How to write a tragedy
The Greeks (Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides) invented the tragedy. The tragic heroes were kings, princes or characters from legend or epic. Tragedy is a drama with no escape, but also an imitation of the life of human beings. Here are some tips on how to write a tragedy.
1) When you write a tragedy: find double meanings
Incorporate simile and/or metaphor. Comparison and metaphor have always been extremely important to any successful tragedy. They give more meaning to the words on the page or the actions on the stage and allow the reader/audience to feel involved in the story by deciphering your similes and reading into the “big picture” of your work.
2) Think of a tragic hero
Every tragedy almost always has a tragic hero. In the early Greek tragedies, the hero was often a god, but as the genre evolved, the tragic hero gradually became a warrior or a king/political figure. The general rule today for the tragic hero is that he or she must be morally strong and can be admired by the audience or reader.
3) When you write a tragedy: dare to attack love
The tragedy sometimes depends on the disintegration of love. It is in this sense that the audience needs to understand, to see that your characters were happy at the beginning, so that once their relationship deteriorates, they can realize how far they have come. The more intense the personal ties that bind the two characters, the sharper the emotional charge (when that bond is broken).
4) Pay attention to the ending
The end of the tragedy can be happy or unhappy, and preferably unhappy, because it proves to be more effective and more likely to arouse tragic passions. But a happy ending is always possible—the plot that Aristotle considers the most efficient has a happy ending: it is the case where the hero is about to kill, recognizes it and does not kill.
When you write a tragedy, remember: the “tragic” can become a way of thinking about the unpredictable, the unexpected, the fateful reversal and more broadly to configure the fragility of our search for happiness in a world subject to the accidental and to fate.