tragedy, form of drama that depicts the suffering of a heroic individual who is often overcome by the very obstacles he is struggling to remove. The protagonist may be brought low by a character flaw or, as Hegel Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (gā`ôrkh vĭl`hĕlm frē`drĭkh hā`gəl)
..... Click the link for more information. stated, caught in a "collision of equally justified ethical aims."

See also drama, Western drama, Western, plays produced in the Western world. This article discusses the development of Western drama in general; for further information see the various national literature articles.
..... Click the link for more information. ; comedy comedy, literary work that aims primarily to provoke laughter. Unlike tragedy , which seeks to engage profound emotions and sympathies, comedy strives to entertain chiefly through criticism and ridicule of man's customs and institutions.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Ancient Tragedies

The earliest tragedies were part of the Attic religious festivals held in honor of the god Dionysus (5th cent. B.C.). The ritual entailed the presentation of four successive plays (three tragedies, one comedy). Each was based on situations and characters drawn from myth, and the tragedies ended in catastrophe for the heroes and heroines. The most famous ancient tragedies are probably the Oresteia (a trilogy) of Aeschylus Aeschylus (ĕs`kĭləs, ēs`–), 525–456 B.C., Athenian tragic dramatist, b. Eleusis.
..... Click the link for more information. , Sophocles Sophocles (sŏf`əklēz), c.496 B.C.–406 B.C.
..... Click the link for more information. ' Oedipus Rex, and Euripides Euripides (yrĭp`ĭdēz), 480 or 485–406 B.C.
..... Click the link for more information. ' Trojan Women.

In his definitive analysis of tragedy in the Poetics (late 4th cent. B.C.), Aristotle Aristotle (ăr'ĭstŏt`əl), 384–322 B.C., Greek philosopher, b. Stagira. He is sometimes called the Stagirite.
..... Click the link for more information. points out its ritual function as catharsis: spectators are purged of their own emotions of pity and fear through their vicarious participation in the drama. The plays of the Roman tragedian Seneca Seneca, the younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (l
..... Click the link for more information. —including Hercules, Medea, Phaedra, and Agamemnon—were established on certain conventions, notably violence, revenge, and the appearance of ghosts.

Renaissance and Later Tragedy

Roman works are significant not for their intrinsic grandeur but for their usefulness as models for such Renaissance dramas as Christopher Marlowe Marlowe, Christopher, 1564–93, English dramatist and poet, b. Canterbury. Probably the greatest English dramatist before Shakespeare, Marlowe, a shoemaker's son, was educated at Cambridge and he went to London in 1587, where he became an actor and dramatist for
..... Click the link for more information. 's Tamburlaine (1587) and Thomas Kyd Kyd or Kid, Thomas, 1558–94, English dramatist, b. London. The son of a scrivener, he evidently followed his father's profession for a few years. In the 1580s he began writing plays.
..... Click the link for more information. 's The Spanish Tragedy (1594), often cited as the first revenge tragedy. These in turn served as models for the towering tragedies of the period, Marlowe's Dr. Faustus (1588); Shakespeare Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616, English dramatist and poet, b. Stratford-on-Avon. He is widely considered the greatest playwright who ever lived.

Life

..... Click the link for more information. 's Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear (1600–1607); and John Webster Webster, John, 1580?–1634, English dramatist, b. London. Although little is known of his life, there is evidence that he worked for Philip Henslowe , collaborating with such playwrights as Dekker and Ford.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Duchess of Malfi (1614). The tradition of the tragic hero was to continue for the next 300 years, reinforced not only by English dramatists but by such European playwrights as the Spaniards Lope de Vega Lope de Vega Carpio, Félix (fā`lēks lō`pā dā vā`gä kär`pyō)
..... Click the link for more information. and Calderón de la Barca Calderón de la Barca, Pedro (pā`thrō käldārōn` dā lä bär`kä)
..... Click the link for more information. ; the Frenchmen Pierre Corneille Corneille, Pierre (pyĕr kôrnā`yə)
..... Click the link for more information. and Jean Racine Racine, Jean (zhäN räsēn`), 1639–99, French dramatist. Racine is the prime exemplar of French classicism .
..... Click the link for more information. ; and the Germans G. E. Lessing Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (gôt`hôlt ā`fräĭm)
..... Click the link for more information. , Goethe Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (yō`hän vôlf`gäng fən gö`tə)
..... Click the link for more information. , and Schiller Schiller, Friedrich von, 1759–1805, German dramatist, poet, and historian, one of the greatest of German literary figures, b. Marbach, Württemberg.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Moral, Domestic, and Political Tragedy

Tragedy can also be a vision of life, one shared by most Western cultures and having its roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition. To reflect this wider sense of the human dilemma, where men feel compelled to confront evil, yet where evil prevails, a second dramatic tradition evolved. Its roots go back once again to religious drama, in this case the mystery and morality plays of medieval England, France, and Germany (see miracle play miracle play or mystery play, form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10th to the 16th cent., reaching its height in the 15th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ; morality play morality play, form of medieval drama that developed in the late 14th cent. and flourished through the 16th cent. The characters in the morality were personifications of good and evil usually involved in a struggle for a man's soul.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Unlike classical drama, these plays, of which Everyman is the best known, emphasize the accountability of ordinary people. Even plays about the divine Christ stress human suffering and sacrifice.

The tragic lot of the common man and woman thus found its way into the dramatic repertory of later ages. George Lillo Lillo, George, 1693–1739, English dramatist. The son of a prosperous jeweller, he was for many years his father's partner in the trade. He is chiefly remembered as the author of The London Merchant; or, The History of George Barnwell
..... Click the link for more information. 's London Merchant (1731) is an early example of domestic tragedy, as Georg Büchner Büchner, Georg (gā`ôrk bükh`nər), 1813–37, German dramatist.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Danton's Death (1835) is of political tragedy. Henrik Ibsen Ibsen, Henrik (hĕn`rĭk ĭb`sən), 1828–1906, Norwegian dramatist and poet. His early years were lonely and miserable.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Doll's House (1879) and An Enemy of the People (1882) are also superb examples of the domestic and the political tragedy, respectively.

Twentieth-Century Tragedy

The cataclysmic events of the 20th cent.—two world wars, the destructive use of atomic power, the disintegration of family and community life—have caused a radical diminution of the vision of life embodied by the earlier domestic and political tragedy. Its shrinkage is evident in such plays as Eugene O'Neill O'Neill, Eugene (Gladstone), 1888–1953, American dramatist, b. New York City. He is widely acknowledged as America's greatest playwright.

Early Life

..... Click the link for more information. 's Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) and Long Day's Journey into Night (1956), Bertolt Brecht Brecht, Bertolt (bĕr`tôlt brĕkht), 1898–1956, German dramatist and poet, b. Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Mother Courage (1941), Arthur Miller Miller, Arthur, 1915–2005, American dramatist, b. New York City, grad. Univ. of Michigan, 1938. One of America's most distinguished playwrights, he has been hailed as the finest realist of the 20th-century stage.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Death of a Salesman (1949), and Samuel Beckett Beckett, Samuel (bĕk`ĭt), 1906–89, Anglo-French playwright and novelist, b. Dublin.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Waiting for Godot (1953).

Each of the latter works can be labeled tragedy, if rather loosely. The pattern first seen by Aristotle is still discernible. The protagonist is, as always, defeated by opposing forces—Freudian behavior patterns, wartime attrition, loss of identity, drugs, or alcohol, if not pride, ambition, and jealousy. And still felt is the mysterious cathartic exaltation at the end of a powerful theatrical experience. Despite quibbling about the exact meaning and application of the word tragedy, most critics would agree in saying that some of the works of such 20th-century dramatists as Anton Chekhov Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich (chĕk`ôf, Rus.
..... Click the link for more information. , August Strindberg Strindberg, Johan August (strĭnd`bərg, Swed. y
..... Click the link for more information. , Luigi Pirandello Pirandello, Luigi (lwē`jē pērändĕl`lō), 1867–1936, Italian author, b. Sicily.
..... Click the link for more information. , Gabriele D'Annunzio D'Annunzio, Gabriele (gäbrēĕ`lā dän-n
..... Click the link for more information. , Ugo Betti Betti, Ugo (
..... Click the link for more information. , Michel de Ghelderode Ghelderode, Michel de (mēshĕl` də gĕldərōd`), 1898–1962, Belgian dramatist.
..... Click the link for more information. , Sean O'Casey O'Casey, Sean (shôn), 1884–1964, Irish dramatist, one of the great figures of the Irish literary renaissance.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jean Anouilh Anouilh, Jean (zhäN änwē`yə), 1910–87, French dramatist.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Tennessee Williams Williams, Tennessee (Thomas Lanier Williams), 1911–83, American dramatist, b. Columbus, Miss., grad. State Univ. of Iowa, 1938. One of America's foremost 20th-century playwrights and the author of more than 70 plays, he achieved his first successes with the
..... Click the link for more information. may be classed as tragedy.

Bibliography

See B. H. Clark, ed., European Theories of the Drama (rev. ed. 1947); R. B. Sewall, The Vision of Tragedy (1959); R. Williams, Modern Tragedy (1966); G. Brereton, Principles of Tragedy (1968); O. Mandel, A Definition of Tragedy (1982); C. Belsey, The Subject of Tragedy (1985); H. A. Mason, The Tragic Plane (1986); T. Eagleton, Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic (2002).

tragedy

Drama of a serious and dignified character that typically describes the development of a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (such as destiny, circumstance, or society) and reaches a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion. Tragedy of a high order has been created in three periods and locales, each with a characteristic emphasis and style: Attica, in Greece, in the 5th century BC; Elizabethan and Jacobean England (1558–1625); and 17th-century France. The idea of tragedy also found embodiment in other literary forms, especially the novel. See also comedy.