Shaming, Rebellion, and Tragedy: Arthur Miller and African American Drama

Abstract

In her 2018 book Naked: The Dark Side of Shame and Moral Life, Krista K. Thomason analyzes the experience of shame as a tension between a limiting socially imposed identity and the more complex self-concept that the individual has constructed for herself. She argues that violence emerges in response to shame as a rebellion against the diminished vision of self and an attempt to reestablish the broader self-concept through an expression of personal agency. There are similarities between Thomason’s theory and W. E. B. Du Bois’s ideas about “double-consciousness” in his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk. This theory of shame and rebellion can be applied to characters in many of Arthur Miller’s plays. It helps us to understand Miller’s vision of tragedy, and it points to ways in which the vision of tragedy in African American drama is similar to Miller’s. For Miller, the assault on the self arises in response to specific situations. In African American drama, it often arises against the backdrop of racism.