cd. THE TRAGEDY (25.03.2013)

The essence of tragedy is the fall of a just man. Like the man has to be just because – if the man is a
villain, a criminal – then there will be no tragedy, because we will be happy that he has fallen and bad
people should be punished.

But if the man is completely innocent – the fall of such man will not produce tragedy either.

The tragedy is fear mixed with pity (Aristotle)

This could be explained in the number of ways – usually people think that this is fear because we
identify with the character and we see that the same tragedy that happens to him might as well
happen to us. So there is this element of identification. We pity him for the same thing (link that we
have with the character).

HAMARTIA (in English it’s translated as a tragic flaw or tragic mistake)

skaza, wada

The difference: a mistake is something we have made, but we are born with a flaw. A flaw is a worse
problem because it’s something that stays with you and you cannot control it that much.

Those who say hamartia is tragic flow are in favour of quite different notion of tragedy. The tragic
hero has no influence on his life because it’s a part of him. But he’s responsible of tragic mistake. It
controversial, because:

Who would you blame more: a person who’s lazy because he’s lazy or a person who’s lazy because
he’s not feeling like doing something at this very moment?

It is said that:

the ancient tragedy is the

tragedy of faith

and Shakespeare’s is the

tragedy of human nature

.

tragic mistake

tragic flaw

The best example could be the ancient story which was later turned into play: Oedipus. It was a story of
an ancient prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother and in order to avoid this
prophecy from becoming true he left his home and moved away. He didn’t know that that wasn’t his real
home (he was adopted) – IT WAS HIS MISTAKE.

This matter of responsibility of a tragic hero is problematic. Oedipus is not meant to be blamed for his
actions.

The character that can be blamed for his actions is e.g. Macbeth. It was his decision to kill Duncan.

And here we have this idea of a fall of a just man – he’s not clearly just, he has this hamartia whether it’s a
tragic flaw or a tragic mistake. There is also this lack of proportion between the offence and the

punishment one’s getting and it’s responsible for the feeling of fear and pity which tragedy is supposed to
result in.

The important thing is that Aristotle defines tragedy in terms of its effect. And this TRAGIC EFFECT is not
fear and pity, it’s something more complicated – for pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these
emotions.

PURGATION = purification; in Greek there is this term CATHARSIS and it has no proper translation
because if we translate it in a wrong way it could be something completely different. (to purge – to clear,
purify). The another meaning – something is full and you have to empty it, to purge it.

What is this for? At first we try to reach those emotions of fear and pity and then – get rid of them. THE
PARADOX. Maybe it’s because we feel better after this experience.

Aristotle also explains why people like to watch sad plays – you experience emotions in order to get rid of
them and it has some kind of therapeutic aspect. Like when you’re afraid of something, therapist will ask
you to face it in case of overcoming your fear.

Anyway, it’s difficult to come up with unique pattern appropriate for tragedy. The concepts are not
suitable for ALL of the plays ( e.g. Oedipus – unaware of his decision, Antigone – aware).

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel – German philosopher. He came up with this notion that tragedy is about
a conflict of two equally important values. This is a tragic situation – you have to choose but no matter
what you choose, it’s bad. He also believed very much in a history as a process (connected with Christian
belief that things happening in the world occur because of God’s divine plan) – history is in fact God’s
divine plan. He believed that not only historical events are things that changes – it’s also about people’s
attitude toward what’s good and what’s not and their changing values.

Shakespeare saw it as some conflict of human nature – we desire opposite things because of certain flaws
inside us.

(The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli)

We might identify this situation as some kind of tragedy but it’s an example of grotesque.

What’s the connection between the grotesque and the tragedy? Again, it’s the attraction for something
we shouldn’t be attracted by like unhappiness, suffering – these are negative experiences we should not
want to see. Even today there are these images which are supposed to be ugly, scary – like such a genre
as horror – and people still want to watch them. Tragedy introduces this problem.

Friedrich Schiller said:

“It is a phenomenon common to all men, that sad, frightful things, even the horrible, exercise over us an

irresistible seduction, and that in presence of a scene of desolation and of terror we feel at once repelled

and attracted by two equal forces.”

The certain things can scare us and attract us at the same way – let’s consider the fact of the popularity of
public executions during the medieval times. People wanted to see bad guy hanged or whatever they did
to him. The executions were like puppets shows, people were going there for excitement. One can defend
public tortures, saying that it was a matter of giving a good example, didactic value do not steal or
your hands will be cut off, do not kill, because you’ll be killed. BUT most of the people were going there for
a show.