Abigail's Party - Tragedy

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Mike Leigh’s play Abigail’s Party has variously been categorised as a comedy and a tragedy. Bearing in mind the typical qualities of tragic drama, would you say that the play could be labelled a tragedy? From beginning to end, quotations are used to proleptically foreshadow the tragedy to come; Leigh uses Beverly’s speech and dialogue between her and other characters as a vehicle to drive this idea. ‘You’re going to kill yourself.’ This could be seen as the first clue to Laurence’s hamartia and hubris, as audience members could see him as a workaholic, which in turn leads to the main tragedy of the play; his death. If solely relying on Aristotle’s criteria to qualify the play, none of the aspects ever reach their full potential but it could be argued that Leigh included tragic elements and therefore it should be considered a tragedy, but is hard to distinguish through the comic elements he includes throughout as well. Another aspect that leads the audience further to believe this is a tragedy is that Laurence is the only evident tragic hero throughout. Beverly continually belittles, is rude to and dominates Laurence, while openly flirting with Tony: ‘Laurence, would you please go back in the kitchen and finish making your little sandwich, all right?’ Beverly regularly refers to Laurence and his actions as ‘little’, which undermines his manhood and is patronising infront of their guests. She especially likes to do this infront of Tony. ‘[Tony and Laurence pick it up. Laurence drops his end.] Oh, for Christ’s sake, Laurence!’ Beverly very openly makes it known that Laurence is weaker than Tony, insinuating that he is not as strong as him, and doesn’t have the same physical strength as Tony. Laurence is also continuously rejected and isolated throughout ‘Beverly: Cheers, everyone! Angela: Cheers! Beverly: Cheers, Tone! Tony: Cheers.’ Beverly here purposely
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