We now use the word “tragedy” rather carelessly: anything bad that happens is tragic. In ancient times, tragedies were performed at festivals, evoking the sense that humans suffer in particular ways, emphasizing how often our own humanity – our own flawed existence –brings on this suffering. Audiences experiencing a particular tragic scene together understood their own flaws and experience through catharsis, the strong emotion of pity or fear, by identifying with the characters. We will explore ancient ideas of tragedy and how its performance has changed throughout the centuries, and pinpoint how audiences continually find new ways of experiencing catharsis.