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Shakespearean Tragedy: The Substance of A Tragedy - From A.C. Bradley

The document discusses the key elements and definition of a Shakespearean tragedy. It states that a tragedy primarily concerns one exceptional person of high social status who experiences a downfall due to a character flaw. This downfall leads to suffering and death, instilling pity and fear in the audience. It involves conflicts, both internal and external, that stem from the character's actions. The hero's greatness and potential waste are also important aspects that make their demise truly tragic.

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Subhash Kamalkar
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472 views

Shakespearean Tragedy: The Substance of A Tragedy - From A.C. Bradley

The document discusses the key elements and definition of a Shakespearean tragedy. It states that a tragedy primarily concerns one exceptional person of high social status who experiences a downfall due to a character flaw. This downfall leads to suffering and death, instilling pity and fear in the audience. It involves conflicts, both internal and external, that stem from the character's actions. The hero's greatness and potential waste are also important aspects that make their demise truly tragic.

Uploaded by

Subhash Kamalkar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Shakespearean

Tragedy
The Substance of a
Tragedy - from A.C.
Bradley

Tragedy

Concerned primarily with one person


Essentially a tale of suffering and calamity leading to
death
The suffering and calamity are exceptional. They
befall a significant person.
They are also, as a rule, unexpected, and
contrasted with previous happiness and/or glory.
Attended by tragic pity.
When he falls suddenly from the height of earthly
greatness to the dust, his fall produces a sense of
contrast, of the powerlessness of man, and of the
omnipotence - perhaps the caprice - of Fortune or
Fate.

Tragedy Continued

a)
b)
c)

a)
b)
c)

The centre of the tragedy may be said with equal


truth to lie in action issuing from a major character
flaw, or a character flaw issuing from action (from the
common ingredients such as:
abnormal conditions of mind
The supernatural
A chance or accident
The action can be defined as conflict:
Between two persons
Between two passions or tendencies, ideas,
principles, forces
There is also a conflict in the heros soul

The Tragic Hero

Is an exceptional being.
His nature is also exceptional: in his nature there is an
intensification of ordinary qualities.
In almost all, we observe a marked one-sidedness, a predisposition
in some particular direction; a total incapacity, in certain
circumstances, or resisting the force which draws in this direction; a
fatal tendency to identify the whole self with some interest, object,
passion, or habit of mind.
In the circumstances where we see the hero placed, his tragic trait,
which is also his greatness, is fatal to him.
In most cases the tragic error involves no conscious breach of right;
in some, it is accompanied by a full conviction of right.
It is necessary that he should have so much of greatness that in his
error and fall we may be vividly conscious of the possibilities of
human nature.
And with this greatness of the tragic hero is connected, secondly,
the centre of the tragic impression: that of tragic waste.

The Notion of Tragedy


The following definition has been pieced together from Aristotles Poetics:

Tragedy is an imitation of action. It is serious, complete and of a


certain magnitude. It treats of events which are pitiful and terrible
and concerns the reversal from good fortune to bad of a great
man who, by reason of some weakness or defect of character, is
thus the cause of his own downfall. Because this man is great,
either by birth or position, his downfall seems more terrible than
if he were an ordinary man; it has also far-reaching effects in the
lives of others. Because morally he is a man like ourselvesneither eminently virtuous nor viciously depraved- h is
misfortune arouses in us the emotion of fear. Because his
downfall is partly his own fault, and because it seems to be far
out of proportion to the evil of his actions, we experience a
feeling of pity for him. Through our sympathies with this tragic
hero we undergo a catharsis or purgation of the emotions.

The Notion of Tragedy Contd


Some technical Greek vocabulary of drama (from Aristotle):
Mimesis- the art of representation
Anagnorisis- moment of critical discovery
Catharsis- relief or purging
Dianoia- knowledge or theme
Opsis- visual elements
Hamartia- a mistake, or taking a flawed path
Hubris- pride, arrogance, out of touch with reality
Mythos- myth- story, the plot
Lexis- diction
Peripeteia- reversal
Nemesis- arch-enemy
Ethos- characters
Melos- music
Aristotles 6 elements include Lexis, Ethos, Melos, Opsis, and Mythos

Modern Definition of Tragedy


A

tragedy is a drama of a protagonist


who commands our earnest good
will and is impelled in a given world
by a purpose, or undertakes an
action, of a certain seriousness and
magnitude; and by that very purpose
or action, subject to that same given
world, necessarily and inevitably
meets with grave spiritual or physical
suffering.

Another Modern Definition


Tragedy,

in its pure idea, shows us a


mortal will engaged in an unequal
struggle with destiny, whether that
destiny be represented by the forces
within or without the mind, the
conflict reaches its tragic issue when
the individual perishes, but through
his ruin the disrupted order of the
world is restored and the moral
forces reassert their way.

Shakespearean Tragedy

A tragedy is a drama of a significant person who,


because of a flaw in his character, experiences a
fall that leads to suffering and earth, the whole
experiences producing pity and fear in the
audience.
Drama: This means there is ACTION of a serious
magnitude involving a number of people
interacting on a stage.
Significant Person: this is usually a king or prince,
or a person of high standing in the community.
More than this, the person is significant in that he
is noted for being a noble in character in some
way that raises him above ordinary people.

Plot
A. The Story of a Hero
i) Leads up to and
includes the death
of the hero
ii) A tale of suffering
and calamity
leading to death

B. Suffering

Shakespearean
Tragedy

i) Severe
ii) Unexpected and
contrast to presvious glory

Shakespearean Tragedy
Contd
A Flaw: there is a serious problem or imperfection or

predisposition in his character that causes him to err in his


actions. The tragic hero, because of his flaw in character, is
responsible for his actions and for his own death. The very
character trait that makes the person exceptional may be also his
flaw.
A Fall: the tragic hero falls physically to his death, but also falls
in the sense of not realizing his true potential. There is a sense of
waste at the end of the drama, of the person not having achieved
what he should have achieved.
Pity and Fear- these are emotions instilled in the audience. The
audience identifies with the hero (we put ourselves in his shoes)
and we thus feel pity for the hero when he falls to his death. The
audience also fears that such things can happen to us if we are
not careful enough in real life.

c. Concerned with person of high degree

1. Plot
a.

The Story of a Hero

i)
ii)

Leads up to and includes the death of the hero


A tale of suffering and calamity leading to death

i)
ii)
iii)

A leader or head of state


His fate affects the nation
His fall suggests the powerlessness
of man and the power of fate

b. Suffering
i)
Severe
ii)
Unexpected and contrast to previous glory

6. Good vs. Evil


Villainy is defeated in the end.

i)
Exceptional nature
ii)
Desire, passion, will
iii)
Tragic Trait- a marked onesidedness, fatal to the hero
i)
A great waste of potential

The tragedy proceeds


from the action of people
i)

Shakespearean
Tragedy

4. Conflict
5. The Hero

2. Action

i)
outward- between
persons or groups
i)
Inward - between
the hero and himself

i)

3. Elements of
the Story
The Hero has
i)
i)
i)

THE HEROS ACTION CAUSES HIS DESTRUCTION

Main source of action


is character
Hero contributes to his
own demise

Abnormal conditions of
the mind
Encounters with the
supernatural
Encounters with chance
and accident

HAMLET AS A TRAGIC HERO


PAGAN WORLD
(ANCIENT- POLYTHEISTIC)

CHRISTIAN WORLD
(MODERN)
-MORALITY

-REVENGE
-FORTINBRAS
SENIOR AND
KING HAMLET
-NORWAY
(NORTH)

HAMLET

-LAERTES,
HORATIO
-PARIS,
WITTENBERG

DENMARK

(HEART OF
MODERN EUROPE)

Hamlet (and his soul?) is at a crossroads of a divided world. He moves back and forth between the two worlds and the heroic types within them.
i.e. King Hamlet, Laertes, Fortenbras, Horatio.

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