A short note on Tragedy

Definition of Tragedy

A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language.

Elements of Tragedy

Aristotle lays out six elements of tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song.

1) Plot – “the soul of a tragedy”.
The Plot is the most important part of a tragedy. The plot means ‘the arrangement of the incidents’. The plot moves from hamartia through anagnorisis and peripetiea to catastrophe.

2) Character – “that which reveals moral purpose”. 
Characters are men and women who act. The hero and the heroine are two important figures among the characters.

3) Thought – “the faculty of saying what is possible and pertinent in given circumstances”.
The thought is expressed through their speeches and dialogues. It is a way of saying what is appropriate to a given circumstance or situation.

4) Diction – “the expression of meaning in words”.
Diction is the medium of language or expression through which the characters reveal their thoughts and feelings. The diction should be ‘embellished with each kind of artistic element’.

5) Song – which “holds the chief place among the embellishments”.
The song is one of these embellishments. In other words, it refers to what is generally known as choric commentary in tragedy.

6) Spectacle – which “depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet”
The Spectacle is theatrical effect presented on the stage. It heightens the emotional significance of an event in the drama.

Tragic Hero

Aristotle defines a tragic hero as “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment.” A tragic hero’s downfall evokes feelings of pity and fear among the audience.

Characteristics of a Tragic Hero

Here we have basic characteristics of a tragic hero, as explained by Aristotle:

👉Hamartia – a tragic flaw that causes the downfall of a hero.

👉Hubris – excessive pride and disrespect for the natural order of things.

👉Peripeteia – The reversal of fate that the hero experiences.

👉Anagnorisis – a moment in time when hero makes an important discovery in the story.

👉Nemesis – a punishment that the protagonist cannot avoid, usually occurring as a result of his hubris.

👉Catharsis – feelings of pity and fear felt by the audience, for the inevitable downfall of the protagonist.

Both fate and character can contribute to the fall of the tragic hero, though some tragedies focus on one more than the other. Many examples of both tragedy of fate and tragedy of character are available from the ancient Greek era through to modern times.

Fate vs. Character

The fate often plays a role in the downfall -- especially in the Greek tragedies. The tragic hero usually tries to outwit fate, with his character flaw being his pride in thinking that outwitting fate is possible. Therefore, tragedies of fate are usually focused on a moral message about not trying to outrun destiny. Sometimes tragedy involves choices (free will) and results in a paradox --- Is it Fate or Free Will which is primarily responsible for the suffering in the hero's life. Though fated the hero makes choices which bring about his destruction. Tragedy of character minimize the role of fate and focus instead on human choice and moral accountability.

Tragedy of Fate

Many examples of tragedy of fate can be found in classic literature. "Oedipus the King" is one of the most often cited examples. In this play by Sophocles, an oracle tells Oedipus that he will murder his father and marry his mother. He tries to outwit fate by leaving his home and the people he believes to be his parents; he doesn't know he was adopted. During his travels, Oedipus kills a man who turns out to be his biological father, then marries the woman who turns out to be his biological mother. His mother hangs herself when she learns the truth, and Oedipus blinds himself. In "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet are said to be brought together by fate, yet their feuding families keep them apart. The price of this human pettiness is the death of the young lovers.

Tragedy of Character

Because character is so often linked to fate in narrative, scholars often debate whether a story is a true tragedy of character. "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare can be considered a tragedy of character, because Macbeth becomes blinded by his ambition and allows his wife to persuade him to commit an evil act, leading to his own eventual downfall. The witches told Macbeth he would be king but his descendents would not be, so the story includes an element of the hero trying to work against fate. In "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman is a proud man who cannot bear the reality of his own failure, and his flaw costs him his family and his life. Though Loman is not a noble man or king like most tragic heroes, the play has many elements of tragedy of character.

Types of tragedy

Attic tragedy: The exact origins of tragedy (tragōida) are debated amongst scholars. Some have linked the rise of the genre, which began in Athens, to the earlier art form, the lyrical performance of epic poetry. The most famous playwrights of the genre were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and many of their works were still performed centuries after their initial premiere. Aeschylus who is he father of tragedy, a greek writer who wrote the first trilogy play the Orestia. The Agamemnon of Aeschylus, one of the most splendid products of the Greek drama, was brought out shortly before the poet's death. The Oedipus Coloneus of Sophocles and the Bacchae of Euripides were both written very late in life.

Senecan Tragedy: A precursor of tragic drama were the tragedies by the Roman poet Seneca (4 BC – 65 AD). His tragedies were recited rather than staged but they became a model for English playwrights entailing the five-act structure, a complex plot and an elevated style of dialogue. The first English tragedy, Gorboduc (1561), by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, is a chain of slaughter and revenge written in direct imitation of Seneca.

Revenge Tragedy / Tragedy of Blood: This type of tragedy represented a popular genre in the Elizabethan Age and made extensive use of certain elements of the Senecan tragedy such asmurder, revenge, mutilations and ghosts. Typical examples of this sub-genre are Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.

Domestic / Bourgeois Tragedy: In line with a changing social system where the middle class gained increasing importance and power, tragedies from the 18th century onward shifted their focus to protagonists from the middle or lower classes and were written in prose. The protagonist typically suffers a domestic disaster which is intended to arouse empathy rather than pity and fear in the audience. An example is George Lillo’s The London Merchant: or, The History of George Barnwell (1731). Modern tragedies such as Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman (1949) foll and T.S. Eliot’s The Murder in the Cathedral (1935).

Tragicomedy: The boundaries of genres are often blurred in drama and occasionally they lead to the emergence of new sub-genres, e.g., the tragicomedy. Tragicomedies, as the name suggests, intermingle conventions concerning plot, character and subject matter derived from both tragedy and comedy. Thus, characters of both high and low social rank can be mixed as in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1600), or a serious conflict, which is likely to end in disaster, suddenly reaches a happy ending because of some unforeseen circumstances as in John Fletcher’s The Faithful Shepherdess (c.1609).