What is a Tragedy?

Tragedy

The term tragedy could be literally transmitted to goat song , which in turn refers to the ritual of Dionysus . We , however , would not focus on the roots of tragedy as defined here rather we would focus on Aristotle 's concept of tragedy . It was basically from the story of Dionysus , as well as from other sources on which Aristotle 's concept of tragedy was deeply embedded . One of the major features of Aristotle 's of tragedy is an imitation of noble and complete action having the proper magnitude ' which basically means

that a tragic character is noble person or someone who is great or emits an aura of certain magnitude ' Aristotle , 350 B .C

The conception of the tragic hero that we gather from Aristotle 's Poetics is that he is a highly esteemed and prosperous man who falls into misfortune because of some serious hamartia i .e . tragic flaw Aristotle gives the example of Oedipus and Thyestes , which means that according to him , it was Oedipus ' hamartia that was directly responsible for his fall . Although the meaning of hamartia is far from certain , its most frequent applications is in the sense of false moral judgment , or even purely intellectual errors . Among Greeks no sharp distinction between the two existed . It is generally believed that according to Aristotle the hamartia off Oedipus consists in some moral faults and it has been tried to identify various moral faults in Oedipus

Distinguished Professor Butcher has identified four possible range of meaning of Aristotle`s Hamartia i .e . tragic flaw . The foremost of these connotations is an error due to unavoidable ignorance of circumstances whereas an error caused by unawareness of conditions that might have been identified and for that reason to some extent morally blameworthy is another manifestation of the sense in which the term hamartia was used by Aristotle . The third sense is A fault or error where the act is conscious and intentional , but not deliberate . Such acts are committed in anger or passion ' Where as fourth is A fault of character distinct , on the one hand , from an isolated error , and , on the other , from the vice which has its seat in the depraved will .a flaw of character that is not tainted with a vicious purpose (Butcher , 1961 br

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Miller 's concept of tragedy was new and different from Aristotelian tragic conception as Miller was indeed sensitive to contemporanaeity and meant his play to be a tragedy . I think his theory of tragedy is more relevant in the contemporary world than the Aristotelian tragedy . At about the time of play 's opening , Miller himself , when interviewed stressed the tragic intention : The tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life if need be , to secure one thing his sense of personal dignity (Miller , 1949

This is a manifestation of Miler 's concept of tragedy which was new and different from classical concept...