Tragedy Strikes

     There are many definitions of the word 'Tragedy'. The main definitions that I found were, "A play, film, television program, or other narrative work that portrays or depicts calamitous events and has an unhappy but meaningful ending," or "A disastrous event, especially one involving distressing loss or injury to life." What I believe to be a correct definition of the word tragedy, is the misfortune events that cannot be controlled, that are not apart of fate.  Tragedy can be catastrophic events, how the protagonist's suffers, and lastly the sense of inevitability. As I address these definitions, think about how you would define tragedy.
      What is a catastrophic event? In my eyes, it is an event that God lets freely happen because it is meant to be. It is something not controlled, it is fate. For an example, on September 11, 2001 United States experienced the biggest tragedy ever witnessed in history.  When terrorists came into our country, and bombed the twin towers in New York City; the country went into chaos. These type of events do not allow time to organize plans. It was a tragedy because we lost so many men and women to this misfortune and went to war for it. Not only does tragic events happen in reality but also in literature as well.  The biggest tragedy I have ever read was the story of Romeo and Juliet. The whole plot of this play was revolved around tragic pieces such as the Capulet's and Montague's hatred for each other or,  the death of Tybalt that led eventually led to the downfall of Romeo and Juliet. In unfortunate circumstances, catastrophic events lead to a person's suffering.
        At this point, I am sure you as a reader are thinking about a tragic event that happened in your life that led to suffering. Recently, we had a beautiful cat whose name was Esmeralda. She was essentially our protector in my family. One year ago,  I was driving home from work and my dad spotted a dead animal on the side of our road. I thought nothing of it as I was pulling into our driveway, but this made my dad distraught. A few hours later, he gave us the bad news, Esmeralda was hit and dead. My mother was beside herself. For the next months, she would break into tears because it was just so unfair for this innocent cat, who was our guardian angel, to be killed. This is an example of how a person can suffer from a tragedy. In literature, Hamlet would be an excellent example.  Hamlet, the protagonist, goes mad from the death of Ophelia. Hamlet's rage and suffering led to the death of Claudius , an expression of revenge.
       Finally tragedy can lead to a sense of inevitability. A sense of inevitability means that it is unavoidable, it was meant to happen, it was fate. This feeling leads to over thinking, questioning morals and using the word, "What If..." Catastrophe will seem inevitable to the person. When my cat died, my mom talked about it for months, "What if we didn't let the cat out? What if I brought her inside earlier?" It was endless, but this feeling would not release from her. A sense of inevitability means that we have to let tragic events to occur. God meant for them to happen for a reason. There will never be a such thing as a coincidence but as I write this I am self-contradicting my previous statement. God does have a say in tragedy but we do not believe them to be apart of our fate. 
        Tragedy is happening all around us, every hour, every minute, and every second of the day. They are there to make us stronger, and tear us from our everyday regime. The best definition for a tragedy would be, " They are unhappy but come out with a meaningful ending." As I conclude for today, remember if you have just experience a tragic event and are suffering now, there will be something to come out of it. There always is.
 ~Namaste