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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
In five pages this paper examines Aristotle’s criteria for literary tragedy and considers whether or not the ancient Greek philosopher would have labeled Arthur Miller’s social drama as such. Five sources are listed in the bibliography.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGarideath.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Loman, is frequently labeled as a tragic hero who is compared with the likes of Sophocles Oedipus and William Shakespeares Prince Hamlet. But what would Aristotle think of Death
of a Salesman? The classical Greek philosopher did not necessarily invent the genre of tragedy, but in Poetics, he was responsible for the definition and classification that are still
being applied to literary analysis. According to Aristotle, tragedy is: "An 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" (quoted in Kiernan 63). The featured protagonist in an Aristotelian tragedy is usually "a noble person" of high status such as a king or prince (Kiernan
66). The reason Aristotle placed such importance on the individual social rank was explained by Thomas P. Kiernan in Aristotle Dictionary: "The greater the nobility of the hero, compatible
with a serious flaw, the greater the impact of the Reversal and, thus, the greater the appeal to the emotions of the audience" (66). The reversal refers to a
reversal in fortune, which Aristotle believed was classically represented in a fall from grace (Kiernan 44). The Greeks maintained audiences of their time would not be moved as moved
by the precipitous decline of an average man, as they would be by an individual who - during the course of the plays action - went from everything to nothing.
However, todays audiences relate more closely to protagonists who remind them of themselves. Arthur Miller, who always acknowledged his literary debt
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