Joanna Baillie’s Theory of Tragedy

Abstract

Abstract Joanna Baillie rose to fame in 1798 with the first volume of her Plays on the Passions, which included her theory of tragedy, the subject of this chapter. For Baillie, all human beings have powerful and dangerous passions that we need to regulate. Tragedy can help, by showing us protagonists who fail to check the growth of a particular passion, such as jealousy or hatred. We witness the passion take over the character’s mind until he or she is destroyed. This offers a warning and motivates us to watch out for the growth of our own passions and keep them in check. Baillie’s theory of tragedy is original and combines moralism, voluntarism, and optimism, since the sufferings undergone by tragic characters could have been avoided had they made better choices. Tragedy’s message is not that suffering is inescapable, but that suffering can be reduced if we cultivate self-knowledge and self-control.