Is Your Life a Tragedy or Comedy?

For years I’ve believed many of the problems in Western society are the result of the materialism that has informed our political and social processes for at least the past century. Over the past few months this belief has become more pointed as a result of seeing the writings of the materialists on the net. I’ve discussed this some in other posts here, but wanted to take a shot at what I see as the problem from a different point of view.

As many of you know, Lady Glynis and I own a small neighborhood theatre. One of the best movies we ran in 2006 was Stranger Than Fiction . In this movie the main character, Harold Crick, begins to hear a female voice narrating his life. This, of course, alarms him, but not so much that he is moved to do anything until the narrator predicts his death. At that point he sees a psychiatrist about the problem. Unable to accept her diagnosis that he is schizophrenic, he looks to a professor of literature for help. The professor agrees to help him, but with little progress until Harold hears the narrator’s voice on a television show, and the professor identifies her as a famous novelist, a novelist who only writes tragedies in which the hero dies, never comedies in which the hero lives happily after.

There is much more to the story, and if you ever get a chance, watch it. You’ll thank me and yourself for doing so.

What got me thinking in this film was the usage of the definitions of tragedy and comedy. We’ve all heard these in talking about literature, and less often when talking about film.

According to Ian Johnston

The terms comedy and tragedy commonly refer to the ways in which dramatic conflicts are resolved. In comedy, the confusion ends when everyone recognizes what has been going on, learns from it, forgives, forgets, and re-establishes his or her identity in the smoothly functioning social group (which may return to the original normality or may be setting up a better situation than the one the group started with). Comedies typically end with a group celebration, especially one associated with a betrothal or wedding, often accompanied by music and dancing The emphasis is on the reintegration of everyone into the group, a recommitment to their shared life together. If there has been a clearly disruptive presence in the action, a source of anti-social discord, then that person typically has reformed his ways, has been punished, or is banished from the celebration. Thus, the comic celebration is looking forward to a more meaningful communal life (hence the common ending for comedies: “And they lived happily ever after”).

The ending of a tragedy is quite different. Here the conflict is resolved only with the death of the main character, who usually discovers just before his death that his attempts to control the conflict and make his way through it have simply compounded his difficulties and that, therefore, to a large extent the dire situation he is in is largely of his own making. The death of the hero is not normally the very last thing in a tragedy, however, for there is commonly (especially in classical Greek tragedy) some group lament over the body of the fallen hero, a reflection upon the significance of the life which has now ended. Some of Shakespeare’s best known speeches are these laments. The final action of a tragedy is then the carrying out of the corpse. The social group has formed again, but only as a result of the sacrifice of the main character(s), and the emphasis in the group is in a much lower key, as they ponder the significance of the life of the dead hero (in that sense, the ending of a tragedy is looking back over what has happened; the ending of comedy is looking forward to a joyful future).

I was struck by the corollaries between the literary meaning of tragedy and comedy, and the lifeview that results from having a materialistic or spiritually based philosophy.

Materialistic philosophies are tragic. We are born, go through a life that lasts a number of years, then die. We may mature. We may be a fine, upstanding member of our society, or not. We may lead an average life with the normal number of triumphs and disasters. We may win the accolades of society paid with fame or money. But we die. The final action is carried out over our corpse. Some lament. Some rejoice. And life in this world goes on without us. We are gone away, a life lived for no real purpose.

Many apologists for this point of view see moral good in leading an ethical life (by the standards of their culture), in achieving success and wealth, in continuing their genetic line through children. People in general see through this line of thought and know that if existence is a materialist happenchance with no real meaning, then ethics, morality, success, are so many toys that will be put out with the trash with their corpse when the end of the week arrives. They have no real meaning, and are so many utilitarian ways for people to live together in a culture. So why not live unethically? Why not take what they want? Why not satisfy the senses? Sound similar to what has happened in world cultures over the past century?

Spiritual philosophies are comedies. We are born into the world, go through a life that lasts a number of years, then die. We may mature. We may be a fine, upstanding member of our society, or not. We may lead an
average life with the normal number of triumphs and disasters. We may win the accolades of society paid with fame or money. On the surface, there is no change from what happens in the materialist world. The fun starts when we die. From here there are many variations, but most portray some aspect of the theme of “everyone recognizes what has been going on, learns from it, forgives, forgets, and re-establishes
his or her identity in the smoothly functioning social group“.

“For you were made from dust, and to the dust you will return ” holds no real truth in a spiritually based philosophy. Death is a taking off of the “clothing from animal skins“. Then there is the rejoicing. Disruptive individuals go through cleansing or punishment. There is no permanent death. You continue to live in one form or another. The life you led has meaning, real meaning. Ethics and morals are not simply utilitarian strictures of society. What you did or didn’t do, how you acted and thought, has meaning to you personally as well as the world in which you lived. And your life goes on.

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