Where does tragedy come from?

The Greek
philosopher
Aristotle first
defined tragedy in
his book Poetics
written in about
330 BCE
Aristotle’s definition of tragedy
had SIX parts:
Plot
Character
Thought
Diction
Spectacle
Melody
 What Defines Shakespearean
A Tragic Hero
Tragedy?
The Tragic Flaw-
Hamartia
Reversal of Fortune
Catharsis
Restoration of Social
Order –Denouement
 The Tragic Hero
The tragic hero is
someone we, as an
audience, look up to—
someone superior.
The tragic hero is
nearly perfect, and we
identify with him/her
 Tragic Flaw
The hero is nearly
perfect-
The hero has one flaw
or weakness
We call this the ‘tragic
flaw’, ‘fatal flaw’, or
hamartia.
 Reversal of Fortune
The ‘fatal flaw’ brings
the hero down from
his/her elevated state.
Renaissance audiences
were familiar with the
‘wheel of fortune’ or
‘fickle fate’.
What goes up, must
come down.
 Catharsis
We get the word
‘catharsis’ from
Aristotle’s katharsis.
‘Catharsis’ is the
audience’s purging of
emotions through pity
and fear.
The spectator is
purged as a result of
watching the hero fall.
This is why we cry
during movies!
 Restoration of Social Order
Tragedies include a
private and a public
element
The play cannot end
until society is, once
again, at peace.
HAMLET
 SOURCE

Shakespeare's main source is believed to be an earlier

play— now lost— known today as the Ur-Hamlet.
 PLOT

Hamlet is the son of the late king Hamlet (who dies about two
months before the play starts). After his father dies, his
brother Claudius becomes king and marries the queen of
Denmark, Gertrude.
Hamlet dreads that Claudius killed his own brother, King
Hamlet, to be the king of Denmark, which terribly angers
him.
Two officers of the king, Marcellus and Bernardo beckon
Hamlet's friend, Horatio, and later Hamlet himself to see the
late King Hamlet's ghost appear at midnight who tells him
something that creates a desire for revenge.
 THEMES

IMPOSSIBILITY OF
CERTAINTY
COMPLEXITY OF ACTION
MYSTERY OF DEATH
NATION AS A DISEASED
BODY
REVENGE
CLASS ISSUES
LOVE