The Tragedies of Aziraphale and Crowley
A loooonng time ago I read a letter by a major American playwright (I think O’Neill or Williams) in which he was discussing one of his works, saying that he had to reinvent tragedy, that the Classical Greek form of tragedy was having to betray one’s duty to society to fulfill a personal or family obligation, and we no longer had that framework in modern society. His conclusion was that modern tragedy would be having to betray yourself, your dreams, your beliefs.
So we have Aziraphale, being asked by Crowley to run away with him and betray heaven - a Classical Greek tragedy.
And we have Crowley, being asked by Aziraphale to return to heaven and betray himself - a modern tragedy.
Either choice at the end of S2 that ended with the two of them together would have still been a tragedy for one of them.
This shit is heavy man.
I’m just going to click my heels together and repeat “South Downs cottage, South Downs cottage, South Downs cottage”
EDIT - I had most of what’s below in a comment on a wonderful post by @andromeda4004 , but I wanted to tack it on here as it’s related.
Somewhere here in a comment about the actors that recur in different roles (which, honestly, there’s a narrative reason for that, Neil lies) Neil refers to S1 and S3 as something like the main story. Presumably the main story is the end of the world, or the resolution of the question of whether or not heaven and hell will end it.
I think the main thing we got in this season is that Crowley will do ANYTHING for Aziraphale: dance, let him drive the Bentley, become a bookseller (even though he said not even at gunpoint) point a gun at his head. I think the reason he is so insistent with Aziraphale that he will kill Job’s children is that he is trying to keep Aziraphale from getting involved in not killing them, to protect Aziraphale from possibly falling, or at least from a crisis of faith. He’s willing to have Aziraphale think he’s a killer of children to protect him from that.
It makes it all the more tragic when Aziraphale asks him to come back to heaven with him. Aziraphale has finally crossed the line, asking him to betray himself, who he is now, for something he knows is a baseless fantasy. It’s a brutal setup for season 3.
