Tragedy:Form &Essence(What makes tragedy a tragedy?)

Table of Contents

What Makes a Tragedy a Tragedy

An Essay on the Form and Essence of Tragedy

Introduction . 2

The Ancient Greeks . 2

Elizabethan Drama and Revenge Tragedy . 4

Comedy as opposed to Tragedy . 8

Bibliography . 10 What Makes a Tragedy a Tragedy

An Essay on the Form and Essence of Tragedy

Tragic drama and the idea of the tragic experience have been among the most persistent forms of Western thought since the 5th century B .C From obscure origins in the religious festivals of the ancient

Greeks tragedy is one of the oldest forms of writing in Western Europe . It would appear that humans , starting notably with the Greeks , place a significant value on the positive compensation tragedy provides for the human journey into pain , considering that the tragic experience probes the most serious aspects of the human predicament

The Ancient Greeks

Among the Greeks , it was regarded as one of the ultimate expressions of art , culminating in the works of three of its greatest masters - Aeschylus , Sophocles and Euripides - whose fame was known throughout the ancient world . The honor of introducing Tragedy in its later acceptation was reserved for a scholar of Thespis in 511 BC , Polyphradmon 's son Phrynichus he dropped the light and ludicrous cast of the original drama and dismissing Bacchus and the Satyrs formed his plays from the more grave and elevated events recorded in mythology and history of his country

For the Greek philosopher Aristotle , tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also , as having magnitude , complete in itself in language with pleasurable accessories , each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work in a dramatic , not in a narrative form with incidents arousing pity and fear , wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions It incorporates "incidents arousing pity and fear , wherewith to accomplish the catharsis of such emotions

The hero in a tragedy evokes both pity and terror from the audience if he is neither fully evil nor fully good , but rather a combination of both , better than we are in as sense that he is of a higher mold than mere mortals . Though he has a potential for greatness , the tragic hero suffers from a change in fortune due to a failure in judgment (`hamartia , or a tragic flaw . A popular `hamartia ' among Greek tragedies was hubris - pride or overwhelming self-confidence leading the protagonist to disregard divine warnings and violate tradition

With the fall of ancient Greece and subsequently the Roman Empire classical Greek and Roman tragedy was lost to the Western world during much of the period of history known as the Dark Ages . In the Medieval period of Europe 's history , mystery and morality plays , farces , among others , dominated public theater . In the Age dubbed as the Renaissance (or `Rebirth , humanists and poets have began rediscovering the works of the classics and adapting them to suit the needs of the times

Scholars of the day adapted and modified tragedy into five...