Tragedy & Empathy

Just the other day we finished Oedipus Rex, which is praised as the perfect tragedy. It's interesting to me how the perfect tragedy thousands of years ago was presented in such an elegant form of media (a play), and today we consume and crave tragic stories portrayed in so many other forms of media. We watch and enjoy empathetically struggling with characters from the most poignant of stories, whether we see the stories played out in movies, books, plays, TV, or anything else. We as people can connect to emotionally moving stories no matter what the context. When I see people tearing up over tragic stories portrayed in such simple forms of media such as TV shows, it makes me wonder why they still carry such weight, no matter what the medium. If I had to make a guess, I would say it is because the brain functions off of recognition of various patterns, which is what defines our ability to be intelligent and think. Because of this, it seems to me that no matter what the artistic medium used to portray tragedy, be it photography, literature, cinematography, or any other, people will react very strongly on an emotional level if they are able to relate the to the tragedy in the story.