La tragedia a ojos de los cómicos: algunos ejemplos paradigmáticos de paratragedia

???????????? is defined as a parody of actions and characters from tragedies. It?s comic success originates from the juxtaposition between what the characters say and the context in which the scene develops. Thus we can find «lower class» characters using the language of those from the «higher class», like the tragic style, therefore creating a comic situation and evoking laughter from the audience. However, paratragedy goes beyond this purpose; if we study it carefully we can see the influence of tragedy within the comic play. This shows the clear background of literary criticism which we find reflects the work of the tragic poets, their ideas or literary style. Our aim is to establish the general characteristics of paratragedy, through a sequence of examples extracted from Old and Middle comedy