The Unhappiness of Tony Soprano: An Ancient Analysis - AST-TOK
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The Unhappiness of Tony
Soprano: An Ancient
Analysis
By Ricardo Faraj
“Tony on Happiness”
Tony Soprano is a man who
has both aim and reach.
Tony is not happy, despite
“having it all”, Tony feels
like such a loser.
He approaches happiness
in three different ways: that
of the “whiners”, the “happy
wanderers”, and the “Gary Cooper”.
“The Rest of Us”
Aristotle summarized that it was a
matter of ancient “common sense”
the suggestion that happiness is a
matter of achieving a list of things.
The Stoics said that in response to a list,
“not even” an abundance of goods makes
a difference to our hapiness”.
To ancient greeks, happiness has two components:
1.
Happiness is a matter of what we do and how we do it.
2.
To live a happy life requires an effort to understand what really
makes life good.
“Happiness Requires
Integrated Motivations”
We must start by reflecting
upon what it is we are really
after when it comes to our
pursuits.
If we do come to realize what
motivates, the ancient imperative
is to continue to pursue only those things whose
motivation is one that can integrate all of our pursuits.
Tony actually tries to justify his mob acitvity because it
allows him to support his family.
“Objections to the Integrated
Motivations View”
The Ancients think they can recommend a happy
life as if it and an ethical life are one and the same.
But, really, whatever the
psychological benefits of
working from a consistent
set of motivations, they
amount to neither
happiness nor morality.
“Gary Cooper”
Tony has to reset his aims.
He is not pursuing the things that will satisfy him
and instead acting under a
sort of compulsion.
He cannot control his desires,
Dr Melfi suggests to Tony
that behavior therapy might
help Tony to manage his
“anger triggers”.