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Tragedy, Branch of Drama That Treats in A Serious and Dignified Style The Sorrowful or Terrible

Tragedy originated in ancient Greece as a serious dramatic form that explored the role of humanity in the universe through portrayals of heroic figures experiencing sorrowful or terrible events. The three great Greek dramatists - Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides - established conventions for tragedy that have endured for over two millennia. Historically, high-quality tragedy has flourished in just four specific eras and locations: 5th century BCE Greece, Elizabethan and Jacobean England from 1558 to 1625, 17th century France, and Europe and America from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. In the modern period beginning in the mid-19th century, the concepts of tragedy also found expression through

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61 views1 page

Tragedy, Branch of Drama That Treats in A Serious and Dignified Style The Sorrowful or Terrible

Tragedy originated in ancient Greece as a serious dramatic form that explored the role of humanity in the universe through portrayals of heroic figures experiencing sorrowful or terrible events. The three great Greek dramatists - Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides - established conventions for tragedy that have endured for over two millennia. Historically, high-quality tragedy has flourished in just four specific eras and locations: 5th century BCE Greece, Elizabethan and Jacobean England from 1558 to 1625, 17th century France, and Europe and America from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. In the modern period beginning in the mid-19th century, the concepts of tragedy also found expression through

Uploaded by

Dulfy Wolfy
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Tragedy, branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible

events encountered or caused by a heroic individual. By extension the term may be applied to
other literary works, such as the novel.

Although the word tragedy is often used loosely to describe any sort of disaster or misfortune,
it more precisely refers to a work of art that probes with high seriousness questions concerning
the role of man in the universe. The Greeks of Attica, the ancient state whose chief city was
Athens, first used the word in the 5th century bce to describe a specific kind of play, which was
presented at festivals in Greece. Sponsored by the local governments, these plays were attended
by the entire community, a small admission fee being provided by the state for those who could
not afford it themselves. The atmosphere surrounding the performances was more like that of
a religious ceremony than entertainment. There were altars to the gods, with priests in
attendance, and the subjects of the tragedies were the misfortunes of the heroes of legend,
religious myth, and history. Most of the material was derived from the works of Homer and
was common knowledge in the Greek communities. So powerful were the achievements of the
three greatest Greek dramatists—Aeschylus (525–456 bce), Sophocles (c. 496–406 bce), and
Euripides (c. 480–406 bce)—that the word they first used for their plays survived and came to
describe a literary genre that, in spite of many transformations and lapses, has proved its
viability through 25 centuries.

Historically, tragedy of a high order has been created in only four periods and locales: Attica,
in Greece, in the 5th century bce; England in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, from 1558
to 1625; 17th-century France; and Europe and America during the second half of the 19th
century and the first half of the 20th. Each period saw the development of a special orientation
and emphasis, a characteristic style of theatre. In the modern period, roughly from the middle
of the 19th century, the idea of tragedy found embodiment in the collateral form of the novel.

https://www.britannica.com/art/tragedy-literature

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