关键词: 莱辛; 市民悲剧; 同情; 恐惧和怜悯; 认同

Abstract: Especially in Briefwechsel über das Trauerspiel and Hamburgische Dramaturgie Gotthold Ephraim Lessing expounds histheory of bourgeois tragedy with the core of Mitleid（sympathy）．For a further understanding of Lessing’s Theory of Bourgeois Tragedy，a survey and analysis of the main viewpoints are carried out in this paper．The sympathy for the tragedy protagonists，as an emotional reaction and a moral potential，leads the audience to the moral improvement．Only through the identification of the audience with the tragedy protagonists can the sympathy arise and this identification is mainly dependent on the similarity of the audience to the tragedy protagonists and the probability of the plot．Basing his theory on a new interpretation of Aristoteles concepts eleos and phobos，Lessing argues that they are both methods of moral improvement．

Keywords: Lessing; Bourgeois Tragedy; Mitleid; eleos and phobos; identification