If drama (the plays that are performed on stage) can help to mold the values of society, as Aristotle believed, which form of drama€”tragedy (think

Bothand comedy have always had a strong moral
dimension. Aristotle famously described tragedy as the fall of a great man through a tragic
flaw. Comedy is less clearly defined, largely because the second book of the
Poetics, which deals with comedy, survives only as an epitome or summary.
Aristotle does observe, however, that tragedy shows men as being better than they are, while
comedy shows them as being worse.

Tragedy also contains a strong element of
fate. Oedipus does not intend to kill his father and marry his mother. By any fair ethical
standard, he is not guilty. This element in tragedy clearly militates against its usefulness as
moral instruction.

Comedy, on the other hand, shows characters behaving in
avoidably ludicrous and disgraceful ways: the miser, the mountebank, the lustful old man or the
corrupt politician. It is easier for the audience to observe and eschew these vices than it is
for them to try to imitate the nobility and virtue of the tragic hero while avoiding his tragic
flaw. Comedy therefore appears to be more didactically useful than tragedy. This usefulness
might, however, diminish with time, since Elizabethan comedy is markedly less didactic than that
of Greece and Rome.

Of course, moral instruction is not by any means the only
social or individual benefit of drama. Another mentioned by Aristotle as an important attribute
of tragedy is , the release of and relief from powerful negative emotions. This release was
regarded as an important function of the Dionysian drama festival in ancient
Athens.