Why the Tragic Backstory?

Hello, friends; I wrote this on Monday, but a series of events involving school and binge-reading prevented me from posting it until today.

I, like most of the people I'm aware of who read this, am a writer. Part of writing is having a character to write about. Which, of course, leads us to crafting a backstory. Now, if you've read or watched or even written anything ever, you'll probably have noticed a common type of backstory.

It's called the Tragic Backstory. It's a favorite amongst storytellers of all kinds, in which one or many tragedies litter the character's past. 

This varies from the death of loved ones, to a lack of loved ones; from losing everything, to having nothing to begin with. There's no limit to the tragedies a writer can whip up to torture their precious creation with.

Now, I ask the question that I'm sure many have already discussed;

Why do people like tragic backstories?

Be it writing them, watching them, or reading them, people can't seem to get enough of characters laced in tragedy. But why is that? Are we as a people desperate to see something suffer, or is it the appeal of rising up from the ashes that pleases our fancy? Or, could we just be so dramatic as to wish to pull a Shakespeare and have everyone be unhappy and existential all the time? 

For your consideration, I've thought up a few possible appeals for this trope.

For starters, tragedy gives us a way to relate to the characters, or at least feel empathy for them. This establishes a connection between us and the character which may be harder to build else wise.

Then there's the factor of perseverance; people admire perseverance in characters, and pushing past the events/through the consequences of tragedy is a stellar example of it. 

Next, there's the justification.
"This character is the way they are because of this" 

"This character is allowed to get away with this because look their past was sad" 

"This character started doing this due to this"

So on, so forth; a quick and easy way to legitimately (or illegitimately) justify a character is by slapping tragedy into their past. 

There's also the nurturing side of things. You see a broken down, hurting character, and the desire to protect and nurture it kicks in. Modern fandom jargon is an example of this, in spiels such as, "My son, so pure so soft, utter CINNAMON ROLL if anyone touches him I will fIGHT THEM."  

Lastly, there's the simple if slightly questionable fact that tragic backstories are just really fun. They add a special something, even if it's a slightly traumatizing special something, to our characters that we just can't get enough of. If carried out correctly, tragic backstories are just fantastic to see. 

So, there you have it; a few possibilities for the appeal of a tragic backstory.

What do you think? Do you have any other reasons for the appeal of a tragic backstory? Or, do you see no appeal in it? Talk to me, I'd love to hear from you!