Aristotle defined tragedy as follows-
“A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language;… in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions”. — Credit Source
According to the definition given by Aristotle, the important points of references in the above definition are the terms like serious, dramatic, pity, fear and catharsis. Tragedy is a part of our lives. Human life cannot exist without the occurrence of various kinds of tragedies varying only in magnitude.
And Aristotle has summed up the meaning of tragedy in a brilliant manner. One of the famous poets said that in our lives, happiness is one episode in the overall sad story of our lives. This means that life is full of struggles wherein we ought to prove ourselves at every stage.
Nothing can be achieved with ease. There always has to be a plunge in to the ocean of hard times in order to come out more mature, more wise and more experienced. Whenever it is about the hard times in the respective lives, tragedies are meant to happen
In fact, any kind of tragedy is drowning in nature because success entails a plunge into the deep sea of woes. The phrase drowning tragedy means that tragedy cannot entail happiness. All it entails is sadness, struggle, loss of faith, pessimism, depression and all kinds of such psychological crisis surround the affected human being.
Be it the death of someone, somebody be wronged or for that matter someone going through a phase of depression, tragedy comprises most of our lives.
However, tragedy has its own psychological politics behind it. In spite of knowing that life is mostly fraught with moments of sadness, dissatisfaction and uncertainties leading to a peculiar ambiguity towards it, people always hunt for happiness and success in life. The general tendency is to always curse the respective bad times.
In fact, people always pray only for good times and wish for the well being of others. The element of well being lies in the desire only for good times. However, a very basic theory on which life governs itself is that it is a shade of grey. Good and bad are the sides of the same coin.
There is nothing that can be completely good and completely bad and similarly tragedy and peace are two sides of the same coin. Both are indispensable of each other. The politics behind the occurrence of tragedy is that such tough times teach us and inculcate in us strength to fight through life.
Life is full of challenges and that is why the ones who have strong willpower can go with flow in a better manner. And a strong willpower cannot be gotten without going through crisis. Crisis builds us. It helps us to confront our weaknesses, fears and our areas of improvements.
Nobody is perfect. Each one of us has flaws in us and the flaws should never be ignored. By ignoring them, we tend to make ourselves too weak to comprehend and face tough times, that are tragedies of our lives. And by confronting our weaknesses, we tend to built ourselves in the right direction.
Occurrence of tragedy in the life should not be completely viewed from the lens of disgust, repentance or ill destiny. Rather, it should be considered as break from life. This break rebuilds us in order to face life with newer zeal and confidence.
The famous myth of phoenix bird is very famous and apt in this respect. The Greek mythical bird phoenix gets destroyed through fire and again rises from its ashes. The episode of destruction and its death is the phase of tragedy in its life. However, its act of rising from its ashes is the great comeback it does.
It is more powerful, more alert and stronger than before. Similarly, the life of an eagle is known for a great comeback after one fifty years. Tragedy is that fire in which people must burn in order to come out pure and enlightened. Struggles make us stronger and should be taken positively in life.
Another very important contribution that a drowning tragedy makes in our lives is that it makes us realize our worth and our ability to self introspect and self analyse ourselves. It is said that self is self’s best friend and the role a drowning tragedy plays in making us sensible is exclusive and is incomparable.
Before knowing about the ways of the world, one must know oneself. And knowing oneself not just means including all the good qualities in us. It includes all the good and the bad, the light and the dark, the happiness and the sadness.
This binary setting that has been given to us by the Providence is highly essential and it is this binary setting that helps in us creating a balance in our lives. Anything which is tragic may seem to be highly disastrous at the immediate level.
However, from the future perspective, it is highly beneficial for our growth. We get to know who our real well wishers are and who stand by our side when we need them the most. It is those people who stand by our side during our tragic stances are the people on whom we can rely throughout our lives.
Pity, fear, catharsis are not jut negative emotions of our lives. They are way in which we can remain modest and understand the importance of why life shows us bad times. It is not a matter of shame to confront crisis in life. Too much of smoothness stops our growth as an individual.
Growth is very important because change is the only constant and in order to imbibe and accept changes, we ought to understand life in totality. Totality comprises each and every emotion, feeling, phase and situation in our lives. Unidirectional approach or for that matter selective approach blurs our vision.
In order to get clarity in our approach, we ought to have experience and experience comes out of both rising and falling. The fall is necessary in order to rise in life. That is why; the irony behind the literal meaning of the phrase “The drowning tragedy” is that if tragedy does not drown us.
Rather, it enables us to know the correct methods of rising and be morally upright. Just as gold becomes pure after coming out of fire and diamond shines more after being beaten number of times, in the same manner, drowning tragedy makes us all the more mature, honest and sensible human beings.
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