Aristotelian and Modern Tragedy in Henry James’ Daisy Miller (1878) and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879)

Abstract

This work is a comparative study which explores the major differences between Classical and Modern tragedies in Henry James’s Daisy Miller and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. The aim of this study is apply Aristotle’s text entitled Poetics (355 BC) and Arthur Miller’s theory Tragedy and the Common Man (1949) on the two cited works. We have reached the following results: both works can be analysed from two different perspectives, the classical and the modern. We have studied the two cited works from The Classical tragedy by relying on Aristotle’s Poetics as well as the modern tragedy by relying on Arthur Miller’s Tragedy and The Common Man. Our discussion is divided into two chapters. The first chapter deals with the classical tragedy in both works. We presented the elements of tragedy according to Aristotle which are plot, character, pity and fear or catharsis, thought and diction. Whereas the second chapter discusses the modern tragedy according to Arthur Miller in which we presented the tragic heroes as ordinary people and their struggle for dignity. Additionally, the effect of social dominance over the main characters in the modern world is also developed. We have highlighted how modern tragedy can offer optimism despite it’s tragic ending.