Around 2400 years ago, Aristotle wrote his famous work "Poetics,"
describing in it the qualities of a tragedy. In this work, Aristotle
offered "Oedipus the King" as a perfect example of a tragedy. Over two
millenia have passed and writers are still creating tragedies. "Death of a
Salesman" is one modern example of a tragedy. This leads to the question
of how the tragedy had lasted and remained relevant for so long. And at
the same time, has it changed to adapt to the modern world' This will now
be discussed, first by offering a modern definition of a tragedy. Both
"Oedipus the King" and "Death of a Salesman" will then be described in
turn, with it shown that each play meets the requirements of a tragedy.
Finally, the meaning of the similarities will be discussed, with it shown
that a tragedy is essentially a human story of the struggle to overcome
one's flaws. The persistence of the tragedy suggests that this is a common
struggle of man, and one that remains persistent even after two millenia
In Poetics Aristotle offers a description of tragedy by looking at
the elements present in tragedies of the time. The elements Aristotle
describes are mainly those seen in Oedipus the King, which Aristotle
considered as the perfect form of a tragedy. The first quality noted is
that the tragic hero is a person of high standing, generally a royal
figure. However, it must also be noted that the tragic hero cannot be held
in high regard only because of his position. Instead, the tragic hero must
have qualities that make him an extraordinary person. This suggests that
the tragic hero being a person of high position is not truly critical to
them being seen as a tragic hero. Instead, this appears to be related more
to the society of the time, where stories were only considered worthy if
they were about the highest classes of society. Based on this, it can be
said that a mode...