"Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes in its audience an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in the viewing" This quote, which I gathered while searching tragedy on Wikipedia, hits the meaning of tragedy right on the head. This is because the main purpose for tragedy in literature is to capture the audience's attention and entertain them. Tragedy causes drama which is something an audience needs in order to be entertained. Most people say they would prefer a happy ending, but the truth is that when a story ends in a tragic way, then unsettling feeling left from the unhappy ending leaves a more powerful impact than if everything had turned out the way we wanted. Also happy endings are too predictable. With a tragic piece, the audience receives a refreshing twist.
The love of tragedy spread world-wide and soon was popping up in theaters everywhere. 2500 years ago tragedy began to be preformed in the theatre of ancient Greece. Athenian tragedies were preformed in late March to early April at an annual state religious festival in honor of Dionysus. Then with the expansion of the Roman Empire into Greek territories between 270-240 BCE, the Romans began to become exposed to tragedy. Through the Roman Empire, tragedy spread west across Europe, around the Mediterranean and even reached England. A Greek influence was present in Roman performances until 240 BCE which then marked the beginning of regular Roman drama. Some of the great tragic philosophers that came from the Roman Empire include Gnaeus Naevius, Livius Andronicus, Quintus Ennius, Marcus Pacuvius, Lucius Accius, and Seneca. Then poets and play-writers in the Renaissance period "revived the classical Greek tragedy fusing Elizabethan drama and story line complexities with a more morbid ending (in which the protagonist usually dies, compared to Greek tragedy in which they live)." Through this period we had authors such as William Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, and Christopher Marlowe.
Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and the Renaissance period left the world with three very different but also very accomplished forms of tragedy. With their theater discoveries, audiences world wide have been entertained by a drama based on human suffering for 2500 years!
The love of tragedy spread world-wide and soon was popping up in theaters everywhere. 2500 years ago tragedy began to be preformed in the theatre of ancient Greece. Athenian tragedies were preformed in late March to early April at an annual state religious festival in honor of Dionysus. Then with the expansion of the Roman Empire into Greek territories between 270-240 BCE, the Romans began to become exposed to tragedy. Through the Roman Empire, tragedy spread west across Europe, around the Mediterranean and even reached England. A Greek influence was present in Roman performances until 240 BCE which then marked the beginning of regular Roman drama. Some of the great tragic philosophers that came from the Roman Empire include Gnaeus Naevius, Livius Andronicus, Quintus Ennius, Marcus Pacuvius, Lucius Accius, and Seneca. Then poets and play-writers in the Renaissance period "revived the classical Greek tragedy fusing Elizabethan drama and story line complexities with a more morbid ending (in which the protagonist usually dies, compared to Greek tragedy in which they live)." Through this period we had authors such as William Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, and Christopher Marlowe.
Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and the Renaissance period left the world with three very different but also very accomplished forms of tragedy. With their theater discoveries, audiences world wide have been entertained by a drama based on human suffering for 2500 years!