Domestic tragedy
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Domestic tragedy describes a drama in which the tragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or lower-class individuals, in contrast to 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. The term denotes either a tragedy where the subject matter or sphere of action is the household (domus) as opposed to nation.
Traditional tragedy centered on the heroic. Only great individuals with great minds and souls would be fit for tragedy, because the "tragic flaw" (hamartia) would be a surplus of a great quality. Additionally, because tragedy concerned heroes like generals, kings, and seers, tragedy's effects would be enormous. Oedipus's failure carries with it a civil war and a purgation of divine guilt, and Othello, in spite of focusing on the problems of marriage, means the destruction of a nation's military prowess.
In domestic tragedy, the subjects are often merchants or citizens. Their flaws are either Christian sin or miniatures of the great tragic flaws. The consequences of the catastrophe is familial pain. In the British stage, late Jacobean drama began to develop domestic tragedy, and it emerged more fully with the work of George Lillo and Sir Richard Steele in the eighteenth century.
