other human beings. Most tragic heroes are males. The tragic hero usually goes beyond the standards to which reasonable people adhere; he does some fearful deed
which ultimately destroys him Barnet, 1988: 741. Arthur Miller states that tragedy is the disaster inherent in being torn away
from each person which has chosen image of self and position and that tragedy results when the character’s environment denies the fulfillment of this self-concept.
According to Miller, the tragic hero of modern tragedy is the person with the underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain his ‘rightful’ position
in his society. Tragic man, then placed in a universe of irreconcilables, acting in a situation in which he is both innocent and guilty, and peculiarly sensitive to the
‘cursed spite’ of his condition, suffers. Tragic man viewed in his social and moral relationship Levin, 1960: 171-178.
Miller states that a modern tragic hero has the categories that must be followed. The categories are:
1. The subject must be a common man. He is not a king or a prince. The common
man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings are. 2.
The subject must be ready to lay down his life to secure his sense of personal dignity. The tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a
character that is ready to lay down his life, if needed be, to secure one thing his sense of personal dignity.
3. The consequence of his total compulsion to evaluate himself justly. The
destruction is in the attempt to posit a wrong or an evil in his environment. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
4. The subject must have fear of being displaced.
5. The subject acts against the scheme of things degrading him.
6. The subject must have tragic flaw, a failing that is not peculiar to grand or
elevated characters. Nor it is necessarily a weakness Levin, 1960: 171-178.
C. Theoretical Framework
This study is to solve the problems formulation stated before. There are several theories used to solve the problem formulation. To solve the first problem, the
theory of character and characterization are used. This is needed to find and describe the characters in the poem. It is also used in understanding the characteristic of each
character because the writer of the poem using various expressions to build the characterization.
The theories on tragedy then are used to find the tragedy in the poem. It is including the elements which support it. The theories of modern tragedy and the
theory of tragic hero of modern tragedy are used to analyze Michael’s tragedy and the other characters supports to his tragedy. There are many elements that included in the
story which needs to be analyzed as the part of modern tragedy. The theory of modern tragic hero is used to analyze Michael as the central character in the poem
and to find how he can become a tragic hero of modern tragedy. The approach is used to analyze the poem in many aspects in, from and outside the text.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The study deals with the poem “Michael” written by William Wordsworth. The poem was written at Town-end, Grasmere, in 1800. The poem consists of 21
stanzas and 482 lines Mukherjef and Rajender, 2000: 173-183. “Michael” is one of Wordsworth’s great narrative poems in the last poem to
enter the Lyrical Ballads. It is one of Wordsworth’s great narrative poems. In “Michael”, he leaves the autobiographical framework almost completely behind and
concerns himself. In the poem Wordsworth creates four characters. They are Michael, Isabel, Luke, and Richard Bateman.
In this study, the writer focuses on the characters, especially Michael as the main character in the poem. Michael is just a shepherd in Grasmere Vale. He is a man
with strong mind and lively sensibility. He has a wife, Isabel, and a son, Luke. He teaches everything to Luke with perfect parental affection. His life becomes
miserable when his son goes to the town to work with his rich relative there, Richard Bateman. He makes an unrealized mistake which leads his family into tragedy. The
strength which had once been his mainstay becomes a burden to him.
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