What Is A Sad Play Called?

A sad play is called Tragedy. Tragedy is a type of play that is centred on human suffering, particularly the awful or tragic circumstances that befall a major character. The goal of tragedy is for the audience to experience catharsis or “pain that wakes pleasure.”

Tragedy is generally used to refer to a certain tradition of drama that has played a distinctive and significant role in the historical self-definition of Western civilisation.

Although the term tragedy is sometimes used to denote any kind of disaster or misfortune, it more specifically refers to a work of art that explores the position of man in the world with great seriousness.

“Tragedy” is derived from the Greek “he-goat” + aeidein = “to sing” – literally, “a goat’s song.” Scholars aren’t precisely sure why, although they have a few theories: Tragedies were first played on stage in ancient Athens. Satyrs, a type of mythological goat or a Goat may have been slaughtered during the performance of tragedies in ancient Athens, according to Dionysus, the Greek god to whom the plays were devoted.

Despite this mystery, we’re stuck using the term “tragedy” to describe a narrative arc in which things begin in order and end in chaos.