Tragedy

I

Introduction

Tragedy, dramatic genre that presents the heroic or moral struggle of an individual, culminating in his or her ultimate defeat. While serious drama and comedy are found in nearly every culture and time period, tragic plays appear chiefly in societies that maintain a fixed hierarchy of political and religious beliefs. Only when spectators share with the playwright a particular social vision and system of class-based values can they empathize with the fall of the protagonist (central character) from an elevated position into bleak despair or annihilation.

II

Theory

The Western definition of tragedy and the debate over the function of tragic plays began in Athens, Greece, in the 4th century bc. The philosopher Plato criticized enactments of tragedy as artistically debilitating, because he felt they stirred emotions without encouraging virtuous behavior. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, however, defended the tragic spirit as an ennobling and beneficial force in the Greek-speaking world. For Aristotle, dramatic imitations of tragic events gave meaning and therapeutic relief to a population that questioned divine purpose and the standards of human virtue. In a manuscript that became known as the Poetics (about 330 bc), Aristotle meticulously described the elements and goals of tragedy on the Greek stage.

According to the Poetics, the action that animates a tragedy must be stately in tone, complete (brought to a conclusion), and of great moral significance. Every aspect of the tragic performance—plot, character, thought, diction, song, and spectacle—must contribute to these qualities. But among a play's elements, it is plot (with beginning, middle, and end focused on a single situation) that drives the dramatic action. Moreover, Aristotle believed that the finest tragedies achieve their passionate focus through a conflict—both its development and its aftermath—that unfolds during a single day. In Antigone (441 bc?) by Greek dramatist Sophocles, the conflict is that of the individual versus the state, higher law versus a ruler’s decrees. The heroine Antigone insists upon burying her brother Polynices in obedience to the laws of the gods. But Creon, king of Thebes, has forbidden the burial of Polynices, who led a revolt against Thebes; the king orders Antigone’s death for her defiance. He later reverses his order, having realized that obedience to the gods and loyalty to family come before obedience to the state, but it is too late: Antigone, Creon’s son (who loves Antigone), and Creon’s wife have all killed themselves. Shocks of reversal, recognition, and suffering elegantly bind the spectator and the seemingly virtuous, if flawed, hero into a cosmic arena of discovery and loss. The audience's natural identification with the protagonist's final agony or painful end—in this case, Creon’s loss of his family resulting from his defiance of divine law—purges the community of fear and pity. For Aristotle, tragedy's primary goal had to be therapeutic, stimulating in the viewer an emotional release and purification known as catharsis.

Aristotle's prescriptions for the writing of tragedy heavily influenced French and Italian academics and intellectuals during the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century). In the 1570s theoreticians known as neoclassicists (because they took inspiration from classical Greece and Rome) interpreted the Poetics to include the unity of place with those of action and time. Thus, not only did the single plot have to unfold in a single day, it also had to take place in a single location. Like-minded scholars limited the tragic heroes to people of royal or other highborn backgrounds. Other social codes of the aristocracy, including a sense of decorum, good taste, and simplicity, augmented the formula for tragedy in the 17th and much of the 18th centuries. In the late 18th century, however, these restrictions on the definition and formulation of tragic plays lessened, for a number of reasons. Among them was a general collapse of the aristocracy’s political power in Western Europe and the rise of a middle class.

---

---

III

History

Classical Greek tragedy grew out of theatrical contests held in Athens in the 6th century bc. During morning sessions of the annual winter festival, masked actors performed three related tragic plays and a satyr play, which often mocked the overall serious theme. The social importance of theater competition in the life of Athens cannot be overstated. Private and public patrons gave vast amounts of funding each year to sustain it, and also regulated all aspects of its production.

A

Tragedy in Ancient Greece and Rome

Aeschylus is one of the best known of the ancient Greek tragic playwrights. The author of some 90 plays, he established many of the conventions of the tragic dramatic form, which he perfected throughout his career. Aeschylus's skillful use of poetic language and brilliant characterizations effortlessly brought together human and divine characters as creators and participants in a single mythic destiny. The Oresteia trilogy (produced in 458 bc) is among his few surviving texts. The trilogy excited and frightened Athenian spectators unlike anything they had ever seen, as the Furies (avenging goddesses) alighted to exact their retribution on the righteous Orestes, who had killed his mother to avenge her murder of his father.

Sophocles, another well-known tragic author, refined Aeschylus's tragic storytelling, infusing his mythic characters with a sense of irony and plausibility. In Oedipus Rex (430 bc?), the horrid fate of Oedipus, who eventually blinds himself, is known to the spectator long before the protagonist unravels his violent and incestuous past. Oedipus's self-conscious vanity and restless nature seem strikingly familiar and plausible, making his self-mutilation at the end of the play all the more unsettling. Euripides, Greece’s third great tragic dramatist, wrote the most provocative tragedies yet known, although he was not as popular as Aeschylus or Sophocles because he worked against the expectations of his audiences. His trilogies challenged the accepted mythological canon, exploring different points of view in order to uncover novel and disturbing meanings. His Medea (431 bc), for example, allows the barbarian princess Medea to commit murder and infanticide without earthly or supernatural punishments: At the end of the play, Medea is whisked away to safety in a chariot.

Most Roman tragic poets adhered closely to their Greek models, often imitating the grand themes and language of the originals. Seneca, writing in the 1st century ad, also composed dramas on Greek subject matter and themes. But his works had a moral tone, with commentaries on the action punctuating the plays. This moral tone, along with his sensational treatments—witches, ghosts, and dead bodies populate the stage—made evident an innovative vision that powerfully inspired future playwrights.

	More from Encarta
	•  7 tips for funding an online degree •  How to succeed in the fashion industry without being a top designer •  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain