Comparing The Tragic Hero In Tragedy And The Common Man

In the Tragedy and the Common Man, Arthur Miller describes many key aspects that contribute to a tragedy, including the characteristics of a modern tragic hero. Miller describes a modern tragic hero as someone who struggles to obtain what they perceive as their rightful position in their life. Miller writes, “The flaw, or crack in the characters, is really nothing-and need be nothing, but his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status” (Miller 2). In other words, the tragic hero’s flaw is that he or she cannot accept any actions that challenges his or her position. When the tragic hero faces such challenge, he or she will not “remain passive” and
In the case of Cory, Troy is his father and he expect Cory to respect him and not question him while he makes Cory’s life decision for him. Cory wants to become a Major League football player. Troy, however, was scarred by his past unjust experience with the Major League, and decided that Cory was not allowed to try out for it. Cory harshly criticizes Troy’s decision and opposes it. This challenges Troy’s authority as a father and Troy’s denial of Cory’s dream of becoming a Major League football player was his action to assert his dominance as a father. Troy emphasizes that “I decided seventeen years ago that boy wasn’t getting involved in no sports. Not after what they did to me in the sports” (Wilson 39). Troy makes it very clear that Cory is not allowed to play football after his incident with sports. From the moment that Cory came out of the womb, Troy had already dictated that Cory is not touching sports. Troy went to Cory’s school and told the coach to tell the recruiters to never come. With this simple action, Troy established his authority as a father over this subject, but it also made Cory hate Troy for not giving him the
Rose attempted to convince Troy to let Cory play football with the reason that time has changed. Rose makes the point that Troy’s childhood experience is no longer the case with the world. Troy, however, doesn’t seem to take in any of it. As Rose’s husband, Troy believes that he is the man in the house and he holds the power, she shouldn’t intervene. He says, “I do the best I can do…I give you my sweat and my blood…That’s all I got, Rose. That’s all I got to give. I can’t give nothing else” (Wilson 40). Troy told Rose that he is trying his best to support the family. Being the man in the house, supporting the family is his responsibility, but being the one that decides on issue is also his right. He gave his all to prove his position by supporting the family, so he is entitled to his right to make the decision within the family and he will not give that away. Troy established his dominance in the house, and in turn, successfully separated himself from the family, as they stand in different