"Tragedy," Reconsidered

Author(s): George Steiner

Source: New Literary History, Vol. 35, No. 1, Rethinking Tragedy (Winter, 2004), pp. 1-15
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Reconsidered

"Tragedy,"

Steiner

George
semantic

The

field
of the noun
as indeterminate

"tragedy" and of the adjective

as its
idiom
origin. Colloquial,

"tragic" remains
atic

which
ultimate

attaches

usage

from

range
as

specific,
shopworn

in

"a

The

tragic
"a
tragic

has burned

intentional
or

accident,"

phrase

hybrids under
a tag publicized

sorrow.

sense

of

or material,

mental

experiences,

cake

triviality?"the

and

disaster

to

"tragic"

in the oven"?to
can

focus

be

narrow
as

and
in

the

spacious,
undefinably
numerous
life." The
intermediate

the rubric of "tragi-comedy" or even "optimistic

tragedy,"
in Soviet parlance,
further blur linguistic and existential

demarcations.

to western

"Tragedy" in reference
of tangled ramifications.
enactment

scenic

of

literature is itself an elusive branch

are to be found in drama,
in the

If its roots

those

cherished

"goat-songs"

by

nineteenth-century

and ethnographers,
to other genres may well
its application
philologists
have been as ancient. The ascription of tragic sentiments
to episodes
in
the Homeric
to
current.
been
have
Whether
the
epics appears
epithet
characterized
to
lyric poetry is not known; but it will pertain habitually
narratives
of grief and of death
in Ovid or Virgil. As our literatures
evolve, the concept of tragedy extends far beyond the dramatic genre. It
serves for poetry and prose fiction?for
d'Aubign?'s
Tragiques as for
Dreiser's

An

American

the descriptions
Brahms

Berlioz,

Tragedy.

of ballet,

In

the

incorporate

turn,

of film.
marking

by

osmosis

as

it were,

such

Composers
in

"tragic"

it permeates

as Beethoven,

their

compositions.

this seemingly unbounded

and mobile
Throughout
spectrum,
"tragedy"
and "tragic" can lose their sometime
specificity. They come to enhance
any

conceivable

of heroic

nuance

sacrifice?if

of

sadness,

that iswhat

misfortune,

they were?have

or

loss.

rites

Dionysian

all but receded

from

definition.
At

least

one

classical

usage,

moreover,

suggests

that we

do

not

know,

at

some elemental
level, what it is we are talking about. It occurs in Laws
7.817b. The context is that of Plato's notorious
of mundane
repudiation
to be a
letters, notably drama
(the young Plato having himself hoped
The Athenian
informs Clinias
that there is no need for
tragedian).

New Literary History, 2004, 35: 1-15

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NEW

writers

of tragedy,

they "may be men

though

LITERARY

of genius,"

HISTORY

in the projected

polis:

we

know

a dramatization
most

real

Even

we

visitors,

Respected
the best

are

ourselves

to make.

how

of a noble

of

and

of a

authors

has

the finest

that
been

polity
is what
weYvold

that

life;

perfect

and

tragedy,

our whole

In fact,

and
as

constructed
to be

in truth

the

tragedies.

for A.

allowing

the

"dramatization,"

E. Taylor's

edification

of a "noble

commonwealth

be

profoundly

and perfect
as

construed

rendition

"forcing"

remains

passage

life" in Plato's
most

"the

real

can

How

the

if Spartan

luminous

of

as

of mimesis

puzzling.

In what

tragedies"?

are

the architects
and legislators of this polity tragic authors
the claims of any poet? Is there some ineluctable
of
beyond
component
to
is
of
and
in
which
failure
the
say
tragedy,
self-deception
political
itself even here, especially where the latter comes nearest to the
process
ideal? Or is that a modern,
illegitimately
"psychological"
reading? No
I
is
of
of
which
know
Yet
the
of
the crux in
commentary
help.
centrality
Dante is lucidly helpful when
Plato's idiom and sensibility is undeniable.
commedia for us, when giving us to understand
defining
why even his
a
us
Plato
is
of
leaves
part
Inferno
"comedy."
helpless.
respect

radical

Such

indeterminacies

able formal definitions

a more

is
only
towards

or

moral,

local

captures

are those, Kafka perhaps,

with

term

the

a more
ends.

political
of
fatuity

the

or

innumer

At best, each

less

ad

Polonius's

normative

hoc

ruling
of

catalogue
There

categorizations.

have been

who

Beckett,

sterile

since Aristotle.

classification,

the

and

arbitrary

or

aesthetic,

modes

tragical

less

make

of "tragedy" offered

to dispense

inclined

altogether.

I prefer not to work with any formulaic,

Consequently,
legislative
of "tragedy" as it is used to label a literary genre. All such
definition
to

tend

moreover,

definitions,

which

be

on

variants

far more

raises

than

Aristotle's

Poetics,

it solves. What

I aim for
a minimal

problems
of reasoned
nucleus of supposition,
intuition,
generative
core
shared
in
literature
and extending,
by "tragedies"
indispensable
analogy,

by

related

This nucleus
in

"dis-grace,"

tion is tragic.
man

is made

(Ur-grund)
the

and

emphatic

an

unwelcome

stranger
dwelt on by Heidegger,
the axiomatic
premise,

tragic, which
guest

of

or indifferent
is apolis).
constant
this motif

sin." Because
the

sense,

etymological

life

is a
but
by

modes.

expressive

is that of "original

It is ontologically

on this hostile

homelessness?witness

to other

metaphor,

text

of that fall or
human

is to say in essence.
or,

at

best,

condi

Fallen

threatened

earth
Thus
in

(Sophocles'
damning word,
the necessary
and sufficient
is
that
of
tragedy
ontological

in Beckett,

in Pinter?of

alienation

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or

reconsidered

"tragedy,"

to
is no welcome
ostracism from the safeguard of licensed being. There
the self. This is what tragedy is about.
different
scenarios of secular
Different
faiths, different mythologies,
of
and
theory, provide programmatic
political
psychology,
anthropology
narratives of, explanations
of, the imperative of primordial
guilt. They
as they were in archaic hypoth
are as prevalent
in modern
positivism
eses. The Judeo-Christian
fable of Adamic
disobedience
and Pauline
the human prospect
and inherited guilt has darkened
virtually to our
ease
into secular and profane
with intriguing
day. It has modulated
Marx's

models.

1844

manuscripts

postulate

in human

stage

in

relations

of trust for trust, of love for love, became

the primal exchange
which
our species
to the
and of money,
dooming
fatally one of property
rhetoric provides
treadmill of labor and class conflict. Marx's prophetic
no

account

of

or

how

when

evasive

Freud's

fall

this

logique
the
transition,
and

animal

world

Promethean
the

raw

presumably
to an

paradigm,
the
cooked,

to

tension

estranged,
it is man's

tia),

has

man

sentenced

pass.

an

mastery
has

in

at-homeness
status

in

of fire,

his

the

"culture."

in

fall
natural
in

As

transgression
condition

generated

mytho

our

locates

the

from
once

at

at once privileged
and accursed. In
polemic,
the Adamic
however
narratives,
blueprint,
Some

two

these

to

The

psyche.

of Rousseau,

singular

which

is unmistakable.
between

that
from

violent,

sovereign and irremediably

each of these foundational
secularized,

in the human
on

continuous

ofL?vi-Strauss,

came

innocence

as to time and place, is one of original

the father by the horde of his sexually
the fulcrum
of
thereafter
determined

legend, equally
of
of the murder
an
act
which
sons,
deprived
neurosis
and repressed
culpability
parricide,

from

to

dread

distant,

categories
being
the
ever-renewed

or

crime
to

crucial

the

(hamar

tragedy

of

cycle

error,

of

frustration,

An original
self-destruction.
collective
sin, however
torment and (absurd) death into our naked world.
defined, has brought
So far as we can tell, this topos of original
sin and of a legacy of guilt
It is the "background
does not figure as such in early Greek mythology.
and

individual

to borrow

noise,"
fierce

conflict

between

cosmological
mortals

in
myths
immortals.

term,
and

of

human

It is the

of

rebellion,

coercive

context

to the tales of Prometheus,

of Tantalus, of Sisyphus. We can make out its
in the sad fable of Pandora's
lineaments
box. If H?lderlin
's gloss is
ruin

human

correct,

is

ineluctably

inwoven

in man's

search

for

agonistic

to the gods. But we do not find the motif

in any pure or
proximity
link.
abstract form. I suspect a missing
is certain
is the archaic
in the sixth
What
insight, already current
bc
never
to
is
that
"it
best
have
been
born; that it is
century
(Theognis?)
next best to die young; that ripeness and longevity are a cruel maledic
tion."

It

is

precisely

this

axiom,

together

with

the

consequences

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which

NEW

from

derive
the

articulate

from

and

voicing

demonstration

performative

the logic of estrangement

authentic

of

life, of man's

sense.

that

fall

ontological

"tragedy"

of Tragedy in the 1950s, I had inferred

but had not underlined
it adequately. Where

imperative

of

no

be

from

The Death

writing

categorical
axiom

can

there

grace,

When

HISTORY

the internal logic of tragedy. It is this

it, which engender
a "tragic sense of life"
credowhich constitutes
together with

paradoxical
Without

LITERARY

human

of

estrangement,

ous,

is attenuated,

where

social

melioration

(an

survival

it is blurred

somewhat

for

where

Lear),

the

scandal

of redemption,

by concepts

home

old-age

as

itself

this

of

messianic

inter

analyzed

we may
is harnessed,
indeed have serious drama, didactic
of the loftiest sort, lament and melancholy
(the Trauerspiel
we
not
Walter
But
do
have
in any
by
Benjamin).
tragedy

absolute

sense.

vention
allegory

We

contamination

have

by

however

comedy,"
Thus

a
a

entails

rest

The

core

is, very

sense

in Dante's

much

espoir,

as

Sartre

in Euripides'
Bacchae or
"Not to have been born

put
memorably
tragedy, whether
Kafka's parable of the Law, is immune to hope.
is best."

sale

hope?le

it. Absolute

of

commedia,

"tragic

bleak.
of

dynamic
and,

metaphysical

negativity
more

underwrites

authentic
a

particularly,

It

tragedy.
dimension.

theological

the perennial
of philosophy
with tragic drama, an
engagement
more
and
than
that with any other
engagement
persistent
searching

Hence

aesthetic

From

phenomenology.

Plato

and

to

Aristotle

and

Hegel

to Nietzsche,
and Benjamin,
Freud,
Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard,
has
the
of
analysis
argued
philosophic
legitimacy
tragedy, the paradox of
from
derived
the
other
the
any
genre outside
tragic. Beyond
pleasure
as
we
or
find
it
in
Plato
has
itself,
Hume,
dialogue
philosophic
tragedy
been
the meeting
the metaphysical
and the poetic.
point between
from

dramatizes

Heidegger

this

when

congruence

asserts

he

western

that

on a choral ode in
Sophocles'
Antigone. What needs
are the connotations
understood
of the metaphysical
and
in this context.

has turned

thought
to be precisely
the theological

The proposition
men

are

unwelcome

that

word?on

the

It presumes

that

in

"error"
tion.

that human

women

and

wholly
"Other."

guests
earth,
are

and

economic

at

to innocent

is alien
errant?note
a

comports

nonhuman

to intrusive man.

indifferent
Social

there

existence

the
metaphysical
hostile

as current

outset,

in Rousseau

that
of

presence

agencies

It posits,
the

being,

or

implica
at best

idiom has it, the

and

Marx

the

a specific gravity, an ontological

of alienation
has acquired
concept
or
illustrated
absolute
pure tragedy. A legacy of guilt, the
weight
by
of
paradoxical,
unpardonable
guilt
being alive, of attaching
rights and
aspirations

to

that

tion and suffering,

condition,

to being

condemns

tied to "awheel

the

human

species

of fire." Our

to

existence

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frustra

is not

so much
death
ism,

reconsidered

"tragedy,"

a "tale told by an idiot" as it is a chastisement

from which early
In Adamic and Calvinist monothe
is the only logical deliverance.
emanates

punishment

mythology,
jealous
their worshippers

on

is loosed

devilish,

an

from

offended,

In classical

deity.

vengeful

their blind or malign

cruelties even on
gods exercise
The daemonic,
the
(this outrage obsesses Euripides).
the

as

city

or

a whole

on

Faustus's

midnight.

yet none

the less terrifying is the notion,

Philosophically
problematic,
of
"ill luck," of inexplicable,
in
the
Roman
pantheon,
personified
or accident
falls off the roof with
fortune
bad
tile
(the
arbitrary
can eradicate
human hopes and endeavors.
historical
results) which
classified

Aristotle
melodramatic

than

as a

disaster

contingent

rather

tenor.

tragic

In

saw

he

lesser mode;

common

its

how

experience,

reminder of the abyss, of that in our works

ever, it is the most compelling
and days which seems to offend forces, be they anarchic,
surpassing our
our foresight. These forces lie in ambush around the next
own, mocking
corner

or where

To
the

cite

three

roads

reached

the messenger
such

as

presences
to envision

perverse,"

meet.

Triviality
executioners

Cordelia's
the

the

daemonic,
as

them

the monstrous:

triggers
half

a minute
or

"Other,"

Poe's

or misfortune

retribution

had
. . .

earlier.

of

"imp

personified,

is to speak theologically.
It is to postulate as inherent to tragedy and the
of
the
and values. Tragedians,
apparatus
assumptions
tragic
theological
to Beckett, have been "doctors of divinity," even where
from Aeschylus
stance

their

or

is antinomian
level,

dramaturgical

by

their

in

denial.
of

the

or

super-

at

is demonstrated,

This

enlistment

preternatural.

in Greek and Roman

The role of the deities
tragic theater is of the
essence. The Weird
Sisters in Macbeth, the Ghost
in Hamlet,
the swarm
on the heath
or
out of hell proclaimed
in Lear, are no conventional
flourishes. They manifest
the intrusion of mortal men and
technical
women

into

voyeuristic

but whose

question,
on

call

We

ambiguities

a
web
spider's
watchers
whose

"Angels
of our

in English

of

appalling
and
own

nonhuman,

exact

legitimacy

of

theological

grace"
status

to defend
press

on

us,
us.

in

be

may

to fallen mankind

proximity

ministers

and

agents

superhuman
and
powers

is palpable.

even

where

The

summit

the
of

is Faustus's intuition, via Marlowe's

tragedy
specula
tive and philosophic
that a deity capable of forgiving Faustus
genius,
of thought and feeling, of
would be a false god. The entire reticulation
or in Hamlet's
a
moment
and
in
such
gesture
language
compacted
on self-slaughter,
on theo
meditation
depends
strictly and necessarily
some
in
internalized
and astutely
logical prerequisites.
Though
degree
in the crystalline clarities of Racine. The
"off-stage," these are operative
are narrated;
horrors of Hippolyte's
death at the hands of Neptune
this
only

accentuates

The
from

literature

the

of

ebbing
immediacies

proximity

this cardinal
of

acceptance

of

the

inhuman.

dimension
and

of

and

its historical

reference

are

recession
complicated

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NEW

story. Calvinist
programmed

the

predestination,
is a

damnation,

late

seemingly

HISTORY

inexplicable

on

variant

LITERARY

ancient

of

lottery

fatalism.

As

this

condition
reading of fallen humanity's
decays into libertarian enlighten
into the politics
of hope
ment,
expounded
by secular messianism
so
does
(socialism, the American
promise),
tragic drama in any stringent
sense. The redemptive,
sentimental
coda to Goethe's Faust II
profoundly
of the
from, the repudiation
as
of
these
articulated
and
had
been
theology
tragedy
"bodied forth" since the fall of Troy. With few exceptions,
after
"tragedy"
in opera, in film, in reportage.
Goethe perpetuates
itself in prose fiction,
The dissemination
of pressure
takes us from a Gr?nwald
Crucifixion,
to a mythological
in
the
of
spectacle by, say,
steeped
heresy
despair,
are already brilliantly
aesthetics
and reassuringly
cin
whose
Tiepolo,
date

may

conveniently
and
metaphysics

the abstention

ematic.

This

raises
one

Again,

the difficult

whether

question

to discriminate.

needs

atheist
masters,

past

Among

is possible.

tragedy
professed

atheists,

such as Leopardi

or Shelley, are exceedingly

rare. Social constraints
if not suicidal.
made
atheism
public
precarious
despotism

religious
the

for

grounds

presence

and literature

music,
if western

music

are,

and

lie much
as

of

presentment

Ifwestern

deeper.

it were,

"saturated"

by

the

in western

divine

painting

But
art,

and sculpture,
and

occasions

religious

and

the reason is that of a fundamental

dialectic. The aesthetic act of
motifs,
to
in
this
Grammars
creation
have
tried
show
(I
of Creation) is experi
enced either as a mimesis, an imitation of the divine fiat or as a challenge
to

two

it. These

imitation

impulses,

and

are

challenge,

often

insepa

at the pitch of creativity God

is the jealous bear
For Tolstoi,
to
in
To
is the rival master
wrestle
with
him
the
forest.
he
Picasso,
waiting
rable.
in

room.

next

the

possessed.

The

Wittgenstein

music

of
for

spoke

that

Bach,
countless

of

Schoenberg,

artists,

writers,

is God
thinkers

to God"
"have dedicated
true
other
critic
and
his Philosophical
What
Investigations.
complete
after him.
and Gerard Manley Hopkins
reader have we? asked Coleridge
in God's fire when writing.
D. H. Lawrence
spoke of being consumed
of God can generate
reflexes and
with the eventuality
Engagements
intonations
of the most diverse kind: rage, ecstasy, irony despair,
self

when

he said that had he been

able to he would

The plays of Euripides

ironize divine
intervention,
arguing
or even impotence
of deities whose ethical perceptions,
the malignity
to lag behind
those of homo
intellectual
whose
insights, have begun
treat men
states
likelihood
that
the
Leamot
the
(God)
gods
only
sapiens.
us for
wanton
kill
and women with infantile
sadism?"like
boys they
surrender.

that the justified

sport"?but
innocent agony (Job)?"Why
should

their
thou

no

breath

at

all?"?is

doomed

of human
in
beings
questioning
a dog, a horse, a rat have life? And
to

remain

unanswered.

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Blasphemy,

reconsidered

"tragedy,"

a fundamentally
in Jacobean
characterizes
key motions
religious mode,
is
drama that inherit the art of Marlowe.
spelt out in the
Blasphemy
Moli?re
's
Don
between
Juan and the beggar.
exchange
long-suppressed
a rare, delicate
between
Kleist's Amphytrion achieves
fury
equilibrium
on
one
the
hand
and a deep
and
divine
capriciousness
guile
against
of supernatural mystery on the other. Shelley's Prometheus
apprehension
and

Cenci

against
of

claims

press

The

institutions.

religious

human

of

of

justice,

in

Cenci,

come

particular,

reason

of

compassion,

tyranny of the gods and the hypocritical

the arbitrary

despotism
in

closest

our

to being what Tourneur

had entitled An Atheist's Tragedy:
"Beatrice shall, if there be skill in hate / Die in despair, blaspheming."
Yet however bitter the dramatist's
dissent from faith, however
flagrant
Seven Against Thebes, in Byron's
his refusal of grace, be it in Aeschylus'
and of
Manfred, or in Artaud 's reprise of Shelley, the matrix of meaning
literature

is theistic. The proximity,

references
is
divine
inferred.
manifestly
let me

So

ask

is an

again:

the (malevolent)

atheist

in any

tragedy

relevance
strict

of the
a

sense,

tragic

the possibility of God (or the gods) has

vision of the world from which
been excised, feasible?
is so very little to go on. Where
There
the question
of God
is an
archaic

the

irrelevance,

cardinal

of human

axiom

from

estrangement

at

in this world, the dialectic of enmity between human fate and

homeness
some enigma of culpability at the outset,
loses hold. Conflict, whether
or
or
whether
social,
familial,
ideological
public
persists. It can be of the
utmost violence
and sorrow. Domestic
in Strindberg's
hatred howls
in the dynastic
dramas,
and massacre
smolder
But

where

tion

the

and

anguishing,
in certain
make

sadism

issues

therapy
is that

are

secular,

are

conceivable,

of

"melodrama."

a more

respects
the

in Racine. Victimization
and biblical collisions
to Brecht's didactic allegories.
in the backdrop

The

point.

where
the

Verdi's

coherent,

persuasive
at
the

agnosticism

struck him as factitious.

or

psychological
fundamental
perplexities
work
core

social

meliora
however

construct,

of

over
than

his

Othello?

Shakespeare's?
"motiveless"

Iago's

Hence

Verdi and Boito's composition

of
an
to
evil
homage
deity.
on stage or
whether
by clear inference
on a
and invocation,
the fifth act borders on redemption,
recuperative
dawn after the tragic night. Scotland will blossom after Macbeth's
death,
Cassio's r?gime will benefit Cyprus, Fortinbras
looks to be a sounder
errant Faust is gloriously
ruler than Hamlet would have been. Goethe's
credo, of the shattering
in Shakespeare,
Repeatedly

Iago's

Are

absolved.

wholly

immanent,

B?chner's
which

there,

God,

then,

any

plays

totally

secular,

yet "tragic" in some essential

Woyzeck
if ever He

is a

of
singularity
is unaware.
was,

genius.
There

in a world

located

regard?
It

transpires
as
is not,

in a world
in much

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of
great

NEW

intimation

the

literature,

a deus

of

the

of

absconditus,

LITERARY

HISTORY

"God-abandoned."

a potent negative
itself metaphoric
of the
theology
yields
to
totters
in
in
which
which
The
zero-world
extinction,
Woyzeck
tragic.
tormentors
children
his deranged
strut, in which
play in a raucous
an
at
It
is
is
every point.
aggregate of suffocation
end-stopped
emptiness,
to which
macabre
its
hermetic
the
made
the more
superstitions
by
Such absence

are

B?chner's
prey,
by
to man.
the
Thus

agents
hostile

even

that

suggestion

not

does

"God-question"

matter

inorganic
cannot
and

is

arise.

Yet

of the blank guilt of existence,

is
logic of tragic annihilation,
coherent
and formidably moving.
"God" is invoked at the close of Yeats's bleak miniature,
When
ismade a perfunctory
clich?. The irrelevance
Purgatory, this invocation
It is Yeats's art to adumbrate
of God to the dramatic action is complete.
the supernatural possibilities
trapped inside nature, to infer a ghostliness
it is altogether
because
the more maddening
psychological:
the

The
The

moonlight
shadow

And

that's

falls upon
the path,
a cloud
the house.
upon
that
tree,
study
symbolical;
of

is it like?

What

To which the sole answer

any validation
beyond

itself.

and

the

insured

by,

symbolic
transcendence.
the

deriding

vengeful,

the

of

possible,

whether

It

is

reflex

vulgar

refuses
it's like." Symbolism
of
is, as in the asceticism

as
of

"tragedy"

postulate,

in

applicable,

any

are

re
is

immanence
reference.

solacing

rigorously

rhetorical

which

B?chner,

outward,

of whether
is

in

two

these

precisely
which

analogous,
In Yeats,

facet of the question

Every

what

Analogy

evasion.

Tractatus,

Wittgenstein's
moves,

is "no matter

secular
strict

is

tragedy
to

sense,

an

purged of God, is set out in the plays and parables of

and liturgical
Beckett.
His
by scriptural
language (s) is permeated
on the hammer and nails of the Crucifix
turns
reminiscences
{Endgame
recedes from Beckett's world as does light from a
ion) .The theological
star.
if one can put it that way, is in almost
But
the
ground-bass,
dying
our
serious
of
Beckett asks whether
the
instance
every
question.
posing
is
feasible
with
whether
what?)
drama,
(with whom,
signifying dialogue
ironic than
is at once more diffuse and more
after God. This posterity
never
He
have
Beckett
intimates
that
that of Nietzsche's
may
trope.
and context

action

and

been,

this

that

the bastard." The

"bastard"
lies

the

evil

Waiting
Purgatory.

phrasing

not

does
and

to be

refusal

exist;

or,

for Godot could

Its

setting,

in

that

of man's

ostracism

is

not,

intonations,

tragic.

irreparably

is incomparable

"He

in its laconic

nonexistence,

doesn't

exist,

duplicity.

malign

beyond

been

written

The

words,

condition.

I believe,
and

have

crowded

emptiness

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without

expand

on

reconsidered

"tragedy,"

With
time, it may well be that Beckett's
nightmare.
plays
from
Godot to the scream of nullity and closing silence of
(experiments),

Yeats's
the

last

will

parables,

be

as

recognized

the

transition

into

post-meta

modes.
Once Vladimir
and Estragon
have
physical,
post-metaphoric
"illusion" and "hallucination,"
rung hollow changes on the keywords
is of the past.
tragedy, as we have known it since Aeschylus,
or "high" tragedy and its manifold
evolved
Absolute
approximations
in an ideological
and social context. However
dissociated
from the
and mercies
of common
tragedy is never politi
daylight,
contingencies
Its decline

value-free.

cally

western

ideals, with

relations

women

between

was

concomitant

of

the eclipse
and

mortals

with

the

imperative

the

democratization

men

between

supernatural,

of

in the power

destiny

and

to Shakespeare,
the state. From Aeschylus
from Sophocles
to Racine, high tragedy engages
of the privileged,
of
the (mis)fortunes
the princely, of a dynastic elite. The very rubric "tragedy" in its Senecan
and

demarcation

and medieval
an

argues

needs
with

of

aristocracy

to be made
hazard, with
as

patronage,
the essence.

is that of "the fall of illustrious men."

an

suffering,

excellence

of

pain.

Tragedy

The

point

to do with social snobbery,

It has nothing
accurately.
fortuitous
of priestly or regal or titled
circumstances
chatter

pseudo-Marxist

would

have

it. The

are

motives

of

In its Attic matrix,

the Homeric
notably
peopled
are

the

the seminal myths which underlie

tragic drama,
substratum
and that of other epic cycles, are
by gods and semi-gods, by monarchs,
by princely heroes. Theirs

foundational

narratives

and

exemplary

catastrophes.

So

they

are

in Shakespearean
tragedy and in the courtly sphere of French neoclassi
are informed
cism. These
dark happenings
by the intuition, more
radical than any political prejudice or fastidiousness
of spirit, that fate?
the

gods,

an

oracular

or

ancestral

malediction,

overreaching

ambition,

madness
in a major
for its victims personae of condign
key?selects
stature. As Ren? Char majestically
put it: "midnight is not in everyman's
reach." Obviously
all human beings, however humble
their condition,
are subject to terror, to injustice, to
however helpless
their social milieu,
is louder, if unheard,
agony. Nothing
inexplicable
throughout
history
than the howl, so often gagged or violently
silenced, of the oppressed.
Even salesmen undergo
deaths. The discrimination
lies
heart-rending
deeper.

In classical mythology,
in Renaissance
scenarios of history,
to which
it is prone are to the gods, to
the temptations
agencies on the heath, as is the scent of blood to a shark. As
women
draw closer to the divine,
in H?lderlin's
reading,
and

proximity
unforgiving

engenders
wildness

eminence
daemonic
men and

that very
unbearable
which have the
tensions, jealousies
of love. Eminent
human beings,
says H?lderlin,

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10

NEW

stand out

like lightning

scorch.

When

seek

to bend

they

bolts both

Olympian
over

dominion

matters

of

HISTORY

irradiate

and

when

state,

they

or
to their will, as do Shakespeare's
history
Sophocles'
that in life itself which
is envious of man
"answers back,"
in us is at once
Promethean
ineradicable
and
impulse

protagonists,
fatally. The
doomed.

rods whom

exercise

LITERARY

Thus

Hades

itself

Ph?dre, and the universe

of B?r?nice.

on

attends

the

momentarily

of

self-destruction

holds

Racine's

at the desolation

its breath

of "political correctness"
of egalitarianism,
(which
termed an "infantile disorder"),
the perception
of the
as
are
to
of
made
the
relation
these
metaphysical,
agonistic
being
in tragedy, is not given to everyman. N'est pas
explicit and functional
is a menacing
minuit qui veut (Char). Tragic experience
vocation, dying
an art. It is not
in the tragic vein, as Sylvia Plath proudly confessed,
only
to the inhuman,
to
that the tragic agent enacts his or her vulnerability
Pace

the claims

Lenin would

forces

have

or

He

process.
out
in

the

she

conceit,

privilege,

an

towering,
to Hamlet

Ajax,
difficult

to

paraphrase,
role

representative

tragedy.

itself,

to

literacy

being,

the

root-sense,

ancient

status,

a
in

Greece,

r?gime, a

the ancient

say "idiolect," particular

verse

meta-musical

complex,

and

sovereigns

be

correlative.

of

is that

heroes,

forms

to

a modi

and

is no
and Euripides
discourse
of gods and

in Aeschylus,
Sophocles,
epic vocabulary
technical accident or auxiliary. It is primary. The
of

to

Social

of

spelt
as

to Orestes,

in

in

in the Europe

the idiom, dare one

extreme

came

to Cassandra,

spirits
consciousness.

community

duality
existence

of introspective

forces,

metaphysical

fied

furies,

human

of self-awareness,

of

the

of

internal

self-divisive
a

spectator,

"literate"

unexamined

resort

and

of

literacy generates
The

of

England,

self-evident,

This

actor

personages,

in

it a conceptual,

drama

this pitch
arena

He

understanding.

of

exceptional
the Dane?to

Elizabethan-Jacobean
virtually

and

making

simultaneously
as
ancient
tragic

to

to

control

is

within

ascribed

her

or wrongly,

theatre. Rightly
dramatization

or

his

transcending

izes this paradoxical

and

grammar

cadence

under

its prodigal economy,

its
elevation,
upward pressure.
an
a
often
fatal
dialectic
of
conflictual
of
reach tell
world,
metaphoric
from the hybrid tonalities,
removed from the waste motions,
(dialogue)
from

Its formal

the

hit-and-miss

of

unbending

the

are

There

vulgate.

rare,

though

tragic drama; there is

inspired, patches of prose inmidst Shakespearean
of prose in Goethe's Faust I. But the Elizabethan
the ominous moment
norm

is

constitute

and
they

of

that

to

iambic

incisive

metaphysic

society. The
amount

the

the

alexandrines,

almost
roughly

pentameter

of his

symmetry

of

incredible
one

enclosure

reasoned

tenth

its

and

variants.

(and Corneille's)
and

sparsity of Racine's
of

theory

Racine's

couplets,
of

history

lexical means?

Shakespeare's?empower

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a rheto

11

reconsidered

"tragedy,"

tian
of

of

lower-class

the

that
makes

circumstance,

is that

instrument

of

themselves.
aliqui

Given
sought

a
define
speech
than man"
whose

of

Jansenism

cases,

as

"casting"

loftiness,

a face-to-face

vision,

in a

"cast"

of

It will not be until Woyzeck that

prosaic
God.

it in the

these

tragic

articulates

inarticulacy,
emotions
empty

hear

all

terror

the
so

as

to

Wherever

and

the
pity
a world,

declare

literature

of
a
to

attempts

formalities
high tragedy, in Ibsen's Brand, in the orientalizing
in T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Family Reunion,
the

resuscitate
of Yeats,
express

In

silence.

socially hierarchic.

is, again,

speech,
B?chner

tragedy.
human

"greater

as we

salvation,
to

looks

Racine,

with

characters,

pauci,

and

concentration

complexity,
encounter

the

remission

of

guarantees
Pascal
and

litote, which
edge tragedy to the
to Chris
tragic counterstatement

the Tacitean
of silence. The

rie of understatement,
threshold
calculated

verse.
Tragic

This

is not

discourse

how

common

men

characterizes

women

and

the

few:

Seneca's

tarnen.

these enabling
absolute or high tragedy, as I have
constraints,
to define
consider
the psychological
cost,
it, is rare. Moreover,

taxation

of

unhousedness

sensibility.
in the world

is a

Here

(apolis),

performative
of an
elemental,

statement

of man's

non-negotiable

is an exposition
of the belief
enmity between being and existence. Here
men
that it is best not to be born. Absolute
and women
tragedy presents
whom
the gods torture and kill "for their sport," for whom
there is no
are
intercession with compensatory
doubled
flocks
justice (whereas Job's
after his trial). Negation
is paramount,
the "never" in Lear being
reiterated
five times. Nothing
but suffering
and injustice comes of
as
a black hole. If the
In
devours
does
nothing.
high tragedy, nullity
can only
cruel visitation of life is inflicted on us, the logic of deliverance
be

that

derive
have

of

from
looked

suicide.

for

is one

How

it aesthetic
an

to

endure

satisfaction?

answer,

trying

this

(Thinkers
to

contravene

let

proposition,

from Aristotle
Plato's

alone

to Freud

prohibition

of

remain tentative.) It is not surprising,

tragic drama. But their hypotheses
are
there
few
that
absolute
therefore,
tragedies. What is surprising is that
at all and that they contain
been
have
and
they
performed
composed
some of the finest poetry and most acute
philosophic,
psychological
to the human mind.
insights accessible
The Greek precedent
is at once paradigmatic
and opaque. Only one
us. This makes
come
to
has
down
Oresteia,
any
trilogy, Aeschylus'
evaluation of the intent and impact of all other tragedies hazardous. We
or
the missing
simply do not know whether
plays would have mitigated
most
of catastrophe
amended
the presentment
did
(indeed,
trilogies
In the absence, furthermore,
dramatize
the same mythical
ensemble?).
to the tragic triad, we cannot
of the satyr plays which served as epilogue
some
cathartic
relief
judge whether
parodistic
counterpoint
brought

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12

NEW

and

laughter. With
the

leave

of

that one

basis

what

theater

It

Dionysus?

can

and vision

feelings

assign

in

is,

certain

LITERARY

of things did

the audience

on

consequence,

provisional

to the catalogue

titles

HISTORY

of absolute

tragedy.

these are Aeschylus'

Seven Against Thebes; Sophocles'
Among
A/?x with
on suicide and his
itsmeditation
into live burial
Antigone with its descent
and Kierkegaard
of
(amotif which both Hegel
regarded as emblematic
to be "the most
and Goethe
took Euripides
tragedy). Aristotle
tragic of
on
most
the
dwells
divine
tragedians,"
despairing.
Euripides
malignity,
on the sadism which daemonic
and godly forces unleash upon human
when

beings

these

are,

so. Hence

by

rational

any

moral

not

estimate,

at

or

fault

the horrors perpetrated

inMedea, inHecuba, in The
in Heracles, and the possibly fragmented
Phoenician

only partly
Trojan, in Hippolytus,
Women. Hence,
above all, the dark miracle,
both
and
theatrically
we
of
the
Bacchae.
Had
but
that
the
last
poetically,
nothing
play, perhaps
in the Attic repertoire, we would know of absolute
Somewhat
tragedy.
form. Points of
eerily, the closing scene has survived only in mutilated
are blurred by lacunae. But the commanding
motion
is clear:
to
claims
human
for
confronted
human
by
justice, by
pleas
compassion,
the incensed deity is bereft of argument. He retreats from one petulant
to the next. The atrocities,
the injustice inflicted on the polis
response
and its inhabitants are arbitrary, madly disproportionate.
They emanate

detail

from
lash

blind

inexplicable,
out

father

man

and

against
ordained
Zeus

inmate dying
reason?

deride

these

his

is no

As Dr. Johnson

'why'

reminds

weave

of

our

and

gods

to

claims
as

Or

things."

of thirst in one of the death

There

tragic-comic

The

destiny.

the fabric of the world

camps:

ago,

"Long

rationality:

guard

said

reportedly

my
to an

"Why do you ask for a

here."

is not natural

us, tragedy

its refusal

world,

to be

to Shakespeare.
only

one

thing

The
at one

as is
is as pluralistic
his panoptic
time, possessed
genius. His immensity
human experience
itself. Shakespeare
knew that there is a revel in the
or

basement

at

house

neighboring

that a child

the

moment

when

monarchs

mur

born in the hour of Hamlet's

death. No less
flinches from simplifications,
from the mono
to the political upbeat which
tragic. I have pointed

is being
Shakespeare

der,
than Goethe,
tone of the absolutely
is enigmati
concludes Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet. Even in Lear, the finale
a
not
to
One
detect
the
need
Christian
impose
gloss
cally ambiguous.
or
hints of redemption
repair.
So

far

certainly

as

I can make

written

uncompromisingly
Here
the universe
generation

is a curse

out,

we

have

only

one

text,

Shakespearean

almost

in collaboration
is
with Thomas
Middle ton, which
tragic: it is that erratic, volcanic bloc, Timon ofAthens.
itself is made pestilential;
the sun breeds
infection;
arising

out

of

diseased

sex. Murder

and

betrayal

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are

13

reconsidered

"tragedy,"

of suicide. Life is "a long sickness" cured solely by

anticipations
death. The decisive move comes at the close. Timon will see to it that his
sea. Of all minds of which we
epitaph ismade oblivion by the wash of the

wasteful

have

record,

Shakespeare's
Now
syntax.

encompassing
for
Shakespeare,

end

is to

in mute

say,

despair." As
into

transformed

was

the

Timon

saturated

"language
time
only,

say

in the Bacchae when

it did

words,

by

let

proclaims:
this one

to

and

most

"let

human

all

by

end."

Which,
cosmos

the

are

beings

beasts.

speechless

the sorrow or
total tragedy implausible. Whatever
Christianity made
"no
for
lamentation
time
transient injustice, there is, as Milton
it,
put
a
to absolute
is
now." The fall of man, pivotal
tragedy,
felix culpa, a
to
II
Faust
ends
salvation.
Goethe's
necessary
by celebrating
prologue
contract with hope, its
the Christian
is a reply to Marlowe's
Faustus, one
Christological
optimism. Marlowe's
Faustus is not
of
pardoning
capable

in absolution. Goethe's
to defy
of the very few tragedies
that a God
tremendous
intuition
a God whom a free
spirit can take
torment. The
leads to hell and everlasting
let alone worship,
its
of Marlowe's
blackness
dialectic,
dramaturgy,
philosophic

seriously,
reasoned
are

investment

ironic
to
of

of whose
paths
unbearable.

being
the most
Two

tragedy
first was

end?Beatrice's

secret

grim
conjectures
in what
after
was,
the

"a

of

the

caverns
underwrote
all,

an

as

doubt

Jansenist

was

to

in The

Shelley
of gratuitous
'tis very

"Well,

indeed,

Here,

and

dark

skates

Shakespeare

non-Shakespearean.

profoundly

enters
it. As does God-denying
Marlowe
indictment
of religious hypocrisy, a mapping

light
human

age
the

abyss;

Cenci, an
horror
the
near

well"?comes

to make

Racine's

the

some

apparent

heart."
construction

of

post-Cartesian
comforts
and

of

rationality.
therapeutic

of orthodox

pure
The

promises

the apprehension,
voiced
that
by Pascal,
until the end of time." The second was the
men and women,
prior
guilty, damned
implacable hypothesis whereby
to the coming of Christ into our world
remains
(a temporality which
suffer eternity in hell. This supposition
"unfair"), would
unfathomably
to the personae of classic mythology
ascribed
their exceptional
doom:
Catholicism,
"Christ would be in agony

Ph?dre

bears witness:
dans

Fuyons
Mais
Le

que
sort,

Minos

What
Fate,
Minos

dis-je?
dit-on,

juge

aux

la nuit

Mon
l'a mise
enfers

infernale.

l'urne
fatale;
y tient
p?re
en ses s?v?res mains:
tous

les pales

humains.

[Let us flee into hellish night.

am I saying? My father holds the fatal urn;
it in his severe
say, has placed
in
all
Hades
humans.]
judges
pallid

they

hands;

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14

NEW

It is an abstention
what

"composed"?in
on
thunder
alarms.

the

The

from
be

well

may

LITERARY

HISTORY

all outward violence which makes

of B?r?nice
of high
In
this
tragedy.
miraculously

the

apex

both

senses

heath,

there

underlying

of

the word?and
no

are

pulse-beat

adult

is no

there

drama,

or

supernatural
apparitions
is that of silence:
Lorsque

Rome

bloody
se tait.

and irremediable
hurt, is
tranquil door to despair, to unendurable
Of the parting from each other and forever of two
that of valediction.
in overwhelming
human beings
love. The enforcement
of this adieu?
in it?banishes
this word, of course, has "God" embedded
life from
further meaning.
the immensity of
Claudel will make us re-experience
such farewell
in Le Partage de Midi. One wonders
it is the
whether

The

of

arrogance

in

understatement,

Few

absolute

and

Sartre's

to

kindred

ways

Racine

as in Pinter's

themes,

previous
O'Neill's

after

tragedies

some

codes

Japanese

access

has made
English-language
there is a clown.

of ceremonial
suffering, which
so fitful. Even in Othello,
Racine

and

fierce

B?chner.

on

variations

of Lear in Homecoming,

readings
to

reversions

Or

to

or

Oresteia,

in

Athol

in

Fugard's

(The Island).
"Antigone"
The enormity
of history after 1914 is self-evident. Historians
put at
the sum of those done to death in wars, political
of millions
hundreds
and

racial

slaughter,

are no certain

as to the tens of millions

figures

human

and fifty-thousand
fire-raids

on

weapons

have

their

and

by Maoism,

Stalinism,

Hamburg,
been

concentration

famines,

deportation,

beings

were
on

Dresden,
used.

derivatives.

Across

Tokyo.
the
planet,

arts

have

sculptors

Giacometti's
symphonies

done
striven

have

figures
bear

to Primo

grave

of

sporadic
remember

living dead.

witness.

Poetry

and

torture

bacteriological
is endemic

to

Painters

respond.
via Picasso's

Guernica

Shostakovitch's
can

thirty

in the

of our humanity,
of
lowered.
irreparably

effectively:

the

between

in one night

Nuclear

best

their
to

There

by Leninism

Anywhere

incinerated

the threshold
sanctioned.
officially
Arguably
which elevated us above the bestial, has been
The

camps.

murdered

Paul

cite

quartets

Celan,

prose

and

that
and
or

and
can

tales of the Kolyma death-world.

and Chalamov's
point
a
of
the
number of novels have attempted
With
the discretion
oblique,
none
to imagine
has matched
Kafka's
the unimaginable,
although
and
is
it
both
fictive
Of
available
media,
film,
documentary,
previsions.
which has come nearest. The graphic
immediacy of the camera, its free
resources
relate to the
and collage,
the
of
with
time,
montage
play
otherwise

Levi

inconceivable

(cf. Shoah). Whether

images, which
philic
numbing
"killing

and

pulverized

the tidal wave

now engulfs

as does

of sadistic
our visual

no

other

executive

form

of pedo
pornography,
a new
media
reflects

it is the voyeuristic
of sensibility, whether
is an unnerving
What
fields,"
question.

satyr play after the

call
would
Quine

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is so. But what

that this

suggest

be

would

evidence?

as

events

massacre

S. Eliot's

conceptual

truths
that

conviction

of eloquence.
verse

on

semen

the

the

sensibility?
the

bedsheet,

the

now

Who
is the

drama

and

or

wars

Persian

the

engaged

the

recent

tragedy engaging

and concentrated

of conflict
art,

high

tragedy

distrust

We

melancholy

format

legitimate
of

Greek

at Miletus.

T.

to envisage

indecent

It is virtually
current

ics

does

intuition"

"blameless
conclusive

shares

15

reconsidered

"tragedy,"

natural,

The

aesthet

creed

of

the

as they do the
the ready-made?reflecting
happening,
of
the
and
values
of
genius
developing
parodistic
agreed
collapse
are those
to high tragedy. Our immediacies
antithetical
Surrealism?are
or

of Merz

of

of

derision,

black

of

farce,

circus.

the multimedia

some

At

moments

a
still provides
social crisis, tragedy in its classical mask
as the Trojan Women did during
the Vietnam
war, as the
and flower
the turmoil of the drug-culture
served during

of political
shorthand:
Bacchae
children.
Our
gized,

anguish,
of a

are

these

But

our

sense,

threatening

malevolent

irrational,

forms

expressive

deep
"otherness"

misfortune,
as

growing,

the museum.

from

loans

they

as

ever
in

will
already

but
the

of

the

or

riddles

of

grief,

singular

of

world,

persist.
have,

Godot and the theater of the absurd. Desiderated:

comedy,

and

immanent

to man,

our

it will

But
out

of

the

to

new

find
out

Woyzeck,

an adequate
in

psycholo

exposure

of

theory of

merriment

of

are hints
Cos? fan tutte. There
of Mozart's
Twelfth Night
an
at
the
hour
of
Plato's
such
towards
understanding
midnight
Symposium.
As is, I see not persuasive grounds on which to retract the case put in
The Death of Tragedy, 1961 (now, if Imay be forgiven for saying so, in its
seventeenth

the finales

language).

University

of

Cambridge

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