Question

What is an Elizabethan tragedy and what is the best way to describe it?

Answer 1

Hint: Tragedy is a serious play or drama that generally deals with the problems of a central character, leading in an unhappy or tragic outcome caused, as in ancient drama, by fate and a tragic error in this character, or, in modern drama, by moral failure, psychological maladjustment, or social pressures.”

Complete answer:
Elizabethan tragedy –
- The dramatic conventions of revenge in Elizabethan theatre are closely followed in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The Greeks, who composed and performed the first orchestrated plays, are the originators of all revenge tragedies. "Hamlet," written by William Shakespeare, and "The Spanish Tragedy," written by Thomas Kyd, are the two most popular Elizabethan revenge tragedies. In their plays, these two plays used several of the Elizabethan conventions for revenge tragedies. In one way or another, Hamlet adopted all revenge conventions, making "Hamlet" the blueprint for Elizabethan drama.
- Heroic themes dominated Elizabethan tragedy, which typically revolved around a great personality who is devastated by his own passion and ambition. The fops and gallants of society were often mocked in comedies.
- It's a tragedy (play, narrative, or otherwise) written during the Elizabethan period (roughly 1500s-1600s? around there), and it's usually about mortality

The most accurate way to put it –
Take, for example, Hamlet. William Shakespeare's Hamlet is an Elizabethan tragedy. The point of Hamlet isn't to make people laugh (though it does at times), but to make them think about how our decisions affect the outcome of our lives, how death is unavoidable, and so on.

Note: The word tragedy comes from the Greek word tragoidia, which literally means "goat song." It's known as "the song of the goat" because in ancient Greece, satyrs were portrayed by actors dressed in goatskin costumes.

At the time (Elizabeth), revenge tragedies were very common. They tell the stories of English society while also reflecting the tough decisions that people face on a daily basis. These stories were written during a period of religious conflict (essay about Elizabethans and Ghosts for a brief summary of religious change). There was a lot of worry about where one would go after death.