In English drama, a domestic tragedy is a type of play where the main characters are ordinary people from the middle or working class. This type of play is different from classical and Neoclassical tragedies, where the main characters are royalty or nobility, and their downfall affects both the state and their personal lives. These plays are also different from De casibus tragedies, such as De casibus virorum illustrium by Giovanni Boccaccio.

The Ancient Greek thinker Aristotle believed that tragedy should focus only on important people with great minds and souls because their downfall would have a stronger emotional effect on the audience. He thought comedy should show middle-class people instead. Domestic tragedy goes against Aristotle’s ideas by focusing on characters like merchants or citizens whose lives have less impact on the world.

In Britain, the first domestic tragedies were written during the English Renaissance. One of the earliest examples is Arden of Faversham (1592), which tells the story of a middle-class man murdered by his wife who had an affair. Other well-known examples include A Woman Killed with Kindness (1607), A Yorkshire Tragedy (1608), and The Witch of Edmonton (1621). The play Othello can also be classified as a domestic tragedy.

Domestic tragedy was not commonly written during the Restoration drama era, when Neoclassicism was popular on stage. However, it returned in the 18th century through the works of George Lillo and Sir Richard Steele.