Tragedy has its unique charm. Dramatists in ancient Greece, such as Sophocles and Aeschylus, are famous for their tragedies. An immortal King Oedipus has been studied by later generations for thousands of years, but its mystery cannot be exhausted. Philosophy, psychology, religion and literature are all inspired by this play. Shakespeare's tragedy is another insurmountable peak, and he can be compared with the prolific writers in ancient Greece. These works can't be dried up like a fountain, which always makes us think about the meaning of life and even the universe.
I think a tragedy should have the following four elements. No matter which tragedy it is, these four basic elements can be found more or less. First, the conflict between ideal and reality. Second, the inevitable tragedy caused by human shortcomings. Third, there is nothing to do with the so-called fate. Fourthly, the complete disillusionment of the ideal personality of tragic characters usually ends with the death of tragic characters.
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most infectious tragedies. After reading it, I feel that the main source of the tragedy lies in the strong conflict between ideal and reality.
Prince Hamlet is a romantic idealist. After studying abroad for many years, he firmly believed that everyone in his ideal world should be upright and aboveboard. After returning home, he found that his closest relatives were far from his ideal personality. His mother married his uncle less than two months after his father died, but his uncle took it in stride after he got the throne and married his sister-in-law. When Hamlet learned the real cause of his father's death, the conflict became more intense. It is conceivable that Hamlet's university campus was a very pure place, but when he returned to his own country, he was inevitably involved in a court plot, and he had to avenge his dead father. If he is an experienced politician, he will definitely regain his throne quietly and in a planned way. Only when his enemy dies will he breathe a sigh of relief and show the world his crimes, and he can definitely be analyzed by Machiavelli as a classic case. Hamlet's practice is not like this, because he is a humanist, and his love and even revenge are doomed to be idealized. There is not much description of his love with filia in the play. Hamlet's tragedy is that an extreme idealist falls into an extremely realistic world. In fact, the greatest tragedy of mankind is this. Hamlet praised mankind as "the essence of the universe and the primate of all things!" While sighing, "To be noble, should we swallow sound volume's violent fate, or stand up against endless misery and sweep him clean?" Some people think that Hamlet's personality is too weak, and his state seems to be erratic. In fact, it is understandable that people who conflict with reality and ideals will always hesitate for a while.
The obvious tragic element in otello is the flaw of otello's character. As long as people are jealous. The play also seems to get rid of the Greek tragedy model, and the weakness of human nature becomes the root of the tragedy. The tragedy in this play is not caused by otello's character, nor can it be blamed on the evil Khan Yaguo (I even like this schemer who dares to analyze his own psychology). At the beginning of the play, we can feel that the love between otello and Desdemona is doomed to be a tragedy. Desdemona doesn't know otello. The reason why she likes otello is very simple. She likes his legendary experiences. In a word, she only likes a romantic ideal. When Yago's wife warned Desdemona to be careful of otello's jealousy, she said, "I think he was sucked away by the sunshine in his birthplace." And otello a little understand why his wife likes himself, or his love for his wife is inherently uneasy. In this case, he loves, hates and fears Desdemona. In the end, Yaguo just played the role of a fuse, blowing this false, distrustful and unstable love to pieces, while the real explosive powder was on otello and Desdemona. From this point of view, this tragedy smacks of the hero's own fault, but who can really change his character?
The tragedy of King Rhea seems to be rare in our life. After all, we think that family ties are the warmest and strongest. However, we should pay attention to the background of the drama, which is full of court political struggles for power and wealth. Politics can make everything dirty, and the pursuit of power and wealth at your fingertips can turn people into demons. There is a story in the west that discusses human nature. There is a kind shepherd who is absolutely an upright man, but one day he got a ring, and he can be invisible after wearing it. So the shepherd can do something he couldn't do before. Finally, one day he entered the palace, seduced the queen and plotted to kill the king. Since then, he has become a complete tyrant. We can imagine that if he didn't get the magic ring, he must still be a kind person. Schopenhauer said that people have evil thoughts all the time, which is actually reasonable. The key is that people sometimes have no ability to do evil. The root of King Rhea's tragedy may be here. Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Chaos is based on King Rhea. The background of the story is the Warring States period in Japan, which makes us feel more real. If it is a peaceful and prosperous time, how can such a thing happen among ordinary people without power? In fact, if we look at history, we will find that there are so many things that father and son and brothers kill each other for power. The tragedy of King Rhea lies in the decline of human nature, and Shakespeare always reflects on the essence of human nature in this work. The ending of King Rhea is tragic, but note that if we change the ending slightly, the tragedy can be turned into a comedy at once. If in the end, Cordelia, the youngest daughter of King Rhea, is alive and King Rhea is not dead, then this is a happy ending and the tragedy can become a comedy. French playwright Moliere's comedy "hypocrite" can also be easily transformed into a tragedy. The ending can be designed in this way. The hypocrite Ansdorf successfully occupied Olgong's property, and his daughter Maryana had to marry Ansdorf. Maryana's lover Vallaire was imprisoned for trying to assassinate Ansdorf, and Olgong's wife died of grief, and Olgong became a beggar.
Macbeth is quite like an ancient Greek tragedy, in which it emphasizes that fate mocks people. Macbeth had made a name for himself, but he believed in the predictions of the three witches, which were finally fulfilled, but Macbeth was also ruined. This reminds me of King Oedipus by Sophocles and King Agamemnon by Aeschylus. People's actions are interfered by God, and of course, it also reflects the defects of the protagonist's character. However, King Oedipus hardly shows that the personality of King Oedipus or his character will inevitably destroy him. It can be said that Oedipus is a kind-hearted man who is unable to escape when the inevitable fate strikes. Perhaps the sadness of tragedy is reflected in people's innocence and helplessness, and the beauty of tragedy is reflected in the hero's struggle, although it seems futile.
It can be seen that there is bound to be pain and death in tragedy. People like tragedy precisely because everyone is the protagonist of tragedy, because, like tragedy, people's life ends with death. But tragedy is not pessimistic, and our ending is inevitable, but in a short tragedy, we express an uncompromising eternal spirit. Therefore, knowing that the ideal is out of reach, we still pursue it persistently, knowing that no one is perfect, but we still have to constantly improve ourselves, knowing that fate is impermanent, but we are not afraid at all. Death is the end of life, but it is not the goal of life.