Are Tragedies Tragedies If They Conclude with a Consolation Prize?

Should we regard tragedies as tragedies if they conclude with consolations?
This is a classical conundrum that the rabbis have caused to arise
by demanding that, on the Ninth Day of Av, all readers of the Book of Lamentations
reread a verse that pleads penultimately for a consolation prize.

Jewish history raises this conundrum regarding the great tragedy known as the Shoah,
which was followed by the consolation prize, the state of Israel,
a refuge for survivors like the archaic Ark built by the archetypical survivor, Noah,
providing Jews a happy ending to a desperately tragic tale.

Reviewing Tragedy by Terry Eagleton in the 7/9/21 TLS, Simon Goldhill writes (“Vexes as it teaches: A provocative study of the tragic arts”):

The final chapter, “The Inconsolable”, argues cogently and sharply against the critical tradition that sees in tragedy (and sometimes art in general) an aesthetic of reconciliation, whereby the horrors and conflicts of human life are somehow redeemed by art’s sense of order or beauty. Such recuperative humanism, concludes Eagleton, not only cannot take account of the real bleakness of tragic drama, but also “fails to grant the inconsolable the respect they deserve”.

Here are the last two verses of Lamentations, beginning with the penultimate one that the rabbis say should be reread after reading the last verse.

כא הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ יְהוָה אֵלֶיךָ ונשוב (וְנָשׁוּבָה), חַדֵּשׁ יָמֵינוּ כְּקֶדֶם. 21 Turn Thou us unto Thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
כב כִּי אִם-מָאֹס מְאַסְתָּנוּ, קָצַפְתָּ עָלֵינוּ עַד-מְאֹד 22 Thou canst not have utterly rejected us, and be exceeding wroth against us!

Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.