Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - African Literature

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Tragedypt.ppt
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Tragedy

What is Tragedy?

  • Catastrophe is part of tragedy, but a tragedy does not focus solely on the calamity itself.

Catastrophe—great, often sudden event that brings terrible loss, lasting distress, severe affliction

Classical Tragedy

  • Elements first established by Aristotle:

  • “Imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; the language is embellished with each kind of artistic ornament; has catharsis through pity and fear to enable the purging of these emotions (catharsis)”

Elements of Classical Tragedy

  • Imitation

  • Created work of art by man

  • Consciously aware that the events, even if based on reality, are expressed artistically, which means they have certain artistic expectations.

Elements of Classical Tragedy

  • Action

  • sequence of events joined to create a whole

  • The events/action are developed to bring about a desired result

Elements of Classical Tragedy

  • Serious

  • The work of art deals with profound and universal problems of man
  • Some examples include purpose and destiny, good and evil, other forces greater than man

Elements of Classical Tragedy

  • Magnitude

  • Greatness of rank or position
  • reached by heroic stature of characters;
  • use of poetry (“elevated” use of language) to achieve meaning

  • Character

  • Central character is usually high born, noble
  • The “importance” of the character reflects how “serious” the work of art is

Character in Classical Tragedy

  • An active protagonist is in conflict with opposing forces.

  • The character moves from fortune to misfortune

  • Conflict is internal, comes from spiritual realm, tests character’s integrity

Catharsis

  • The purging of emotions through pity and fear
  • Pity—sharing in grief, compassion

  • Fear—anxious concern, awe, reverence (think God)

  • We purge to reach tranquility

Tragic Hero

  • The central character (protagonist) in a tragedy.
  • The tragic hero represents universal human qualities and is essentially good, but flawed.
  • Flaw reflects errors in judgment tends to reflect errors in judgment.

Tragic Hero Characteristics

  • Is noble or high born
  • Has characteristic flaw or error of judgment
  • Suffers reversal of fortune because of this flaw
  • Discovers reversal was brought about by his/her own actions

Tragic Hero

  • Hero elicits pity because his fate seems undeserved

  • Tragedy depicts the downfall of a noble hero or heroine, usually through some combination of hubris, fate, and the will of the gods.

Tragic Hero

  • anagnorisis--"knowing again" or "knowing back" or "knowing throughout"

  • the tragic hero may achieve some revelation or recognition about human fate, destiny, and the will of the gods.

(moves from ignorance to awareness of bond of love or hate)