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Thread: Classical and Modern Tragedy

  1. #1
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    Classical and Modern Tragedy

    Regarding to what i read in TRAGEDY AND THE COMMON MAN for Arthur Miller i would like to know what are the differences between classical and modern tragedy ..and do you believe that the protagonist can be ordinary man like in Death of a salesman..or it must be an important person like Hamlet and Oedipus...
    last thing:
    what do you prefer?? classical or modern
    "The aim, if reached or not, makes great the life: Try to be Shakespeare, leave the rest to fate!"
    Robert Browning

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    I cannot quite claim which I prefer, classical or modern tragedies, but I can certainly perceive an interest, mostly in the context of individual characters.
    In classical tragedies, it seems, much of the plot revolves around an inevitable truth - for example, the oracle's soothsaying prophecy that Oedipus would one day murder his father, marry his mother, and rule a vast kingdom. Even when Oedipus attempted avoiding the conflict, it still occurred, and he eventually familiarizes himself with the truth. Along with this, many classical tragedies focus much more on spirituality, myth, mysticism, and praising the gods.
    In modern tragedies, in my opinion, a tragedy may seem inevitable, but relies a lot more on the person, the character, rather than outside forces, like gods, goddesses, oracles, and fate/destiny. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, though set in historical times, and still involving much religious bias in the plot, all characters convicted of witchcraft could have avoided the charge with more just and objective courts. I would like to call modern tragedies more humanitarian, but perhaps more human-based and down-to-earth, so to speak.

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