Greek Tragedy

With relation to Miller’s “All My Sons”

ARISTOTLE

• Philosopher 4th century BC• Tragedy is a plot which results in a disastrous

conclusion for the protagonist or chief character• Definition: “the imitation of an action that is

serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself”…incorporating “incidents arousing pity and fear, wherwith to accomplish a catharsis of such emotions”

• CATHARSIS – release of the emotions of pity and fear (in Greek signifies “purgation” – leaving the audience not depressed, but relieved even exalted.

• TRAGIC HERO – neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly evil but a mixture of both

- Should be better than WE are – higher than ordinary moral worth.

• HAMARTIA or fatal flaw – he will suffer a change in fortune due to an “error of judgment” or his “tragic flaw”

• HUBRIS – a common fatal flaw of Greek tragedy, meaning “pride” or overweening self confidence which leads a protagonist to disregard a divine warning or to violate an important moral law.

Catharsis occurs because:

Since the hero isn’t evil, his misfortune is greater than he deserves, so we pity him.

He moves us to fear because we recognise similar possibilities of error in our own lesser selves.

• The plot develops through complication to catastrophe in which there occurs ANAGNORISIS – a discovery of facts previously unknown to the hero

• AND PERIPETEIA – a reversal of fortune from happiness to disaster.

• In medieval times, the reversal was seen as the wheel of fortune – the higher you are, the further the fall.

• In what ways is Keller the tragic hero of the play?

• How does Miller follow Aristotle’s theory of the catharsis of pity and fear?

• What is Joe Keller’s hamartia or fatal flaw?

• Does he suffer from hubris?

• All My Sons may be seen as a tragedy. Based on what you have studied so far, discuss in what ways this statement is accurate.

NEWER INFLUENCES – HENRIK IBSEN (19TH C)

Modern realistic style of the Greek genre.

•Small cast

•Colloquial language

•Realistic situations

•Timeless archetypal emotions and conflicts (no lightning balls or chariots – just Victorian drawing rooms)

• No clear right or wrong (unlike morality plays)

• Now – no clear antagonist or protagonist

• Bad things happen to good people

• Challenges conventions (complex female characters

• KEY = SENSE OF REALISM

• Social critique through the drama of individuals (we relate to the ‘hero’ or ‘anti-hero’)

• Keller – a Greek hero in a contemporary world?

• Ibsen’s ‘The Wild Duck’ – is linked both structurally and thematically to AMS. A young man returns home and discovers family secrets. He insists on the full truth which backfires. Some truths are too much to bear.

• Past influence = inescapable

(Oedipus Rex – results in father/son conflict)

SUMMARY

• Miller blends

• GREEK THEMES

• IBSENIAN STRUCTURE

• MODERN IDIOM

Into… a WELL-CONSTRUCTED REALIST PLAY.