Tragedy and the Common Man

Miller alludes to several notable figures from tragic works, specifically Oedipus, Orestes, Medea, Hamlet, and Macbeth. While these five tragic figures are all significant in the tradition, it is notable that Miller’s choice of four names, “Orestes to Hamlet, Medea to Macbeth” (4), seem partly chosen for their alliteration and poetic rhythm. Miller mentions these tragic heroes in an attempt to lend support to his point that, even though they clearly grapple with different struggles and conflicts, the underlying thread between them all is a desire to restore their dignity.

Oedipus is a figure from Greek mythology featured in Sophocles’s plays Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) and Oedipus Coloneus (Oedipus at Colonus); these plays are the first two in Sophocles’s Theban triad and deal with Oedipus’s life and death. Oedipus is the prince of the city of Thebes. On his birth, his parents hear the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. In an attempt to prevent this, he is given up for adoption by a shepherd at Corinth; Oedipus grows up not knowing his true identity. As an adult, he hears the prophecy about himself and, not knowing his true parentage, leaves his home in horror and travels away to Thebes. On the road, he meets and kills his real father, the king of Thebes, without knowing he is his son. After performing a service to the city of Thebes, Oedipus is rewarded with marriage to the widowed queen, becoming king himself. Without anyone knowing it yet, the prophecy has been fulfilled. The second play focuses on the gradual revelation of the hero’s identity, culminating in his death. The Oedipus story is key in showing the classical tragic elements of fate and identity, the nature of free choice, dramatic irony (i.e., the audience’s knowledge of the situation), and the cathartic exploration of taboo social behavior. Oedipus’s character is an example of the traditional noble character who, as Miller defines it, seeks for his lost dignity or identity.

Orestes is the subject of many Greek plays, most notably a trilogy by Aeschylus called the Oresteia. Orestes murders his mother out of obligation to the gods and as vengeance for her murder of Orestes’s father. The last play in Aeschylus’s trilogy, Eumenides, which deals with the aftermath of his action, largely explores personal responsibility and justice, and Orestes is considered a hero for bearing the consequences of his crime. The plays concerning Orestes’s narrative again examine the nature of free will, obligation, and the consequences of decision-making when the available choices are transgressional in opposing ways.

Medea is a tragic play by Euripides that is based upon the ancient Greek myth of Jason and Medea. When Jason abandons his wife, Medea, and their two children, Medea retaliates by murdering his new wife and her own sons. She is a tragic figure driven by a wish to reassert her position and to remove those who have usurped her. Only the first of three plays survive and so the middle part and the denouement of Medea’s actions in Euripides’s version is not known.

Hamlet, the protagonist of Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name, is visited by his father’s ghost and tasked with avenging his murder by killing Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and the new king of Denmark. Hamlet has been displaced by his uncle. Hamlet suffers from the flaw of indecisiveness and overthinking, as he ruminates and plans rather than taking real action, leading to both his own downfall and the downfall of others. This treatment of the “fatal flaw” concept is characteristic of the Renaissance approach to tragedy, which placed more emphasis on the personality and decision-making of the individual than the Greek plays.

Macbeth is the titular character of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Hearing a prophecy that he will become king, he is filled with ambition and murders the rightful king in order to seize the throne. He is deposed and dies at the end of the play.