The Leitmotif of Shakespearean Tragedies

The four great tragedies of Shakespeare are still open for interpretation and analysis, centuries after they were first penned. Individual critics differ in their opinion as to what constitutes the substance of tragedy in Shakespeare. There is no apparent similarity in the tales of the plays. But the plays of Shakespeare are not confined to the telling of the tales. Each of these plays- Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear - rises much above and beyond the simple story it purports to narrate. The drama in each is a play of conflicts. The present paper has aimed to identify the leitmotif of this conflict through the study of the four plays that lead to tragedy in each one of them.