Read this passage and answer the questions that follow.
There are two theories that have often been used to explain ancient and modern tragedy. Neither
quite explains the complexity of the tragic process or the tragic hero, but each explains important
elements of tragedy, and, because their conclusions are contradictory, they represent extreme
views.
and of the limitation of human effort. But this theory of tragedy is an oversimplification, primarily
because it confuses the tragic condition with the tragic process: the theory does not acknowledge
that fate, in a tragedy, normally becomes external to the hero only after the tragic process has as a
heroism that creates the splendor and exhilaration that is unique to tragedy. The tragic hero quality
of an honest person, but the external antagonist of the criminal. Secondarily, this theory of tragedy
does not distinguish tragedy from irony. Irony does not need an exceptional central figure: the
original destiny never quite fades out of the tragedy.
as a rule, the more ignoble the hero the sharper the irony, when irony alone is the objective. It is
heroism that creates the splendor and exhilaration that is unique to tragedy. The tragic hero
normally has an extraordinary, often a nearly divine, destiny almost within grasp, and the glory of
the original destiny never quite fades out of the tragedy.
The second theory of tragedy states that the act that sets the tragic process in motion must be
primarily a violation of normal law, whether human or divine; in short, that the tragic hero must have
a flaw that has an essential connection with sin. Again it is true that the great majority of tragic
heroes do possess hubris, or a proud and passionate mind that seems to make the hero’s downfall
morally explicable. But such hubris is only the precipitating agent of catastrophe, just as in comedy
the cause )f the happy ending is usually some act of humility often performed by a noble character
who is meanly disguised.
This theory of tragedy as morally explicable runs into the question of whether an innocent sufferer
in a tragedy, such as Iphigenia, or Socrates in Plato Apology, is a tragic figure. They are, of course,
even though it is not very easy to find crucial moral flaws in them. Cordelia shows sincerity and high
spirit in refusing to flatter her faber, and Cordelia is 30 hanged. Tragedy, in short, is ambiguous
and cannot be reduced to the opposition between human effort. and external fate, just as it cannot
be reduced to the opposition between good and evil.
question 1 : The primary purpose of the passage is. to
Select one of the following: