Three Tragedies

This book, ＂Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Shakespeare’s King Lear and O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra as tragedies＂ delves deep into skein of tragic tangle to delineate how and why tragedy happens with man. It would explore what tragedy means. It would also highlight the paradigmatic shifts the tragedy has undergone right from the Greek period through the Shakespearean to the Modern period. During the Greek period, tragedy in the scheme of things was predominantly dominated by divine order. The plan and plot was almost preordained through prophecies and oracles. In Shakespeare’s era, it was centered more on character of man. In Modern times, heroes got trapped in tragic traps due psychological problems and the concept of tragedy in its various aspects e.g. plot, character (tragic), thought, diction and other ingredients like masks and chorus, from the ancient times through the Shakespearean up till the Modern period, tragedy is all alive with its tragic impact intact.