Tragedy and The Common Man Essay Example for Free

Tragedy and The Common Man Essay Quote: â€Å"I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were. On the face of it this ought to be obvious in the light of modern psychiatry, which bases its analysis upon classific formulations, such as Oedipus and Orestes complexes, for instances, which were enacted by royal beings, but which apply to everyone in similar emotional situations. † – Arthur Miller In Arthur Miller’s essay â€Å"Tragedy and The Common Man† he explains to us what he considers to be tragedy and what a tragic hero is today. He debates that in order to be a tragic hero the hero doesn’t need to be a king or have any noble background and instead, the common man can be considered a tragic hero as well. Arthur Miller justifies that the tragic flaw is when a tragic hero refuses to accept anything that may affect their personal dignity. Arthur Miller’s ideas on tragedy are precise and can be applied to a various number of tragedies seen throughout media. In the movie â€Å"A Time to Kill† Jake Brigance one of the main characters is a lawyer who decides to defend his African American friend Carl Lee after he is charged for killing two Caucasian men who previously raped his eleven year old daughter. The setting of the movie is in a very racist community therefore when Jake decides to defend Carl the tragedy begins. In the movie Jake encounters many obstacles one of the first of them being when his wife and child are forced to leave because their safety is not guaranteed in their community anymore. Brigance can simply drop the case and have his family stay with him however he decides to stick to what he believes in is right and allows his family to leave. Throughout the movie you can see that Jake is becoming very lonely not having his family by his side but he pushes those feelings. At one point in the movie Jake loses his house due to a racist colt also known as the â€Å"K. K. K†. While Jake is at work the colt decides to burn down his entire house unaware that his only family he has left which is his Dog is in there. Once Jake comes home to see that his house is severely damaged he slips into a state of denial and refuses to believe that his only companion he has left may have died. In the movie scene you can see that Jake is struggling so much he begins to doubt himself. â€Å"Were going to lose this case, Carl lee†¦ I want to cop a plea, maybe Buckley will cop us a second degree murder and we can get you just life in prison. Jake could have decided not to defend Carl Lee and to allow any other lawyer do to the job but he refused to accept the fact that the court could allow an eleven year old girl to be victimized and not have any justice served because of the color of her skin. In the book â€Å"Rome Juliet† Romeo and Juliet experience tragedy because of accident and bad luck, the unfortunate fact that Friar Lawrences letter never gets to Romeo in Mantua. Miller says that in order to be classified as a tragic hero you must be willing to lay down your life in order to keep your dignity and Juliet does this. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust and let me die! (Juliet). When Juliet does not receive the letter form Friar Lawrence and thinks that Romeo is dead she realizes that in her battle to get what she wants she has lost and therefore lays down her life for Romeo. This shows that Juliet a child who wasn’t royalty suffered just as much as someone with a noble background would suffer if they were going through the same issue. I can speak about tragedy and being a common man because at one point in my life I’ve experienced it. Last year in grade ten I was diagnosed with a tumor on my thyroid. When the doctors told me I had a tumor on my thyroid they explained to me that they were unsure if it was cancerous or not. For two weeks I had to wait for the results during those weeks I had this fear following me around and all I could think about was whether I had cancer or not. I went through several tests. After all my results from the test came back the doctor explained to me that my tumor was benign which meant it was not cancerous but the problem was it wouldn’t stop growing. It grew to the point it seemed like I had an Adam’s apple. The only choice I had was to cut out the tumor or take pills which could control it however I would have to take the pills throughout my entire life, the pills were expensive. I decided to get the surgery done instead and I now have this very large scar on my neck. As you can see I also experienced tragedy when I was diagnosed with the benign tumor. Common men can be tragic heroes as well regardless of the reputation or the status they hold. Tragedies are not meant for just people with high positions or everyday people who would read or watch media that had to do with tragedy wouldn’t be able to comprehend it. Everyone suffers some type of tragedy in their life which allows us to understand tragedies much better.