William Shakespeare
Born April 23, 1564
Started as a performer in “Lord
Chamberlain’s Men”
His theater was called The
Globe
What Defines Tragedy?
Where does tragedy
come from?
The Greek
philosopher
Aristotle first
defined
“tragedy” in his
book Poetics
written in about
330 B.C.
Aristotle’s definition of
tragedy had SIX parts:
Plot
(Dramatic Structure)
Character
Thought
Diction
(delivery/elocution)
Spectacle
(visual demonstration)
Melody
(musical/fluidity)
What Defines
Shakespearean Tragedy?
A Tragic Hero
The Tragic Flaw
or Hamartia
Reversal of
Fortune
Catharsis
(emotion)
Restoration of
Social Order
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?
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
Reversal of Fortune
The ‘fatal flaw’ brings the
hero down from his/her
elevated state.
(Frankenstein? Winston?)
Renaissance audiences
were familiar with the
‘wheel of fortune’ or
‘fickle fate’.
What goes up, must come
down.
Cycle of life
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!
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.
The End