1. Shakespeare and Tragedy

2. A brief definition of Tragedy
Tragedy is a branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual.

3. Origins/History of Tragedy
Original Greek: tragodia (“goat song”) from Dionysian festivals
Tragedy from its beginning has dealt in universal themes of death and disaster connected with seasonal rhythms
Original Greek tragedies were performed by a chorus; later the tragic hero developed
Aeschylus was the first playwright to use dialogue

4. Tragic Theory
All Greek tragedy drew from familiar myths of gods and men; therefore the story was already known
The point of tragedy was not (and is not) to find out what happens, but rather to discover and learn from the changing awareness and responses of the characters involved – often resulting in irony
Many, if not most, major tragic events happened off-stage and were then commented upon

5. Qualities of Tragedy
The plot follows the hero’s involvement in an intolerable yet inescapable situation, the result of will, circumstance, ignorance or obligation
Hero eventually battles the inexorable fate that ensures an unhappy outcome
The experience is not entirely negative: it exposes human grandeur and dignity in extreme circumstances
Audience feels both ennobled and chastened – and achieves katharsis through tears

6. Development of Tragedy
Romans (esp. Seneca) essentially stole Greek tragedy and made it more sensational (and often more violent)
Elizabethan playwrights (Kyd, Marlowe) followed in this tradition
British adventurism (New World, etc.) influenced the Elizabethans, especially Shakespeare, to include a new topic: the rewards and perils of the over-ambitious hero’s individual achievement and discovery (pride derived from Greek hubris)

7. Shakespeare’s Great Tragedies
Shakespeare went beyond the drama of his time to present an imaginative vision of evil and of the resources with which man confronts evil in his extremity
Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are prominent but imperfect (Hamlet, Lear) and therefore serve as both compelling individual and symbol of society
Shakespeare’s trajectory as a writer took him from the social individual (comedy) to the burdened individual (history) to the overburdened individual (tragedy)

8. Shakespearean Tragedy: An Outline
A noble hero
Begins in a state of happiness & good fortune
Ends in a state of misery
Through both fate and his own fault (tragic flaw)
The outcome is inevitable once the hero sets off on his path to destruction
Order is re-established by a minor but noble character