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Summary A* AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE B ESSAY - 2019 - ‘At the end of tragic texts positives always emerge.’
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A* AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE B ESSAY - 2019 - ‘At the end of tragic texts positives always emerge.’
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2019 - ‘At the end of tragic texts positivesalways emerge.ʼ
Idea of tragedies being generation and repeating in Happy and Liza-Lu
The tragedy does not seem to be going to repeat in Biff
Significance of the tragic heroes deaths in terms of society (negative reflection on society)
The insignificance of the tragic heroes death in terms of reaction (fate in Tess and an
empty funeral for Willy)
In Millerʼs essay, ‘Tragedy and the Common Manʼ he stated that “where pathos is finally derived
a character has fought a battle he could not have possibly won”. This idea of a tragedy evoking
pathos in the audience can be associated with Aristotleʼs belief that a tragedies role is to evoke
a “catharsis” where intense feelings of “pity and fear” are evoked. Through this it can be argued
that positives rarely emerge at the end of Tess of DʼUrbervilles and Death of a Salesman.
A key element of tragedy is determinist and fate ideology which suggests that the events which
have occurred are predetermined by a deity. This idea stems from Ancient Greek class-epic
tragedies were the Godʼs controlled events affecting and creating chaos in human lives. In Tess
of DʼUrbervilles and Death of a Salesman ideas of fate can be seen through the characters
mirroring of each other. As Tess is hanged and a “black flag” is raised to mark her death, Liza-
Lu is described as becoming the “spiritualised image of Tess” “hand in hand” with Angel,
arguably replacing Tess. Through this the reader begins to feel uneasy as the speed at which
Tess was replaced by Liza-Lu suggests that her birth may have even just been for the tragedy
of Tess to become generational and repeated. It is further disturbing to the reader when
realising that the idyllic portrait that Angel paints of Tess in the Rally when he was falling in love
with an idealised version of her, seems to relate more to her sister than Tess herself. Liza-Lu is
not ‘fallenʼ in the eyes of Victorian society therefore it seems unfair that Angel, who some critics
argue is guilty as Alec due to him symbolising Tessʼs neglectful guardian-angel, deserves to
obtain Tessʼs sister after his harsh treatment of Tess herself. The foreshadowing of this sinister
end can also date back to Tessʼs confession in ‘The Woman Paysʼ where Angel states to Tess
that “the woman I have been loving is not you” but “another woman in your shape”. Therefore, at
the end of the novel as Hardy shifts the narrative to a birds-eye view of the couple and
describes Liza-Lu as only being “slighter than” Tess but the same, this replacement and
mirroring of Tess onto her sister only foreshadows the couples future negatively. Similarly, to
how Desdemona in Shakespeareʼs Othello ends up mirroring her motherʼs maid Barbary who
also died singing the Willow song it can be argued that Liza-Lu may end up repeating the
events of Tessʼs life. Additionally, Tessʼs request that Angel marry her sister would not have
been even legal at the time according to the Ecclesiastical Law based on the Biblical teaching of
Leviticus which was reinforced in 1848 – ‘a man could not marry his sister-in-lawʼ. Much like
Tess and Angelʼs relationships was foreshadowing to be doomed in the Edenic bliss of
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