Tragic Low Mimetic

I chose to take the joyous mode of tragic low mimetic to town. The most simple explanation of this mode would be pathos, which by bleak defintion means evoking of an emotion of pity, sorrow and compassion.

It refers to the death and downfall of the common man, perhaps a man like your high school teacher or neighbor growing up. The hero of the tragic mimetic mode possesses weaknesses that we, as humans can often relate to. Frye says that "Pathos presents its hero as isolated by a weakness which appeals to our sympathy because it is on our own level of experience" (38). My personal favorite example of this would be Hamlet, with his oh so relatable flaws of pride and immaturity, among others.

Tragic low mimetic can also present a person isolated from from a group or type of people to which they desire to belong. Some low mimetic study will explore the mind and its obsession with such groups. Frye describes it as "a mania or obsession about rising in the world, this being the central low mimetic counterpart of the fiction of the fall of the leader" (39).

The perspective of the sufferer in low mimetic tragedy does not always have to be through the perspective of that sufferer. In some tragedies, it is illustrated as a cruel ruler/employer, etc. who exploits those who are weak and in his power, like Ebineezar Scrooge and Tiny Tim.