1. What Defines Tragedy?

2. Where does tragedy come from?
The Greek philosopher Aristotle first defined “tragedy” in his book Poetics written in about 330 B.C.

3. Aristotle’s definition of tragedy had SIX parts:
Plot
(Dramatic Structure)
Character
Thought
Diction (delivery)
Spectacle
(visual demonstration)
Melody (music, rhythm, & rhyme)

4. What Defines Shakespearean Tragedy?
A Tragic Hero
The Tragic Flaw or Hamartia
Reversal of Fortune
Catharsis (emotion)
Restoration of Social Order
Who remembers this place?

5. What makes each of these figures a tragic hero?
The Tragic Hero
The tragic hero is someone we, as an audience, look up to—someone superior.
The tragic hero is a character that the audience can identify with
The tragic hero features a fatal flaw that exposes his/her weakness.
What makes each of these figures a tragic hero?

6. Tragic Flaw The hero is nearly perfect
The hero has one flaw or weakness
We call this the ‘tragic flaw’, ‘fatal flaw’, or hamartia.
Ex: Pride

7. Reversal of Fortune
The ‘fatal flaw’ brings the hero down from his/her elevated state.
(example from this year’s curriculum?)
Renaissance audiences were familiar with the ‘wheel of fortune’ or ‘fickle fate’.
What goes up, must come down.
Cycle of life

8. Catharsis We get the word ‘catharsis’ from Aristotle’s katharsis.
‘Catharsis’ is the audience’s purging of emotions through pity, fear, anger, etc.
The spectator is purged as a result of watching the hero fall.
This is why we cry during movies!

9. Restoration of Social Order
Tragedies include:
a private element (within a family or small group)
a public element (society or governmental order)
The play cannot end until society is, once again, at peace.

10. The End