Tragedy Is the Consequence of a Man's Total Compulsion to Evaluate Himself Justly

Today, tragedy is understood as a disastrous event, that involves an enormous loss of life (ex: terrorist attack, natural disaster, etc.), which gains widespread media attention for public perception and world understanding. As a literary term, tragedy in a fictional narrative, typically drama involves a sorrowful event, where a good individual, who through a character flaw and/or conflict with an overwhelming effect, experiences setbacks of fortune from success to adversity and becomes a tragic individual. Tragedy usually involves the death of one or more characters (including the tragic individual) caused by the actions of a tragic individual and/or the villain in the literary work of art. (Aristotle)

Tragedy is a topic that transcends throughout time and culture and there's a lot of different pieces of work on the topic. One comparison in books was Hamlet from the time period of 1599-1601 and Night by Elie wiesel made in 1956. Both books were made to focus on tragedy

Macbeth and Banquo was coming home from battle and stumbled onto the witches. There they were given their fates, Macbeth prophecy was to be thane of Glamis, thane of Cawdor, and finally king of Scotland. As king he couldn’t be killed by anyone of woman birth and he couldn't be defeated unless the Birnam Woods march on Dunsinane. The witches were tricking and deceiving Macbeth into thinking he is invinceable.

Tragedy is a common genre in many plays especially in Shakespeare works. A tragedy is a play that has a catastrophic event that ends with an unhappy ending or the main

The Suspicions of Two Best Friends Macbeth, by William Shakespeare published in 1623, is a play about an ambitious, overconfident soldier, Macbeth, and his power-hungry wife, Lady Macbeth, and their climb to the Scottish crown with bloody hands. In the beginning Macbeth and Banquo receive mysterious predictions from the Three Weird Sisters at the heath, that Macbeth will become King of Scotland and Banquo will become the hearth of a lineage of future Kings. Then later on, Banquo begins to raise his suspicions concerning the murder of King Duncan and he develops a belief that his best friend and now King, Macbeth, was the one who committed it. Macbeth also, develops suspicions about his best friend, in reference to the prophecy and a fear brews

When hearing the word Tragedy, it would not be surprising if several different individuals would immediately think of several unique examples of the word. Perhaps one is an opera enthusiast who immediately thinks of Puccini’s La Boheme. Another is a war enthusiast that thinks about History Channel’s new episode highlighting the harshest and bloodiest battles of World War One. Even a third one obsessed with Greek mythology could generate a handful of examples of tragedy. Tragedy, like love or comedy is a universal theme that can be used to entertain, enlighten and excite its audiences. William Shakespeare, a world renown writer, was a master of this genre writing works, including Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Hamlet. Another lesser known

"Tragedy, then, is a process of imitating an action which has serious implications, is complete, and possesses magnitude; by means of language which has been made sensuously attractive, with each of its varieties found separately in the parts; enacted by the persons themselves and not presented through narrative; through a course of pity and fear completing the purification (catharsis) of such emotions." (Aristotle)

Tragedy, in English, is a word used to indicate other words such as misfortune, calamity, disaster and many more such words. However, this word has another dramatic meaning, not far from its original meaning in English. In Western theatre it is a genre that presents a heroic or moral struggle of an individual that leads to his or her ultimate defeat or misfortune. When the audience and reader share the playwright's particular social perception and social values they easily empathize and relate with the fall of the protagonist (main character) from a prominent and high position into a state of misery or total destruction. On the other hand, Aristotle defined the term ‘tragedy' as "a man not preeminently virtuous and

Aristotle’s Poetics is one of the most well-known pieces of literature describing and defining a tragedy and a tragic hero. He defines a tragedy as a dramatic piece of work that evokes the feelings of pity and fear within humans. Aristotle also states the tragic hero traits such as hamartia, peripeteia, anagnorsis, and catharsis, which all lead to the downfall of the character at the end of the story. In the 1500s, William Shakespeare wrote a plethora of different plays, both comedy and tragedy, for society. With his tragedies, he conveys the tragic hero of his plays using many traits that Aristotle describes in Poetics.

William Shakespeare is famous for the tragic plays that he wrote throughout his lifetime. Students study some of his best known tragic works like Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and King Lear. These tragic plays revolve around a character whose life is influential and heroic, known as the tragic hero. The tragic hero is always a noble member of a royal family, who possesses a tragic flaw which leads to his untimely death and the death of other characters around him, both innocent and guilty. Often times, the tragic hero is a character whose flaw is exaggerated, for as a man of great heroism, his vices must be equally great. Throughout the play, readers sympathize with the character recognizing their own weakness as the character himself realizes his flaw and tries to right all of the wrong that has been done. This is true

Back in the days of ancient Greece, the Greeks were the first to make plays and wide spread philosophies, but we’ll focus on the plays. However the type of play that was the most popular was a tragedy. A tragedy is where the main protagonist has fatal flaw that will lead to his/her demise. This was very popular in Greek culture in stories such as Achilles, Hercules, and others. A deciding factor of whether or not the play is a tragedy depends on the protagonist. Before, the definition of a tragic hero is a mighty warrior, born of noble descent, embarking in an epic journey. Now, the definition changed into one who shows admirably qualities. However a tragic hero is one who has a fatal flaw that would lead to his/her demise or downfall. According to Aristotle the philosopher, tragedy is the greatest form of drama, so he improve upon it and added guidelines and 5 requirements for a good tragedy. First is noble birth or wisdom. Second is a fatal flaw of some kind like hubris. Third is a peripatetic or a reversal of fate where everything goes wrong, because of their flaw. Forth is an anagnorisis where the protagonist realizes that his/her downfall was all his/her fault. Fifth is a fate greater than what the protagonist deserves.

According to Aristotle’s theory of tragedy, tragedies are best equipped to be based on a protagonist that is renowned and prosperous, so his good fortune can be dramatically changed. In contrast, Arthur Miller’s essay “Tragedy and the Common Man” states “that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings ever were.” He proves in his modern essay that the characteristics and emotions of the common man and the highly placed are entitled to be similar. Miller even identifies emotions of a average person and how they result in a better tragedy than those who are highly ranked. In his play “Death of Salesman” he demonstrates that the normal life of a sales man can still make for a great tragedy and that his protagonist, Willy Loman, is worthy of a tragedy.

Aristotle asserted that all tragic heroes had fundamental flaws that were the source of their undoing, and that were typically the source of their initial success, as well. Oedipus thinks he acts with justice, wisdom, and the assurance of success, and these things also cause him to completely destroy himself when he discovers the truth of his situation, as one prominent example. The idea, then, that tragic heroes are in some way the source of their own undoing is not new, but rather is a foundational feature of the Western dramatic and literary traditions. From the time of the earliest recorded Western plays and some of the earliest recorded pieces of Western literature, a specific fascination the hero's character in relation to his or her eventual crumbling has been a strong recurrent theme in literature and in criticism.

Akin to many Elizabethan dramas, there has been much discussion regarding the concept of tragedy in “Hamlet”. One definition of tragedy offered by the Oxford English Dictionary is ‘a serious play with an unhappy ending’. However, the concept is broader and more complex than the definition aforementioned. Aristotle is believed to have offered the first (and perhaps the most suitable) definition. According to Aristotle’s Poetics, a tragedy must involve a reversal of fortune of the main character. This character must be of great character and dignity so that his downfall is all the more spectacular which leads to the audience feeling pity and fear; two essential traits required for a drama to be defined as a tragedy. This downfall is

Aristotle, a world-renowned Greek philosopher once noted a tragedy is “the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself...in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions (Bywater, 1920, p. 35).” These words encapsulate the perception that tragedy is a mimicry surrounded by an underlying purpose through a direct action that arouses the audience’s emotions of fear and relief by witnessing a dreadful or gripping change that happens to the protagonist. Between Greek and Elizabethan times, characters were developed to portray tragic people, who possessed flaws that created drastic consequences for them in the