• INTRODUCTION
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre eminent dramatist. Shakespeare is often known as England’s national poet and sometimes people uses refers him as the “Bard of Avon”. He is perhaps most famous for his tragedies. All in all Shakespeare wrote 10 Tragedies.
• The 10 plays generally classified as tragedy are as follows:
1. Antony and Cleopatra
2. Julius Caesar
3. Timon of Athens
4. Macbeth
5.Romeo and Juliet
6. King Lear
7. Othello
8. Hamlet
9. Titus Andronicus
10. Coriolanus
• SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY:
A tragedy is essentially a tale of death or suffering. Shakespearean tragedies are also powerful tales of death and suffering but the Shakespearean tragedy is something more than a mere story of death and suffering.
A Shakespearean tragedy generally consists five acts which ends with the death of most of the major characters. The expression of one of the great paradoxes of life is the essence of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Defeat, shattered hopes, and ultimately death face the major characters. The disasters in the life of the hero do not merely happen nor they are sent by heaven. They are not even the result of the anger of God. They arise out of the action and lead towards the fall of the hero. It is not rigid in moral teaching. In it destiny is not character. Character is destiny. Men himself is responsible for his tragedy. There are combination of tragedy and comedy. They are romantic tragedy. They do not follow classical rules the three unities of time, place and action.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY:
(1) Noble Hero or Protagonist of a High Order:
Shakespeare’s tragedy is concerned with the fate of persons of ‘High Degree’ often with kings or princes and with leader in the state like Coriolanus, Brutus and Antony. The dramatist does not concentrate on the lives of ordinary person, nor does he recall the sufferings of the layman. In modern drama Tragedy is the story of suffering of a common man but Shakespeare was mediaeval in his conception of tragedy. In his tragedies he made conspicuous (noticeable) persons suffer so that the tragedy may have a powerful effect on readers or viewers’ mind.
(2) One Hero:
Shakespearean tragedy though consisted of numerous characters is the story of only one person, the hero or almost of the two, the hero and the heroine. Heroine is given the same portion as that of the hero, if she too undergoes the same sufferings and conflicts as that of the hero throughout the play. The story leads up to and the death of the hero is also included in it.
(3) Suffering and calamity:
Shakespeare’s tragic protagonist are not only great men , they also suffer greatly. The hero has to pass through thorns of excruciating pain and suffering. The suffering’s intensity is so high that it staggers and shakes the man and the hero from within. Hamlet in the state of vacillation is literally on the rack. Othello in the disturbed state of mind finds a houses divided within himself. Macbeth feels the pang of murdering the king deep down in his heart till he feels that life is meaningless for him.
(4) Flaw in the character:
The cause of tragedy in Shakespeare’s plays is some flaw in the character of the hero or the heroine. In the medieval conception of the tragedy. Fate is the major factor in bringing about the tragedy, but Shakespeare made his protagonist or man responsible for his own action and he believed in the principle of “Character is destiny”
Hamlet meets his tragedy due to his vacillating nature. Macbeth meets his end due to his overwhelming ambition.
(5) Abnormal conditions of Mind :
Shakespeare represents the abnormal conditions of mind such as insanity as in the case of KING LEAR, hallucination as in the case of MACBETH. These abnormal states of the hero and the heroine deeper the gloom of the tragedy.
(6) The struggle between good and Evil:
Theme of Shakespearean tragedy is the struggle between good and evil. It results in serious worry, disturbance and sorrows, suffering and death. The themes are sensational. In King Lear the struggle is there between the good daughter and two elder sisters. In Othello also there is the struggle between Othello and Iago, the villain.
(7) Tragic waste:
Tragic waste is one of the elements of Shakespearean tragedy. All the exceptional qualities of the protagonist are wasted. At the end of the tragedy the evil does not triumph, it is defeated but at the cost of good and admirable. The fall of Macbeth does not only mean the death of evil in him, but also the waste of much that is essentially good and noble.
(8) Supernatural Elements:
The supernatural is placed in closest relation with character and it definitely contributes to the action. Ghost, wishes, wizards do appear in the tragedies. The ghost of king Hamlet is seen not only by Hamlet but by other people also. In Macbeth also the witches stir his desire to achieve power. They are the main reason after the fall of the hero. Had they not been there, there would not have been tragedy. They influence the minds of characters.
(9) Plot seems to depend on “chance” and “accident”:
In most of Shakespeare’s tragedies, chance or accident exercise an appreciable influence at some point in the action. It may be called an accident, for example, the pirate ship attack Hamlet’s ship so that he was able to return Denmark, Desdemona drops her handkerchief at the most fatal of moments, Edger arrives in the prison just too late to save Cordelia’s life.
(10) Lack of poetic justice:
Shakespearean tragedy is true to life so it excludes “poetic justice” which is rarely found in our life. We feel that Lear ought to suffer for his folly and for his unjust treatment to Cordelia, but his sufferings are out of all amounts to his misdeeds. Othello too does not deserve to suffer all that he does suffer for his unjust treatment to Desdemona. She has been strangled by her husband for the one or two lies she tells out of sheer love for the man who murder her.
(11) Conflict:
Conflict is the essence of Shakespearean tragedy full stop the conflict is of two type:
1. Outward conflict among the various characters.
2. Inner conflict in the mind of the hero.
Both these types of conflict exist side by side in Shakespearean tragedy. There is an outward conflict between Hamlet and Claudius in HAMLET (A Play). Hamlet wants to take revenge of the murder of his father by killing Claudius. On the other hand Claudius uses various means to kill Hamlet. The conflict between Hamlet and Laetres is also external. We can see the inner conflict takes place in the mind of Hamlet. It is revealed through his soliloquies.
• CONCLUSION:
“Doer must suffer” is the main idea of Shakespearean tragedies. One can find that villainy never remains Victorious at the end. It is destroyed root and branch but at the cost of good. Nemesis over takes Macbeth and all evil characters in Shakespeare’s tragedy. The most important feature of Shakespearean tragedy is his universal appeal. It appeals to all the people of all the ages and of all the lands. The passions and emotions of the characters are universal. Shakespeare gives enough entertainment and pleasure through his tragedies. His stories are borrowed ones but the touches of Shakespeare make them appealing.