GREEK THEATER

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GREEK THEATER TRAGEDY
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Aristotle (384 to 322 B.C.)

• Drama is the imitation by impersonators of an
  action
• The tragic hero is an important person, almost
  preeminently virtuous, who makes some sort of
  great mistake that entails great suffering.
• - A great person brought from happiness to agony

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Aristotle continued

• According to Aristotle, tragedy and comedy
  originated in improvisations
• Tragedy originated in improvisations in choral
  poems honoring Dionysus di-uh-nigh-sis, the
  god of fertility and wine.
• Comedy originated in improvisations in phallic
  songs.

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Dionysus

• Surprisingly enough, Dionysus figures importantly
  in only one Greek tragedy, Euripides' Bacchae
  bak-ee.
• Theory Since Dionysus was god of the vine, the
  original songs were performed during revels in
  honor of the rebirth of the vine, which was seen
  as the rebirth of the year, the renewal of life
  after the death of the year in winter.

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Dionysus continued

• The celebration of the renewal of the year
  spirit involved dramatizing the death of this
  divine power, and that is what Greek tragedy
  supposedly shows, though the divine power or
  year spirit came to be put into the forms of
  Greek heroes rather than of the god Dionysus.

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Deus Ex Machina

• Literally, god from the machine
• Gods would be lowered from the roof by a
  mechanical device to set matters right among the
  mortals
• Term now used to describe any improbable means by
  which an author provides a too-easy resolution to
  a story

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Evolution of the Greek theater

• A tragedy commonly begins with a prologue, during
  which the exposition is given
• The chorus ode of entrance comes next, sung
  while chorus marches into the theater
• The ensuing scene is followed by a choral song.
• Usually there are four or five scenes,
  alternating with odes, and each ode has a strophe
  stroh-fee (lines sung while the chorus dances
  in one direction) and an antistrophe
  an-tis-stroh-fee (lines sung while the chorus
  retraces its steps).
• The epilogue or final scene comes after the last
  part of the last ode.

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Evolution of Greek Theater continued

• In the middle of the sixth century B.C., a man
  named Thespis stepped out of the chorus and,
  singing in a different meter, became an
  impersonator who sang not about a god but in the
  role of a god.
• Thespis thus became the first actor, and it is
  from his name that the noun form of thespian
  refers to an actor or actress.

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First, second, and third actors

• By taking on an identity apart from the chorus,
  Thespis and his successors made possible dialogue
  between a character and the chorus
• The playwright Aeschylus (Es-kuh-less)(525 to 456
  B.C.) added a second actor to increase the
  dramatic element
• Sophocles (496 to 406 B.C.) added the third
  actor. In ancient Greek drama, there are never
  more than three speaking parts onstage at one
  time. However, actors could double in roles,
  leading to as many as 10 speaking parts in a
  play.

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Masks

• Greek actors wore masks derived from masks that
  priests wore in order to do one of two things
• Impersonate the gods
• OR
• Disguise themselves lest the gods be displeased
  with them

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Hamartia

• Error or flaw, depending on the translation
• An action based on a mental error.
• It is a false step, as it were.
• A person with different traits would not have
  acted in the same way

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Hybris(currently known as hubris)

• The Greeks meant this as bullying or abuse of
  power.
• In dramatic criticism, it translates as
  overweening pride, which is redundant, as
  overweening means excessive confidence or
  pride. But I digress.

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Hybris continued

• Sixteenth-century French essayist Michel de
  Montaigne may have said it best
• On the loftiest throne in the world we are still
  sitting only on our own rear.
• The tragic hero believes that his actions are
  infallible

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Peripeteia

• A sudden reversal of fortune or change in
  circumstances
• Occurs when the action takes a course not
  intended by the doer
• Think about the Messenger in Oedipus what does
  he hope his message will do for Oedipus? What
  does it do instead?
• Think about Oedipus flight from Corinth.

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Anagnorisis an-ag-nawr-uh-sis

• Recognition or discovery
• To Aristotle, this meant a clearing up of some
  misunderstanding, such as the proper
  identification of someone or the revelation of
  some previously unknown fact
• Later critics use it to describe the heros
  perception of his true nature or his true plight.

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Cheery thought for the day

• All tragedies are finished by a death,
• All comedies are ended by a marriage.
• --- Lord Byron, a 19th century Romantic poet

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Tragedy

• In tragedy, the action is serious and important,
  it is something that matters, and it is done by
  people who count.
• The tragic action is a mans perception of a
  great mistake he has made he suffers intensely
  and perhaps dies, having exhausted all the
  possibilities of his life.

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• Tragedy has the solemnity, seriousness, and
  finality we often associate with death.
• Tragic playwrights take some happening, and they
  make, shape, or arrange episodes that clarify the
  action.
• They make a plot that embodies the action or
  spiritual content.
• In tragedy, things cohere. The hero normally does
  some deed and suffers as a consequence.

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The Greek Tragic Hero

• Commonly set against a chorus of ordinary mortals
  who caution him, wring their hands, and lament
  his boldness.
• While these people recognize that they are
  law-abiding, they also recognize that they are
  less fully human beings than the hero.
• However, tragic heroes are inferior to those
  about them. Their mistakes cost them great
  suffering, and they are thus immobilized as the
  others are not. In fact, the tragic hero is
  circumscribed (restricted within limits).

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FATE

• In tragedy, Fate (sometimes in the form that
  character is destiny) or Necessity rules.
• There is the consistency and inevitability, the
  remorseless working of things

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Famous last words

• Ah no! When I am ignorant, I do not speak.
  -- Kreon