Studying a tragedy

Abstract

SHAKESPEARE’S four major tragedies are Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. They are generally recognised as Shakespeare’s finest plays. To understand why, it helps if we start by thinking about tragedy as a specific form of drama. The pattern of all plays is that some action takes place or a character does something that throws life into turmoil. To express this in the simplest terms, social order prevails at the beginning of the play, but very quickly we see society in a state of disorder. The effect of this is that a play makes us think about the complex nature of man and the world we live in; we see the gap between our ideal notions of a peaceful, stable society and the reality of a world where people are unruly.