Classical Greek Tragedy Terms

Classical Greek Tragedy

Definition A Classic Greek Tragedy must have the following elements:

Unification of plot, character and setting. All must be needed and important to the play, all events must be related and intertwined, and the setting must be limited and in real time.
The theme must involve the relationship between man's fate and his free will.
The tragic hero must have a tragic flaw–a strength which turns into a fault.
The tragic hero must be of high station and suffer death, downfall or defeat.
The result of the play must clearly show the hero sin of hubris (pride) caused his downfall.
The play must be about important themes, such as the role of man in the universe, the relationship of man to the gods.

The Four Elements of Tragic Action All Greek tragedies relied upon the following code of tragic action:

1. The act of shame or horror. The act or series of acts (or in modern drama, the situation or condition) which directly precipitates the central spectacle of suffering.

• It must be active, not passive or a character flaw.

• it must precipitate the spectacle of suffering.

• It must be representative of human actions.

• It is usually an act of betrayal or rejection.

2. The actual suffering. This must generate knowledge or insight into the understanding of mankind's fundamental nature or the human condition.

• It must be intense and real.

• It must be extreme, often ending in death or destruction.

• It must be conscious.

3. Knowledge derived from suffering. But not unless it issues in some kind of affirmation, or reaffirmation, of the dignity of the human spirit and the sanctity of human life.

• It does not have to be self-knowledge; the hero can be unaware of the lesson.

4. The affirmation, or reaffirmation itself.

It must be an affirmation of an order of values transcending the values of the human order; a moral order which mankind can emulate, but which pre-exists.

Literary Terms Greek tragedy is associated with the following terms:

Hubris—overweening pride in one's accomplishments, such that one feels invincible.
Ate—"soul blindness"—the ability to see the fate of others, but not of your own.
Nemesis—the agent sent by the gods to destroy you or to effect your destruction.
Catharsis—the purging of feelings experienced when one finally sees his relationship to the gods.
Tragic Irony—the contrast between appearance and reality, blessings which are really disasters, strokes of luck which are really curses.
Thespian—an actor, from "Thespis", the writer who invented the concept of acting.
Hypocrit—one who is insincere, who professes to have characteristics he/she does not have. (from hypokrites—Greek for "to answer", later "to act")