Self-reflection as Heroism

Abstract

For some playwrights, in an age of ethical relativism and aesthetic fragmentation, dramatic explorations and re-definitions of heroism fulfill a perceived need for a unifying moral vision and provide a semblance of an uninterrupted dramatic tradition. The playwrights who have tried to keep tragedy alive seem to believe that as long as significant action in modern drama can be understood in reference to past ideas of tragedy, the contemporary protagonist can be viewed in terms of heroism. The heroic dedication to idealism need not always be externalized as, for example, in the case of the martyr play. The fateful quest and the concomitant suffering may be internalized, and heroism may take the form of intense self-reflection. For instance, in Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Key Largo and After the Fall, to mention four very different plays, the protagonists attempt to discover some value in the midst of meaninglessness and, in some cases, end by dedicating themselves to this fateful challenge. Although their sacrifice to their idealism does not necessarily follow any traditional (that is, classical or Shakespearean) pattern or have the expected repercussions, it is heroic in its intensity.