Tragedy

From Conservapedia

A tragedy is loosely used to describe any drama (or more loosely still, any event) with an unhappy ending, and more specifically to describe a form of drama popular first in Ancient Greece and then Elizabethan England.

Whilst the tragedies of Greek theatre derived their pathos from the inevitability of the fate of the main character (since mortals were mere playthings of the Gods), those of Shakespeare arguably surpassed this - the tragedy came from a flaw in the personality of the main character. In this way important questions were raised about the free will of the character - could, for example, Macbeth have chosen to be content with his position, rather than submit to his 'overvaulting' ambition?

Well known Greek playwrights include Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes.

William Shakespeare's most well-known tragedies are Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. However, he also wrote other tragedies such as Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, Othello, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Timon of Athens.

A subvariation of tragedy is tragi-comedy - this can be used to describe people with limited intelligence and no self-awareness who embark on doomed endeavours based upon a ludicrously simplistic view of the world, for example Don Quixote. Ricky Gervais in particular can be considered a master of contemporary tragi-comedy, although non-fictional examples are not necessarily lacking.