Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional customs - Why is the theme of Western tragic literature not the promotion of goodness and justice, but personal redemption?

Why is the theme of Western tragic literature not the promotion of goodness and justice, but personal redemption?

Every literary work reflects the culture of the region as well as its national characteristics. In the case of Western tragic literature, most of the themes are about personal redemption, which is inextricably linked to the spirit of liberalism advocated by the West.

When we learn about Western culture, we will find that it emphasizes the freedom of the individual, that is to say, in all aspects of society, almost all of them are centered on the individual. In the minds of the Western people, the individual is the highest and most untouchable subject, and almost all activities are centered around the individual.

So in Western tragic literature, most of the stories are about personal redemption, because in Western tragic literature, what it wants to express is that individuals fight against the society or a certain kind of prejudice in the society in the hope of realizing personal salvation through the way of self-confrontation.

The reason why they do not promote goodness and justice is that they are also centered on the individual in social life, unlike the tragic literature of the East, which mostly promotes goodness and justice, and is concerned with the macroscopic aspects of a society rather than the individual.

Trying to achieve a certain kind of humanistic spirit about the society through describing the individual, which is very different from the theme of the western tragedy literature. So you will find that most of the novels in Western tragic literature are about the redemption of the individual, which is one of the most integral and common states reflected in their societies.