Tragedy free essay sample

Arthur Millers  The Crucible  illustrates a tragedy due to intense emotional suffering brought on by the accusations of former friends, manipulation, infidelity, and ultimately the death of John Proctor. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay, the American romantic hero, devotes his life to proving himself worthy of Daisy. He would have sacrificed his freedom and his life for her, yet she couldn’t spare the time to go to his funeral and pay her condolences. While tragedy consists as a powerful medium in books and short stories, there are many real life cases of tragedy as well.For example, a mother, impaired from drinking vodka and smoking marijuana puts children and other innocent people in harms way while driving home from a weekend camping trip. This trip ends in a tragic disaster when she goes the wrong way on a highway and crashes head on with another vehicle. Eight innocent people are killed including four children. We will write a custom essay sample on Tragedy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Overall, from a book, or from our society today, we, as humans, use tragedy to teach us to learn from the mistakes and misfortunes of others. â€Å"Tragedy is a form of drama  based on human  suffering that allows the audience to experience catharsis or pleasure from the viewing. The audience, through its viewing of a tragedy, can experience the magnified human emotions brought forth, from a safe distance. Essentially, to see suffering without having to actually suffer is what makes tragedy such a powerful medium. As humans, we may need this so that when faced with suffering of our own we are better prepared. A tragedy is a story in which the main character, usually a hero, is brought to his downfall. In Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, despite his infallible attitude is brought to ruin by his flaw, which is his â€Å"blind ambition†.Overall, Macbeth is a man with a flaw that the witches were able to see and use for their own amusement. This ambition is exacerbated by the witches and their prophecies, thus making Macbeth a somewhat sympathetic character. In Macbeth, the audience feels throughout the play that Macbeth’s murders are for his own benefit and are cruel and unjustified. Even though Macbeth feels sorry, guilty and has doubts about what he is doing, he still goes through with these acts, which makes us feel that he should be punished and not rewarded the kingship. As a result, the audience feels the need to rid and â€Å"purge† all of these emotions about Macbeth.With the death of Macbeth, the audience finally feels the true meaning of catharsis. The Crucible’s tragedy, in the larger picture, is the downfall of what appeared to be an innocent, pristine community. In addition to this, Proctors hanging and the suffering inflicted upon his wife Elizabeth are also tragic. Although Elizabeth is a good  moral woman who would protect her husband and family with her own life, she is still falsely accused of witchcraft and imprisoned. At the end of the play, she is left without her loving husband who was everything to her.However, as well as the pain and tragedy that Elizabeth experiences; the larger tragedy revolves around all the innocent people accused of witchcraft who are imprisoned or killed, because of un-trustworthy teenage girls. In the story, the reader is easily able to connect with John Proctor due to the fact that adultery is a common culprit in tragedies today. More specifically, the audience is drawn in to experience these extreme human emotions with out the real life suffering and as a result is better prepar ed for the suffering that they may encounter. Jay Gatsby is seen as the tragic American romantic hero because he devoted his life to Daisy, yet in return suffered dire consequences. It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisyit increased her value in his eyes. (Fitzgerald 119) He accumulated wealth to impress her, moved from his native land to be near her, held lavish house parties to attract her, battled Tom to win her over, and most importantly took the blame for killing Myrtle, which lead to his death. His biggest flaw is his incorrigible love for Daisy.Jay says, â€Å" your wife doesn’t love you, she’s never loved you, she loves me (Fitzgerald 137) This shows Gatsby’s stubborn attitude towards seeking Daisy’s ultimate love. Although he has achieved great success, his achievements mean little with out Daisy’s returning love. In the end, he dies because of her, which is a direct result of her impact on his life. Throughout the book, the audience feels sympathy for Gatsby because of his devotion to Daisy and her lack luster love back. In the end, though still frustrated, the audience finally feels a release of emotions by seeing Gatsby’s struggle with Daisy end. So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight. (Fitzgerald, 116) This â€Å"purge† of emotions is the audience’s relief, which ends with the draining of their intense feelings. However, had the story ended without the death of Gatsby, the suffering would have been incomplete, leaving the reader frustrated without any emotional cleansing associated with catharsis. A widely publicized real life tragedy revolved around a New York mom who had at least 10 drinks and smoked marijuana before driving five children the wrong way down a highway and crashing head on into an SUV.She was killed instantly and also took the lives of her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces, also in her van, as well as three men who were in the SUV. Her 5-year-old son was the lone survivor of the crash. â€Å"Schuler had a blood alcohol content of . 19, more than double the legal limit, and was also impaired by marijuana, which just further exacerbated the problem†, according to state attorney Janet Difiore. At one point her 8-year-old niece called her father to say her aunt was behaving strangely. Unfortunately, while the family attempted to monitor Schuler and the children’s location, they were unsuccessful.An event, which results in the untimely death of young children, always evokes tremendous emotion. This event, well popularized and viewed by many, serves as a key reminder in helping us deal with suffering we may experience on our own. By reading about this story, we feel these emotions from a safe distance to better prepare ourselves. This is why a topic/event with tragedy like this draws a large amount of attention. Tragedies in all of these examples are similar due to the effect they have on the audience.In each of these books and real life events, there are common elements causing an emotional effect on the audience. For the most part, these events are the down fall and â€Å"tragic flaws† of the main characters. For example, in The Crucible and The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby and John Proctor are driven and flawed by love and romance. In The Great Gatsby, Jay is unable to let his love for Daisy go, thus causing him to go to great lengths to be with her. In The Crucible John Proctor also shows his flaw through love when he commits adultery.Overall, in both of these books, the characters are so indulged in their love they loose sight of what is dangerous and could cause them harm. On the other hand these tragedies also have many differences. For instance, the real life example allows the audience to learn from the tragedy for their own benefit while with Macbeth the audience feels more relieved and cleansed at the result. More specifically, the real life example provides you with less of an emotional roller coaster because you are getting all the information at once.In literature, there is a deliberate design by the author to build you up slowly to a crescendo, culminating in an emotional release. In the real life situation the news media broadcasts the suffering instantaneously, having almost a numbing effect. In conclusion, whether it is a real life example or within a book, tragedy evokes a variety of emotions in the audience. Aristotle describes catharsis as â€Å"the purging of the emotions of pity and fear that are aroused in the viewer of a tragedy† (Aristotle 23).Debate continues about what Aristotle actually means by catharsis, but the concept is â€Å"linked to the positive social function of tragedy†. In Macbeth, Macbeth’s life frustrates the audience with his cruel and unjust ways of becoming king. By the end of the story, when Macbeth dies, this emotion is finally released and the audience is relieved. In The Crucible, John Proctor, by cheating on his wife, causes tragedy to be inflicted upon not only himself but also on his wife. Ultimately, this allows the audience to experience this pain and suffering from a distance, and learn from these mistakes. In the Great Gatsby, at first blush, Jay is seen as a romantic because he did everything for Daisy. However, pursuit of a material life is ultimately his undoing, and in the long run he is faced with dire consequences. Lastly, tragedy is also seen in the death of 8 innocent people in the car crash, a crash that could have been prevented. This also allows the audience to learn from these mistakes and use the emotional experience to better equip themselves. Essentially, to see suffering without having to actually suffer is what makes tragedy such a powerful medium.