Tragedy is life and acting on stage

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Every time when in the life of our relatives, friends, acquaintances there are big troubles - someone becomes seriously ill, loses loved ones, etc. - we shake our heads ruefully and sympathetically say: "What a tragedy!" But there is another situation. For example, a teenage girl fell in love unrequitedly. She is sad, her eyes are wet. What do you say in order to console, calm, reason with Nesmeyan? Correct: “Just think, a tragedy! Yes, you will have dozens of such Vit, Sing, Mish! You are so beautiful and smart!"

Definition

To understand such a wide range of the scope of the word, let's look at its meaning. According to explanatory dictionaries, tragedy is, firstly, along with drama and comedy, a literary and artistic genre. Its most famous examples are Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and other works by William Shakespeare. From domestic literature, of course, one should recall Pushkin's "Boris Godunov", "The Miserly Knight", "The Stone Guest". Secondly, tragedy is misfortune, misfortune, grief. She can be likeindividual, personal, that is, what happened in the fate of one particular person or family, and large-scale, universal. World wars, natural disasters, environmental disasters are among such events. Synonyms for the word: dashing, ruin, blow of fate, etc. And the third meaning of the word is figuratively ironic, when a tragedy is just a minor nuisance, blown up to the size of an elephant.

Literature and life

Literature is a reflection of life, the brightest and most intense moments of reality. Tyutchev wrote: “Blessed is he who visited this world / In his fatal moments …” Poets and writers who were lucky enough to live at fundamental, turning points in history captured in diaries, memoirs, novels, dramas titanic and, alas, fruitless attempts of mankind to create a harmonious, happy world order. Life in such works is in full swing, rises to the limits of the possible, and the hero of their titanic willpower overcomes a fatal combination of circumstances. No wonder literary critics believe that it is tragedy that is the most complete expression of our being. This type of dramatic action is more suitable than others for a full reflection of life in all its diversity.

Genre specifics

Drama, tragedy, comedy are literary terms that came to us from the ancient Greek language. It was the aesthetes of Hellas who introduced them into the everyday life of critics. Drama is both a genre term and a generic one. As a literary genre, it is divided into tragedy - a high, heroic genre, comedy - a low genre, and drama itself, which combinessome features of the first two. The plot of tragedies, as a rule, is filled with conflicts and clashes, which cannot be resolved peacefully.

Tragic hero

The catastrophe of external and internal contradictions, the maximum tension of the moment, the stay of the main characters on the verge, "in the balance", are the necessary components of the action. A literary work of the tragic genre reflects such conflicts in society, in reality, which are really extremely serious. Hence the special heroic or other pathos that is characteristic of them. Let's remember Hamlet's throwing, his endless internal moral duels with himself! And external encounters with a hostile, deeply flawed modern world. More precisely, not only the world, but also a century, an era! The hero of the tragedy is majestic in that he challenges forces much more powerful than himself. And he dies in this confrontation, because he can neither retreat nor win. It should be noted that not only dramatic, but also epic works belong to this genre. "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky, "A Hero of Our Time" by Lermontov or "The Scaffold" by our contemporary Aitmatov - each of them is a true tragedy novel.

History of the term

But let's go back thousands of years to Ancient Greece. The Hellenes were pagans, worshiped a host of great and small gods. In the Pantheon, Dionysus occupied a fairly prominent place - the patron saint of agriculture, winemaking, vegetation, inspiration, and the joys of life.and the fun that the Greeks are known to have associated with wine. In Hellas there were many religious cults dedicated to Dionysus. Various ceremonies and rituals of his veneration and glorification are reflected in the festivities and games held in honor of the Olympian. The sacrificial animal, which was necessarily presented to Dionysus, was a goat. Therefore, the literal meaning of the word tragedy is “goat song”. During the harvest and grape harvest festivals, the Greeks played whole performances, during which they sang praises to the god. People dressed up in animal skins, depicting satyrs - fantastic creatures that look like goats - they also glorified their patron Dionysus. Based on this action, an ancient tragedy was born - a mixture of myth and reality, solemn dithyrambs and choral songs of satyrs. Over time, the plot of the festival became more complicated, a conflict appeared in it, a dramatic element. And the action itself moved from fields and forests to the stage.