tragedy

Introduction

tragedy, form of drama that depicts the suffering of a heroic individual who is often overcome by the very obstacles he is struggling to remove. The protagonist may be brought low by a character flaw or, as Hegel stated, caught in a “collision of equally justified ethical aims.”

Sections in this article:

Introduction
Twentieth-Century Tragedy
Moral, Domestic, and Political Tragedy
Renaissance and Later Tragedy
Ancient Tragedies
Bibliography

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