Introduction Pertemuan 12 Matakuliah: G0302/Introduction to Literature Tahun: 2007

Bina Nusantara Tragedy Comedy Melodrama Farce Drama 3

Bina Nusantara The typical ending for tragedy is a death. Successful tragedies, though they involve suffering and sadness, do not leave the spectator depressed. Some funny plays have sad endings; they send the viewer away with a lump in the throat. A few plays usually classified as tragedies do not have unhappy endings but conclude with the protagonist’s triumph. tragedy 4

Bina Nusantara tragedy Aristotle: a tragedy is the imitation in dramatic form of an action that is serious and complete, with incidents arousing pity and fear wherewith it effects a catharsis of such emotions. The language used is pleasurable and appropriate throughout to the situation in which it is used.

Bina Nusantara tragedy The chief character are noble personages and the action they perform are noble action. The plot involves a change in the protagonist’s fortune, in which he falls from happiness to misery. The protagonist is not a perfect good man nor yet a bad man

Bina Nusantara tragedy A good tragic plot has organic unity; the events follow not just after one another but because of one another. The best tragic plots involve reversal or a discovery or both.

Bina Nusantara tragedy The central features of tragedy: 1. the tragic hero is a man of noble stature. He has a greatness about him. He is not an ordinary man but one of outstanding quality.In Greek and Shakespearean tragedy, he is usually a prince or a king. He is great not primarily by virtue of his kingship but by his possession of extraordinary powers, by qualities of passion or aspiration or nobility of mind.

Bina Nusantara tragedy 2. Though the tragic hero is preeminently great, he is not perfect. Combined with his strength there is vulnerability. 3. The hero’s downfall, therefore, is partially his own fault. Accident, villainy, or fate may contribute to the downfall. 4. nevertheless, the hero’s misfortune is not wholly deserved.

Bina Nusantara tragedy 5. Yet the tragic fall is not pure loss. Though it may result in the protagonist’s death, it involves, before his death, some increase in awareness, some gain in self- knowledge, some discovery, a change from ignorance to knowledge. 6. Though it arouses solemn emotions—pity and fear, says Aristotle, but compassion and awe might be better terms—tragedy, when well performed, does not leave its audience in a state of depression.