Tragedy

I

Introduction

Tragedy, dramatic genre in Western theatre 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 system of political and religious beliefs. It is only when audiences share with the playwright a particular social vision and system of values that they can empathize with the fall of the protagonist (central character) from an elevated position into a state of bleak despair or annihilation.

II

Theory

Western cultural debate concerning the definition and worth of tragedy as a dramatic genre began in Athens, Greece, in the 4th century bc. The philosopher Plato criticized enactments of tragedy as artistically and socially debilitating, because he felt they stirred the emotions without encouraging virtuous behaviour. 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 could offer a framework for developing insight and understanding, together with the opportunity for cathartic relief (the therapeutic purging of emotions by means of their expression in art), to a population that was wrestling with questions concerning divine purpose and the worth of human virtue. Aristotle meticulously described the elements and goals of tragedy on the Greek stage in the manuscript that became known as the Poetics, written in about 330 bc.

According to the Poetics, the action that animates a tragedy must be stately in tone, complete (brought to a clear resolution), and of great moral significance. This action should underlie and focus all the different aspects of the tragic performance—whether plot, character, thought, diction, song, or spectacle. Among the elements of a play, it is the plot (with beginning, middle, and end focused on a single situation) that is the ultimate driving force behind the drama. Aristotle further believed that the finest tragedies achieve their passionate focus through showing a conflict—both its development and its aftermath—that unfolds during a single day. In one example, Antigone (c. 441 bc) by Greek dramatist Sophocles, the conflict is that of the individual versus the state, and of higher law versus a ruler’s decrees. Antigone insists upon burying her brother Polynices in obedience to the law of the gods. But Creon, king of Thebes, has forbidden the burial of Polynices, because he had led a revolt against Thebes, and the king orders Antigone’s death for her defiance. Creon 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 to the seemingly virtuous, if flawed, hero Creon in an intense experience of discovery and loss. Aristotle felt that the audience's natural identification with the tragic protagonist's final agony or painful end—in this case, Creon’s loss of his family resulting from his defiance of divine law—purged the community of fear and pity. The emotional release and purification that was achieved through this catharsis are the primary goal of tragedy, according to the Poetics.

Aristotle's prescriptions for the writing of tragedy heavily influenced French and Italian academics and intellectuals during the Renaissance. In the 1570s theoreticians known as Neo-Classicists (because they took their inspiration from classical Greece and Rome) interpreted the requirements of the Poetics to include unity of place with the unities 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 required that the tragic heroes must be people of royal or other high-born backgrounds. In the 17th and much of the 18th century this formula for tragedy was augmented with aspects of contemporary aristocratic social mores, including a sense of decorum, taste, and simplicity. In the late 18th century, however, such restrictions on the definition and formulation of tragic plays lessened, for a number of reasons. Among them were the general collapse of aristocratic power in Western Europe and the rise of the middle class, which consequently lessened the importance of aristocratic values. The decline of universally accepted religious values and the growth of individualism brought about by Enlightenment thinking also contributed to a shift in the importance and form of the tragic genre.

III

History

Classical Greek tragedy originated in the theatrical contests held in Athens in the 6th century bc as part of the civic festivals known as the Dionysia. Masked actors, often accompanied by a chorus, performed three related tragic plays and a satyr play, all featuring music and dance as important elements; the satyr play often mocked the serious theme of the tragedies. The word tragedy itself derives from the Greek for “goat-song”, and it is thought that a goat was awarded as the prize in the dramatic competitions at the Great Dionysia festival. The social importance of theatre in the life of Athens cannot be overstated. Private and public patrons gave vast amounts of funding each year to sustain the competition, and carefully regulated all aspects of 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 further developed throughout his career. Aeschylus's skilful use of poetic language and brilliant characterizations effortlessly brought together human and divine characters as creators of and participants in a single mythic destiny. The Oresteia trilogy (produced in 458 bc) is among his few surviving works. The trilogy excited and frightened Athenian spectators unlike anything they had seen before, as they watched the terrifying Furies (avenging goddesses) pursuing the righteous Orestes in order to exact retribution for his killing of his mother: an act committed in revenge for her murder of his father.

Sophocles, another great tragic author, refined Aeschylus's tragic storytelling, infusing his presentation of mythic characters with a sense of irony and plausibility. In Oedipus Tyrannus (c. 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 on-stage. Oedipus's self-conscious vanity and restless nature seem strikingly familiar and credible, making his self-mutilation at the end of the play all the more unsettling. Euripides, the third great tragic dramatist of Greece, wrote the most provocative tragedies yet known, although because he worked against the expectations of his audiences he did not achieve the same level of popularity as Aeschylus or Sophocles. The tragedies of Euripides 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 receiving earthly or supernatural punishment: instead, 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 tragic dramas on Greek subject matter and themes. However, his works had a high moral tone, with commentaries on the action punctuating the plays. This technique, along with his sensational plot treatments—witches, ghosts, and dead bodies often populate the stage—made evident an innovative vision that proved a powerful inspiration to future playwrights. For example, William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus shows evidence of Senecan influence.