Oedipus

Oedipus is perhaps the archetypal tragic hero. He kills his father, and marries and begets children by his mother, all a result of him trying to avoid doing those things. He rips out his eyes and exiles himself from the city he once ruled. He punishes himself so because he ordered exile on pain of death for the man who killed Laius, and he stands by his orders even when it is he who must bear his own wrath and the wrath of the people of Thebes. In this sense, Oedipus retains his nobility even in his downfall.

In 1949, soon-to-be-blacklisted playwright Arthur Miller penned an essay called "Tragedy and the Common Man." In it he remarked that the 20th century thus far had not seen very many tragedies written, but disagreed with the hypothesis that it was due to "a paucity of heroes." He claimed that the common man could be just as useful a hero in tragic drama as could nobility and demigods. He emphasized personal dignity as the key to tragedy, and that the tragic hero seeks to attain or retain his or her "rightful" place in society, which for the common man probably is a basic level of dignity.

Art and Tragedy

The story of tragedy can be told in almost any way you can imagine, and it manifests itself in art as often as it does in drama and literature. In art, you get a smaller segment of the story, but you can see it instead of hear it or read it, and in that way I think it becomes more visceral. For example, "Oedipus" by Matthew Holloway is just a head. But it's solemn and blue and elongated and tilted slightly, with darkness for eyes and darkness surrounding. It's an immediately sad piece of work, and it can be fully understood by someone without knowledge of the tale of Oedipus because it is so simple.

The Modern Tragedy of Success

According to Alain de Botton, our modern society's idea of success causes a lot of emotional distress for people who aren't millionaires and models. He says that in a society that says anybody can do anything - a "meritocracy" - is a source of low self-esteem across the board. If you're on top, you're on top because of your abilities and worth, but if you're on the bottom of society, you're on the bottom because you deserve to be on the bottom. He brings tragedy into the picture by saying that tragedy is good because, even though it traces the story of people's stark and utter failures, it accords the characters a level of sympathy that is missing from, say, the tabloids.

First thoughts on tragedy

Tragedy started out as a kind of play in ancient Greece. According to Aristotle, tragedy is defined as a story that deals with an important deed and purges the audience of emotion. Over the next two thousand years or so tragedy evolved, but stayed basically sad. In the 1600s a French playwright said that tragedy deals with "matters of state" and comedy deals with love. This seems like a pretty good basic definition. In earlier times, tragedy revolved around upper-class characters, but in the last century or two everybody has been seen fit to be in a tragedy. A tragedy doesn't have to have a sad ending, but it helps.