Tragedy Essay

Below is an excerpt from my essay on tragedy delineating what I believe to be the perfect tragedy. Any feedback (whether it be on the writing itself, or my ideas) is more than welcome, and greatly appreciated.

"I believe the perfect tragedy is one that particularly resonates with the audience, because when a member of the audience can directly relate the tragedy to an event or pattern in their own life, it will resonate with them on a much deeper level. I believe a tragic hero that is of great importance and great fame isn’t a very relatable character to most people, considering most people aren’t famous, for if they were, fame would mean nothing and cease to exist. It is here that I take issue with Socrates’ and Aristotle’s approach to the perfect tragedy. I believe that the perfect tragedy is one centered around the common man; in this sense, I side with Arthur Miller. This is because, clearly, the character relatable to the vast majority of people, is the ‘common man’. I also agree with Miller that the tragic hero (the common man) should be eventually forced into a situation where he must choose between himself and his principles/morals, that results in him sacrificing himself for what he believes in. I say this because it a tragedy where this occurs teaches morality and loyalty to oneself through the tragedy. This facet of what I believe to make up the perfect tragedy is also in alignment with most of ancient Greek tragedy (and what Socrates and Aristotle believed to be the perfect tragedy) in the sense that the audience learns a valuable lesson they without having to go through a detrimental experience themselves. Finally, I believe that tragedy is greatly enhanced when a layer of irony is added. This is where I believe that Ibsen touched on a key facet of creating the perfect tragedy. Ibsen stated that tragedy should be about those who were doomed from the start; born into a world they had no control over, and were judged negatively for not being able to take control. This is a very extreme version of irony, but the fact that the tragic hero never had any actually chance at success, no matter how hard they struggle, makes the story all the more tragic and poignant."

I attempted to thoroughly relate my ideas to the opinions of great authors and my those connections eminent. I also tried to make the ideas flow in a logical and easy to process way. So if anyone should like to give me feedback on those things specifically, I would be very grateful.