tragedy
Sophocles helped shape classical tragedy. This topic is part of Theater within Arts & Culture. This page currently draws on 24 supporting questions, with answers and bonus facts available below.
tragedy trivia questions
A tragedy is a dramatic work that usually ends in what?
Answer: Serious suffering or downfall
Bonus fact: Tragedies explore conflict, fate, flaws, and loss.
Which ancient Greek playwright wrote Oedipus Rex?
Answer: Sophocles
Bonus fact: Sophocles helped shape classical tragedy.
What term describes the tragic hero's fatal flaw?
Answer: Hamartia
Bonus fact: Hamartia can refer to an error or flaw that contributes to downfall.
Which Shakespeare tragedy features Romeo and Juliet?
Answer: Romeo and Juliet
Bonus fact: The play centers on two young lovers from feuding families.
William Shakespeare wrote plays such as Hamlet and what tragedy about star-crossed lovers?
Answer: Romeo and Juliet
Bonus fact: Shakespeare wrote tragedies, comedies, histories, and poetry.
Which Sophocles tragedy centers on a woman who defies King Creon to bury her brother?
Answer: Antigone
Bonus fact: Antigone pits divine duty against state law.
Which Euripides tragedy centers on the god Dionysus and King Pentheus?
Answer: The Bacchae
Bonus fact: The play explores divine power, ecstasy, and resistance.
Fear of the Ghost Dance helped contribute to which 1890 tragedy?
Answer: Wounded Knee massacre
Bonus fact: Federal authorities viewed the movement as a threat.
Which Shakespeare play does the Folger identify as his earliest tragedy and earliest Roman play?
Answer: Titus Andronicus
Bonus fact: The Folger says Titus Andronicus was first printed in a quarto in 1594.
The film "Othello" is based on a tragedy by whom?
Answer: William Shakespeare
Bonus fact: The story centers on Othello, Desdemona, and the destructive manipulation of Iago.
"Ran" is strongly inspired by which Shakespeare tragedy?
Answer: King Lear
Bonus fact: Kurosawa transforms Lear’s daughters into three sons within a story of a Japanese warlord’s collapsing family.
Who wrote the novel "An American Tragedy"?
Answer: Theodore Dreiser
Bonus fact: The 1925 novel is one of Dreiser's best-known works.