Shakespearean
Genres
TRAGEDY
Areas for Contextual Study- Genre
► Tragedy
-Definitions of Tragedy
-Aristotle and Tragedy
-Key elements of Tragedy
-Structure of Tragedy
-Characters in Tragedy- The Tragic Hero, The Villain
-Conventions in Tragedy
-Types of Tragedy
-Shakespearean Tragedy
Definitions of Tragedy
► Tragedy is a stylised representation of suffering- it is a genre
which portrays human suffering and ultimately ends in
disaster and death.
► While tragedy in Shakespeare’s time enabled Elizabethans
and Jacobeans to scrutinise themselves and their society, it is
also rooted in the concerns and emotions common to human
beings in all ages.
► Tragedy shows how characters cope, or fail to cope with
destructive impulses.
► In short, tragedy explores what it is to be human.
► N.B- When writing about the play as a tragedy, avoid the
temptation to spot the tragic elements and say “and this is
tragic”. Try to get beyond the feature and see what meanings
emerge.
Aristotle and Tragedy
Aristotle (384-322BC) was an ancient Greek
philosopher whose book The Poetics detailed and
analysed the main aspects of Greek Tragedy.
The events are
The events of the plot are serious, and the
A tragedy represents
self contained (within one characters have a
human action.
piece of work). high social status.
“Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is admirable, complete and possesses
magnitude…in the form of action, not through narration; effecting through pity and
fear the purification of such emotions”.
Tragedy creates pity and fear in
It’s acted rather than simply the audience, but the ending
being described. purges them of these feelings.
Aristotle and Tragedy
► The classical notion of tragedy is that it charts the
fall of a great man from a position of high esteem
and power to his death.
► Of crucial importance is the notion that the
protagonist has a fault, or flaw, in his character
which brings about his downfall.
► The experience of tragedy excites in members of the
audience intense emotions of pity and fear as they
share in the experience of the central characters and
undergo a purgation, or catharsis.
Aristotle and Tragedy
► The conventions of tragedy he identified in The Poetics are regarded as
significant and, to an extent, seem to have influenced Shakespeare.
► Aristotle said that tragedy should focus on a noble character who makes
a mistake. This leads to their downfall as the hero is punished severely. In
the end, however, the noble hero gains some self-knowledge and,
partially at least, redeems their reputation.
► He claimed that the main character must not be perfect or vicious, but “the
man between these extremes”, because “pity is induced by undeserving
misfortune, and fear by the misfortunes of normal people”.
► Aristotle suggested that tragic protagonists have greatness – of stature or
magnitude- that marks them out as special.
► In order for tragedy to arouse feelings of pity, horror and pleasure in the
audience, tragic protagonists must have qualities we can relate to. When
the scope of the protagonist’s suffering is greater than their error, pity
results.
► One of Aristotle’s ideas became misused and exaggerated, becoming a rule
for plays: tragedy should observe the Three Unities:
► - Time (the action should span less than a day)
► - Place (there should be a single setting)
► - Action (there should be one main character and one development of plat
Key elements of Tragedy
Tragedy shows the fall of an important person from happiness and prosperity and into misery and
catastrophe.
The suffering and fall of the tragic hero can be charted
through the following features of tragedy that Aristotle
describes:
► Hubris- excessive pride/arrogance. A pronounced self-belief
that makes them carry on with their actions in spite of
warnings.
► Harmatia- the errors of judgment, or the specific action that
leads to the downfall.
► Peripeteia- a reversal of fortune, the moment of catastrophe
when the downfall occurs.
► Anagnorisis- the hero moves from ignorance to knowledge;
the moment when they becomes aware of the magnitude of of
their error.
► Catharsis- a sense of cleansing, the shedding of the feelings of
Structure of Tragedy
► Act 1: The Exposition Here, the audience learns the
setting (Time/Place), characters are developed.
► The Complication Some incident or issue will begin a
conflict that will continue throughout the play.
► Act 2: Rising Action The action of this act leads the
audience to the climax. It is common for complications to
arise, or for the protagonist to encounter obstacles.
► Act 3: The Climax This is the turning point of the play.
From this point on, the hero moves towards his inevitable
end.
► Act 4: Falling Action The falling action includes those
events occurring from the time of the climax up to the
hero’s death. The episodes will show both advances and
declines in the various forces acting upon the hero.
► Act 5: Catastrophe The catastrophe concerns the
necessary consequences of the hero’s
actions (death). The catastrophe will be characteristically
simple and brief.
► Denouement or Resolution This is the final outcome of
the drama. Here the authors tone about his or her subject
matter is revealed, and sometimes a moral or lesson is
Characters in Tragedy- The Tragic
Hero ► According to Aristotle, the tragic hero should not be entirely good or evil. Tragic
characters may be both monstrous and admirable.
► We can identify with these characters easily because they are not perfect or
utterly villainous: their flawed humanity appeals to us and enable us to pity them,
and feel their fear.
► There is something (a fatal flaw) in the hero’s character that precipitates his
disaster- something the hero cannot control, so that the steps towards tragedy
seem inevitable in his character.
► The tragic hero will have a character which makes him unfit to cope with the
tragic situations confronting him.
► Normally, both the suffering and the catastrophe are far worse than he is said to
deserve, and others are engulfed in them who don’t deserve it.
► They can often be represented as an outsider.
► A tragic hero can provoke positive responses in the audience. Their self-belief and
grandeur can be heroic and the scale of their suffering a source of sympathy.
► However, they can also provoke negative responses. Their actions can cause
revulsion and their arrogance can be an unattractive quality.
► Tragic heroes can either suffer madness or are associated with it. Madness often
seems to be a form of divine punishment.
► Aristotle’s “tragic hero” is defined in his poetics and states that: “A man doesn’t
become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall”.
Characters in Tragedy- The Villain
► Tragic villains are a significant cause of the chaos and
disorder that appear in tragic texts.
► They manipulate the hero and bring about his downfall.
► They can sometimes display qualities that help us to
understand their motivations.
► They can sometimes be depicted as inherently evil.
► Villains in revenge tragedies are often depicted as cynical,
quick-witted and opportunistic.
► Similarly to the tragic hero, the tragic villain may be both
monstrous and admirable.
► They can be a source of irony and humour, which may
make them somewhat appealing to the audience.
► In most Jacobean tragedies, the villain dies as part of the
process of catharsis so that order can be restored.
Other Conventions in Tragedy
► There is an element of the inevitable when it comes to
tragedy- fate, internal and external forces work to bring the
downfall of the tragic hero.
► Conflict lies at the heart of tragedy. Driven by negative
impulses and emotions, characters in tragedies find themselves
embroiled in an internal conflict with themselves and embroiled
in disputes with each other.
► Every tragedy is about loss or waste: in each, something
precious is lost or wasted, most obviously, life itself, but also
innocence or youth or honour and so on.
► Compared to the titles of plays in other Shakespearean Genres
(Comedy, Problem Plays, History etc.), the titles of tragedies
indicate a more limited emphasis and are named after the
play’s tragic figure(s): Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet. This
reinforces that the focus of the play is on the misfortunes and
downfall of a great individual.
Types of Tragedy
Within the genre of tragedy, there are several sub-genres with their own distinctive
features. The following are the sub-genres of tragedy:
► Jacobean/Senecan Revenge Tragedy
► Political Tragedy
► Domestic Tragedy
Jacobean Revenge/Senecan Tragedy
► “Jacobean Tragedy” refers to tragedies written during the reign of
King James I from 1603-1625 (Othello c. 1604).
► It is often referred to as “revenge tragedy” or “the theatre of
blood” due to it being influenced by Senecan Tragedy, a much more
brutal and bloodthirsty sub-genre. (Othello- ‘I’ll tear her all to pieces!’
(III.3.436)).
► Revenge usually dominates the motivation of one or many characters.
Different attitudes to revenge are explored and revenge itself provides
dramatic suspense.
► The revenger passionately seeks to revenge a wrong. He feels the
wrong is a dishonour, and sees revenge as a duty that he owes to his
honour.
► There is death, blood, brutality and chaos on stage.
► The revengers often use exaggerated, hyperbolic language.
► Characters often descend into madness.
► There is an element of tragic loss.
► A typical character in Jacobean Tragedy is “the malcontent”- a troubled
individual who comments critically on society and other characters
Political Tragedy vs Domestic Tragedy
► Political tragedies are ones that deal with the affairs of the ► A domestic tragedy contains a
state and political power, rather than private, domestic less socially impressive
issues. protagonist, one of middle or
lower class status, and one who
► They are concerned with the power struggles of powerful
might possibly be more easy for
members of state/government etc. and are set in public
the audience to identify with.
places.
► Domestic tragedies focus on the
► Major conflict Antony is torn between his duties as a Roman
private lives of the characters,
ruler and soldier and his desire to live in Egypt with his lover,
usually in a more private,
Cleopatra. This inner conflict leads him to become embroiled
domestic setting.
in a war with Caesar, one of his fellow triumvirs.
► They explore personal themes-
► They can also be seen as political as what happens to the
jealousy, love, deception,
main characters affects the society in which they live.
revenge. They explore the inner
► However, the political situation becomes just a backdrop for workings of the human mind
the personal tragedy that unfolds. more closely than political
issues of war and conflict.
► Although, elements of political tragedy remain throughout.
The male characters’ roles in the Venetian
government/military etc.
► Hamartia is an “error in judgment.” It comes from
hamartanein, which was the situation of an archer missing
his target; so, really, it's more like the character is trying to
achieve his goal, but a mistake carries his downfall.
Shakespearean Tragedy
► Shakespeare explores the nature of good and evil, the
disintegration of relationships and the breakdown of
law and order within states.
► However, within his tragedies, Shakespeare did not
strictly adhere to all of the conventions of tragedy.
► Shakespeare presents the first black hero in English
drama, departing from theatrical convention.
► Shakespeare also subverts tragic conventions by
keeping the evil revenger Iago alive at the end of the
play.
► Shakespearean tragedies do seem to close by bringing
to an end the disruptive elements that have led to the
catastrophe, although there is sometimes a lingering
sense that order has been restored only temporarily.
► Shakespearean tragedy works on the principle that
protagonists are not able to see the whole picture of
their circumstances until the very end of their lives,
although information is revealed to the audience
Themes in Antonio and Cleopatra
► Love
► Pleasure
► Decadence
► Honor
► Loyalty
► Betrayal
► Strategy
► Manipulation
► Power
► The Struggle Between Reason and Emotion
► The Clash of East and West
► The Definition of Honor
