Best Tragedy?

[kelby_lake]

Novels and plays.
I'm looking for some ideas- maybe pick and choose some Greek drama/American drama and surprise me with some novels.

[hoo]

What do you mean by tragedy?

[*Classic*Charm*]

The Crucible- Arthur Miller (I take every opportunity to advocate this play!!) and

Oedipus Rex- Sophocles

[Phangirl7]

I'd go with Romeo and Juliet, because it's so tragic!
P.G.7.

[Dr. Hill]

Hamlet- William Shakespeare
The Idiot- Fyodor Dostoevskii
The Oedipus Cycle- Sophocles
Medea- Euripides

[LitNetIsGreat]

I'll second Hamlet and Medea and throw in King Lear. I'd also put forward Jude the Obscure on the novel front.

[JBI]

Oedipus Rex, and then Racine's Phedre. I personally don't consider any of Shakespeare's tragedies really tragedies, since they don't follow the classic model, with the exception of perhaps Romeo and Juliet.

Or did you just mean something that ends in death? As for that, King Lear by far, since Hamlet is more comedy than tragedy, even in the end.

[Chava]

After having seen Hamlet performed now every year since i was 13, I still find it tragic. It makes my heart sink to the pits of my stomach.
If you want a really tragic novel that is certainly more contemporary see if you can get your hands on "A fine balance" by Rohinton Mistry, that book broke my heart.

[andave_ya]

Was gonna say Oedipus Rex but was beaten to the punch :D.

[hoo]

All right, I'll try. Best American tragedy? The Godfather

[amalia1985]

Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Bacchae and Ion are my choices from Greek drama. Now, as far as Shakespeare is concerned, I second all the above posts that mentioned the great plays.

[Emmy Castrol]

Novel: The Tristan and Iseult story (which is what inspired Romeo and Juliet), Diana L. Paxson's retelling 'The White Raven' is absolutely heart wrenching.

Play: Medea

[mayneverhave]

I would not define a tragedy as specifically requiring the death of the hero, but rather the separation of the hero from society.

However, in terms of the strict definition above, Hemingway's novel, A Farewell to Arms, ends quite tragically.

As for drama, something contemporary would be Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman.

[The Comedian]

Greek Tragedy: The Trojan Women

Modern play: Simpatico

I really like all of the choices mentioned thus far, but these are a few that I think deserve mention with the others.

[Wilde woman]

Hmmm, apparently great minds think alike. I was going to say the Oedipus trilogy as well, but was beaten but about 10 people.

Cyrano de Bergerac always makes me bawl at the end. (I can never figure out if this is a comedy or tragedy. Tragicomedy?)

Also Le Morte d'Arthur and Achebe's Things Fall Apart, just to throw some variety in there. :p

[PabloQ]

How about A Streetcar Named Desire or The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams? Or Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen?

[prendrelemick]

Oedipus Rex, and then Racine's Phedre. I personally don't consider any of Shakespeare's tragedies really tragedies, since they don't follow the classic model, with the exception of perhaps Romeo and Juliet.

Or did you just mean something that ends in death? As for that, King Lear by far, since Hamlet is more comedy than tragedy, even in the end.


Othello. A nailed on classic tragic hero. A great man who over reaches himself ( In his love for Desdemona ) and falls.

[kelby_lake]

You're intune with me! Just studied Othello at school, Medea is on the pile, Anouilh's Antigone is fab, and it would be a crime to like greek tragedy but not read the notorious Oedipus Rex.
Read Streetcar and Glass Menagerie, read Crucible :)

[ocean_drop]

Very often it is seen that the greatest tragedy tends to become the greatest comedy and the greatest comedy becomes the greatest tragedy...

[five-trey]

The greatest tragedy I've read has to be Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill. Not only as far as being tragic in nature, but also as a work. I never thought of "tragedies" as being that influential until this play. My hair was standing on end during the latter half.


The combination of style and images is laudable.

[Thespian1975]

King Lear. Makes me cry every time. The recognition scene between cordelia and lear is so beautiful yet you know what comes next and it makes it unbearable!

The da vinci code - Tragedy that it got past a publishers table.

[jhonerliz]

Oedipus Rex is the best tragedy for me.
Imagine killing your father, marrying your mother and blinding yourself......

[WICKES]

All right, I'll try. Best American tragedy? The Godfather

If we can include films I'd vote for 'Withnail and I'- easily the most beautiful, gut wrenching ending to any film I've ever seen. Withnail has lost everything by the end- his only friend, his home, his dreams, yet he still makes that glorious, defiant speech to the heavens. Brief Encounter, with its English/ British middle-class restraint and struggle to maintain a civilised control and veneer while your heart is breaking is also pretty tragic.

[kelby_lake]

The greatest tragedy I've read has to be Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill. Not only as far as being tragic in nature, but also as a work. I never thought of "tragedies" as being that influential until this play. My hair was standing on end during the latter half.


The combination of style and images is laudable.

Yep, it is a great epic.

[*Classic*Charm*]

Oedipus Rex is the best tragedy for me.
Imagine killing your father, marrying your mother and blinding yourself......

Way to give it away! :p

[mortalterror]

Oedipus Rex is the best tragedy for me.
Imagine killing your father, marrying your mother and blinding yourself......

Could have been worse. He could have killed his mother and ****ed his father.:lol:

[prendrelemick]

Tragedy and A Sad Story, are not the same thing.

Tragedy in the classic sense involves a fall from a great height because of a fatal flaw in the character involved. So when Ali Magraw dies in Love Story, for instance, thats sad. When John Delorean is disgraced and jailed, its a tragedy (though not necessarily sad.)

[conartist]

Hamlet, King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra are to me the three greatest tragedies in the English language by a loooong way. Lear is the most devestating piece of literature I that has ever been created as far as I can tell, and the other two are even better because they are so varied throughout, being so comical, psychological and dramatic, which only leaves you with a greater sense of loss at the end.

[bluevictim]

My favorite Greek tragedy is probably Antigone, but that seems to vary from day to day. My favorite Shakespearean tragedy is Macbeth.

[kelby_lake]

Tragedy and A Sad Story, are not the same thing.

Tragedy in the classic sense involves a fall from a great height because of a fatal flaw in the character involved. So when Ali Magraw dies in Love Story, for instance, thats sad. When John Delorean is disgraced and jailed, its a tragedy (though not necessarily sad.)

Hence why I asked for best tragedy, not best sad story :)

What if I really wanted to watch Love Story?!

[five-trey]

Could have been worse. He could have killed his mother and ****ed his father.:lol:

hahahahah

[promtbr]

Since this post timely coresponds to my recent reading of Greek Tragedy,
I would have to second several of the above posters.

Sophocles Oedipus cycle took me by surprise. All three were amazing. Antigone for me was the greatest. The Orestia by Aeschlyus was deeper and more multi-leveled than I anticipated, and I love any literature with Furies, but it was a bit more ponderous dramatically than the Oedipus Cycle. Probably a lot had to do with how extensive the Chorus is used in Aeschlyus...(btw , read the Feagles translation in both The Orestia and Sophocles Theban Tragedies, and was greatly impressed, read his translations of The Odyssey and The Aeneid..

Euripedes The Medea didn't do it for me. She was not a tragic character I could connect with in near the way I did with Antigone and Oedipus, and the antagonists seemed wooden.


I had read Hamlet for the first time a couple of months ago, for some reason we never read him 30 yrs ago in my Shakespeare course...

That was the probably the greatest single work of literature I have read...ranks with Waiting For Godot...

Now to re-read King Lear and Macbeth...:D

[electricpenguin]

I've got to put in another vote for Othello. I fell in love with this at school - betrayal has never been so heartbreaking!

EP x

[Rainy]

Antigone is definitely my favorite :)

[MissScarlett]

Hamlet gets my vote.

[prendrelemick]

tragic!