Elements of Tragedy

Tragedy: broadly defined, a literary and particularly a dramatic presentation of serious actions in which the chief character has a disastrous fate.

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Elements of Tragedy:
- The conclusion is catastrophic.
- The catastrophic conclusion will seem inevitable.
- It occurs, ultimately, because of the human limitations of the protagonist.
- The protagonist suffers terribly.
- The protagonist's suffering often seems disproportionate to his or her culpability.
- Yet the suffering is usually redemptive, bringing out the noblest of human capacities for learning.
- The suffering is also redemptive in bringing out the capacity for accepting moral responsibility.

Revenge Tragedy - the tragedy of blood; quest for vengeance (often at the, sometimes repeated, prompting of the ghost of a loved one), scenes involving real or feigned madness, scenes in graveyards and scenes of carnage or mutilation

Tragicomedy - relationship between humans and forces beyond our understanding is more central than the actual actions of the play.

High Tragedy - the audience knows well in advance that the only way out for the characters is the unhappy ending

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I really enjoy tragedies. Here's a shortlist of some of my favorite movies in this genre in no particular order.

Sid and Nancy

Donny Darko

Blood Diamond

Million Dollar Baby

The Elephant Man

Tristan and Isolde

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

The Ice Storm (1997)

The Crow

Stand By Me

Swing Kids

Dead Poets Society

American Beauty (1999)

Amadeus

Mystic River

Revolutionary Road

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“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” Oscar Wilde

“Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” Benjamin Franklin 

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Related Links on the topic of Tragedy:

The Literary Link
Thoughts on Tragedy a pdf file

What are some of your favorite Tragedies?
It can be book or movie.

Synonyms: adversity, affliction, bad fortune, bad luck, blight, blow, calamity, cataclysm, catastrophe, contretemps, curse, curtains, dole, dolor, doom, downer, failure, hard knocks, hardship, humiliation, lot, misadventure, mischance, misfortune, mishap, reverse, shock, struggle, the worst, unluckiness, waterloo, woe, wreck