“Tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious. complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; In the form of action, not narrative, through pity and fear affecting the proper purgation of these emotions.”
That is how Aristotle defined Tragedy in his Ars Poetica, and this is the definition my students were required to memorize.
A tragic incident is when something, usually as major as accidental death, happens to someone because of outside forces over which they have no control.
Tragedy, according to Aristotle comes from within.
Because society has rules of behavior and expectations, people are constantly holding back their emotions, men don’t cry, until the build up explodes and many besides the principle person are affected.
The audience knows the play is merely an imitation, so regardless of the emotional reaction to the plot, no emotion is out of bounds, nor do all audience members experience the same emotions from the same stimuli, knowing that no one was harmed, and the actors will all be back unharmed to do all over again.
The Tragic Hero starts out better than the audience by accident of birth, or some heroic actions on their part, but then falls lower than the audience because the hero not only loses his position, but show he is as capable of stupid decisions as the stupidest person in the audience because of hubris, an overriding pride and an exaggerated feeling of self-worth having the Tragic Hero making a bad decision, and continues throughout the play to hold to it in spite of additional information that the audience knows would change things if accepted.
The overriding pride leads to an unalterable plan of action, Ate, based on the unwillingness to consider facts initially unknown, but learned along the way. This leads to a point of no return, Hamartia, as events set in motion play out with the hero only seeing the light when it is too late to prevent disaster and the canoe goes over the falls.
Had they only listened.
The ultimate object of a Greek tragedy is to get the audience to see the importance of critical thinking with the emotional dust settling down as pity for the Tragic Hero who was initially a very likeable person with a pretty major flaw, and the fear that without critical thinking a moment of pig-headedness could spell personal disaster.
What is happening with the president, although not a true tragedy, does have many of the characteristics of a Greek Tragedy, minus the language embellished part. Trump, an alleged millionaire who inherited his wealth and a company to sustain it, seemed to have it all, fame, fortune, and continually reminds us his lifestyle is far superior to most of us. Ignoring science and medical experts decided to use COVID 19 as a political tool in refusing to Know More about Kamagra Jelly Kamagra jelly viagra prices canada is an amazing remedy for patients for erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. You can also lose weight through swimming, which is another great factor for better sex. order cheap levitra Visiting India tadalafil generic 20mg view that site for your medical tourism trip would not only experience drug resistance, side-effects, but also would experience diseases like pseudome mbranous colitis, diarrhea and so on. Some males gain harder erection, but unable to order generic viagra maintain stiffness of the male organ for deeper penetration into her genital passage, create more contact and friction during lovemaking and offer her enhanced sexual pleasure. promote isolation, social distancing, and mask wearing because the virus is one of those things he has total control over. However, unlike the Greek Tragic Hero, his actions affect more than himself. Millions, many who believe his every utterance, have tested positive for exposure to the virus with almost a quarter of a million of those dying.
He continued to flaunt his decision to see the virus as a hoax and treating it accordingly, exposing himself to the virus which he caught and for which he must be treated.
The audience watching the last eight months now know he rejected information and kept important facts from the public while denying they existed and acting like the facts didn’t. He held close gatherings, refused to wear a mask, and did not social distance.
This resulted in his catching a virus he could have avoided if he had stepped out of the blinding glow of his own alleged genius and accepted information from his lessers.
The difference between this being tragic or a tragedy is that what we are watching is not an imitation of the action, but the action in real time, and is yet incomplete.
This does not purge us of our emotions by expressing them freely, but as we are expected to, or feel strongly, that our opinions of this current event must be polite without any gloating about things going and coming around, so our emotions are building while being denied outlets.
What we are watching is tragic in that we’re watching Karkma hitting hard, but, as it comes to society’s restrictions on emotional displays of emotion, we are not experiencing a healthy catharsis, but an unhealthy buildup of repressed emotions.
Yes, we may or may not be happy about it, but the possibility exists that the president may succumb to the virus. However, as it is actually happening and is as yet unresolved, we must wait and guard our emotions keeping those who condemn political correctness happy by being politically correct by not saying out loud what we might hope in the recess4s of our minds.
The major sources of a true tragedy are Hubris, overriding pride; Ate, an irreversible decision, and Hamartia, reaching the point of no return.
Stupidity is not a part.
Aristotle never defined comedy. He may have posited what makes us laugh, but he did not define comedy. Obviously, with a definition as precise as his of tragedy, anything that does not contain all that is in the definition would be, by default, comedy.
The present situations lacks some of the definition.