Student Essay on What Is the Nature of Man's Fascination with Tragedy?

A view of man's fascination with tragedy both on the stage and off. Includes personal opinions and facts to support the thesis.

Suppose someone slips on a banana peeling and falls into a puddle of mud. We laugh. We laugh all the more if the person who slips is a man dressed in evening clothes. The situation is incongruous. Tragedy is a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force and having a disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror. So, the dandy dressed man is consciously proud, coolly, and sure of himself, falls then the audience laughs; but it wouldn't be if he was a feeble old man, because of sympathy. So taking it further, why do we enjoy tragedy? Man is fascinated because of our sympathy and nature instinct to know more. Here is one example, when Schadenfreude arising out of envy, we think, "He's better looking than I am, but.....