Tragedy

Definition

           Tragedy in literature is defined as a genre that focuses on a noble character who struggles against strong external challenges. The protagonist suffers greatly and fails as a result of his own flaws. The word tragedy comes from the Greek tragodia, meaning “a formal play or poem with a sad ending.” Historically, tragedy of a high order has been created in only four periods and locales:

·       Attica, in Greece, in the 5th century BCE; 

·       England in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, from 1558 to 1625;

·       17th-century France and Europe 

·        America during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th.

The Function of a Tragedy

           Aristotle stipulated that the purpose of tragedy is to evoke fear and sympathy as a result of the hero’s fall, leading to catharsis or a healthy emotional purge for the audience.

Elements of Tragedy

In the third century BC, Aristotle outlined a few genre norms for tragedies in his Poetics:

·       Tragedies should take place around a noble and powerful figure such as a king, who faces the loss of his position, loved ones, and life due to his own flaws and failings. This archetype is referred to as the "tragic hero." For example, Oedipus in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, whose hubris causes him to fulfil the unthinkable prophecy of murdering his father, marrying his mother, and gouging out his own eyes;

·       A tragic flaw or Hamartia is a character trait that triggers the tragic hero’s defeat. For instance, the title character in Shakespeare’s Macbeth has the tragic flaw of uncontrolled ambition, which drives him to join forces with his power-hungry wife and try to murder the king.

·       Catharsis is a purging or purification of emotions. Take Shakespeare’s Othello. His suicide at the play’s end, after he realizes that Iago’s deception has led Othello to kill his wife Desdemona, is a sort of catharsis.

·       Tragedy presents mainly two kinds of conflict-outward and inward.

o   Outward conflict comprises the struggle between two opposing groups, in one of which the hero is the leading figure. In Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar, the cause of Brutus and Cassius collides with that of Ceasar, Antony and Octavius. In Greek tragedies, the hero fights unequal battles with fate or destiny which drives them relentlessly on to their doom.

o   The inner conflict goes on within the mind of the hero -i.e., not of force with force, but of emotion with emotion. Marlowe depicts the inner conflict in Faustus, who fluctuates between the Renaissance aspiration for greater power of man and the orthodox Christian view which puts limitations on man’s presumptions and pride.

Plot Structure

Shakespeare’s five-act structure of tragedy differs in some important ways from the classical model. For example, he rarely observed the unities

of time, place, and action. But most of the great tragic narratives correspond with the model established by Sophocles. of exposition, development, climax, reversal, and catastrophe. 

Examples of Tragedy in Literature

 The three main authors of Greek tragedies were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. 

·       Aeschylus’s the Oresteia.

·       Euripedes' Medea

•  Shakespeare's King Lear