Young Writers Society

There are a whole lot of books with happy endings, and happy endings are good and all, but sometimes as a writer I find myself in the mood for a good tragedy, whether it be in the form of a play or a novel. Or at least a half-tragedy. Personally, I find that the really good tragedies are rich with theme and character, which is part of what makes them so wonderful.

My favorite book with a tragic ending has to be Atonement by Ian McEwan. It's just brilliantly done and the ending is perfect. This perfect ending has really been fascinating me, as I'm writing a novel with a tragic ending right now and fishing for how exactly I want to execute the end.

So what do you all think makes a good tragedy/book with a tragic ending?
What are some of your favorites?
And what advice do you have to share with someone who tries to write a tragic ending?

I don't know if this counts as a tragedy, but when I finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zasuk, I was sobbing my eyes out. The book was simply beautiful. There's no other way to describe it. It's a bit confusing at first, but once you get past that, it's amazing.

Tragedies for me are Hamlet and I Am Apache. Hamlet, well, is the classic. So fascinating to watch his decent into madness, all from not being strong enough to do something.

I Am Apache has a different tragic twist to it. Instead of outright knowing the MC is going to die, there's a bit of a freeze-frame where we see her walking away to join a fight. I consider this one of the most beautiful books I've read, so I'm not going to spoil all the wonderful twists for you, lol

Of course, Romeo and Juliet. Very tragic. All of Shakespeare's 'tragedies' are very tragic, really. Which makes sense. All older plays, really. Antigone is the first to come to mind.

What makes a good tragedy? Emotional attachment. Simple as that.

Tragedies always interest me, a lot. Because when they are good, they are rich with fascinating characters and character development. Lately, I've been reading tragic plays from the Elizabethan and Jacobean time period in England. These were for scholarly sake, but I really enjoyed them.

My two favorite tragic plays that are not by Shakespeare are The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Kit Marlowe.

Cal.

Tragic endings are the ones that leave you in tears for an hour, curling up next to your book and just smothering your face into your pillow. *is a little over dramatic* It’s having characters that grab you and make you want to feel for them,, make you want to never forget them, and make you want to be them even. But it also means pulling the darkest truths out of those characters and still making them lovable.

One of my favorite older tragic stories is Of Mice and Men while something much newer is I Love You Beth Cooper. It may not seem like it, especially right away or if you watched the movie instead, but there is a genuine honest feeling about the characters. But more importantly, there’s the ending where Denis doesn’t get the girl like he wants. It’s a human truth and it’ll grab anyone enough to make them love your tragic facts of life.

When I write, I do often see that there’s a darker tone under everything but those stories also have a lot of deep underlying meaning to me. But when I’m writing those stories, I’m writing my truths down, no matter how sad they are. And I think that’s the best advice for writing tragedies. Sometimes you have to know it as your truth before you can write it to be truly tragic and to understand the meaning of what you’re writing.

Tragedies, through, can't punch you in the face. What happens to the characters, along with being tragic, must be poignant and above all, fitting to the story. I mean, I suppose you can write a conventional story and throw a suckerpunch at the reader and feed him a tragic ending; but its inadvisable as the reader will probably be upset; that wasnt what they wanted from your book in the first place.
My play is by Jean-Satre, and its called The Flies. Its basically his way of rewriting what the Greek Mythologies made heroic, the vengeance for Agamemmnon's death by his son, Orestus. It has the most perfect ending, wonderful dialogue and it really is a must-read if you're interested at all in Greek mythology. It's also the perfect tragedy, since the tragedy is foreshadowed in the beginning, and we know by history's records what is to happen. I highly recommend it.

I recently reread Agamemnon by Aeschylus, which is a play depicting Agamemnon's murder, and I was so fascinated by the plight of Clytemnestra and the fatalistic Cassandra. (Agamemnon, on the other hand, is a jerk and is suitable written as such.) That said, the best tragedies are driven by bother circumstance and character. A tragedy doesn't work unless the characters speak to you, because a tragedy must affect you to work.

Endings-wise, I feel as though tragic endings should be a little nonsensical for it to truly stay with the reader. That is, a senseless ending that seems to have no reason behind it and leaves the reader unsatisfied. It has to make the reader think, 'why did this happen?' and make them lament for the character and the what-ifs.