The Three Masks of American Tragedy by Dan Vogel (review)

Book Reviews • THE THREE MASKS OF AMERICAN TRAGEDY, by Dan Vogel. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1974. 180 pp. $6.95. American tragedy, argues Professor Vogel, is definable through an examination of central nineteenth and twentieth-century works which illustrate specific "masks" derived from earlier periods of tragedy. Moreover, in spite of the regional and thematic differences among works examined, certain American plays and novels share a distinct tragic spirit and tone which belie the common critical assertion that there is no such thing as American or, for that matter, modern tragedy. In presenting his case, Mr. Vogel demonstrates a sound grasp of tragic theory and American literature. His individual analyses of such works as Absalom! Absalom! and Mourning Becomes Electra are incisive and serve his central thesis well; his discussion of the necessary background to the specific masks worn by American tragic figures - those of Oedipus, Christ and Satan, respectively - is generally cogent and sensible, particularly in the long opening section ofthe book which shows how the Oedipal hero assumes such diversely American personae as Ephraim Cabot, Willy Loman, Thomas Sutpen and Willy Stark. The suggestion that Job was a type oftyrannos who, along with Oedipus, especially appealed to American tragedians is among the most interesting speculations of the book, for it shows clearly how Job's role as common man is eventually linked to Aristotelian elements of tragedy. While one might resist yet another attempt to portray Willy Loman as tragic hero, one must credit Professor Vogel with as forceful an argument as has yet appeared, dependent as it is upon literary history rather than the limited emotional response upon which such "proof' usually rests. The paradox of Christian tragedy is epitomized for Vogel in the fate of Billy Budd, "not only a handsome foretopman, but an innocent, flawed Adam and a condemned Jesus" (p. 128). Thus, an age of Christianity, despite Vogel's 201 202 BOOK REVIEWS acknowledgment that there exists a basic incompatibility between tragic and Christian doctrine, results in the inevitable development in America of figures like Dimmesdale who, "after experiencing the fall ofAdam and suffering ofJob" (p. 126) die like Christ. In the brief final section of the book, Vogel focuses upon Captain Ahab and Joe Christmas, "diabolical villains with Christological veneers who turn out to be heroes" (p. 141). The Three Masks ofAmerican Tragedy is consistently an interesting book that nevertheless suffers from its own complex of quasi-tragic flaws. While properly crediting the importance to his study of critics like R.W.B. Lewis, Bernard Knox and a host of other significant literary analysts, Vogel is willing to quote Richard Watts, J. Donald Adams and Brooks Atkinson when their remarks appear to help him prove his point. A similar absence ofjudgment occurs in the analyses ofsome of the primary works. While declaring that the tragic world of An American Tragedy "does not admit a tragic tyrannos" (p. 59), Vogel is elsewhere in the book strangely unwilling to distinguish among the relative achievements of the works he describes. Winterset, while useful in a discussion of American tragedy, is finally a bad and pretentious play; to take the playas seriously as Vogel does is implicitly to suggest that virtually every work considered is an equally accomplished work of art. Critical terminology is at times confusingly rendered. Why, when he speaks of Milton's Adam, does Vogel equate "realism" with "tragedy"? Why does he limit the terms to describe catharsis to those of Aristotle, pity and terror, when so much else in the book rightly enlarges the Aristotelian frame of reference? Why, in a work otherwise aware of Melville's contribution to American tragedy, does Vogel ignore "Benito Cereno" and, especially, Robert Lowell's adaptation of that work in The Old Glory? How can a discussion of American tragedy ignore The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey into Night? One could go on: A seven page analysis of Desire Under the Elms disregards O'Neill's conscious use of the Hippolytus; Vogel seems unaware of Eric Bentley's important and relevant study, The Life of the Drama, and Robert Brustein's equally appropriate Theatre ofRevolt. Vogel's prose style is frequently inflated: Out...