The Dramatic Art of Tragedy

All theatre lovers know how to savour the power and the force of a great tragedy.

Of all forms of drama, tragedy is the most serious, impressive and sorrowful. Most tragedies describe a conflict between the main character and a superior force (usually destiny) and have a disastrous, moving conclusion that raises pity and terror. So the definition of tragedy (as a drama genre) can be reduced to a form of art based on human torment that offers pleasure to its audience. Aristotle beautifully draws the difference between tragedy and other genres like comedy or epic, and that is the 'tragic pleasure of pity and fear' that the public feels when watching a tragedy.

Tragedy has its origin in the theatres of Ancient Greece and the first tragedy authors are the greek writers Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Greek tragedies have been an inspiration for most tragedy writers until today. Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Voltaire, Hegel, Nietzche, Freud and some other philosophers have studied and criticised this form of art. There are numerous types of tragedy: athenian tragedy, roman tragedy, renaissance tragedy, neo-classical tragedy, burgeois tragedy and modern tragedy.

The oldest form of tragedy is the athenian tragedy and it was performed in Athens 2500 years ago. Seneca is the best author of roman tragedies and the most famous renaissance tragedy writer is Shakespeare. Everybody has read at least one of Skapespeare's tragedy plays: Romeo and Juliet (the most beautiful romantic tragedy ever written), Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear or Julius Caesar. Neo-classical tragedy is represented by Pierre Corneille (author of Medee and Le Cid) and Jean Racine. George Lillo is the writer of the first true burgeois tragedy - The London Merchant.

In modern times, tragedy has become very controversial, defying conventional views, raising anger and discussions in audiences and critics. One of the most controversial theatre tragedy is Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll House'.