Tragic past

The tragic past (also sometimes referred to as a tragic history or tragic backstory) is a common concept and feature in literature, film and other media. The term usually refers to tragic events being a prominent, if not outright dominating feature in the backstory of a fictional character. The concept is fairly common in adult-oriented genres (including not just drama and melodrama but also comedy, romance and action-adventure) but sometimes also can be seen in children's entertainment as well (rather famous cases being Bambi and The Series of Unfortunate Events), and it is common in all or nearly all major storytelling media, including novels, film, even comic books and video games.

The events of a tragic past may be portrayed as affecting anything from the character's current living situation to his or her current behavior, emotional state or even motivations, may have occurred anywhere from the character's early childhood to the relatively recent past, and may or may not be consciously remembered by the character. These events may or may not be the character's fault, either. Common elements range from personal issues as the death or loss of one or more loved ones, child abuse or sexual assault, to wider cataclysmic events such as an apocalypse, genocide or natural disaster.

Both heroes and villains alike have been given tragic pasts, and characters can be given a tragic past for any reason ranging from attempting to make the character sympathetic to creating a plot device that puts the whole story in motion.

The tragic past has a lengthy history in human storytelling, with such ancient heroes as Hercules being given one in oral traditions, and many a classic fairy tale character, such as Cinderella, possessing one even in their earliest recorded literary appearances. Well-known modern characters that have been shown to have some form of tragic past range from such villains as Darth Vader to heroes like Harry Potter.

Tragic pasts are so prevalent in storytelling in essentially every medium, that it is sometimes considered to be a cliché, though many popular and respected stories have featured it.

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