Thomas Hardys Tragic Stories Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

Thomas gays Tragic StoriesFor centuries, various writers have endeavored to encapsulate the constituents of tragedy, and draw works of literature that adhere to their understanding of an ostensibly universal system of tragic structure, tragic plot, and tragic theme. Nevertheless, the etymology of the word, tragedy, proves to be as elusive and arcane as the tragic construct is seemingly concrete and unequivocal indeed, the word, tragedy, can be traced to the Greek word, tragoidia, which literally means, goat-song. We do not know whether actors in the Choral Odes prove their lines clad in goatskins, or if goats were bestowed as prizes we do know, however, that Aristotle reconfigured the more bucolic play tradition, and, in his Poetics, developed a technique founded on the tradition of august grandeur, sweeping scope, and cosmic power. Thomas Hardy, one of the few Victorian tragic prose writers, undoubtedly draws from the tradition of Aristotelian Greek tragedy. Nevertheless, our thesis expresses skepticism in the preciseness and alacrity with which Hardy is equated with tragedy and conventional tragic form. In a post-Shakespearean nineteenth-century world, writers were acquainted with two tragic traditions Greek and Christian. The Greek tragic tradition is founded upon the rite feasting of Dionysus (or the Roman version, Bacchus) the Christian mystery play tradition is rooted in the Passion of Christ. Both traditions bind themselves inextricably to forces larger than themselves - either to gods and goddesses, or to the Holy Trinity - and structure their plays around the rituals inherent in these traditions. Hardys own novels comprise elements of both Greek and Christian tragic conventions, thus elici... ...on tragedy from The flavor and Work of Thomas Hardy BibliographyBloom, Harold. Shakespeare The Invention of the Human. New York Riverhead Books, 1998. Brereton, Geoffrey. Principles of Tragedy A Rational Examination of the Tragic Concept in Life and Literature. Florida University of Miami Press, 1969. Gibson, James. Thomas Hardy Interviews and Recollections. New York St. Martins Press, 1999. Hardy, Thomas. The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy. Athens The University of Georgia Press, 1985. Kramer, Dale. Thomas Hardy The Forms of Tragedy. Detroit Wayne State University Press, 1975. Krook, Dorothy. Elements of Tragedy. New Haven Yale University Press, 1969. Margeson, J.M.R. The Origins of English Tragedy. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1967. Page, Norman. Oxford Readers Companion to Hardy. Oxford Oxford University Press, 2000.