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A tragedy Is the Immolation of an action of some magnitude that Is serious and also complete In Itself, In language with pleasurable accessories [rhythm and harmony], in a dramatic, not a narrative form, with incidents arousing pity and fear, to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.
Elements are these: Plot–most important, should be complex Character–tragic hero–elevated; brought down Diction Thought Spectacle Melody Pretty–change from one state of things wealth the play to Its opposite Discovery-??a change from ignorance to knowledge, and thus either to love or hate, in he personages marked for good or evil fortune. Medieval tragedy arouses pity, but also fear. No telling what Fate holds for us. We are helpless. Shakespearean Idea of tragedy is larger than the medieval Idea, but Includes this viewpoint. A. C.
Bradley in Shakespearian Tragedy, the plays focus on a tragic hero of high degree who dies at the end. Typically, the play depicts the troubled times of exceptional suffering and calamity leading up to his death. The suffering is of an unexpected and striking sort, in contrast to previous happiness or glory. Because the heroes are of high degree, their fates affect more than themselves (city, nation). Their suffering produces pity in the audience. Calamities of tragedy proceed from the actions of men–the sequence leads to catastrophe, which Is precipitated by the characters.
Chance does play a role, but Is subordinate to the responsibility which the characters have. In one sense, the action of the play is the expression of the hero’s character or personality. He sets the in degree and in nature. They are intensified, presented on a grand scale, their emotions have great force. They have a fatal tendency to identify their whole beings with one interest, object, passion or habit of mind (a fundamental tragic trait in Shakespeare). At the center of the tragic impression is a sense of waste–pity and fear accompanied by a sense of sadness and mystery.
What power causes so much destruction? How can the universe contain such evil? In Shakespeare, evil is portrayed as negative, barren, and/or destructive (Ago). Since the source of the tragedy is evil, the results are evil. The hero may not be evil himself, but his faults open the door to it. Evil and good are part of the same universal system; suffering arises from a collision with moral power. Tragedy represents a world which is trying for perfection but brings to birth both glorious good and an evil which it is able to overcome only by self torture and self waste.
Richard Seawall Tragedy is preoccupied with evil in the universe, which causes man so much grief. “Tragedy wrestles with the evil of the mystery–and the mystery of the evil. And the contest never ends. ” However, tragedy also recognizes that good coexists with evil, ND that there is Justice and beauty also in the universe, something to strive for. Recognition of both provides tension in the drama. Hero–“Not the plaything of fate, but not entirely free.