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This 3 page paper discusses the theories of tragedy developed by Aristotle and Arthur Miller, and discusses the plays "Oedipus the King" and "Death of a Salesman" in conjunction with the concept of tragedy. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVTragdy.rtf
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presented in those early productions are still relevant today. This paper discusses the theories of tragedy developed by Aristotle and Arthur Miller, and discusses the plays Oedipus the King and
Death of a Salesman in conjunction with the concept of tragedy. Theories of Tragedy According to Aristotle, tragedy has seven elements; in order of importance, they are: plot; character; thought;
diction; song; spectacle; and catharsis (McManus, 1999). Well consider just the first, because plot is the mainstay of drama. Aristotle defined plot as "the arrangement of the incidents; i.e.,
not the story itself but the way the incidents are presented to the audience, the structure of the play" (McManus, 1999). According to Aristotle, a tragedy that depends for its
outcome on "a tightly constructed cause-and-effect chain of actions [is] ... superior to [one] ... that [depends] ... primarily on the character and personality of the protagonist (McManus, 1999). In
addition, the "plot must be a whole, with a beginning, middle, and end"; it must have "unity of action"-meaning that each act leads to the next, logically and without outsider
intervention; it must have a "certain magnitude," meaning that the play is of sufficient length to be considered important and must deal with substantial issues that have real meaning to
the audience; and finally, it must be complex (McManus, 1999). Complex here means the plot contains a "reversal of intention (peripeteia)" as well as a "recognition (anagnorisis) ... connected with
the catastrophe" (McManus, 1999). Both the reversal and the recognition "turn upon surprise" (McManus, 1999). A reversal "occurs when a character produces an effect opposite to that which he intended
to produce," while a recognition "is a change from ignorance to knowledge" (McManus, 1999). Oedipus the King is a play that richly illustrates the principles of a tragic plot.
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