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Bisma Jamil

Mr. Asim Lodhi

English 305

Date 10-02-2019

Aristotle Tragedy Vs. Modern Tragedy/Drama

The research aim is to compare the theory of tragedy of Aristotle to the modern drama or

play as reflected in the Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman”. The research will be focused

on the elements of both tragedies. Beside this work will describes the definition of modern

tragedy or Aristotle Tragedy and their elements. At the end of assignment throw light upon the

differences and similarities between both tragedies with respect of the play “Death of a

Salesman” and books and articles upon the topics.

Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira,

Chalkidiki, Greece. Along with Plato, he is considered the “Father of Western Philosophy”.

Aristotle process to study poetry by analyzing its constructive parts and then drawing general

conclusion. The portion of Poetics that survives discusses mainly tragedy and epic poetry. In the

poetics, which was never an exhaustive treatise, and in its present fragmentary form is almost

entirely a discussion of tragedy, Aristotle is neither a pure theorist forming from his own general

ideas a set of rules means to guide future dramatists; nor, on the other hand, a mere compiler of

the practice of the Greek tragedians. He is primarily an inductive reasoned, basing his

conclusions upon the form of drama known to him. Without assuming even the greatest work to

be perfect, he attempts, from the varied excellence of different tragedies, to discover the causes

and necessary conditions of such excellence.

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“Comedy aims at representing men as worse, tragedy as better than in actual life”

Aristotle Poetics

In “The Poetics”, Aristotle states that in order for a work to be a tragedy, it must follow a

very specific and structured format. His definition names the necessary ingredients of a tragedy:-

“Tragedy is a representation of a serious, complete action which has magnitude, in

embellished speech, with each of its elements (used) separately in the (various) parts (of

the play); (represented) by people acting and not by narration; accomplishing by means

of pity and terror the catharsis of such emotion”.

After discussing the definition of tragedy, Aristotle explores various important parts of

tragedy. He asserts that any tragedy can be divided into six constituent parts. They are: Plot

Character, Thought, Diction, Song and Spectacle. The Plot is the most important part of a

tragedy. The plot means the arrangement of the incidents. Normally the plot is divided into five

acts and each Act is further divided into several scenes. The dramatist’s main skill lies in

dividing the plot into Acts and Scenes in such a way that they may produce the maximum scenic

effect in a natural development. Plot is the soul of tragedy.

“The Plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it was the soul of a tragedy; Character holds

the second place”

Aristotle, Poetics

Characters are men and women who act. The hero and heroine are two important figures

among the characters.

Thought means what the character think or feel during their career in the development of

the plot. The thought is expressed through their speeches and dialogues.
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“If you string together a set of speeches expressive of character, and well finished in

point and diction and thought, you will not produce the essential tragi effect nearly so

well as with a play which, however deficient in these respects, yet has a plot and

artistically constructed incidents”

Aristotle, Poetics

Diction is the medium of language or expression through which the characters reveal

their thoughts and feelings. The diction should be ‘embellished with each kind of artistic

element’. The song is one of these embellishments.

The spectacle is theatrical effect presented on the stage. But spectacles also includes

scenes of physical torture, loud lamentations, dances, colourful garments of the main character

etc. These are the six constituent parts of tragedy explained by Aristotle.

“Tragedy is an imitation not just of a complete action but of events that evokes pity and

fear”

Aristotle, Poetics

Aristotle states that the purpose of tragedy is to arouse “terror and pity” ad thereby effect

the catharsis of these emotions. This is the main aspect of his tragedy.

“Pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves”

Aristotle, Poetics

A tragedy can be defined simply as a play that has a sad and depressing ending. Although

both classical and modern tragedies have a tragic ending, there are several differences between

them. The main difference between classical and modern tragedy is that classical tragedies have

a unified plot with one royal or noble protagonist whereas modern tragedies feature ordinary

people with realistic problems.

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Modern drama refers to tragedies that were written and performed from the twentieth

century. Some examples of modern tragedies include Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, “A

view from the bridge and “The Misfits are some examples of modern tragedy. Unlike classical

tragedies, modern tragedies are typically centered around ordinary people and their problems.

Thus, they are more realistic than classical tragedies. The conflict in modern tragedies are caused

by flaw in the characters, society or the low, fate and divine power do not play a major role in

modern tragedies. Modern tragedies may also have multiple plots and more than one central

character. The action in the story may also span several weeks, months or years, the differences

in time is managed by elements such as flashbacks, pauses, flash forward and narration. Modern

play writers also use elements such as irony and sarcasm to highlight the flaw in characters.

Here we are going to relate the Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” with the

Aristotelian Tragedy. Arthur Miller calls it’s a tragedy and there are several critics who bring

certain allegations to prove that it falls far short of having the status of tragedy. The theme of

“Death of a Salesman” is the little, man as victim and protagonist is too passive and too little to

play the tragic hero. Arthur Miller claims that in modern world royal system is finished and

kings, queens and princess etc., are not present in ancient pomp and show. So their modern

presentation with ancient glorification will make the plays unrealistic. Furthermore, a common

man can also be the hero of a tragedy. So the concept of the royalty was changed according to

the demands of time and age. Bentley says, this play evokes pity but not error and if we watch it

carefully we notice that it arises both pity and fear because the play shows individual against “the

seemingly stable cosmos surrounding us”. Miller shows the condition of an ordinary man, his

passion, feeling and dreams against machines and flat system where all relations have cost their

meanings and importance.

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The play has a tragic and too. Willy dies and give up his life but does not give up his

dream, does not leaves his values and past.

In Aristotle tragedy (classical tragedy) the protagonist faces his downfall because of his

own tragic flow. In modern tragedy the traditional tragic flaw remain intact. For example: Tragic

flaw of Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman”. Man himself is the reason behind his own tragic

flaw.

Classic tragedy contains a lot of characters other character show less impact in drama

compared to the protagonist. Modern tragedies contains very few numbers of characters. Most of

characters has much impact in drama. Characters are mainly from the royal and elite families.

Modern tragedy mainly focus upon the life of common people. Characters are from middle class.

Timeline and place setting of classic tragedy are very large. But in modern tragedy the

place and setting is quite smaller.

In both tragedies catharsis is a common feature. In modern tragedy being alive can also

originate catharsis.

Death of a Salesman has often described as a modern tragedy. It would say that it fit on

the genre of modern tragedy. In theatre: The Lively Art, a tragedy is described a a dramatic form

involving serious actions of universal significance and usually has an unhappy ending. Death of

a salesman is not a Greek/Classic Tragedy according to Aristotle Tragedy. Because a Greek

Tragedy is about a prosperous, renowned character binging about his own downfall through a

fatal flaw

“Linda: Willy dear. Talk to them again. There’s no reason why you can’t work in New

York.
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Willy: They don’t need me in New York I am the New England man. I am vital in New

England.”

In Aristotle poetics we read about six elements in which plot are the most important

element of his tragedy. He said that the plot should have a “change of fortune” but in the Death

of the Salesman, at the beginning he is depressed and poor and at the end he is depressed and

poor (and dead).

According to Aristotle the main character of should be renowned and prosperous, so his

reversal of fortune can be from good to bad. But in this play he wishes to be well liked is not as

evidenced by the poor turnout at his funeral.

Aristotle doesn’t explain much about the third element, thought, but Death of a Salesman

seems thoughtful enough.

However, in the fourth element, Diction, Aristotle experts a good command of metaphor.

There are several excellent metaphors at work in Death of a Salesman, such as stockings

symbolizing Willy guilt over his extramarital affair.

Next is Melody. Aristotle Greek tragedy should have a fully integrated Chorus. Death of

a Salesman has no Chorus.

Aristotle also mention Spectacle, but he prefer for a play to not rely too heavily on

spectacle. When you read the stage directions, you can see that Miller uses a lot of lighting and

other effect and create a mood of pity and terror.

Finally a tragedy should end in catharsis, or the purging of emotion. Thus catharsis

should leave the audience with a feeling of pleasure. While sad and pathetic, Death of a

Salesman has never left me personally with a catharsis or a feeling of pleasure.

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Overall, Death of a Salesman does not fit the definition of a Greek tragedy according to

Aristotle. Although, this play has some elements of Greek tragedy but it is a modern tragedy.

The play does not adhere to the three dramatic unities of time, place an action. Miller’s frequent

use of flashbacks also undermines the three unities; through they are essential to the dramatic

unity of the play. The protagonist of the play does not experience a reversal of fortune.

In literary theory, structuralism criticism relates literary texts to a larger structure, which

may be a particular genre, a range of inter-textual connections, a model of a universal narrative

structure, or a system of recurrent patterns or motifs. Structuralism argues that there must be a

structure in every text, which explains why it is easier for experienced readers than for non-

experienced readers to interpret a text. Hence, everything that is written seems to be governed by

specific rules, or a "grammar of literature", that one learns in educational institutions and that are

to be unmasked.

A potential problem of structuralism interpretation is that it can be highly reductive, as

scholar Catherine Belsey puts it: "the structuralism danger of collapsing all difference." An

example of such a reading might be if a student concludes the authors of West Side Story did not

write anything "really" new, because their work has the same structure as Shakespeare's Romeo

and Juliet. In both texts a girl and a boy fall in love (a "formula" with a symbolic operator

between them would be "Boy + Girl") despite the fact that they belong to two groups that hate

each other ("Boy's Group - Girl's Group" or "Opposing forces") and conflict is resolved by their

death. Structuralism readings focus on how the structures of the single text resolve inherent

narrative tensions. If a structuralism reading focuses on multiple texts, there must be some way

in which those texts unify themselves into a coherent system. The versatility of structuralism is

such that a literary critic could make the same claim about a story of two friendly families
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("Boy's Family +Girl's Family") that arrange a marriage between their children despite the fact

that the children hate each other ("Boy - Girl") and then the children commit suicide to escape

the arranged marriage; the justification is that the second story's structure is an 'inversion' of the

first story's structure: the relationship between the values of love and the two pairs of parties

involved have been reversed.

Structuralistic literary criticism argues that the "literary banter of a text" can lie only in

new structure, rather than in the specifics of character development and voice in which that

structure is expressed. Literary structuralism often follows the lead of Vladimir Propp, Algirdas

Julien Greimas, and Claude Lévi-Strauss in seeking out basic deep elements in stories, myths,

and more recently, anecdotes, which are combined in various ways to produce the many versions

of the ur-story or ur-myth.

There is considerable similarity between structural literary theory and Northrop Frye's

archetypal criticism, which is also indebted to the anthropological study of myths. Some critics

have also tried to apply the theory to individual works, but the effort to find unique structures in

individual literary works runs counter to the structuralism program and has an affinity with New

Criticism.
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Bibliography

 Aristotle poetics summary

 CSSforum.com.pk

 http//www.studymode.com/subjects/modern tragedy-examples-page1.html

 http//www.jstore.org/stable/2917075

 http//www.ukessays.co.uk/essays/English-literature/death-of-salesman.php