Thématique : expression et construction de soi.

« Thématique : expression et construction de soi. The tragic genre is one of the most important in the history of literature as it has always existed ever since literature was created.

George Steiner, a professor of the university of Cambridge stated in his book « Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky » that there were 3 steps in literature’s history.

1st one = Greek tragedy | 2nd one = Shakespearian tragedy | (3rd one= Russian novel) This particular quote from an eminent intellectual enlighten the fact that Tragic has always been part of our literature and therefore our lives.

Indeed, most Greek authors took the aspect of tragedy from what they witnessed or the matter in Greece (ex: Nero).

The great philosopher Aristotle stated that art imitated real life. In addition, Shakespearian tragedies are perhaps the most influential sous genre of literature.

Again, Shakespeare took his inspiration throughout the History, just as the Greeks did before. The tragic is and will be forever relevant because it is the expression of one’s fear towards death.

Indeed, the tragic stirs up powerful feelings such as madness or wrath as the main character is trying to fight his ineluctable fatality; his death. Therefore, we will study how does the tragic tone of a work depict the suffering of the human being? We will focus on how the hero is submitted under a grim passion or situation, and secondly their incapacity to survive. In order to answer these questions, I brought a file composed of 5 documents: Death of a Salesman Hamlet Wuthering Heights The Godfather Are we still tragic? 1.

The Hero is submitted to a grim passion First of all, the tragic expresses the deepest feeling of the main character as he hit rock bottom.

In Arthur’s Miller 1949 play Death of a Salesman, the main character, Willy Loman, expresses his tiredness during the very beginning of the play.

Miller characterizes him with the lexical field of exhaustion “tired to death” “look terrible” “just couldn’t make it”.

Even the stage direction points out his fatigue “Even as he crosses the stage […] his exhaustion is apparent” “he sits beside her a little tired” “casual irritation”.

The word casual is important because it shows he has been tired for a long time.

He cannot control his car anymore Willy’s fate is slipping from his hands, as he can’t control his car anymore, and his wish to die is growing.. »