However, tragedies often deploy misguided optimism. The audience should therefore also be aware of the tragic forces of history. Given the strength and dominance of western democratic culture, like that of the Athenians, it would be easy to become complacent about what is going on beneath the surface of our successes. Empires rise and fall; history repeats itself. The real tragic action normally takes place just below the surface of things – just out of sight. This odd feature, which is how most empires operate, means that those who look back with hindsight on a civilisation are able to mock their lack of understanding so easily after everything suddenly falls apart. It would be such folly to think that our society is any different.41 The tragedies written by Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides were preoccupied with the notion of fate. Even though the characters could see their destiny coming, even if they understood the main plotlines of their own dramas, they simply could not escape. This is most famously evidenced in Sophocles’ play ‘Oedipus Rex’ (429 BCE) when the oracle informs the young Oedipus that he will kill his father and marry his mother. For the rest of the drama, the more Oedipus runs away from the prediction, the more he runs into it. In the end, after murdering his father and having sex with his mother, he gouges his eyes out. These plays amplified the rise and fall of their heroes for dramatic effect, but they also did this out of a respect for the patterns of human affairs in the real world.
41 Barbara Tuchman’s celebrated book, “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam” (1984) is essential reading for anyone who is curious about such patterns in our history.
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