A tragedy by definition is an event causing great suffering and distress. A tragic play or work of literature involves tragic events happening to the main character. When authors or well learned people talk about tragedy they talk about how "modern tragedy is much less defined"(Tragedy, Wikipedia) and how it was much easier to spot a tragic story in three hundred B.C.
The question is what exactly is a tragedy? To answer this question we must look at a few factors. A common misconception about tragedy is that it must have a sad, or unhappy ending. This is not true, many types of revenge tragedies, such as ones written by Pierre Corneille. (Tragedy, Wikipedia) HIs stories are tragic, even if critics at the time did not think so. Tragedy is a piece that pulls at your heartstrings. A well written tragedy should have the audiences feeling some strong emotions by the end of it. It is not uncommon for a person who has finished watching a tragedy to feel a strong relief.
In the end a tragedy can both provide strong emotions, and a new perspective. In order for a tragedy to be effective, it must have some sort of realistic qualities. This gives the audience the author's perspective on human nature. The author creates characters that he or she might find in the real world. If the characters are extremely vile, you would be able to presume the author is not a big fan of human nature.
So tragedy can be interpreted in many ways, there are a few things that make up tragedy, and tragedy is not always as it seems.
The question is what exactly is a tragedy? To answer this question we must look at a few factors. A common misconception about tragedy is that it must have a sad, or unhappy ending. This is not true, many types of revenge tragedies, such as ones written by Pierre Corneille. (Tragedy, Wikipedia) HIs stories are tragic, even if critics at the time did not think so. Tragedy is a piece that pulls at your heartstrings. A well written tragedy should have the audiences feeling some strong emotions by the end of it. It is not uncommon for a person who has finished watching a tragedy to feel a strong relief.
In the end a tragedy can both provide strong emotions, and a new perspective. In order for a tragedy to be effective, it must have some sort of realistic qualities. This gives the audience the author's perspective on human nature. The author creates characters that he or she might find in the real world. If the characters are extremely vile, you would be able to presume the author is not a big fan of human nature.
So tragedy can be interpreted in many ways, there are a few things that make up tragedy, and tragedy is not always as it seems.