What is "tragedy"

Drama \Dra"ma\ (dr[aum]"m[.a] or dr[=a]"m[.a]; 277), n. [L. drama, Gr. dra^ma, fr. dra^n to do, act; cf. Lith. daryti.]

1. A composition, in prose or poetry, accommodated to action, and intended to exhibit a picture of human life, or to depict a series of grave or humorous actions of more than ordinary interest, tending toward some striking result. It is commonly designed to be spoken and represented by actors on the stage.

   A divine pastoral drama in the Song of Solomon.
   --Milton.

2. A series of real events invested with a dramatic unity and interest. ``The drama of war.''
   --Thackeray.

   Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last.
   --Berkeley.

   The drama and contrivances of God's providence.
   --Sharp.

3. Dramatic composition and the literature pertaining to or illustrating it; dramatic literature.

   Note: The principal species of the drama are tragedy and comedy; inferior species are tragi-comedy, melodrama, operas, burlettas, and farces.

   The romantic drama, the kind of drama whose aim is to present a tale or history in scenes, and whose plays (like those of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and others) are stories told in dialogue by actors on the stage.
   --J. A. Symonds.

late 14c., "play or other serious literary work with an unhappy ending," from Old French tragedie (14c.), from Latin tragedia "a tragedy," from Greek tragodia "a dramatic poem or play in formal language and having an unhappy resolution," apparently literally "goat song," from tragos "goat" + oide "song" (see ode).\n

\nThe connection may be via satyric drama, from which tragedy later developed, in which actors or singers were dressed in goatskins to represent satyrs. But many other theories have been made (including "singer who competes for a goat as a prize"), and even the "goat" connection is at times questioned. Meaning "any unhappy event, disaster" is from c.1500.

n. 1 A drama or similar work, in which the main character is brought to ruin or otherwise suffers the extreme consequences of some tragic flaw or weakness of character. 2 The genre of such works, and the art of producing them. 3 A disastrous event, especially one involving great loss of life or injury.

1. n. an event resulting in great loss and misfortune; "the whole city was affected by the irremediable calamity"; "the earthquake was a disaster" [syn: calamity, catastrophe, disaster, cataclysm]

2. drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance; excites terror or pity [ant: comedy]

Tragedy is a band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1995 and is now based out of Portland, Oregon.

"Tragedy" is a song released by the Bee Gees, written by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb, included on their 1979 album Spirits Having Flown. The single reached #1 in the UK in February 1979 and repeated the feat the following month on the US Billboard Hot 100.

A tragedy is a literary work with an unhappy outcome.

Tragedy may also refer to:

"Tragedy" is a song by Gerald H. Nelson and Fred B. Burch. A recording of the song by Thomas Wayne and the DeLons rose to #5 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1959. A 1961 cover version by The Fleetwoods rose to #10 on the charts. Brian Hyland also recorded it in 1969, but it only made it to #56. Ronnie Dove also recorded a country-flavored version of the song in 1976, however his version did not chart.

Wayne's hit version was released on Memphis, Tennessee-based Fernwood Records, which was owned by Ronald "Slim" Wallace (1957–1965). The single was made with a trio of girls recruited from the local high school. Wayne was a one hit wonder who cut around 20 songs including a remake of his hit for the reactivated Sun label which sounds similar to the original. Some of his other songs were hits for others such as " This Time" ( Troy Shondell) and "Girl Next Door Went a Walkin'" ( Elvis Presley). Despite all of his recordings for 3 different labels before his death in a car crash on August 15, 1971, he never cut an album and there has never been any CD been issued of his songs.

Paul McCartney and Wings also recorded a version of the song for the planned 2-LP set Red Rose Speedway. The idea for the 2-LP set was later abandoned and instead they released a single LP with the same title, but without "Tragedy". The Wings' version has not yet been released on any official records.

Brenda Lee recorded a version of the song on her 1961 album All the Way.

Tragedy is the second studio album by Serbian heavy metal band Forever Storm, released in December 2013 by EBM Records from Mexico.

Tragedy is Julia Holter's first studio LP, released on August 30, 2011. The album is inspired by Hippolytus, a play by Euripides. Holter recorded Tragedy with electronic instrumentation, largely out of necessity, since she lacked the funds to hire session musicians.

Tragedy (from the , tragōidia) is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term tragedy often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization. That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity—"the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond Williams puts it.

From its origins in the theatre of ancient Greece 2500 years ago, from which there survives only a fraction of the work of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; through its singular articulations in the works of Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Jean Racine, and Friedrich Schiller to the more recent naturalistic tragedy of August Strindberg; Samuel Beckett's modernist meditations on death, loss and suffering; Müller's postmodernist reworkings of the tragic canon; and Joshua Oppenheimer's incorporation of tragic pathos in his nonfiction film, The Act of Killing (2012), tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change. A long line of philosophers—which includes Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Voltaire, Hume, Diderot, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Benjamin, Camus, Lacan, and Deleuze—have analysed, speculated upon, and criticized the genre.

In the wake of Aristotle's Poetics (335 BCE), tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, whether at the scale of poetry in general (where the tragic divides against epic and lyric) or at the scale of the drama (where tragedy is opposed to comedy). In the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, melodrama, the tragicomic, and epic theatre. Drama, in the narrow sense, cuts across the traditional division between comedy and tragedy in an anti- or a- generic deterritorialization from the mid-19th century onwards. Both Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal define their epic theatre projects ( non-Aristotelian drama and Theatre of the Oppressed, respectively) against models of tragedy. Taxidou, however, reads epic theatre as an incorporation of tragic functions and its treatments of mourning and speculation.

"Tragedy" is a single by the Finnish glam punk band Hanoi Rocks, from the album Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks, but "Tragedy" was released a little before the release of the album. "Tragedy" and its B-side, "Café Avenue", are the most well-known songs from Hanoi Rocks' early career.

"Tragedy" was written by the band's guitarist Andy McCoy when he was 15 or 16. The lyrics basically deal with a typical teen story of a first love and how one imagines it will last forever. At some point it all collapses and it feels that the world is breaking. The result is a "tragedy" and tears. The song is very energetic and has a fast tempo. It is also melodic, even though the guitar parts are a punk style. "Tragedy" was recorded at Park Studios outside Stockholm at the Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks recordings.

"Café Avenue" talks about Hanoi Rocks' individualist-attitude and how it doesn't matter how you look and who you are. The song also features a story told from the point of view of a character who lives a rough, young and wild life, but eventually has to turn to prostitution to earn money. The story is largely inspired by Hanoi Rocks' own life on the streets of Stockholm, where people thought the band were homosexual prostitutes because of their glam rock-look. This song was also recorded at Park Studios outside Stockholm at the Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks recordings. "Café Avenue" wasn't released on an album until 1982's Self Destruction Blues.

On the Japanese single, the song "Don't Never Leave Me" was used as the B-side. The song was later reworked in to a hit-version titled " Don't You Ever Leave Me", which is featured on the album Two Steps from the Move.

A tragedy is an event of great loss, usually of human life. Such an event is said to be tragic. Traditionally the event would require "some element of moral failure, some flaw in character, or some extraordinary combination of elements" to be tragic.

Not all death is considered a tragedy. Rather it is a precise set of symptoms surrounding the loss that define it as such. There are a variety of factors that define a death as tragic.

An event in which a massive number of deaths occur may be seen as a tragedy. This can be re-enforced by media attention or other public outcry.

A tragedy does not necessarily involve massive death. The death of a single person, e.g., a public figure or a child, may be seen as a tragedy. The person need not necessarily have been famous before death.