20 Feb
2001
20 Feb
'01
1:32 p.m.
On Tue, 20 Feb 2001, Dana Shilling wrote:
Iain said:
Just think how little you would have to change 'Fawlty Towers' to make it the tragic tale of one man's spiraling self-destruction in a changing world he no longer understands.
Err, a lot actually, because tragedy has to be about the fall of a noble character--now defined as an exceptional individual rather than someone who happened to be born a king and not just some guy--not just an awful thing happening to an ordinary or trivial person.
The important feature of tragedy -- at least, as far as my argument was concerned -- is the inevitable and self-inflicted nature of the protagonist's suffering, generally arising out of a fundamental character flaw. Which is Basil Fawlty to a tee.
Iain