Holocaust Unit: Key Question and 'Life is Beautiful'

What is a tragedy?
A tragedy is a dramatic piece of work that can either be serious or funny. 

An event suffering in distress or destruction.

How is Life is Beautiful a tragedy? 
Life is beautiful is a tragedy because the main character and hero of the film dies, it is also a tragedy because it has a serious and sad theme to the movie being about the holocaust.

Could it also be a comedy?
I think there are aspects of this movie that can make this film a comedy, but the fact that it is about the holocaust I personally don't think its humorist. So no.
Slapstick and black humor are used, yes.

What is a villain? What is a hero? What is a victim? Give examples of each both from real life and from fiction.
A villain is the bad or "evil" person in the story, the hero is the person that sticks up for whats right and normally the victim, and the victim is the person that it being effected in a negative way from the villain. Examples of each would be villain - The joker, hero - Batman and victim - towns people.

A hero usually fights for someone else, and has a certain form of characteristics.
A victim is someone that ends up in a negative place and cant get out of it.
A villain is someone that plans to inflect pain or suffering.

Who are the villains, victims and heroes?
The villains in this movie are the Germans. The victims are the Jews, and the heroes/hero is Guido because he looks on the positive side of the whole experience and also helps his son get through the bad times they are in.

What value do each of these characters play in the movie? What role do they play in the plot? What role do they play in connecting the movie to history? What role do they play in evoking a reaction from the audience? (List the important characters in the movie and label them as either villains or heroes. Then, in dot points, list the important role they play in regards to plot, history, and to the audience.)
Each character that is focused upon plays a high value in the movie, without the character, it would be very different. This movie links to history in the way of incorporating the Jew camps, certain aspects of the Jew camps (sweat boxes), how they were unfairly treated, different jobs they had to do ect.. The things they do to evoke a reaction from the audience is use humor to created a reaction to lighten up the mood.

^^ didnt fully understand the last question
Antagonist - doras fiance
                - Germans
Protagonist - Guido
Victims add to the complication,
Joshua adds to the innocence to the whole actionGuido represents that jews are good peopleGermans are very precise and to the point, no mercy or compassion
Guido evokes an emotional response by being funny, with his funny moments he makes us respect him for doing what hes doing for his son
Victims evoke the audience by linking empathy and compassion into us and making us feel bad for his situation