Tragedy- a Hard Genre

Tragedy is not an easy genre. It is that genre that can be easily be avoided. It can easily be misjudged or misunderstood. It is easy to fall in the trap of saying you will never love a tragedy. I know this through experience. I once thought tragedies were pure sad, and did not want them in my life.

At first glance, tragedies sound like they are full of pain, misery, grief, and suffering. It really does sound like there is nothing else to them. However, that is actually “not” true. One essential element of tragedy is “catharsis”- that is what makes tragedies way more then pain and hurt. Tragedies never just have negative emotions; they have positive emotions as well. Even in death, you can find happiness; to find that, you have to know the character. Tragedies are home to comic relief as well.

Look at Les Mis. Les Mis may have a lot of suffering, tragedy, and death, but is so much more. Les Mis has a beautiful underlying spirituality. Several of the characters have hope; including the tragic characters. You see love, sacrifice, forgiveness, compassion, humanity, and redemption. One of the finales’ lyrics is “even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise”. Les Mis taught me that I can love tragedies. Les Mis really made me view musicals from a different perspective and challenged a lot of what I once knew.