A Word from the Faculty — Ted Reese

     “Nobody wants to read depressing tragedies.”  I disagree.  To me (and I hope in my classes) tragedies are moving portraits of heroes in “boundary situations,” who depend only on themselves to make hard decisions, ones calling for essential courage.  As such, they arouse our sympathies and our often grudging admiration.   When thinking of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, we think of Hamlet, not Love’s Labour’s Lost; when picking the best classic drama, critics choose Oedipus Rex, not The Frogs.

     These heroes are not always kind, generous souls.  Ahab is in some ways mad and causes the deaths of all except Ishmael, yet his resolute determination stirs admiration as he drives forward against his implacable foe, knowing he can not win.  Hardly Ahab in stature, Willy Loman is weak, confused, and lies to himself and others to hide his failures, yet he is heroic in his final choice of suicide to assure Biff’s success and to win his admiration.   He is sadly wrong on both counts, of course, but that doesn’t take away from his brave, if misguided decision.

     Nor do tragic figures have to be mature, raging on the heath like Lear.  Even before Shakespeare’s “great tragedies,” youthful Romeo and Juliet commit to each other and stand against all others. Yes, they are “star-crossed,” as chance works against them, BUT they are NOT fated in the decisions they make themselves.  In a like manner, Oedipus is fated to kill his father and marry his mother, but the power of Sophocles’ play comes from his unrelenting drive for the truth as horrible as it is.

     One cannot help but be moved by this or by Linda Loman’s intense command that “Attention!  Attention must be paid” as she watches Willy falling apart.  We are moved by Linda’s speech after the funeral, the reconciliation of mad Lear and Cordelia, Othello’s realization of what he has done with pure though misguided motives, or Stella’s surrender to what she must believe as Blanche leaves for the asylum in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Tragedies are moving portrayals of human beings—us–confronting difficult situations. They are NOT depressing.