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A tragedy is a serious play with a theme that is both significant and universal. The central character is a good person of high social status, known as the tragic hero, who becomes trapped in a vortex of events that is sometimes called fate. The hero experiences pain, suffering, and sometimes death in the course of a precipitous tragic fall from elevated status. This "fall from grace" or reversal of fortune is not the result of external forces, but rather from a small but key personality flaw. In the end, the tragic hero acknowledges personal responsibility for the events that have occurred, and this recognition allows him to achieve what might be called enlightenment. On the news we hear the crash of an airliner described as a tragedy. While such an event is horrifying and certainly sad, it does not meet this strict dramatic definition of the term. The unfortunate victims of such disasters are not directly responsible for their fates. A tragic hero is never a helpless victim. Some of the features that separate tragedy from serious plays that are merely sad or pathetic are that the hero is ultimately responsible for his own problems, is aware of the flaw but has chosen to disregard it, and persists against overwhelming odds. Another distinguishing feature of tragedy is that it asks fundamental questions about the human condition for which there are no simple answers. These universal questions may take the form of a dilemma, one which is faced by those in every culture and each generation. In a tragic dilemma, not matter which choice you make, you suffer. Finally, the purpose of tragedy is not to depict the depressing failure of a well-meaning person, but to dignify and ennoble humankind. We see tragic heroes standing up to the worst that the gods or nature can throw at them, behaving with dignity even in a losing cause. Tragic heroes don't "wimp-out" by blaming others or society itself for their misfortunes like many latter-day protagonists, but take responsibility for their weaknesses and failures. In this way they achieve moral victory. It has been asserted that we live in an age whose world view precludes tragedy--that man has shrunk in his estimation of himself. We see ourselves as commonplace and mean rather than noble. When one considers how many among us would think Oedipus a fool for not getting a good attorney, one wonders if this assertion may be true. Another aspect of tragedy that was discussed by Aristotle was an effect on the audience which he called catharsis. This term, borrowed from medicine, means to purge or cleanse. He believed that the audience would experience and discharge the emotions of pity and dread; pity for the misfortunes of the hero, and dread that this could happen to them. Furthermore he believed that the communal release of such pent-up emotions was a benefit to society as a whole. In their tragedies the Greeks were the first to grapple publicly with the many problematic 'isms" of society: tribalism, racism, materialism, feminism, and colonialism. It is useful to make a distinction between classical (traditional) tragedies, and modern tragedies of the last one hundred years. A convenient way to view these distinctions is to compare their Aristotelian elements: the structural components of plot, character, dialogue, theme, music and spectacle. The primary differences are in areas of character and dialogue. In both the classical and modern versions the plots tend to be singular and compact with no secondary or parallel plot lines, which quite naturally favors the climactic plot structure. The central character in both traditional and modern tragedy is intended to be representative--a basically good person the audience can relate to and empathize with. In ancient times leaders were looked upon as possessing the best qualities of mankind, since they were favored by the gods. As such they were worthy models for others and they served as tragic heroes. Today with our egalitarian sensibilities we are more likely to relate to someone who is of the same economic and social class as ourselves, so modern tragedies tend to feature middle class heroes. Both versions have limited casts due to their climactic form. The most obvious difference is in language. Classical tragedies were written in verse. While some adventurous modern playwrights have experimented with this form of language, we are so imbued with the spirit of realism in our dramatic art that poetic embellishments such as meter and rhyme when spoken as dialogue are simply not acceptable to modern audiences. Modern tragedies, like all modern dramas, are written in an elevated prose, language carefully chosen and crafted to sound like normal conversation yet possessing greater depth and resonance than ordinary language. In terms of theme there is no practical difference between the two versions of tragedy, both tending toward topics that are important and heuristic. While we know that music and dance were a vital part of Greek tragedy, we have no way of reconstructing it since there was no written notation to record it at the time. It is believed that plays such as Antigone and Oedipus were performed much like today's opera in that many of the lines and all the choral passages were sung. Obviously music plays a peripheral role in modern tragedy unless we consider operas, many of which are tragedies. Spectacle: scenery, lighting, sound, and make up tend to be somewhat de-emphasized in tragedy to avoid pulling focus away from its emotional and intellectual content. Again, grand opera with its huge and imposing sets provides the exception. Robert C. Huber