Tragedy

This article refers to the literary work. For the punk band see Tragedy (band) and for the song see Tragedy (song)

In general usage, a tragedy is a drama, movie or sometimes a real world event with a sad outcome.

However, throughout much of Western thought, tragedy has been defined in more precise terms, following the precepts set out by Aristotle and based upon Greek tragedies: it is a form of drama characterized by seriousness and dignity, usually involving a conflict between a character and some higher power, such as the law, the gods, fate, or society.

Origin of Western tragedy

The origins of tragedy in the West are obscure, but it is certainly derived from the poetic and religious traditions of ancient Greece. Its roots may be traced more specifically to the dithyrambs, the chants and dances honoring the Greek god Dionysus, later known to the Romans as Bacchus. These drunken ecstatic performances were said to have been created by the satyrs, half-goat beings who surrounded Dionysus in his revelry. Phrynichus, son of Polyphradmon and pupil of Thespis, was one of the earliest of the Greek tragedians.^[1] Some of the ancients, indeed, regarded him as the real founder of tragedy. He gained his first poetical victory in 511 BC. P.W. Buckham also writes, quoting August Wilhelm von Schlegel, that Aeschylus was the inventor of tragedy.^[2]

Later in ancient Greece, the word "tragedy" meant any serious (not comedy) drama, not merely those with a sad ending.

The word's origin is Greek tragōidiā contracted from trag(o)-aoidiā = "goat song" from tragos = "goat" and aeidein = "to sing". This meaning may have referred to any of these:

• Goat-like costumes worn by actors who played the satyrs.
• A goat being presented as a prize at a song contest.
• The actors are paid a goat as their pay for appearing on stage.
• That the first half is not "goat" but trageîn (2nd aorist infinitive of trōgein = "to gnaw").

There is some dissent to the dithyrambic origins of tragedy mostly based in the differences between the shapes of their choruses and styles of dancing. A common descent from pre-Hellenic fertility and burial rites has been suggested.

Aristotle is very clear in his Poetics that tragedy proceeded from the authors of the Dithyramb.^[3]

P.W. Buckham writes that the tragedy of the ancients resembled modern operatic performance ^[4], and that the lighter sort of Iambic became Comic poets, the graver became Tragic instead of Heroic.^[5]

Theories of tragedy

The philosopher Aristotle theorized in his work The Poetics that tragedy results in a catharsis (emotional cleansing) of healing for the audience through their experience of these emotions in response to the suffering of the characters in the drama. He considers it superior when a character passes from good fortune to bad rather than the reverse; at the time, the term "tragedy" was not yet fixed solely on stories with unhappy endings.

Not all plays that are broadly categorized as "tragedies" result in this type of cathartic ending, though – some have neutral or even ambiguously happy endings. Exactly what constitutes a "tragedy", however, is a frequently debated matter. Some hold that any story with a sad ending is a tragedy, whereas others demand that the story fit a set of requirements (often based on Aristotle) to be considered a tragedy.

Greek tragedy

Greek literature boasts three great writers of tragedy whose works are extant: Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus. The largest festival for Greek tragedy was the Dionysia, for which competition prominent playwrights usually submitted three tragedies and one satyr play each. The Roman theater does not appear to have followed the same practice. Seneca adapted Greek stories, such as Phaedra, into Latin plays; however, Senecan tragedy has long been regarded as closet drama, meant to be read rather than performed.

A favorite theatrical device of many ancient Greek tragedians was the ekkyklêma, a cart hidden behind the scenery which could be rolled out to display the aftermath of some event which had happened out of sight of the audience. This event was frequently a brutal murder of some sort, an act of violence which could not be effectively portrayed visually, but an action of which the other characters must see the effects in order for it to have meaning and emotional resonance. A prime example of the use of the ekkyklêma is after the murder of Agamemnon in the first play of Aeschylus' Oresteia, when the king's butchered body is wheeled out in a grand display for all to see. Variations on the ekkyklêma are used in tragedies and other forms to this day, as writers still find it a useful and often powerful device for showing the consequences of extreme human actions. Another such device was a crane, the mechane, which served to hoist a god or goddess on stage when they were supposed to arrive flying. This device gave origin to the phrase "deus ex machina" ("god out of a machine"), that is, the surprise intervention of an unforeseen external factor that changes the outcome of an event.

Nietzsche dedicated his famous early book, The Birth of Tragedy, to a discussion of the origins of Greek tragedy. He traced the evolution of tragedy from early rituals, through the joining of Apollonian and Dionysian forces, until its early "death" in the hands of Socrates. In opposition to Schopenhauer, Nietzsche viewed tragedy as the art form of sensual acceptance of the terrors of reality and rejoicing in these terrors in love of fate (amor fati), and therefore as the antithesis to Socratic notion of strictly rational explanation, or the belief in the power of reason to unveil any and all of the mysteries of existence. Ironically, Socrates was fond of quoting from tragedies. A landmark study in its era, Nietzsche's book and its theories are considered spurious by most contemporary scholars of Greek tragedy.

Renaissance and 17th century tragedy

go to hell

Modern tragedy

In modern literature, the definition of tragedy has become less precise. The most fundamental change has been the rejection of Aristotle's dictum that true tragedy can only depict those with power and high status. Arthur Miller's essay 'Tragedy and the Common Man' exemplifies the modern belief that tragedy may also depict ordinary people in domestic surroundings. British playwright Howard Barker has argued strenuously for the rebirth of tragedy in the contemporary theatre, most notably in his volume Arguments for a Theatre. "You emerge from tragedy equipped against lies. After the musical, you're anybody's fool," he observes.

A Doll's House (1879) by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, which depicts the breakdown of a middle-class marriage, is an example of a more contemporary tragedy. Like Ibsen's other dramatic works, it has been translated into English and has enjoyed great popularity on the English and American stage.

Although the most important American playwrights - Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller - wrote tragedies, the rarity of tragedy in the American theater may be owing in part to a certain form of idealism, often associated with Americans, that man is captain of his fate, a notion exemplified in the plays of Clyde Fitch and George S. Kaufmann. Arthur Miller, however, was a successful writer of American tragic plays, among them The Crucible and Death of a Salesman.

Contemporary postmodern theater moves the ground for the execution of tragedy from the hubris of the individual tragic hero to the institutions, discourses and policies that shape the course of a character's life. The fate decreed from the gods of classical Greek tragedy is replaced by the will of institutions that shape the fate of the individual through policies and practices.

Tragedy often shows tha lack of escape of the protagonist. He of she cannot escape themselvs of the invironment around them

Tragedy in film

Main article: Tragedy on screen

The general belief in Hollywood that audiences prefer happy endings might seem to preclude the genre of tragedy from film. However, the popularity of several cinematic tragedies indicates that audiences can be receptive to the genre. Recent examples include Oldboy, Titanic, Gladiator, King Kong, and Tristan and Isolde, all of which can be seen as tragedies, at least by some definitions.

Notes

1. ^ P.W. Buckham, Theatre of the Greeks, p. 108: "The honour 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."
2. ^ P.W. Buckham, ibid, p. 121, quoting from Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature by August Wilhelm von Schlegel. "Aeschylus is to be considered as the creator of Tragedy: in full panoplyshe sprung from his head, like Pallas from the head of Jupiter. He clad her with dignity, and gave her an appropriate stage; he was the inventor of scenic pomp, and not only instructed the chorus in singing and dancing, but appeared himself as an actor. He was the first that expanded the dialogue, and set limits to the lyrical part of tragedy, which, however, still occupies too much space in his pieces." [6]
3. ^ P.W. Buckham, ibid, p. 231
4. ^ Aristotle, Poetics, IV, [1449a], "To consider whether tragedy is fully developed by now in all its various species or not, and to criticize it both in itself and in relation to the stage, that is another question. At any rate it originated in improvisation--both tragedy itself and comedy. The one [tragedy] came from the prelude to the dithyramb and the other [comedy] from the prelude to the phallic songs which still survive as institutions in many cities. Tragedy then gradually evolved as men developed each element that came to light and after going through many changes, it stopped when it had found its own natural form." [7]
5. ^ P.W. Buckham, ibid, p. 243

References

• Aristotle, Poetics.
• P.W. Buckham, Theatre of the Greeks, 1827.
• Justina Gregory (ed.), A Companion to Greek Tragedy, 2005.
• August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, 1809. [8]
• Xavier Riu, Dionysism and Comedy, 1999. [9]
• J.A. Symonds, Studies of the Greek Poets, 1873.

See also

• Tragicomedy
• Classicism
• Tragic flaw

External links

• Hamlet
• Macbeth
• Othello