Tragedy

Abstract

We demand our money back if a rogue theatre director has Desdemona alive at the end of Othello – not merely because it contradicts Shakespeare’s intentions, but because it seems dramatically wrong. At the same time, and for the same people, her death is deeply upsetting. While we want the fiction to go a certain way, and certainly to include the death of Desdemona, we don’t, it seems, want Desdemona to die. We are, as Hume said, ‘pleased in proportion as [we] are afflicted’ (1777/1985: 217). Put generally: ... ... I’ll call such a combination of states a tragic response, and the fiction to which it is a response tragic or a tragedy. But my (2) invites the question: Is the tempting thing to say the right thing? My answer is No. So I have to find a better answer. This is my problem of tragedy. It is not Hume’s problem. Hume wondered why people seek tragic fictions; to this I give no answer. But answering my question is a step towards answering Hume’s; if we want to know why viewers enjoy being in certain states it helps to know what states they are in.

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