Tracing the history of tragedy and comedy from their earliest beginnings to the present‎,‎ this book offers readers an exceptional study of the development of both genres‎,‎ grounded in analysis of landmark plays and their context‎.‎ It argues that sacrifice is central to both genres‎,‎ and demonstrates how it provides a key to understanding the grand sweep of Western drama‎.‎ For students of literature and drama the volume serves as an accessible companion to over two millennia of drama organised by period‎,‎ and reveals how sacrifice represents a through‎-line running from classical drama to today‎'‎s reality TV and blockbuster movies‎.‎ Across the chapters devoted to each period‎,‎ Day explores how the meanings of sacrifice change over time‎,‎ but never quite disappear‎.‎ He charts the influences of religion‎,‎ social change and politics on the status and purposes of theatre in each period‎,‎ and on the drama itself‎.‎ But it is through a close study of key plays that he reveals the continuities centred around sacrifice that persist and which illuminate aspects of human p‎.‎‎.‎‎.‎