Tragedy
In the 6th century BCE, Athenian tragedy emerged as a dance-drama form during an annual state religious festival honoring Dionysus. Performances took place in open-air theaters on hillsides, likely holding around 12,000 people at the Theatre of Dionysus. Only 32 of more than a thousand plays performed in the 5th century have survived to this day. Aeschylus' The Persians stands as the earliest extant Greek tragedy and is uniquely recognized among ancient dramas. All actors were male and wore masks while performing choral parts that were sung to the accompaniment of an aulos. The chorus danced and sang in three sections called strophe, antistrophe, and epode. Playwrights presented tetralogies consisting of three tragedies followed by a comic satyr play. Some events like brutal murders occurred offstage and were revealed later using the ekkyklêma, a platform rolled out from behind scenes. This device displayed consequences such as Agamemnon's butchered body after his murder in Aeschylus' Oresteia. Another theatrical tool was the mechane crane used to hoist gods onto stage, creating what became known as deus ex machina.
Following Roman expansion into Greek territories between 270 and 240 BCE, regular Roman drama began with Livius Andronicus writing tragedies in 240 BCE. Five years later Gnaeus Naevius also started composing tragic works though he gained more fame for comedies. No complete early Roman tragedy survives despite being highly regarded during its time. Nine tragedies by Stoic philosopher Seneca remain extant today, all adapted from Greek originals including Phaedra based on Euripides' Hippolytus. These plays differ significantly from Greek versions through long declamatory narrative accounts and obtrusive moralizing rhetoric. Ghosts and witches abound while gods rarely appear in these dramatic works. Senecan tragedies explore themes of revenge, the occult, supernatural elements, suicide, blood and gore. Renaissance scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger preferred Seneca over Euripides when comparing Latin and Greek traditions. Historians cannot identify who wrote Octavia, the only surviving fabula praetexta about Roman subjects, though it was once mistakenly attributed to Seneca due to his appearance as a character within the play.
Classical Greek drama remained largely forgotten across Western Europe from the Middle Ages until the beginning of the 16th century. Medieval theatre focused instead on mystery plays, morality plays, farces and miracle plays. In Italy, Paduan Lovato de' Lovati reawakened interest in Roman models particularly Seneca's works between 1241 and 1309. Albertino Mussato wrote Eccerinis in 1315 using Ezzelino III da Romano's story to highlight dangers facing Padua from Cangrande della Scala of Verona. This became the first secular tragedy written since Roman times and may be considered the earliest Italian Renaissance work. Gian Giorgio Trissino composed Sophonisba in vernacular Italian around 1515 drawing from Livy's account of Carthaginian princess drinking poison rather than surrendering to Romans. Antonio Cammelli created Pamfila or Filostrato e Panfila in 1498 while Galeotto del Carretto produced another Sophonisba in 1502. British tragedies diverged from classical models by defying unities of time place and action favoring flexible dramatic structures. William Shakespeare expanded the genre further integrating comedy history and philosophy into works like King Lear Hamlet and Macbeth. Christopher Marlowe merged medieval morality traditions with Renaissance humanism through Doctor Faustus portraying a tragic protagonist seeking knowledge at salvation's expense.
Domestic tragedies emerged as a subgenre where ordinary middle-class or working-class individuals served as protagonists instead of kingly figures. Aristotle had argued that only great individuals deserved tragic treatment because their catastrophic downfall would move audiences more powerfully. George Lillo wrote The London Merchant in 1731 establishing what historians consider the first true bourgeois tragedy featuring merchant George Barnwell. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing produced Miss Sara Sampson in Germany in 1755 creating the earliest Bürgerliches Trauerspiel. These plays shifted focus away from Aristotelian definitions toward drama itself opposing melancholic stories against comedy. Characters' downfalls resulted increasingly from circumstances beyond control rather than personal flaws as established earlier by Shakespearean examples. Newly explored themes included wrongful convictions executions poverty starvation addiction alcoholism debt structural abuse child abuse crime domestic violence social shunning depression and loneliness. This variant became especially popular in modern age due to characters being more relatable to mass audiences across television programs books films and theatrical productions. Arthur Miller later argued in his 1949 essay Tragedy and the Common Man that tragedy could depict ordinary people in domestic surroundings thus defining domestic tragedies fundamentally differently from classical traditions.
Aristotle wrote Poetics around 335 BCE providing the earliest surviving explanation for tragedy's origin developing from choral dithyramb improvisations praising Dionysos. He defined tragedy as characterizing seriousness involving a great person experiencing reversal of fortune called peripeteia. Aristotle believed change from good to bad preferable because it induces pity and fear within spectators leading to catharsis emotional cleansing or healing. The tragic hero's hamartia often translated as character flaw or mistake caused inevitable but unforeseen reversals not brought about by general vice or depravity. Recognition anagnorisis allowed heroes to achieve awareness about human fate destiny and will of gods changing ignorance into knowledge bonds of love or hate. Hegel developed complementary theories differentiating Greek tragedy from Shakespearean works through conflict of ethical forces represented by characters. His Phenomenology of Spirit argued Greek tragedy involved conflicts between ethical powers while Shakespearean tragedy rendered conflicts as subject versus object individual personality manifesting self-destructive passions defending against hostile external worlds. G.W.F. Hegel examined Hamlet externally seeing death brought accidentally yet understanding internally that death lurked from beginning sandbank of finitude insufficiently satisfying sorrow and tenderness.
Towards close of eighteenth century Joanna Baillie revolutionized theatre believing it could affect people's lives more effectively through new direction defining tragedy as unveiling human mind under dominion strong fixed passions brooding from small beginnings. Her Series of Plays on Passions commenced publication in 1798 creating scenes capturing audience inquisitiveness tracing progress enemy approach stages where suffering might have been combated successfully. Pierre Corneille made mark with Médée in 1635 and Le Cid in 1636 though his first version listed as tragicomedy featuring noble characters not depicted vile. Jean Racine condensed plots into tight passionate duty-bound conflicts between small group noble characters concentrating double-binds geometry unfulfilled desires hatreds. Richard Wagner pursued Gesamtkunstwerk integrated work of art returning to ideal Greek tragedy blending all arts serving drama. Nietzsche supported Wagner claims being successor ancient dramatists in Birth of Tragedy published 1872. Modernist literature rejected Aristotle dictum true tragedy only depicting those power high status while critics like George Steiner argued tragedy may no longer exist compared former manifestations classical antiquity. Contemporary examples include Froth on the Daydream The Road The Fault in Our Stars Sophie's Choice Fat City Rabbit Hole Requiem for a Dream Handmaid's Tale continuing tradition today.
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Common questions
When did Athenian tragedy emerge as a dance-drama form?
Athenian tragedy emerged in the 6th century BCE during an annual state religious festival honoring Dionysus. Performances took place in open-air theaters on hillsides, likely holding around 12,000 people at the Theatre of Dionysus.
What is the earliest extant Greek tragedy and who wrote it?
Aeschylus' The Persians stands as the earliest extant Greek tragedy and is uniquely recognized among ancient dramas. Only 32 of more than a thousand plays performed in the 5th century have survived to this day.
Who wrote tragedies in 240 BCE following Roman expansion into Greek territories?
Regular Roman drama began with Livius Andronicus writing tragedies in 240 BCE after Roman expansion between 270 and 240 BCE. Five years later Gnaeus Naevius also started composing tragic works though he gained more fame for comedies.
Which play by Seneca was adapted from Euripides' Hippolytus?
Nine tragedies by Stoic philosopher Seneca remain extant today including Phaedra based on Euripides' Hippolytus. These plays differ significantly from Greek versions through long declamatory narrative accounts and obtrusive moralizing rhetoric.
When did Albertino Mussato write Eccerinis and what story does it use?
Albertino Mussato wrote Eccerinis in 1315 using Ezzelino III da Romano's story to highlight dangers facing Padua from Cangrande della Scala of Verona. This became the first secular tragedy written since Roman times and may be considered the earliest Italian Renaissance work.
What year did George Lillo write The London Merchant establishing bourgeois tragedy?
George Lillo wrote The London Merchant in 1731 establishing what historians consider the first true bourgeois tragedy featuring merchant George Barnwell. Arthur Miller later argued in his 1949 essay Tragedy and the Common Man that tragedy could depict ordinary people in domestic surroundings thus defining domestic tragedies fundamentally differently from classical traditions.