A tragedy may be defined loosely as any work of fiction in which the protagonist suffers a fall in his or her fortunes, and ends in a worse state than that in which they began. Works as diverse as Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, Hedda Gabler and Scarface may thus be classified as tragedies.
Throughout much of Western thought, however, tragedy has been defined in more precise terms, following the precepts set out by Aristotle: it is a form of Drama characterized by seriousness and dignity, usually involving a conflict between a character and some higher power, such as the law, the gods, Fate, or society.
Not all plays that are broadly categorized as "tragedies" result in this type of cathartic ending, though - some have neutral or even ambiguously happy endings. Exactly what constitutes a "tragedy", however, is a frequently debated matter. Some hold that any story with a sad ending is a tragedy, whereas others demand that the story fit a set of requirements (often based on Aristotle) to be considered a tragedy.
A favorite theatrical device of many ancient Greek tragedians was the ekkyklêma, a cart hidden behind the scenery which could be rolled out to display the aftermath of some event which had happened out of sight of the audience. This event was frequently a brutal murder of some sort, an act of violence which could not be effectively portrayed visually, but an action of which the other characters must see the effects in order for it to have meaning and emotional resonance. A prime example of the use of the ekkyklêma is after the murder of Agamemnon in the first play of Aeschylus' Oresteia, when the king's butchered body is wheeled out in a grand display for all to see. Variations on the ekkyklêma are used in tragedies and other forms to this day, as writers still find it a useful and often powerful device for showing the consequences of extreme human actions. Another such device was a crane, the Mechane, which served to hoist a god or goddess on stage when they were supposed to arrive flying. This device gave origin to the phrase "Deus ex machina" ("god out of a machine"), i.e., the surprise intervention of an unforeseen external factor that changes the outcome of an event.
Nietzsche dedicated his famous early book, The Birth of Tragedy, to a discussion of the origins of Greek tragedy. He traced the evolution of tragedy from early rituals, through the joining of Apollonian and Dionysian forces, until its early "death" in the hands of Socrates. In opposition to Schopenhauer, Nietzsche viewed tragedy as the art form of sensual acceptance of the terrors of reality and rejoicing in these terrors in love of fate (amor fati), and therefore as the antithesis to Socratic notion of strictly rational explanation, or the belief in the power of reason to unveil any and all of the mysteries of existence. Ironically, Socrates was fond of quoting from tragedies. A landmark study in its era, Nietzsche's book and its theories are considered spurious by most contemporary scholars of Greek tragedy.
A contemporary of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, also wrote examples of tragedy in English, notably:
John Webster (1580?-1635?), also wrote famous plays of the genre:
In France, Jean Racine, who brought a new face to the genre with his works. When his play, Bérénice, was criticised for not containing any deaths, Racine disputed the conventional view of tragedy. His rival, Pierre Corneille, also made his mark on the world of tragedy with plays like Medée (1635) and Le Cid (1636).
A Doll's House (1879) by the Norwegian Playwright Henrik Ibsen, which depicts the breakdown of a middle-class marriage, is an example of a more contemporary tragedy. Like Ibsen's other dramatic works, it has been translated into English and has enjoyed great popularity on the English and American stage.
Although the most important American playwrights - Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller - wrote tragedies, the rarity of tragedy in the American theatre may be owing in part to a certain form of idealism, often associated with Americans, that man is captain of his fate, a notion exemplified in the plays of Clyde Fitch and George S. Kaufmann. Arthur Miller, however, was a successful writer of American tragic plays, among them The Crucible and Death of a Salesman.
Contemporary Postmodern theater moves the ground for the execution of tragedy from the Hubris of the individual tragic hero to the institutions, discourses and policies that shape the course of a character's life. The fate decreed from the gods of classical Greek tragedy is replaced by the will of institutions that shape the fate of the individual through policies and practices.