Bahnsen's theory of tragedy derived directly and naturally from the "contradictory" ideas of his "Realdialektik". In his own time, the acclaimed theories of tragedy were those of Schiller and Hegel. For them, the correct moral choice in a tragic hero's circumstances is always clear and extremely painful, precisely because of these circumstances. I.e. no matter how clear this choice is, it is always difficult to choose it. A good example is Hegel, who claims that we must always choose the good of the collective, regardless of how difficult this would be for the particular individual. Bahnsen disagreed with such a notion. For him, a "clear choice" is never obvious, there's not even a clear choice to be had. In tragedy, the hero must choose between his duties and/or his values. Whatever he chooses, he will sin and be punished for not choosing the other (punished either by law or by guilt). From this observation, Bahnsen concluded that tragedy exposes precisely this inner contradiction that is inherent in the world. In his 2016 work "Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860-1900" the American professor of philosophy Frederick Beiser expresses Bahnsen's views: