Comparing Greek Tragedy In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In classic literature, a Greek Tragedy is a story which always ends with a catastrophic conclusion. Greek Tragedies follow the life of a person whose character is flawed by a defect and whose actions cause him to break moral or divine law. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men can be compared to a Greek Tragedy because of how the six chapters resemble acts in a play and because of how Lennie resembles a tragic, flawed hero.

The structure of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is circular, meaning that events happen in a certain order and are then repeated later in the plot. There are six scenes in groups of two, which resemble three "acts." Each chapter or scene has a clearly-identified setting, which establishes the mood. The setting descriptions at the start of each chapter develop a visual of the mountains, the sun, the river, and all of nature in California. Steinbeck’s usage of imagery transports the reader into the setting, for example Steinbeck writes, “...the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool.” (Steinbeck 1) The novel itself contains very little

In many shakespearean plays, fallible characters make mistakes that lead to their inevitable death. Often, the tragic hero can be blamed for their downfall because of poor decisions they make. Lennie’s interaction with Curley’s wife was the beginning of the end. His compulsive need to feel soft things filled him with a sense of emotion that he could not control. Unable to be careful, he clumsily tangled his fingers within Curley’s wife's hair and in her effort to escape his dominance, her neck was broken and she died. Lennie began to grow furious at her for dying because of how George would react if he found out. George was left with no choice but to kill Lennie for his own