Conclusion: Social Tragedy’s Democratic Vision

Abstract

Democracy is fundamental to the dynamic of tragedy in both its legacy and new forms. Whereas Steiner associated democratic developments with the cessation of the genre, Eagleton considers democracy essential to tragedy’s existence.

There is nothing democratic in the vision of tragedy. The royal and heroic characters whom the gods honor with their vengeance are set higher than we are in the chain of being. (Steiner, 1961: 241)

If tragedy has returned, it is among other things because late modernity has recreated in its own way some of the conditions which gave birth to this scapegoat song in classical antiquity. (Eagleton, 2008: 340)