what is tragedy in literature

Tragedy in literature is a genre that focuses on serious and dignified treatment of sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual. It is a story in which a hero is brought down by his/her own flaws, usually by ordinary human flaws like greed, over-ambition, or even an excess of love. The genre typically consists of a human flaw or weakness in one of the characters, leading to a catastrophic ending. The ancient Greeks first used the word tragedy in the 5th century BCE to describe a specific kind of play, which was presented at festivals in Greece. Aristotle defined tragedy as a morally ambiguous genre in which a noble hero goes from good fortune to bad. The genre is characterized by a noble character who struggles against strong external challenges. Tragedies are not just any sort of disaster or misfortune, but a work of art that probes with high seriousness questions concerning the role of man in the universe. The genre is considered one of the oldest forms of storytelling in the Western tradition, and many Greek philosophers believed that tragedy was the highest form of literary art.