Why do we have such a fascination for the tragic story? The greatest tales ever told are tragedies at their roots. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Farewell to Arms, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men all hold places of great importance and value on our shelves of literary classics. Many novels published in the last decades of the 20th century and this century have tragedy as their focus: The Fault in Our Stars, The Kite Runner, Looking for Alaska, Bridge to Terabithia, and The Road to name just a few.
William Shakespeare is often cited as the most influential writer in the English language. So much so that his plays have been translated into every major language spoken in the world and are performed more frequently than any other playwright living or dead. Three of the Bard’s consist of tragedies. Of the two previously mentioned, I would add Macbeth—or the Scottish Play, as my wife and I learned when we attended a showing at the Globe Theatre in London. https://www.shakespeareances.com/wherewill/Play_Popularity_Index.html
What makes his tragedies so popular? I cannot think of a single person who does not know where the line O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo? comes from. Or Hamlet’s monologue: To be, or not to be, that is the question. These represent universal ideas we all experience. Who hasn’t longed for a love that never seemed to blossom? Who hasn’t contemplated leaping into the abyss?
A study in the journal Communication Research believes tragedies have the ability to make people happier. It makes them think about the positive aspects of their lives, helping them focus on them. Tragedies help boost a person’s own happiness. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120326132533.htm
To me, it’s not that simple. Perhaps it looks to me like truth. It presents the cold, hard facts of life. It doesn’t sugar coat the sorrowful or horrific with lies or platitudes. Truth hurts. We may not like it, but we can count on it. Tragedy will not call an apple an orange. Tragedy lets me know if I should buy a larger pant size instead of trying to squeeze into the same pair I wore in high school. Tragedy tells me the truth so I can deal with it and move on.
Myself, I read tragedies so that I can identify with other people. We all get hurt. We all suffer loss and pain. These are universal. Tragedy places me firmly in that club called humanity. We recognize the agony and misery in others because it reflects what we have experienced. Tragedy allows us to feel empathy. I had a loving mother, and in her last hours, I held her hand until she took her last breath. It tore me up. I do not know what it is like to not have a loving mother, but I understand deeply the emotions because I know the ache caused by the absence.
I think I’ve known what tragedies are since the first story I ever wrote. My parents told me I called the tale The Peanut with Measles. They also informed me the peanut died. What kind of life experiences did I have to allow me to write a tragic story about death at the age of five? I had a good and happy childhood. But tragedies express real life. Maybe I knew back then it would somehow make me think happier thoughts. My father had just been stationed halfway across the nation from my friends and only home I’d ever known. Let’s go
Take care.
