A tragedy is a genre of drama, flourished in Greek literature, became famous in Elizabethan literature where Marlowe and Shakespeare brought it into English literature. Tragedy is a type of drama that presents a serious subject matter, in a single story, about human suffering, followed by sorrowful or dreadful events in a dignified manner causing a downfall of protagonist.

Elizabethan tragedies have the same concept of tragedy like Greek tragedy but there are little differences. Mostly they have similarities in major terms but mainly, Shakespeare made it different from Greek tragedies in broader context. Below are the main differences between Greek tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy.

Differences between Greek tragedy and Shakespearian tragedy:

• Both, Greek tragedies and Shakespearean tragedies show the fall of protagonist who holds a high position in a society. Their heroes are from kings, princes, dukes, military generals or a nobleman of a society who holds a position in a society.
• Ancient Greek tragedies were written by Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus and they were modeled upon religious groundings. Elizabethan tragedies were written mostly Marlowe and Shakespeare.
• Greek tragedies always follow beginning, middle, and end but Shakespearean tragedies do not follow proper beginning. In Shakespearean tragedy, A tragedy can start from any scene.
• Greek tragedies were based on theocentric vision and mostly they carried religious themes where destiny was controlled by divine powers and it was impossible for a protagonist to escape from fate. In Greek tragedies, fall of character is because of destiny that plays a role in the play.
• In Shakespearean tragedy character is destiny; the character of an individual handles the downfalls of an individual. In the play, Othello, the downfall of protagonist Othello was because of his own error of judgment that killed his beloved wife because of extreme jealousy. Shakespeare believed that a downfall of hero is not only controlled by fate but the misjudgment of a protagonist can bring fall on him.
• Greek tragedies carry a limited number of characters mostly they are three who perform on stage but Shakespearean tragedies have sufficient number of characters on the stage.
• In both tragedies, female characters were not allowed on stage but men performed the roles of females on stage.
• Greek tragedies involve use of chorus; who take part in play and describes some scene only by singing like scene of bloodshed or opening of the play like prologue. A chorus is a band only for singing and dancing and they do not take part in other actions of the play.
• Shakespearean tragedies do not have chorus band.
• Greek tragedies were based on a single plot but Shakespearean tragedies include subplots.
• Greek tragedies follow three unities: unity of action, unity of time, and unity of place but Shakespearean tragedies do not follow three unities.
• There is no space for the comic scene in Greek tragedies but there are comic scenes in Shakespearean tragedies. In Greek tragedies, Chorus provide relief for the audience whereas in Shakespearean tragedies, comic scenes provide relief to the audience.
• There is much use of supernatural elements in Shakespearean tragedies like use of witches in Macbeth or in Hamlet; the Ghost of Hamlet’s father is supernatural, and similarly Caesar’s spirit in his play Julius Caesar; whereas Greek avoided these elements.