Response TO CLASMATE POST:
The Greeks are known for their plays, which are categorized as comedies or tragedies. In order to identify whether the play is a tragedy or comedy one must look at how the hero is ultimately treated by society at the end of the script. A tragedy is different from a comedy significantly because in a comedy the hero is seen as being welcomed into society. A tragedy, on the other hand, is where a hero is cast out of society. In a tragedy, the hero is often of royal descent and after he is defeated he is alienated from the city. The textbook goes in depth to describe a tragedy as Aristotle did.
To start, the author notes that Aristotle's goal was "to try and understand the essence of tragedy" (Babcock 8). Aristotle believed that there were six qualities to a play that categorized it as a tragedy. The First is that the hero was of royal descent and had impeccable character. The second is that despite all of this he has flaw or weakness that most often is fatal. This leads to the third point, which is that this defect leads to their demise. The fourth is that the Greek gods discipline the hero more than is right. The fifth and sixth point is that the hero learns form his mistakes and that the audience experiences identification with the hero.
Today we define a tragedy as something horrible that may happen with no positivity. A tragedy may or may not have a good outcome and often contains horrifying content. With greater insight to life because of an increase in history, science, knowledge, and the revelation of the Word of God I believe we are able to understand and define tragedy better than the Greek concept of tragedy.