the2headedcalf-archive:

and of course i’ve been thinking about tragedy and how you can say “there was a way both rose and jack could have survived”, “there was a way for achilles to save patroclus and himself from their fate”, “there was a way for orpheus and eurydice to both get out of the underworld”, “if only they had done this”, “if only they had thouht of this” but in the end the people involved are not gods, they are stirred by their emotions and preconceptions and the limits of their knowledge and their fears and ambitions, and in good tragedies i think there’s always a way out that is completely plausible and even easy to find but the humanity of the characters drives them to mistakes that ultimately add up to the most heartbreaking conclusion you can imagine. and i think that’s beautiful.