A tragedy is a type of drama that focuses on human suffering, especially through sad or difficult events that affect the main characters. Traditionally, the purpose of tragedy is to create a sense of emotional release, called catharsis, for the audience. This emotional experience, where pain leads to a feeling of pleasure, has been a common goal in many cultures. However, the term "tragedy" often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a key role in shaping Western culture. This tradition has changed over time but has always been tied to important cultural ideas and historical connections, as noted by writer Raymond Williams.
Tragedy began in ancient Greek theater about 2,500 years ago. Many works from playwrights like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides have survived, along with pieces from other writers. Later, Roman playwright Seneca also wrote tragedies. Over time, famous writers such as Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Jean Racine, and Friedrich Schiller developed unique forms of tragedy. More recently, playwrights like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Nurul Momen, Samuel Beckett, and Heiner Müller explored new ideas about tragedy, including themes of revenge, death, and suffering. Throughout history, tragedy has been a place where cultures have experimented with and changed their ideas. Many philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Voltaire, Hegel, Nietzsche, and others, have studied and discussed the genre.
After Aristotle wrote his work Poetics around 335 BCE, tragedy became a way to define different types of writing. It was used to separate tragedy from other forms like epic and lyric poetry, or from comedy in drama. In modern times, tragedy has also been compared to other forms such as drama, melodrama, tragicomedy, and epic theater. Drama, in a narrow sense, has moved away from the traditional divide between comedy and tragedy, especially from the mid-19th century. Playwrights like Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal created forms of theater (non-Aristotelian drama and Theatre of the Oppressed) that challenged traditional tragedy. However, some scholars, like Taxidou, argue that epic theater includes elements of tragedy, such as dealing with grief and deep thinking.
Etymology
The word "tragedy" has been used to describe different things at different times in history. It comes from the Ancient Greek word τραγῳδία, which means "goat song." This name is believed to come from two Greek words: τράγος (tragos), meaning "he-goat," and ᾠδή (ōidḗ), meaning "singing" or "ode." Some scholars think the word may have started when a goat was either a prize in a competition involving choral dancing or when a group of dancers moved around a goat before it was sacrificed in a ritual. Another idea, from a writer named Athenaeus, suggests the word might have originally been "trygodia," combining trygos (meaning "grape harvest") and ode (meaning "song"), because early performances might have happened during grape harvests.
In 335 BCE, long after the time of the famous 5th-century Athenian tragedies, the philosopher Aristotle wrote about the origins of tragedy in his work Poetics. He explained that tragedy began as improvisations by leaders of choral dances called dithyrambs, which were hymns sung and danced in honor of Dionysos, the god of wine and fertility. Over time, these performances grew more complex and changed until they became the form of tragedy we know today.
Aristotle also gave a definition of tragedy: it is a complete and important story told through spoken language, performed rather than just read, and it uses pity and fear to help the audience feel relief (called catharsis) from strong emotions.
Some scholars disagree with the idea that tragedy came from dithyrambs, pointing out differences in the style of dancing and the structure of choruses. Others suggest tragedy may have developed from older rituals related to fertility and burial practices. In his book The Birth of Tragedy (1872), the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche argued that the name "tragedy" might come from the use of satyrs—mythical creatures resembling goats—in early performances.
Scott Scullion, a scholar, wrote that there is strong evidence supporting the idea that "tragōidia" meant "song for the prize goat." This includes references from ancient texts, such as a work by the poet Horace and an inscription on the Parian Marble, which dates back to around 538–528 BCE. These sources mention that the first known tragedy was performed by a poet named Thespis, and the prize for the competition was a goat.
Greek
Athenian tragedy is the oldest surviving form of tragedy. It is a type of dance-drama that was an important part of the theatrical culture in the city-state of Athens. It began in the 6th century BCE and became most popular during the 5th century BCE. After that time, it spread to other parts of Greece. It remained popular until the start of the Hellenistic period. No tragedies from the 6th century have survived, and only 32 of more than 1,000 tragedies performed in the 5th century remain today. Complete texts of tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides are still available. Aeschylus’ The Persians is the oldest surviving Greek tragedy and is unique among ancient dramas.
Athenian tragedies were performed in late March or early April during an annual religious festival honoring Dionysus. The festival included a competition between three playwrights, each presenting their works over three days. Each playwright offered a set of four plays: three tragedies and one comic play called a satyr play. Sometimes, these plays had connected stories. Only one complete set of three tragedies, called the Oresteia by Aeschylus, has survived. Greek theaters were open-air, built on hillsides, and performances of a trilogy and satyr play likely lasted most of the day. These performances were open to all citizens, including women, though evidence for this is limited. The theater of Dionysus in Athens could hold about 12,000 people.
All choral parts in the plays were sung, often with the help of an instrument called an aulos. Some actors also sang in response to the chorus. The plays used different types of verse. All actors were men who wore masks. The chorus danced and sang, though the exact dance steps are unknown. Choral songs in tragedies are often divided into three parts: strophe (turning, circling), antistrophe (counter-turning, counter-circling), and epode (after-song).
Many Greek tragedians used a stage tool called the ekkyklêma, a hidden platform that could be rolled out to show the aftermath of events not visible to the audience. This was often used to display the results of violent acts, such as murders. For example, after the murder of Agamemnon in Aeschylus’ Oresteia, his body was shown on the ekkyklêma for the audience to see. This device is still used in modern theater. Another tool was the mechane, a crane used to lift a god or goddess onto the stage when they were supposed to appear flying. This led to the term deus ex machina, meaning a sudden, unexpected event that changes the outcome of a story.
Roman
After the Roman Republic expanded into Greek territories between 270 and 240 BCE, Rome came into contact with Greek tragedy. As the Roman Republic grew and later became the Roman Empire (27 BCE–476 CE), theatre spread across Europe, around the Mediterranean, and even reached Britain. Greek tragedy continued to be performed during the Roman period, but the year 240 BCE marks the start of regular Roman drama. Livius Andronicus began writing Roman tragedies, helping to create some of the first important works of Roman literature. Five years later, Gnaeus Naevius also started writing tragedies, though he was more famous for his comedies. No complete early Roman tragedy has survived, but these works were highly respected at the time. Historians know of three other early tragic playwrights: Quintus Ennius, Marcus Pacuvius, and Lucius Accius.
During the Roman Empire, only two playwrights’ tragedies have survived. One is from an unknown author, and the other is Seneca, a Stoic philosopher. Nine of Seneca’s tragedies remain, all of which are based on Greek plays, such as Phaedra, which was adapted from Euripides’ Hippolytus. Historians do not know who wrote Octavia, the only surviving example of a tragedy based on Roman subjects. In the past, Octavia was incorrectly credited to Seneca because he appears as a character in the play.
Seneca’s tragedies were inspired by the works of the three surviving Athenian tragic playwrights. These plays were likely performed at elite gatherings and differ from Greek tragedies in their long, dramatic descriptions of events, moral lessons, and exaggerated language. They focus on detailed accounts of violent actions and include long speeches by characters. While gods rarely appear in these plays, ghosts and witches are common. Senecan tragedies explore themes such as revenge, the supernatural, suicide, and bloodshed. Julius Caesar Scaliger, a Renaissance scholar who knew both Latin and Greek, preferred Seneca’s works over those of Euripides.
Renaissance
Classical Greek drama was not remembered much in Western Europe during the Middle Ages until the early 1600s. During the Middle Ages, theatre in Europe focused on mystery plays, morality plays, farces, and miracle plays. In Italy, models for tragedy during the later Middle Ages were based on Roman works, especially those by Seneca. Interest in Seneca’s plays was revived by Lovato de' Lovati of Padua (1241–1309). His student, Albertino Mussato (1261–1329), also of Padua, wrote a Latin verse tragedy called Eccerinis in 1315. This play used the story of the tyrant Ezzelino III da Romano to warn about the dangers posed by Cangrande della Scala of Verona. It was the first secular tragedy written since Roman times and is considered the first Italian tragedy clearly linked to the Renaissance. The earliest tragedies with purely classical themes were Achilles by Antonio Loschi of Vicenza (c.1365–1441), written before 1390, and Progne by Gregorio Correr of Venice (1409–1464), written between 1428 and 1429.
In 1515, Gian Giorgio Trissino of Vicenza (1478–1550) wrote his tragedy Sophonisba in the language that would later be called Italian. Based on Livy’s account of Sophonisba, a Carthaginian princess who drank poison to avoid capture by the Romans, the play followed classical rules. Soon after, Trissino’s friend, Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai of Florence (1475–1525), wrote Oreste and Rosmunda. Both plays were completed by early 1516 and were based on classical Greek models: Rosmunda on Euripides’ Hecuba and Oreste on Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris. These plays were written in Italian and used blank (unrhymed) hendecasyllables. Another early modern tragedy was A Castro by Portuguese poet António Ferreira, written around 1550 (but published in 1587). It told the story of the murder of Inês de Castro, a dramatic event in Portuguese history. These Italian plays are often considered the first regular tragedies in modern times and the earliest works written in blank hendecasyllables. However, they were preceded by two other plays in the vernacular: Pamfila or Filostrato e Panfila by Antonio Cammelli (Antonio da Pistoia), written in 1498 or 1508, and Sophonisba by Galeotto del Carretto in 1502.
By about 1500, printed copies of the works of Sophocles, Seneca, and Euripides, as well as comedies by Aristophanes, Terence, and Plautus, were available in Europe. Over the next forty years, humanists and poets translated and adapted these works. In the 1540s, European universities, especially Jesuit colleges starting in 1553, hosted Neo-Latin theatre written in Latin by scholars. Seneca’s influence was strong in humanist tragedies, as his plays featured ghosts, lyrical passages, and rhetorical speeches, focusing more on language than dramatic action.
The main influences on French tragic theatre during the Renaissance were Seneca, as well as the ideas of Horace and Aristotle (and writings by Julius Caesar Scaliger and Lodovico Castelvetro). Plots were taken from classical authors like Plutarch and Suetonius, the Bible, contemporary events, and short story collections from Italy, France, and Spain. Greek tragedians like Sophocles and Euripides became more important as models by the mid-1600s. Spanish playwrights such as Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina, and Lope de Vega also influenced French theatre, with many of their works translated and adapted for the French stage.
British tragedy, especially during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, differed from classical models in both form and theme. While influenced by Senecan drama, British tragedies often ignored the unities of time, place, and action, allowing for more flexible structures. This flexibility enabled deeper exploration of psychological complexity, political instability, and moral ambiguity. Unlike neoclassical ideals, British tragedies often mixed high and low characters and used tragicomic tones, creating a distinct national tradition. The chaotic structure and social mix of these plays reflected the political and religious changes of the time.
Common forms of tragedy include:
In English, the most famous tragedies are those by William Shakespeare and his Elizabethan contemporaries. Shakespeare’s tragedies, such as King Lear, Hamlet, and Macbeth, are known for their use of soliloquy and exploration of fate, madness, and human choices.
A contemporary of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, also wrote tragedies, including Doctor Faustus, which combined medieval morality themes with Renaissance humanism, showing a protagonist who seeks knowledge and power at the cost of salvation.
John Webster (1580?–1635?) wrote famous plays in this genre.
Domestic tragedies focus on ordinary middle-class or working-class individuals, unlike classical or neoclassical tragedies, which centered on kings or aristocrats whose downfall affected both personal and political matters. The ancient Greek theorist Aristotle argued that tragedy should involve great individuals because their downfall would be more emotionally powerful for audiences, while comedy should focus on middle-class people. Domestic tragedy challenges this idea by featuring everyday people whose lives have less global impact.
The rise of domestic tragedy marked a shift in the genre, focusing less on Aristotle’s definition and more on the contrast between tragedy and comedy (melancholic stories). While suffering, mistakes, morality, and spectacle remain key elements, domestic tragedies often show characters’ downfalls caused by external circumstances rather than personal flaws, a feature first seen in Shakespeare’s works.
This type of tragedy influenced modern tragedies, such as those by Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, and Henrik Ibsen. Domestic tragedy is popular today because its characters are relatable to audiences and is the most common form adapted into modern media like television, books, films, and plays. Themes explored include wrongful convictions, poverty, addiction, abuse, crime, and loneliness.
Examples of classical domestic tragedies include:
Contemporary with Shakespeare, Italy took a different approach to reviving tragedy. Jacopo Peri, in the preface to his Euridice, referred to "the ancient Greeks and Romans (who in the opinion of many sang their staged tragedies throughout in representing them on stage)."
Neo-classical
During much of the 17th century, Pierre Corneille was the most successful writer of French tragedies. He is known for plays such as Médée (1635) and Le Cid (1636). Corneille’s tragedies were unusual because they often had happy endings, even though they were meant to be tragic. His first version of Le Cid was even classified as a tragicomedy. In his writings about theatre, Corneille changed how people thought about comedy and tragedy by focusing on new ideas.
Corneille continued writing plays until 1674, including tragedies and a type of play he called "heroic comedies." Many of his works remained popular, but his methods were criticized over time, especially by François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac. The rise of Jean Racine’s work in the late 1660s marked the end of Corneille’s leading position in French theatre.
Jean Racine’s tragedies were inspired by Greek myths and the works of ancient playwrights like Euripides, Sophocles, and Seneca. His plays focused on intense conflicts between a small group of noble characters, highlighting their difficult choices and unmet desires. Racine’s skill in writing poetry helped him show deep emotions and passionate love, such as in Phèdre, where a character loves her stepson. His influence made emotional crises a central part of tragedy for the rest of the century. Racine’s later plays, Esther and Athalie, introduced biblical stories and explored the role of theatre in educating young women. Like Corneille, Racine faced criticism for breaking traditional rules, such as when his play Bérénice was criticized for not including any deaths. Racine argued against the idea that tragedy must always involve death.
For more information about French tragedy from the 16th and 17th centuries, see the topics of French Renaissance literature and 17th-century French literature.
By the late 18th century, Joanna Baillie studied the work of earlier playwrights and wanted to change theatre to make it more powerful in influencing people’s lives. She redefined tragedy as the process of showing how strong emotions, such as anger or love, take control of a person’s mind and lead to suffering. She tested this idea in her three-volume work, Series of Plays on the Passions (starting in 1798), and in other plays. Her goal was to create scenes that would capture the audience’s interest and show how emotions develop, explaining when they could be stopped or how their unchecked growth leads to pain.
Bourgeois
Bourgeois tragedy, called Bürgerliches Trauerspiel in German, developed in 18th-century Europe during the Enlightenment and as the middle class grew in influence. This type of tragedy focuses on everyday people as main characters, unlike classical tragedies that centered on noble figures. The first true bourgeois tragedy was George Lillo's 1731 play, The London Merchant; or, the History of George Barnwell. In Germany, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's play Miss Sara Sampson, first performed in 1755, is considered the earliest example of Bürgerliches Trauerspiel.
Modern development
In modernist literature, the idea of what makes a tragedy has become less clear. A major change is the refusal to accept Aristotle's belief that true tragedy can only show people with power or high status. Arthur Miller's essay "Tragedy and the Common Man" (1949) explains that tragedy can also show ordinary people in everyday situations, creating what is called domestic tragedies. British playwright Howard Barker strongly supports the return of tragedy in modern theater, especially in his book Arguments for a Theatre. He says, "You leave tragedy better prepared to fight lies. After a musical, you are easily fooled," he claims.
Some critics, like George Steiner, argue that tragedy may no longer exist as it did in ancient times. In The Death of Tragedy (1961), Steiner described the features of Greek tragedy and the traditions that followed. In the Foreword (1980) to a new edition of his book, Steiner wrote that Shakespeare's plays are not a revival of the ancient tragic model. Instead, they reject this model by using tragi-comic and "realistic" methods. Part of this is because Shakespeare's imagination was "so wide and open to many different kinds of experiences." Compared to Greek drama and French classicism, Shakespeare's works are "more varied but mixed."
Many books and plays continue to follow the tradition of tragedy today. Examples include Froth on the Daydream, The Road, The Fault in Our Stars, Sophie's Choice, Fat City, Rabbit Hole, Requiem for a Dream, and The Handmaid's Tale.
Theories
Understanding what tragedy is can be difficult because there are many different definitions, and some of them don’t agree with each other. Oscar Mandel, in A Definition of Tragedy (1961), described two different ways to define tragedy. The first method focuses on how tragedy expresses the world’s order, asking what ideas or patterns are revealed through tragedy. The second method looks at the elements within the artwork itself, such as the characters, plot, and emotions, rather than what the artwork represents. Mandel identified four ways to define tragedy: (a) by formal elements, such as the "three unities"; (b) by the situation, such as defining tragedy as "the fall of a good person"; (c) by its ethical meaning, such as the moral or intellectual lessons it teaches; and (d) by its emotional effect, such as Aristotle’s idea that tragedy should evoke pity and fear.
Aristotle, in his work Poetics, described tragedy as a serious story involving a great person who experiences a sudden change in fortune, called peripeteia. He believed that a change from good to bad fortune, like in Oedipus Rex, is more powerful because it creates pity and fear in the audience. These emotions lead to catharsis, a process where the audience feels emotional healing after witnessing the suffering of the characters. Aristotle emphasized that tragedy should be complex, not simple, and should include events that evoke fear and pity. The change in fortune must result from the hero’s hamartia, a mistake or flaw, not from general wrongdoing. If the hero’s downfall is caused by forces outside themselves, such as the gods or society, Aristotle called this a misadventure, not a tragedy.
Aristotle also noted that the tragic hero may gain a deeper understanding of human fate or the will of the gods, called anagnorisis, which means a shift from ignorance to awareness. In Poetics, Aristotle defined tragedy as "an imitation of an action that is admirable, complete, and of great scale; told in a pleasing language, divided into parts; performed by actors, not through narration; and designed to create pity and fear, leading to emotional cleansing."
Common use of the word "tragedy" refers to any sad story, but for Aristotle, a true tragedy must follow specific rules outlined in Poetics. Social dramas, where the hero is a victim of society, do not meet these criteria because they lack the inner struggles or personal flaws that drive the hero’s downfall. The exact definition of tragedy remains debated.
Aristotle listed four types of tragedy, though he did not name them explicitly.
G.W.F. Hegel, a German philosopher, believed tragedy involves conflicts between opposing ethical ideas. In his essay Hegel’s Theory of Tragedy, A.C. Bradley explained that Hegel saw tragedy as a "tragic collision" between characters, different from Aristotle’s focus on the hero’s hamartia. In The Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel argued that ancient Greek tragedy involved conflicts between characters and ethical forces, while Shakespearean tragedy focused on the struggle between individuals and the external world. In ancient tragedy, heroes face unavoidable conflicts between their personal ethics and external duties, while modern characters face more personal and accidental challenges. Hegel described Hamlet as a tragedy where the hero’s inner turmoil and emotional pain lead to his death, showing how his personality and choices shape his fate.