In English drama, a domestic tragedy is a tragedy in which the tragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or working-class individuals. This subgenre contrasts with classical and Neoclassical tragedy, in which the protagonists are of kingly or aristocratic rank and their downfall is an affair of state as well as a personal matter. These plays were in particular contrast to De casibus tragedy like De casibus virorum illustrium by Giovanni Boccaccio
Facts
Place of Origin Notable ExampleArden of Faversham (1592) 1 Defining TraitTragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or working-class individuals, not kings or aristocrats 1 Connections
Sources
1. Domestic Tragedy (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Lead section, second paragraph (Britain, English Renaissance)
In Britain, the first domestic tragedies were written in the English Renaissance; one of the first was Arden of Faversham (1592), depicting the murder of a bourgeois man by his adulterous wife.
Lead section, second paragraph
one of the first was Arden of Faversham (1592), depicting the murder of a bourgeois man by his adulterous wife.
Lead section, opening sentence
In English drama, a domestic tragedy is a tragedy in which the tragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or working-class individuals.
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