The Paradox of Tragedy

“The paradox of tragedy is engendered by the difficulty of explaining how aesthetic pleasure and enjoyment can be derived from, and experienced at the same time as the pain and sadness elicited by tragic drama.”

- Mark Packer, “Dissolving the Paradox of Tragedy”


"It seems an unaccountable pleasure, which the spectators of a well-written tragedy receive from sorrow, terror, anxiety, and other passions, that are in themselves disagreeable and uneasy. The more they are touched and affected, the more are they delighted with the spectacle; and as soon as the uneasy passions cease to operate, the piece is at an end.”

- David Hume, “Of Tragedy,” Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary (1758)