현대 비극의 ‘사라지는 하마르티아’와 ‘투쟁의 운명’

Abstract

This paper analyzes the specific characteristics of classical tragedies and the essence of tragedy in modern drama, mainly focusing on John Millington Synge’s Riders to the Sea. Arthur Miller defined the possibility of modern tragedy as the tragic experience of the common man in relationship to the environment. However, in the modern era, the environment is often represented or segmented by capitalism, leading to the misconception that modern tragedy may be succinctly defined by the struggles of ordinary people facing continuous situational hardships in pursuit of their dreams. In contrast, Synge’s tragic drama Riders to the Sea (first performed in 1904), which this paper observes, is grounded in an isolated natural setting while still remaining connected with the realm of the divine or the universe. Focusing on the phase of vanishing hamartia, the escape from guilt of the subjects, and the expansion of the concept of necessity from outer to their inner sphere, this paper argues how classic tragic essence is also manifested in modern plays, provoking profound thoughts among the audience and elevating their souls through elegant suffering and intellectual clarification in its own way. In its characteristic of stillness, where the conclusion is drawn out over an entire lifetime of struggle and disguised to obscure emotional suffering beneath a veneer of pessimism or idealism, the modern tragic drama establishes its own tragic genre with catharsis and magnitude. This contributes to a deeper level of meaningful understanding in the lives of all ordinary people in the contemporary world.