Comedy As A Tragedy By Meeker: The Game Of Life

Meeker concludes that comedy is a strategy to survive in our pitiful world. In this world, no one can escape death, no one knows when will be their last moment. In order to deal with this sorrow idea, we use comedy to see the word differently and change how we respond to it. Our lives can end up being a comedy if we want, but also a tragedy. Meeker refers it as “the game of life”. He relates life to two types of games. One that the objectives are clear and when you complete it, it ends and one that is infinite. If you complete the objectives in life, all that awaits you, is death. Living a life just to wait for death is a tragedy, but if we play the game of life in a infinite way, then that will lead to an thrilling and comic life.
The tragic way is realising how painful can be the consequences of our choices. This means that we must accept our consequences even if it is hard and unpleasant, even if it means to die. Meeker compares tragedy to a hero that dies for his ideas. A hero, that sacrifices his life to bring happiness to others. The greater the “missions”, the greater the consequences. Therefore, the sadder it gets. On the other hand, the comic way wants us to have least amount of pain. To do so, we must find a way to deal with our problems strategically. Meeker compares comedy to a hero too, but a hero that even though he is weak and powerless, can succeed. At first, Meeker tells a story about a caribou. A mother caribou has to watch its baby get devour by a bear, unable to do anything. Meeker explain that people might see this as a tragedy because tragedy is associated with loss, grief and death. On the other hand, he explains that the response of the caribou is a comic response because she realized her limitations and accepted the
Some people might think that the protagonist went crazy because she worked so hard just to lose everything in the end, but no. The protagonist did not go crazy, on the contrary, she is finally really relieved. The ultimate form of comedy is self realization as Langer concluded. Langer explains that the whole process of self realization comes from Fortune (Destiny). The idea of competing against Destiny is absurd since Fortune cannot be controlled by anyone, every action of the protagonist turns into a comic action. The protagonist tries her best to contest with the world, but refuses all along to accept reality. At last, when she lost everything, she accepts her fate and realises how she she was blinded by society. That moment of realisation made her burst into laughter because she finally understood that she was competing against something she could never win, Destiny. Also, Monro’s theory of relief can be part of the explanation of why the last scene was a comedy. The society was constantly restraining her from expressing her feelings and thoughts, making her keep everything for herself. After trying to overcome in an every obstacles from her life, she is finally a the bottom, where nothing else matters. All the stress and pressure that were