1955), Boas explains that the tragic protagonist in modern drama is described as either defeated by succumbing to his hostile reality or defeated in fighting against the reality. According to Boas, the importance of personal dignity in our times has increased since "the rise of popular government and the industrialization of production," to which we are compelled to conform. Our problem thus becomes "that of conquering the environment and of asserting [our] superiority to all those forces which might end in [our] annihilation." Modern drama involves the protagonist "going down to defeat by submitting to [these forces of annihilation] or going down to defeat by fighting against [these forces]." In emphasizing the sense of the protagonist's personal integrity in compelling modern society, Boas basically follows Miller's view of the tragic hero in our times.