Some have seen tragedy as issuing from a wound in the hero, but, since Nietzsche, it has been commoner to find the flaw in the universe itself; or in man’s relation to it; or in man’s lack of relation to it. In Paul Tillich’s phrase, which is in the Nietzschean tradition, “man is maladjusted to the universe.” Life is “absurd,” as the French existentialists have it. Camus finds human effort symbolized in the myth of Sisyphus.
To what extent we need implicate the universe I don’t know. I. A. Richards once paraphrased “All’s right with the world,” as: “All’s right with the nervous system.” If that’s valid, we could paraphrase “Something’s wrong with the universe,” as “Something’s wrong with the nervous system.” At bottom, these contrasting statements aren’t as different as they sound. If man and the universe don’t suit each other, we have our choice as to which to lay the blame on. When we complain that the universe is so big, we mean we can’t fit it into our heads. When we complain that we are so little, we mean we cannot fit ourselves into the scheme of things.
The Life of the Drama
Eric Bentley