A newspaper headline caught my eye: Search ends in tragedy. What, did the search somehow cause the death of the missing child, or of one of the searchers? No, it’s simply that the child was found dead.
Classically, a tragedy is a drama in which the hero dies (or fails) because of a flaw in his own character. A tragedy ought to carry a moral lesson. What do we learn from a random murder? Did little Alex die because of his hubris? Of course not. Same goes for the victims of a natural disaster.
I mean no disrespect, of course, to the sorrow of the victim’s family. (Search ends in sorrow would be a more accurate headline.) My contempt is for writers careless of their tools.
Next time: theatre vs amphitheatre.