Free Tragedy And Comedy In Literature Term Paper Example

Tragedy and comedy are forms of Greek dramas that purpose to communicate to the audience. According to the great Greek man Aristotle elements of tragedy include; the major characters are not average, but supernatural, such as heroes, kings and gods and the conditions are protagonist where life goes from good to bad. In the views of the same man, comedy main elements are normal characters and the situation is protagonists where life moves from bad to good. However, not everybody did agree with Aristotle like Plato his teacher (Gilbert, 45). This work will focus on what tragedy and comedy are in details and modern definition and the elements of each.
Tragedy, according to Aristotle did not only comprise of supernatural character and main character moving from good to bad, but also it had the following elements too; a tragic flaw in the hero, which would bring about his/ her down fall and the fate on the people was very dependent to the main character so that his/her down fall was catastrophic event. He added to, that the purpose of tragedy is catharsis which usually cleans the soul of pity and fear that most people are always carrying within them. Nevertheless, this was not agreed by Aristotle teacher Plato, who came up with his own view of tragedy as an art in spoken literature. According to Plato tragedy was defined on the bases of rhetoric where he concluded that tragedy is a form of fiction that is not true and does it never seem like it could ever be true (Gilbert, 67).
However, modern definition of tragedy is basically based on Aristotle’s idea more, but actually has been simplified. In modern literature, tragedy is the story that ends discontentedly for the characters. Another way of describing a tragedy in literature is where the main character never accomplishes his/her goal. The word tragedy is mostly used to describe any sort of misfortune or disaster to most people. However, tragedy is a form of art that was performed first by the Greek of Attica who had their chief city being Athens and it was usually presented at festivals in Greece. Mostly, these festivals on tragedy drama were sponsored by the local government so that the entire community could attend. However, a small fee was charged to enter the theatre, but it was usually provided to those who could not afford it (Fournier, 54). Generally, the atmospheres surrounding these performances were more religious than an entertainment even priest were in attendance as well as altars to the gods were present. The subject of tragedies was basically misfortunes of the heroes of legend, history or religious myths.
Today, any literary composition such as a novel dealing with a somber theme carried to a disastrous or tragic conclusion as well as any art of theory of writing and producing tragedies is considered a tragedy. In tragedy, there is low tolerance to disorder where the plot tends to stress the process and order making end follows from the beginning. The violation of the norms leads to tragic fall of the hero since in tragedy heroes have a low tolerance to reasoning difference. Tragedies also show low tolerances for ambiguity and all things are supposed to have no meaning.
Convergent thinking is another component of tragedies. Tragedy drama usually emphasizes what is actually past and what is really more so they are more information gathering wanting to find solution of an irritating problem. There is usually little about critical thinking in tragedies since this art calls for accepting orders of things and thus grieves the costs. Tragic heroes always respond with strong overpowering emotions such as pride, grief and lust, which often result to fanatical reactions and altitude furthermore very stubborn to change. Socially, the main characters of tragic visions are based on heroism with supernatural powers that arise in warrior cultures with good values of a soldier such as honesty and commitment. Tragedies are based on a cycle of vengeances and mostly they emphasize on the upper class, royalty, the few noble and leaders (Fournier and Robson, 57).
The sexual inequality among tragedies is observable as male dominate. The tragic vision always tends to emphasize the results of a hero failing to obey the accepted things order, thus can be described as rule based ethics. Tragedies too are seen to have a kind of isolation as they are actually stressing the result of a single individual. On the other hand, Aristotle definition on of comedy being with average characters and life going from bad to good was actually not agreed by his teacher Plato, who also based the definition of comedy on a rhetoric base. According to Plato a comedy was a form of fiction that was actually untrue, but seemed like it had a possibility of becoming true. The modern comedy definition is also based on Aristotle’s idea, but also has been simplified in a way. Today, comedy is described is the saga that treats characters in a humorous way and ends up well (Robson, and Fournier, 67).
Comedy is actually kind of drama or any other art which, according to modern notion is meant to amuse. The idea of comedy is dated back in the traditional Greek society in the 4th century BCE and persists even today. Human being a social being other than a private person its function is frankly corrective. Comedies actually hold up the mirror to the society and they actually tend to reflect the vices and follies in a hope that they may in a way change or be amended (Gilbert, 60). In the 10th century one philosopher from France by name Henri Bergson went further to share the counteractive use of laugher. According to him, laughter was meant to take rib-tickling characters back to conventionality with their society. Comedy is among one form of the oldest form of drama and has purposely shown that human are in fact ridiculous and cannot change this character.
Comedies are any comic or humorous incident or series of incident that actually happen in our daily lives. Comedy purposes to entertain by the dependability with which it presents life as people know it. It is scorned at raising amusement by the outrageous irrationality of the situation or character showed and caricature at tickling the fancy of the audience by burlesques actors or plays with whose style it is familiar (Fournier and Robson, 56). They are various types of comedy that most people are familiar with. Action comedy is a subgenre which combines humor and action. In action comedy, the characters bring about humor while action sense is less intense.
Black comedy is the subgenre that combines comedy and satire. In black comedy the situation and topic that are held serious are taken and explores them in a comical way which makes the audience laugh and feel uncomfortable at the same time. Another main type of comedy is the horror comedy that usually combines traditional horror movie themes and comedy. Horror comedies aim to make the audience scared as the same time laugh at their fear. A romantic comedy is the last most known comic art, which catches the viewer’s heart in a combination and love and humor (Pickard-Cambridge, et al., 32).
According to (Kerr, 45) the literature of comedy is characterized by various components just like the tragedy. The themes of comedy seem complex and the comic heroes tend to be very flexible and life takes unexpected twists and turns and more so life is messier making it very difficult to classify experience. In comedy the is very high tolerances for disorder, since comic plots are very random more so improvised, making it to have a number of wobbly ends. Furthermore, comedy tolerance for ambiguity is very high, especially by the fact that not everything in comedy makes sense. There is divergent thinking in comedies as they are more imaginative and mostly tend to answer a variety of questions without necessary solving anything.
There is a lot of critical thinking involved in in comedies and the cosmic characters do not engage themselves emotional as they are often ironic. Mostly the characters in comedy respond with imagination and cynicism. Socially the comedies do not show any heroism among characters and those involved in comedies are usually average people (Robson, and Fournier, 67). Unlike in tragedy, comedy usually contrasts on the common values of character showing pacifism, where it’s better for the main characters to lose dignity than lose their life. Equality is majorly demonstrated in comedies as all classes of people are included, especially the lower classes who are often the butt of these jokes but they too triumph in unanticipated ways. Beside equity among people, comedies also demonstrate more sexual equality and both genders are described and play important roles.
In conclusion, both tragedy and comedy are art that are usually adored by the society as they play a vital role in educating people. However, comedy of today is more embraced than tragedy and many people have come out using it as a talent by many to earn them a living.

Works cited

Fournier, N, and William Robson. Comedy and Tragedy: A Comedy. New York: S. French, 2002. Print.
Gilbert, W S. Comedy and Tragedy, 2003. Print.
Gilbert, W S. Comedy and Tragedy. London: Chatto & Windus, 2004. Internet resource.
Kerr, Walter. Tragedy and Comedy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. Print.
Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur W, and T B. L. Webster. Dithyramb, Tragedy and Comedy. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. Print.
Robson, William, and M R. Fournier. Comedy and Tragedy. New York: S. French, 2001. Print.