Elements of the Shakespearean

Tragedy
 Tragic Hero: a person of high rank
whose fate affects the destiny of his
country, city, or family.
 The hero is always an extraordinary
and admirable man. He is usually
good and noble, but when evil, he
has equal traits such as strength,
courage or ambition.
Shakespearean Tragedy

 The hero has a character flaw, which,

with the help of other circumstances,
leads the hero to calamity and death
—a contrast to the hero’s prior
happiness and glory.
 A dual conflict generates the play’s
action. There is an external conflict
(war) and an internal conflict
(Macbeth’s ambition and later his guilty
conscience).
Shakespearean Tragedy

 Good always triumphs in the end.

Although the hero has pulled down the
world around him, there is someone who
restores order at the end of the tragedy.
 Tragedies contain the supernatural, such
as witches and ghosts.
 Tragedies contain characters who
experience abnormal psychological
states, such as Macbeth’s visions.