Tragedy and comedy in the aesthetic category not only refer to specific drama types, but also refer to literary and artistic works with special aesthetic effects of "sadness" and "joy". The tragedy I am talking about here mainly refers to literary and artistic works with "sad" aesthetic factors and effects in a broad sense, such as poems, novels, plays, music, movies and so on. Or a tragic work of tragic beauty. Lu Xun said: "Tragedy is to destroy the valuable things in life for people to see." Therefore, most of the stories of tragic works end in the failure, departure or death of the protagonist, or the content and ending of the story are tragic, which makes people feel sad and pitied. But many people are willing to spend money to see tragic works, preferring to shed tears. Why? This mainly stems from the aesthetic feeling of tragedy. I remember two famous tragic movies, Mom loves me again and Titanic, which caused the audience to sigh and cry in the cinema and were widely praised by people. In addition, there are China classic songs with tragic stories as the background, such as butterfly lovers and Two Springs Reflecting the Moon, which are also loved by people because of their strong tragic aesthetic atmosphere. Therefore, the aesthetic psychology of human beings is that most people like to watch tragic works, and people in western countries especially welcome tragic works. They all think that tragic literature is the most profound and infectious, and the plot contents of world-famous novels, plays, movies and music masterpieces are mostly tragic stories. Such as Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions, Lu Xun's Mourning for the Past, Ba Jin's Home, Tolstoy's Anna karenin, Hugo's Notre Dame and Les Miserables, Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, Goethe's Faust and young werther, and Shakespeare's Hamlet. China's "Four Folk Stories"-Cowherd and Weaver Girl, Liang Zhu, Meng Jiangnv and Legend of White Snake are all tragedies. Belinsky said: "No poem controls our souls so strongly as tragedy, has such irresistible charm, fascinates our hearts and gives us such noble enjoyment." This sentence shows the artistic charm and aesthetic function of tragedy. Aesthetic feeling is a kind of spiritual aesthetic pleasure caused by beautiful things. Tragic works are the most attractive and emotional. With its unique tragic beauty, it directly hits people's emotions and hearts, arouses readers' and viewers' experiences, hearts, emotions and temperament, and arouses strong spiritual shock and aesthetic pleasure. Appreciating (reading or watching) comedy works often makes people laugh and feel relaxed and happy; Appreciating tragic works can make people cry and feel sad. After crying and hurting, they feel comfortable and carefree, and get inner aesthetic pleasure and emotional and spiritual satisfaction. This is the so-called "joy in mourning", which is the basic aesthetic effect of tragedy. But this kind of sadness mostly contains seriousness, solemnity, loftiness, heroism and so on. In the emotional pleasure, there are also the enlightenment of truth, the teaching of goodness and the enjoyment of beauty, which can make people work hard in grief, get emotional satisfaction and spiritual happiness, edify, purify and sublimate the soul, and thus obtain various aesthetic pleasures. Tragic art gives people a kind of sad beauty, but there is joy, enlightenment and education in sadness, which is a special beauty.

This kind of literary works with tragic beauty exists both at home and abroad, and the genres are also diverse. They have endless tragic beauty, which requires us to explore, taste, comprehend and experience constantly. For example, Self-protection in The Book of Songs, Peacock Flying Southeast in the Poems of Han Yuefu, Lost Street Pavilion in Luo Guanzhong's Romance of The Three Kingdoms, Angry Treasure Box by Du Shiniang, Wild Goose River-My Nanny by Ai Qing, Lu Xun's novels Blessing, Medicine, Kong Yiji and Medicine. These literary and artistic works with sad and tragic beauty are touching, sad, tearful and thought-provoking.

How to appreciate and grasp the tragic beauty of literary works? In my opinion, to appreciate the aesthetic feeling of tragic works and taste their rich and profound tragic beauty can be grasped from the following points:

1. Grasp the types of tragic characters through stories.

Tragic works can be divided into heroic tragedy, nameless tragedy and villain tragedy according to the types of characters they represent. For example, Xiang Yu was besieged on all sides, ambushed his concubine on all sides, and committed suicide in Wujiang River, becoming a "failed hero"; Prometheus was punished for stealing skyfire and was praised by Marx as "the highest saint and martyr in the philosophical calendar"; Yue Fei, Wen Tianxiang and others were loyal to the country, but they were killed by treacherous court officials. These are the tragedies of heroes. The heroic behavior and tragic fate of heroes show a strong and magnificent tragic beauty, which arouses our deep feelings and deep thinking and gives people endless infection, enlightenment and education. Xianglinsao, Ah Q, Kong Yiji, Juansheng and Zijun portrayed in Lu Xun's novels are all ordinary little people in life-working women at the lower level, poor peasants and intellectuals. Their tragic experience and unfortunate death made people shed tears of sympathy, gave birth to pity and sorrow, and exposed the darkness, indifference and sin of feudal society at that time. It was a sympathetic and thought-provoking little tragedy. In particular, Sister Xianglin, a hardworking, kind and honest rural working woman, has been hit hard by life. Her husband died and was forced to remarry. Society requires her to be sober, but she is not allowed to be sober. After her husband's death and her son's death, she had to bear the entanglement and torture of superstition and chastity, and was laughed at and ridiculed by indifferent people. She "wanted to be a slave but couldn't" and lost all her rights as a human being. In the end, she had to die silently. Its tragedy is very typical, it is a typical little tragedy. Is Rykov afraid of social change and new things, trying to maintain the czar's autocratic rule and becoming an accomplice of the czar's rule? Macbeth, with outstanding military exploits, usurped the throne and became a "bad guy with a great soul". Don't Rykov's death, the fall of Macbeth, etc. Give people a shock and reflection. The depravity and ugliness of human nature can reach such a point! Their tragedy belongs to the tragedy of the villains.

2. Analyze the causes of the tragedy according to the characters' personality characteristics.

Tragic works can be divided into character tragedy, fate tragedy and social tragedy from the causes of the tragic fate of characters, which are actually social tragedies. For example, Lu Xun's novels are all about ordinary people, ordinary things, and the tragic protagonists are all ordinary people at the bottom of society-working women, poor peasants and lower intellectuals in old China. Their tragic fate was influenced and poisoned by feudal thoughts and was determined by the social environment at that time. Their tragic fate is frightening and thought-provoking, which is a typical social tragedy. As the saying goes, "character is fate", that is, what kind of personality determines what kind of fate. Some tragedies are mainly caused by the protagonist's personal personality factors, such as weakness, melancholy, vanity, credulity and so on. But they are also inseparable from the influence of society, because people are social people. For example, the life tragedy of Mathilde in the necklace seems to be an accidental tragedy of fate. Even the author said, "How strange and changeable life is. The smallest thing can ruin you or make you perfect. " However, if we think deeply, you will find that her tragedy is inevitable by accident. This is because her inner thoughts and character have been seriously poisoned and eroded by the decadent bourgeois thoughts of vanity and pleasure-seeking, which is deeply rooted and will inevitably lead to her life tragedy and stubbornness of "vanity for a while and hardship for ten years". At the same time, this is inseparable from the social environment and value orientation of the upper class of the French bourgeoisie at that time. They love vanity and value talent.

3. Deeply understand the inspiration and lessons given by the tragic fate of the protagonist.

Tragedy literature not only inspires us to think deeply through the emotional people, but also through the social content itself, thinking about the subjective and objective factors, society and ideological roots of this tragedy, and taking it as a life textbook to avoid repeating the mistakes of other people's life tragedies. Therefore, the aesthetic feeling of tragedy not only has the function of emotional contagion, but also has the function of rational life enlightenment and guidance. In real life, many people have been inspired by the truth, goodness and beauty from the tragic stories created by writers. For example, the tragic root of Xianglinsao in Blessing is mainly the poison of feudal ethics (chastity and superstition); Mathilde's tragedy in The Necklace stems from the decadent vanity of the bourgeoisie and the pursuit of pleasure. The tragedy of Bie Rykov in The Trapped originates from the poison of the czar's autocratic thought. These tragedies make people realize that backward, ignorant and decadent ideas can poison people and cause tragedies in life. This allows us to emancipate our minds, get rid of superstitions, pursue progress and live a smarter life in real life.

4. Deeply understand and comprehend the writer's creative intention and aesthetic ideal.

On the one hand, the aesthetic feeling of tragic literature comes from the social content contained in the tragedy itself, which gives people emotional infection, ideological enlightenment and lessons; At the same time, it comes from the creation of writers and artists; Creation comes from his creative intention and aesthetic ideal. For example, when Cao Yu talked about the creation of Thunderstorm, he said, "I spent most of my life in the dark old society. ..... I wanted to resist at that time. Trapped in the darkness and corruption of the old society, I didn't want to live, so I picked up a pen. My first groan in Thunderstorm may be a cry. " (Postscript of Selected Works of Cao Yu) It can be seen that the creative intention of Thunderstorm is to expose and criticize the darkness and ugliness of feudal old China families through the entanglement of blood, love and class contradictions. Lu Xun's novel "Medicine" describes the tragedy of the Chinese nation, and its creative intention is just as Mr. Lu Xun himself said: "My material is mostly taken from the unfortunate people in the morbid society, which is intended to expose the suffering and attract the attention of treatment." Ba Jin's novel "Home" wrote the tragedies of Gao Juexin, Feng Ming and Qian Meifen, accused the feudal family and feudal thoughts of evil, and profoundly pointed out that "youth is beautiful". Ba Jin said, "When I write home, it's like digging the grave of memory. When I was a child, I was often forced to witness the destruction of some young lives and get a tragic ending. " "I want to shout out my' I accuse' to a dying system." The accusation of feudal system and the praise of youth are the author's creative intention and aesthetic ideal. Therefore, a deep understanding of the writer's creative intention and aesthetic ideal can deepen our understanding of tragic works and enhance our understanding of their tragic beauty.