Analysis Of Tragedy And The Common Man
Asif Ali
Ruperdra Guha Majumdar, Associate Professor, DU
IA Term Paper Semester - IV
19th April 2016
Tragedy of a common man in Mother Courage and Her Children: From the spectacle of Realism
In the essay "Tragedy and the Common Man," the author Arthur Miller puts forward a very strong argument in the favor of a common man’s suitability for being the hero of a tragedy. And this argument was based on some common points like, such plays can influence us greatly for they contain various elements like the fear of displacement, the tragedy of the difference between who we are and who we wish to be in this world. “Among us today this fear is strong, and perhaps stronger, than it ever was. In fact, it is the common man who knows this fears the best.” According to Miller a common layman is well aware of fear and understands it well hence qualifies for the tragedy. A man’s quest for morality which is moreover a subjective matter, the point of concern over here is the extent to which he would go to reach that point of morality. Men who are not “common” have hard time acquiring the mindset of a common man. They are less traditional thinkers and fearful as compared to common men. Common man on the contrary accepts the “conditions of life” and prospers as well as realizes it himself. In Miller’s own words the most suitable way to define the eligibility of a common man for tragedy is "the common man knows fear best." The similar common man is Mother Courage and the other characters
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434 Words | 2 PagesConformity is cruel because it makes people who are lairs look good and makes people who tell the truth look bad. Miller is writing about two very diffrent worlds those of 1951 and 1692. The world in 1692 was not as smart as the world today. In 1692 like in the book The Crucible the judges believed anything the girls thought and or said. The judge never questioned what the girls thought.
Social Pressure In The Crucible
578 Words | 3 PagesWhat lesson is this trying to teach? Arthur Miller is trying to teach us that there is going to be immense negative pressure from our peers/society and that we should persevere through that pressure like Proctor did. In The Crucible and in the Salem witch trials many people gave in to the pressure and conformed; few brave people stood their ground and did the right thing. In his time he had the same experiences. People had great pressures put upon them to find the commies and or confess you were a communist.
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819 Words | 4 PagesThe Crucible: How Fear Changes People During his first Inaugural Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt once announced, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Fear manipulates a persons rationality resulting in them behaving in ways they normally would not, especially in the story The Crucible written by Arthur Miller. The characters in The Crucible allow fear to manipulate their beliefs and actions. They all know what is right, but fear alters their mindset causing them to act differently.
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