Tragedy and Dignity

Thinking about Ferdinand von Schirach's play 'Terror' in which an army pilot shoots down a civil plane that has been hijacked by a terrorist in order to save the people in a stadium that is targeted by said terrorist. A trial ensues and the audience is the jury. This play is very popular in Germany and at the end of most performances so far the pilot has been acquitted, though most lawyers would argue that the pilot is guilty according to the German law since he violated the first article of the Grundgesetz, the German constitution: Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar/ The dignity of a human being is inviolable.
Since it is a play it made me think about tragedy and guilt in general. And at one point it became quite obvious to me that one purpose of a tragedy might be to make the audience and the character see what exactly went wrong and to see - and for the character to embrace - the guilt and this is essential to the character's dignity, it feels like only this way it might be restored.