Miller further essay

For Miller, tragedy is intrinsically optimistic. Miller argues about “the tragic flaw”, Aristotle’s hamartia, in a modern world is called as “inherit unwillingness” of a hero to continue passive to what he considers as a test to his self-esteem and “rightful” place in society. But this flaw, as mentioned, is not in the hero but is in the society.

Consequently, the relevancy of a tragic hero to the modern world is disregarded by the modern man. Miller says that despite disbelieve in a heroism, the modern world is not having any scarcity of heroes. In fact, the modern world has plenty of heroes in the form of a common man.

To him, modern literature purely represents the psychotic and sociological view of life. All it deals is with mind and make the actions impossible. Miller says that the very delusion of tragedy is that it is directly associated with pessimism. But on the other hand, tragedy implies optimism.

Arthur Miller sets the general rules for the one to have a tragic life. Firstly, a hero is the person, according to Miller, who willingly laid down his life to for the sake of securing ‘his sense of personal dignity’.