tragedy

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In the theatre, a play dealing with a serious theme, traditionally one in which a character meets disaster as a result either of personal failings or circumstances beyond his or her control. Historically the classical view of tragedy, as expressed by the Greek tragedians Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles, and the Roman tragedian Seneca, has been predominant in the Western tradition. The tragedies of English dramatist William Shakespeare and his contemporaries tend to involve wasted potential, for example in a man's power (Macbeth, 1605–06, King Lear, 1605–06), or in love (Romeo and Juliet, 1594–95, Othello, 1604–05). The late 19th and 20th centuries have rejected the concept that the tragic figure must be someone of high status, and written in an elevated poetic manner. In many ways, this reflects social change. The dramas of the Norwegian writer Ibsen portrayed the way middle-class lives could be destroyed, while the US dramatists Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller, and the English John Osborne feature true ‘working-class’ tragic heroes and heroines. German dramatist Brecht's epic theatre, where the cynical acts of the rich and powerful corrupt and destroy innocent ordinary folk, anticipated many of these ‘tragedies of protest’, whose concerns mirror those of early 20th century expressionism's drama and prose.

Development of classical tragedy
The Greek view of tragedy was developed by the philosopher Aristotle, but it was the Roman Seneca (whose works were probably intended to be read rather than acted) who influenced the Elizabethan tragedies of the English dramatists Marlowe and Shakespeare. French classical tragedy developed under the influence of both Seneca and an interpretation of Aristotle which gave rise to the theory of unities of time, place, and action, as observed by Racine, one of its greatest exponents. In Germany the tragedies of Goethe and Schiller led to the exaggerated melodrama (Sturm und Drang), which replaced pure tragedy.

Tragedy was always intended to have a beneficial effect on its audience. The classical catharsis (the audience's experience of emotional purification when watching tragedy) was replaced by Brecht's concept of alienation, in which the audience is intellectually (as opposed to emotionally) involved. Brecht's contention was that an emotional audience accepts what happens as inevitable, whereas they should be angered and leave the theatre bent on preventing such tragedies happening again. Despite the general division of tragedies into classical (dealing with noble characters) and modern (dealing with ordinary people), there has been a consistent, but less well known, genre of tragedy that has dramatised contemporary events. Even the Elizabethan theatre staged works inspired by contemporary events. The German dramatist Piscator dramatized German political controversies between World War I and II. Thus the genre moved from the merely sensational to the realm of agitprop.

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