GOVERNMENT COLLEGE

UNIVERSITY FAISALABAD
SUBCAMPUS Hafizabad
SUBMITTED BY: ZAINAB AMAAN
ROLL #: 6514116
DEPARTMENT: BS ENGLISH lit.
SEMMESTER: 5th morning
SUBJECT: LITERARY ESSAYS
TOPIC: SHAKESPEAREAN tragedy
SUBMITTED TO: SIR REHMAT ULLAH

Topic:
SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY

Shakespearean tragedies are the tragedies that are written by

giant name of Elizabethan era “William Shakespear”. He is a
 playwriter of Rennaissance age. He almost wrote 38 plays for
theatre. But he was famous for his tragedies. Those were the
tragedies that gave him shine. Tragedy is the genre that is cursed
in literature with the death of protagonist / hero of plot. But
Shakespear's tragedies are something more important and
significant in the entire English literature. ‘Hamlet, King Lear,
Othello, and Macbeth.
These are very important to know that there are some
certain characteristics that are bound with the tragedy in
literature. Same as every genre, tragedy also gone thorough
particular innovations. As literature changes its colour thro ugh
time and circumstances so tragedies are also changing their
subjects, motives with the need of time and audience. Classical
Greek, Roman tragedies, Victorian tragedies, Elizabethan
tragedies, Rennaissance tragedies and more likely modern
tragedies.
They were named after time span, era and sometime after
writer’s name just like Marlow's tragedies. Shakespearean
tragedies and Sophocles' tragedies. So, tragedies hold criterions
that must be fulfilled, as Aristotle said that “it must arise pity
and fear among audience”. According to him
Tragedy is an imitation of an action
that is serious complete, and of a certain
magnitude…through pity and fear effecting the proper
purgation [catharsis] of these emotions.”

There are some certain characteristics that are profound in

tragedies written by Shakespeare. Most of his tragedies were
written in between 1601 and 1608. Following are some features
that are widely observed in his tragedies.

Tragedy is sometime primarily concerned with one person

 In his tragedies, his hero is not only the main character of
story but also the centre of plot, script and side character’s incident.
Like in hamlet, everyone around him is talking about him or with
him. He is the attractive and repulsive force foe every character
present in story. Same case happened in Othello, everyone around
him is so much influenced or admired by him, even he got approved
his name at many noble places.
Hero of noble blood
In Shakespearean tragedies, hero is always a man of
outstanding social status. A king in (King Lear, Julius Ceasure), a
prince (in Hamlet), and a very high official as in Othello and
Macbeth.
Hubris
As Aristotle mentioned hid Poetics that hero must has hamartia. It is
the trait or habit that will ultimately be the cause of his downfall or
tragic end. In these tragedies everyone has fault that become the cause
of their tragic fall. It may not be their fate but free will. Either they
miss chance of survival or get in wrong.
In case of Hamlet, he was so indecisive so take an action. His
procrastination took him to the downfall. He was so unsure about
everything happening around him so he couldn't take an accurate
action in time.
In case of King Lear, king Lear's hamartia (tragic flaw) was his
arrogance and excessive pride. King Lear's tragic flaw of arrogance is
what causes him to lose his daughter Cordelia (the one who truly
loves him). Because of Lear's pride, he disowns Cordelia and loses his
most faithful servant, Kent.
In this case, Othello's hamartia, or internal tragic flaw, is his extreme
jealousy. It is this jealousy that enables him to be tricked and allows
him to create his own destruction. Macbeth's tragic flaw, or hamartia,
is his ambition.
 Macbeth wants more out of life, just like many humans do, but he
becomes obsessed with it. This obsession leads to him killing the
King and his best friends. what makes Macbeth's ambition his fatal
flaw is that it blinds him, and he becomes obsessed with it.
Hero undergoes reversal of fortune
Due to that hamartia, hero must meet his tragic end or reversal of
fortune. In Hamlet, he got murdered by his uncle just because he
missed the chance to kil him before he got killed by him. His
indecisive powers blinded him to take any action.
In king Lear’s case, tragically, the messenger arrives too late, and
Lear enters carrying Cordelia's (his beloved daughter) dead body. As
he mourns the death of his daughter, Lear also learns that Gloucester
(his loyal servant) has died and that the Fool has been hanged. The
agony of loss upon loss breaks Lear's heart and he too dies.
Othello's suicide serves as a kind of trial in which he decides on and
enacts a punishment for his crime of killing Desdemona. In his final
speech, he explains how he hopes to be remembered, saying “When
you shall these unlucky deeds relate / Speak of me as I am” (5.2.).
His often use of supernatural elements
Shakespeare’s plays give a large place to the supernatural. This is
because he wrote for an audience which had a liking for the fabulous
and the marvellous. There are Witches in Macbeth, Ghost in Hamlet.
These have a close relation with the abnormal conditions of minds of
the protagonists. Hamlet’s mobility of mind is connected with the
appearance of ghost in the first act and in mother’s closet. Macbeth’s
lust for power is aroused by the witches.
No Poetic Justice
In the region of poetic justice where virtue is rewarded and vice
punished, Shakespeare has his own laws which are the laws of the
living world and not of a theory. In Shakespeare’s tragedies, we find
that it is not only the evil that is punished but along with it the good
and virtuous must suffer. Yet it is true to nature that Shakespeare
knows once the evil is afoot it will also take in its train goodness too.
The Conflict
The conflict is of two kinds, both of which generally go on
simultaneously in Shakespearean tragedy. Antony’s mind is torn
between the opposite pulls of love and duty; Macbeth’s between those
of ambition and duty. In Romeo and Juliet and Richard II, the conflict
is almost entirely external. A lot of bloodshed is generally found in
Shakespearean tragedy. In Hamlet, there was a fight between inner
Hamlet and the prince Hamlet to take an action or not, (to be or not to
be). And in King Lear, there was a psychological conflict in his
character and in his daughters. They were all fighting with themselves
too.
In short, he is the man that is still shinning in the literature even
after two four centuries. William Shakespeare is himself a pearl that
cant born every day. His tragedies are always a beacon and guide for
upcoming writers and for those who want to create that sort of
content.