The Theme of Tragedy

Tragedy has its origin in the contemplation of human sufferings which cause pity and fear. Pity takes its rise from sympathy or identification of self with others suffering; fear from a feeling that such suffering may be the lot of any man including self.

Hence the greatness of suffering is a measure of the greatness of tragedy. Physical suffering causes horror and is therefore not the proper theme of tragedy. It creates loathing and revulsion which can never be the object of the highest art. Hence the theme of tragedy is spiritual suffering, the suffering that squeezes and crushes the mind of man to the point of numbness and despair. Where the victim yields without struggle or even complaint, there may be suffering but it is not a tragedy.

In tragedy, a necessary ingredient is that the victim must have the power and dignity to resist and struggle against his doom. He must be a person of heroic stature, built on a large mould than ordinary human beings. The suffering of a wicked man also is not a tragedy, for it may seem to be poetic justice. Such suffering evokes not pity and terror but something akin to relief and satisfaction. In tragedy, suffering is undeserved, the unhappy fate of an essentially good man.

Thus tragedy depicts the spiritual agony of a good man who suffers through no fault of his but is a victim of unseen and unpredictable forces.