The Failure is Complete:

Thursday, January 28th, 1954.

The waning twilight painted the horizon with gentle bluish-purple strokes as impeccable as Picasso’s artwork, illuminating the entirety of the town that seemed so insignificant in comparison to the greatness of the vast horizon.

An hour had passed since the onset of the drama. Her striking wail penetrated the theatre, rising towards the ceiling and ringing against the walls. The lady in a delicate, satin court dress fell onto the ground next to the lifeless man showered in blood; her statuesque, alabaster face twisted by woe and despair.

Anger, agony, grief resonated in the air aloft.

The audience shifted uncomfortably in their seats in absolute silence. The harrowing sound was unbearable.

Not because it was inhuman, because it was too human. Not because it was overly melodramatic, because it was too authentic.

It sounded like not only of loss and pain but of every loss, of every pain, of emotions and suffering beyond spoken language yet understood by everyone anywhere.

At that moment, the audience was broken open.

In a great way.

Among the audience was Albert Camus.

That night, under the light of his lamp, he wrote with his father’s antique quill-pen, “Well, the tragedy is over. The failure is complete. I turn my head and go away. I took my share in this fight for the impossible.”

The Genesis of Our Collective Tragedy:

Each and one of us is born integrated into an everlasting fight that unrolled at the very beginning of our existence; each and one of us is destined to struggle unremittingly against an insuperable nemesis that determines all our suffering through life and at the finality our demise. Just as Shakespeare’s renowned dialogue in As You Like It, “the whole world is a stage”, we humans are merely like puppets on the string, unable to free ourselves from the overwhelming power manipulating us towards suffering. In other words, it’s inevitable for us to encounter pain, grief, and agony in life, all our lives are in one way or another a tragedy. This paradigm could be deemed pessimistic and fatalistic yet is crucial in understanding the essence of tragedy and how it connects with its audience.

Before we delve into further exploration of Albert Camus’s quote and investigate the power of tragedy on its audience. We shall first give a brief evaluation of the roots of human suffering based on the belief of some Western culture (the culture in which the notion of tragedy prevailed). 

In the Bible, straight after Adam consumed the forbidden fruit offered by Eve, he answered to god, “I was afraid because I was naked”. This realization is metaphorical to the emergence of self-awareness.

This sense of self-aware consciousness leads us to the realization of concepts inscrutable for animals and enables us with the complexity of emotions. We love and are therefore downcast when we lose what we cherish, we yearn and are therefore in pain when our endeavor is in vain, we perceive our death and therefore live in constant fear. The ability to become soberly aware of oneself is god’s two-edged sword that traps humans into unavoidable suffering that no one escapes. That makes the pain universal. When the lady’s wail echoed in the theatre, her pain also resonated in each audience’s heart.

Catharsis:

Since we all share a collective tragedy, when Euripides, Sophocles, or Shakespeare was composing their cries of distress in plays, was the purpose to reveal the lamentable nature of human existence and engulf the audience with despair?

That’s certainly not what makes tragedy great.

“……. with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis to such emotions”

The quote above originates from Aristotle and is the earliest recorded definition of tragedy. Amid the sentence, the word “catharsis” is an Aristotelian term pivotal in understanding the purpose and power of tragedy. The word refers to purgation or cleansing. Aristotle seems to be employing a medical metaphor --- how tragedy arouses emotions of pity and fear in order to purge away their excess, to reduce these pains to a balanced proportion, and have the audience ultimately leaving with a sense of relief. We leave the theater feeling emotionally refreshed. The worries of our real lives have been released in the theatre as we cry or bear the pain with the actors on stage --- scapegoats of our own sufferings.

Tragedy takes us into the uncontrollable and the disturbing, but it doesn’t just tell us “So this is life, chaotic, unfair, cacophonous……”

Instead, tragedy act as a tool for conciliation and healing of one’s own wounds.

In Sophocles’ Ajax, the honorable warrior committed suicide out of his shame in his inhumane slaughter of innocent animals; in Othello, the hero died of the realization that his jealousy had driven him into murdering his beloved wife; in Romeo and Juliet, the couples ended their lives for the frantic passion and love they possessed over each other.

Guilt, jealousy, love…… These are some of the universal sources of pain and grief felt throughout time.

Thus, tragedy gives a voice to timeless human experiences ---- all the suffering and woe. This when viewed by the audience who shared the same experiences, fosters compassion, understanding, and a deeply felt interconnection. Through the spiritual experience, tragedy evokes, it somehow reliefs our pain, giving more depth and strength to our lives

A Glimpse into History:

Since the emotions conveyed in tragedies could be found anywhere and anytime, I, therefore, looked into some parts of the history of tragedy.

Examining the illustrious works of tragedy produced throughout time, the heyday for the production of Western tragedy could probably be marked as Ancient Greece (most notably the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides) and the Renaissance (the period in which Shakespeare produced his works). While in other periods (such as Medieval times), attentions towards tragedy seem to be unnoticeable. This observation set me into contemplations: since suffering and sorrow are universal, how come tragedy be emphasized and articulated in specific eras while seems to be absent in some other periods?

After some research, I came to the conclusion that theatre production, just as other forms of literary work, reflects the preoccupations of the time. The Medieval was an age of beliefs, religious faiths, and superstitions. When we look at the theatre production by then, the sole focus seems to be on religion since contents included: The Bible, the lives of Saints, or how to live ones’ life the “right way”.

With the church spreading fear of God and people not being able to think for themselves, people were living under constant fear and choose to be silent and comply with the way the church wanted drama to be displayed. The Renaissance, on the other hand, was often looked upon as an age of enlightenment and rebirth, where individuality and creativity strived. Similarly, the time of the Greeks was also a period where diverse ideas emerged due to the openness of the society. Religion, indeed, was still deemed crucial (tragedy itself was generated from religious rituals) but people were more open to express it in innovative, imaginative ways.

The Chinese tragedies (usually in forms of traditional opera in which the actors present their dialogues by singing) also followed similar patterns. Peaking at times when people were not following rigid requirements but expressing their own ideas (such as period during Han or Yuan dynasty).

As Peter Sellers once said, “what tragedy does is to give a voice to those who are otherwise silent.”

Human suffering is consistent throughout history but was kept silent from time to time. Great tragedies emerge when people are willing to and are able to express out loud their own interpretations of pain and suffering.

Conclusion:

The greatness of tragedy is that through tragedy, we face the darkness of human existence as a community. The greatness of tragedy is also that for it to be created it takes clear self-awareness, immense creativity, and the courage to give a voice to what otherwise is reduced to silence.

Tragedies tell us, life itself might be ultimately a tragedy but the drama on stage allows the entirety of mankind to share the tragedy together as we bear witness of the overwhelming nemesis that casts a shadow on each and every one of us.

Sophocles who lived thousands of years ago once wrote in his play Ajax:

“How did the madness first take hold of him? Tell us. We will stay and share in the pain.”

The cry of his tragic hero echoes down over two thousand years of history. The tragedy is a thread that weaves through history, as we “share in this fight for the impossible”, integrating the grief throughout centuries evoked by diverse means yet felt equally painful.

This sense of companionship helps us regain our courage as we exit the theatre and walk under the night sky to ponder our own significance as mere cogs caught in the workings of a greater cosmic machine.

“If there’s one thing you take away from this tonight, it’s that you are not alone. You’re not alone in this room, not alone in the world and across miles, and most importantly, not alone across time.”

----- Bryan Doerries

It’s the same wail, the same desperate cry infiltrated by pain.

In Sophocles’ time, Shakespeare’s time, Camus’ time, and also, in our time.

The cry comes as an echo through time, but also as an expression of new grief and fresh loss. It’s the voice of everyone who exists or had existed. It’s your own voice.

Here we are in the theatre.

Submerged with grief and suffering.

Every one of us.

Taking our share in the fight for the impossible.