Tragedy And The Common Man Analysis

Everything always gets worse before it gets better. This is how it is in most situations such as a lovers quarrel, in which both lovers scream and yell at each other only to reach the perfect mutual agreement in the end of a very silly fight. Another good example; rain storms, where maybe it takes dangerous flooding to bring out the most beautiful spring flowers. Maybe it takes something so terrible and world shattering to bring out the best of a situation. No matter how treacherous or how awful it may be, it all depends on how you handle the situation. How you handle a disaster shows in what becomes of it. Much like the Black Death leading into the Renaissance. The tragic turn of events that took place during the Black Death gave

September 11, 2001 is a day that shook the United States to its core. Millions of Americans felt the pain, the loss, and the anger that came with the attack on their nation. It was a day of mourning, and when it comes to days of mourning it is difficult putting one’s pain into words. However, Leonard Pitts Jr. was able to move past the emotion. He put into his words, not only his own feelings, but the feelings of an entire nation. Pitts conveys the emotion felt after the terror attacks in his essay “Sept. 12, 2001: We’ll go forward from this moment” through his mournful, angry, and righteous tone.

On the morning of September 11, 2001 millions of people were in shock the moment they received news that the World Trade Center was hit. The images from this horrific day flooded the media’s television screens and newspaper articles. Perhaps the most gruesome images shown were those of people jumping out of the building as they were collapsing. Tom Junod, a writer for the Esquire magazine, illustrates his perspective of this shocking incident through pictures, media coverage, and depicting people’s reactions in his article The Falling Man. Tom Junod’s article should be read by anyone who believes they have felt all there is to feel from the 9/11 attack. He will prove otherwise that there is indeed still much emotion to

Within today’s society, an individual’s morals determines how one is scrutinized, judged, and reprimanded. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a character with compelling moral principles. Abigail’s disoriented moral constitution allows the theme, the detrimental effects of mass hysteria, to be constantly reassured throughout the play. Through the egotistical, manipulative, and deceitful rhetoric of Abigail Williams, Arthur Miller is successful in conveying how the spread of misinformation can tear apart a small town.

Over the course of time we as people have experienced adversity and the effects that come from it. Adversity can have positive and negative impacts, many times when people struggle with adversity, it leads to chaos. We have seen this in the present, past and fiction. Adversity is shown in the present in form of a natural disaster, for example, the earthquake in Iran, adversity is seen in the past, explorers faced it, we also see adversity in the book Lord of The Flies by, William Golding. All of these examples show how adversity can have a negative impact that can turn peaceful societies into chaos.

Sometimes when a situation turns bad, many people begin to assume the worst. Arthur Miller uses Hasty Generalizations to show the panic and even fear of the

Humans act and react for a variety of reasons based on the context and their motivations. There is some part of human nature that prompts people to think, feel, and act in certain ways. This facet of the human condition transcends both time and place; it crosses all cultures. Moreover, human motivations transfer to the fictional world. For example, the characters found in Arthur Miller’s classic American play The Crucible provide a poignant and timeless commentary on human behavior. Act III in particular highlights the best and worst of human nature. This best and worst is equally seen in every day life, even at middle school. The character motivations in The Crucible effectively mirror those found in middle school.

One place where Horace’s quote holds true is in current events. In the national news there is misfortune and chaos seemingly everywhere. A first example of this is with Hurricane Harvey, hitting Texas and the surrounding area, in August-September 2017. This category 3 hurricane has been one of the worst and most destructive hurricanes to hit the United States. Texas and Louisiana flooded, causing billions of dollars of damage and nearly a hundred lives to be lost. Despite all of this, the citizens of the community came together to volunteer and help each other, and it revealed their spirit and resilience. Just like the quote, adversity brought out the best of Americans and tested their strength in a way that would not happen if Hurricane Harvey hit them. A second example is with the Vegas shooting which happened October 1st at a concert, leaving 58 deaths and 546 more injured, making it America’s deadliest shooting. Following the tragedy, it gave anti-gun activists opportunity to fight for stricter gun control. Also this incident, like with Hurricane Harvey, has brought the country together, supporting the victims and their families, and wanting to stop the violence and hate in America. It shows that misfortune can play a positive and influential role.

The varied nature of human beings and of the crisis’ that can befall us are varied, yet often we find that reactions to perilous situations are time and time again met with similar reactions. Authors Arthur Miller and Geraldine Brooks attempt to study and comment upon the way different humans react to different crisis’ in their works: the play ‘The Crucible’ and novel ‘Year of Wonders’ respectively. Both texts explore the ideas of hysteria and look at the ways in which it can be exacerbated or soothed by such things as religion and superstitions, the theory of herd mentality and the effect of an isolated community. They also communicate how certain styles of text or the behaviour and character growth of individuals can have a profound impact upon the view of human behaviour.

Throughout history, many horrific incidents based on an act of violence or disagreement have resulted in panic and mass hysteria. These historical events include but are not limited to, The Holocaust, mass shootings, and 9/11. Many of these tragic events have led to people being immensely afraid. These events often create fear for those who participate in everyday activities. A healthy community consists of a support system, peace, trust, and adhering to societal laws. Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, illustrates parallels between the Salem 17th century witch trials and the Communist Red Scare in the 1950’s to exemplify how destructive irrational fear and mass hysteria can become. When a community is overcome with fear it creates an insalubrious system of mistrust, corruption, hypocrisy, and the defiance of laws. Conflict relating to witchcraft in The Crucible, led to tension and struggle for the people of Salem. In his allegory, Arthur Miller illustrates the devastating impact of irrational fear on a community through the actions of the characters of Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth and Judge Hathorne.

September 11th, 2001 is now a date discussed in history lessons. While the post-9/11 generations may not have witnessed the changes of this tragic event, which rapidly filled every crevice of US society, they have an entire generation ready to narrate what they witnessed on and after that day. The expeditious reaction made a permanent mark on American culture.

In today’s society, it’s incredibly easy to find bad news. Reports of the wrongdoings of humanity are constantly circling through the media. “Three women were kidnapped and held captive for ten years, a teenager shot up an elementary school, and a teenage girl was shot for wanting to go to school.” Many believe that mankind is born with a special form of evil and we do what we please with it. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible says otherwise.

To those readers or spectators that live in a world of moral ambiguity and mediocrity, what are we to take away from such a tragedy? If the theater, according to Racine, is meant to inspire virtue, it seems that we ourselves should consider our own existence as being in the ontological throws of a concealed moral universe. To fully disclose the mechanisms and relationships that influence, or perhaps even determine our fate, is universally unattainable and only possible as a God. Perhaps then the virtues of faith and compassion, regardless of religious conviction, hold an even greater importance than we once thought in our modern

have been many fallen heroes who have been key subjects to be known in essence as

According to Aristotle’s theory of tragedy, tragedies are best equipped to be based on a protagonist that is renowned and prosperous, so his good fortune can be dramatically changed. In contrast, Arthur Miller’s essay “Tragedy and the Common Man” states “that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings ever were.” He proves in his modern essay that the characteristics and emotions of the common man and the highly placed are entitled to be similar. Miller even identifies emotions of a average person and how they result in a better tragedy than those who are highly ranked. In his play “Death of Salesman” he demonstrates that the normal life of a sales man can still make for a great tragedy and that his protagonist, Willy Loman, is worthy of a tragedy.