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Literature vocabulary · Drama and Theatre

Revenge tragedy

Meaning in literature, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In literature, revenge tragedy means: A tragedy organized around the demand for revenge and its destructive consequences.

In Turkish: intikam trajedisi

How it is used

Use for plots in which revenge shapes the action and moral conflict, not every tragedy containing a killing.

Example sentences

  1. The revenge tragedy forces the son to choose between private justice and public law.

    The demand for revenge creates the central moral dilemma.

  2. Our essay shows how the revenge tragedy makes each act of retaliation produce another death.

    The repeated consequences reveal revenge as a destructive chain.

Common collocations

  • Elizabethan revenge tragedy
  • the revenge tragedy tradition
  • tragedyA serious play or story in which the main character suffers and is usually destroyed, often because of a personal flaw or a fatal mistake.
  • conflictThe struggle between opposing forces in a story, such as two characters, a character and society, or a character and their own desires, which drives the plot.

More terms: Drama and Theatre

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