SOURCE: Stone, Harriet. “Transformal Closures in Le Cid, Horace, Cinna, and Polyeucte.” Theatre Journal 34, no. 3 (October 1982): 302-21.

In the following essay, Stone scrutinizes the stylistic and thematic similarities of The Cid, Horace, Cinna, and Polyeucte.

Tragedy is the experience of loss—loss of or separation from an envisaged whole or state of fulfillment. That is, loss implies its logical corollary (totality); the one concept is defined through the other. So the enactment of tragedy involves the separation of the individual from his coveted possession, the transformation of an inclusive desire into an exclusive choice.

If tragedy lends itself particularly well to the theatre, it is because of the unique perspective afforded by the stage. The audience's view of the performing characters serves to concretize the abstract relation of part to whole, loss to fulfillment. Viewed against the artful backdrop of successive scenes and acts as these give structure...