Tragedy and the Common Man Essay - 918 Words.
Tragedy and the Common Man is Miller’s analysis of a new form of theater. Miller starts the essay by pointing out the theatre of the 20th century that the number of tragedies written down is very few as compared to the comedies, which are relatively high in number.In Arthur Millers 1949 essay, “Tragedy and the Common Man,” Miller began by saying, “In this age few tragedies are written. ” This particular essay was published in the New York Times, was also the preface that was prepared for “Death of a Salesman” in 1949.Tragedy and the Common Man by Arthur Miller In this age few tragedies are written. It has often been held that the lack is due to a paucity of heroes among us, or else that modern man has had the blood drawn out of his organs of belief by the skepticism of science, and the heroic attack on life cannot feed on an attitude of reserve and circumspection.
Miller believed that he was living in a tragic age, what with two world wars, depression and the cold war. What was new, he believed, was the possibility of a tragedy of a common man, rather than only kings and queens which it always had been, dating back to the first tragedies in ancient Greece. Tragedy And The Common Man Questions And Answers.Katelyn Stoll Professor Hall English 102 11 November 2009 “Tragedy and the Common Man” in Hamlet Arthur Miller notes that, “The tragic feeling is evoked in us 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” (1).This characteristic seen in most tragedies is definitely evident in the character.
Essay text: If the play was supposed to be about upper-class people, and was spoken in a vernacular that was only known to the high-bred, how were the common people who saw these plays supposed to comprehend their meaning? The only way for this problem to be solved, according to Miller, was to present a character to whom the audience will.
