Shakespearean tragedy
Elizabethan dramatic downfall
A Shakespearean tragedy is a drama by William Shakespeare—or written in his style—that ends with the downfall and death of its protagonist.
The hero typically possesses a fatal flaw (ambition, jealousy, indecision) that combines with circumstance to destroy them: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear.
The term also describes any situation with the grandeur and inevitability of such works: Their marriage became a Shakespearean tragedy of miscommunication and wounded pride.
- ghostApparition of the dead
- bloodBody's oxygen carrier
- crownSovereign's ornamental headpiece
- catharsisPurification through emotional expression
- fatePredetermined course of events
to be or not to be · Globe Theatre · Elizabethan drama · hubris · hamartia · classical influences · poison · Renaissance literature · denouement · five acts · skull · Seneca · soliloquy · Othello · blank verse · iambic pentameter · dramatic irony · Tudor England
- tragedycatharsis, hamartia, hubris, fatal flaw, downfall
- TragediesHamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet
- verse dramadramatic verse, Elizabethan drama, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello
Shakespearean tragedyShakespearean comedy
Playwright's lighter dramatic works
comedy · farce · A Midsummer Night's Dream · Twelfth Night · Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespearean tragedyhappy ending
Story concludes well
wish fulfillment · comedy · marriage plot · reconciliation · triumph