Assignment Number Three

A tragedy is a drama or literary work where the main character faces extreme sorrow. Usually this is because of a character's tragic flaw or moral weakness. Aristotle says that “tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude […]with incidents arousing pity and fear.” Therefore, a tragedy is a play that imitates real life, like comedy, but is serious, and extreme, enough to arouse “tragic” emotions.

The word ‘tragedy’ was developed in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. The word comes from the Greek word, ‘trageodia’, which is the Greek meaning of ‘goat song’. It is a combination of the Greek words ‘tragos’ meaning goat and ‘aeidein’ meaning to sing. How did the word tragedy come to have such obscure roots? It is most commonly believed that a group of men dressed in goat skins would perform the singing of a chloral lyric in honor of the God Dionysus. This act, called a dithyramb began to expand into any mythological or heroic story. Eventually these evolved into tragedies. The Greek playwrights presented their acts at the yearly festival of Dionysus as they competed to have the best act. Many believe the winner was given a goat as their prize; another reason that the word tragedies originates from the Greek word for goat.

Through history there have been different phases of what people consider a Tragedy. In the ancient times, a tragedy was considered any serious drama. Then, during the medieval times, a tragedy meant a story with an unhappy ending. In modern times, these meanings were mixed and a tragedy was considered as a drama with an unhappy ending.

Macbeth is a tragedy by Shakespeare. It has the elements of tragedy that can be found throughout. Part of the definition of tragedy, according to Aristotle, includes that tragic events apply to separate parts of the play. It is true that through the entire play, people die, through greed, fear, and vengeance. According to Aristotle, the events in a tragedy must follow up on each other, regardless of possible outside events. Once given the battle, the witches’ prophecy and Lady Macbeth’s influence, Macbeth finds himself becoming a pawn to fate. Nothing he does is actually unique to a malicious person. No matter what happens realistically besides the initial events given in the first act, all the tragic elements are still destined to happen. The second most important element of a tragedy is the depth and purpose of the characters. It should support the plot, emphasizing the fear and pity, namely in changing from fortune to misfortune being pity, and fear by how relatable the character might be. King Duncan meets an unfortunate fate of death, although he was a good man, who is relatable to the good citizens, and how quickly and fatally both King’s reign ended, no matter the intentions of the characters, invokes pity. Character and plot are two of six points defined by Aristotle, which are clearly related to a tragedy like Macbeth.