Aristotilian Tragedy
Unity of Action: tragic
plots must have a clear
beginning, middle and end,
and the action should be
ordered and continuous,
arising through a cause and
effect process
Shakespearean Tragedy
Like the tragedies of the
ancient Greeks,
Shakespeare’s tragedies
share these characteristics:
 The main character
is often high ranking
and dignified, not an
ordinary man or
Catharsis: the events in the
woman. The tragic
play should inspire pity and
hero is usually a
terror in its viewers,
mixed character,
allowing them, through
neither thoroughly
vicarious participation in
good or evil, yet
the dramatic event, to attain
“better” or “greater”
emotional purgation, moral
than the rest of us
purification, or clarity of
are in the sense that
intellectual viewpoint.
he is of higher than
ordinary moral
Tragedy is characterized by
worth or social
characters who are “highly
significance.
renowned and prosperous,”
and whose reversal of
 The main character
fortune and fall from
has a tragic flaw – a
greatness are bought about
defect in character
“not by vice or depravity,
or judgment – that
but by some error or
directly causes the
frailty.” The protagonoist’s
character’s downfall
inner weakness or inherent
error is called hamartia,
 The work ends
taken from the Greek word
unhappily for the
meaning “to err” or “to miss
main character
the mark.” The hamartia
often concerns excessive
All of Shakespeare’s
pride or hubris.
tragedies share a similar
five-part structure:
Moment of recognition:
Act I, Exposition
This reversal of fortune is
characterized by “reversal
Act II, Rising action/
of situation” (peripeteia)
complications
and “recognition”
(anagnorisis). Aristotle
Act III, Crisis or turning
believed that in most
point
successful tragedies, the
moment of recognition and Act IV, Falling action
Miller’s Tragedy of the
Common Man
Tragedy is not reserved for
the classical tragic hero of
nobility because:
the reversal of situation take
place in the same narrative
Act V, Climax and
event.
resolution
Scene of Suffering: This
must also take place in the
tragedy. Aristotle, and the
Greeks in general, viewed
suffering as a prerequisite
for wisdom.
Holt Literature nad
Language Arts, page 754
The AP Vertical Teams
Guide for English
Excerpts from “Tragedy and the Common Man” by Arthur Miller
1. “the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were”
2. “classic formulations…which were enacted by royal beings, but which apply to everyone in similar
emotional situations”
3. “when the question of tragedy in art is not an issue, we never hesitate to attribute to the well-placed and
the exalted the very same mental processes as the lowly”
4. “Tragedy…is the consequence of man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly”
5. “the tale always reveals what has been called his ‘tragic flaw’, his failing that is not peculiar to grand or
elevated characters”
6. “the flaw [is] his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a
challenge to his dignity…Only the passive, only those who accept their lot without active retaliation are
the ‘flawless.’ Most of us are in that category. But there are among us today, as there always have been,
those who act against the scheme of things that degrades them…”
7. “from the total questioning of what has previously been unquestioned, we learn. And such a process is
not beyond the common man”
8. “the underlying fear of being displaced, the disaster inherent in being torn away from our chosen
image…Among us today this fear is strong, and perhaps stronger, than it ever was. In fact, it is the
common who knows fear best”
9. “The revolutionary questioning of the stable environment is what terrifies. In no way is the common
man debarred from such thoughts or such actions”
10. “The commonest of men may take on that stature to the extent of his willingness to throw all he has
into contest, the battle to secure his rightful place in the world”
11. “The pathetic is achieved when the protagonist is…incapable of grappling with a much superior
force”
12. “It time, I think, that we who are without kings, took up this bright thread of our history and followed
it to the only place it can possibly lead in our time – the heart and spirit of the average man”
Question for discussion: Do you agree with Miller’s last statement?