i generally say i don’t like ‘downer’ media, and that includes tragedies, but i quite like hamlet, and i think moby dick is the shit. recently i got to thinking what it is about the few tragedies i like that makes them different from the merely-depressing rest. best i can figure, here it is:
- our protagonist has agency. he’s not a victim or a dupe. he could get out of the shit if that was his priority. of course, the way he could get out is not going to be easy or fun – ishmael’s options, for instance, were ‘mutiny’ or ‘swim’ – or else it wouldn’t be a tragedy, but he has choices he can make, is the point.
- once he is in the shit, he struggles like a motherfucker. he doesn’t just sit down and go “oh well, suffering is good for the soul.” he fights. he plots revenge against his uncle. he clings to his boyfriend’s coffin in the freezing sea. he’s not a quitter.
- when it all goes to hell, he doesn’t waste his last hours on futile scrambling to escape. he puts the pedal down and accelerates into that brick wall, screaming WITNESS ME with his last breath.
these, i think, are the criteria for a story i’ll like even though it ends with tombstones instead of medals. because even though our protagonist is dead, or bobbing amongst the corpses alone, or what have you, he remained himself and did what he thought was the thing he needed to do. which is the victory that really matters: remaining yourself and holding onto your will in the face of whatever the world throws at you.
This is such a great explanation of why I love me a tragedy! Fight! Fight! Fight!