tragic themes
Dark story elements
Tragic themes are the recurring subjects and patterns found in tragedy as a literary and dramatic genre—fate versus free will, hubris leading to downfall, the inevitability of death, moral conflict without resolution.
The phrase appears in literary criticism and education: The play explores tragic themes of ambition and betrayal.
More loosely, any serious subject matter involving suffering or loss: Her paintings return to tragic themes from her childhood.
- ancient curseOld supernatural condemnation
- anguishIntense mental suffering
- ruinComplete destruction or collapse
- despairTotal absence of hope
- catharsisPurification through emotional expression
hubris · downfall · sins of the father · blood feud · broken oath · fatal flaw · Shakespearean drama · noble suffering · hamartia · fall from grace · fate · guilt · free will · grief · destiny · societal critique · redemption · dramatic irony
- Greek tragedyGreek tragedies, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Oedipus
- TragediesHamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet
- tragic literatureIliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Medea, Oedipus
- Russian MelancholyRussian soul, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Turgenev
- art subjectssubject matter, landscapes, human form, religion, seascapes
- AeschylusAgamemnon, Oresteia, Seven Against Thebes, Orestes, Clytemnestra
tragic themeshumorous themes
Amusing recurring subjects
comic relief · romantic themes · pastoral themes · satire · burlesque