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The
probable origin of the drama was ritual choral
odes sung to the god Dionysus. Material
was drawn from myths and legends associated with the
god. These choral dramas evolved into the beginnings
of modern drama, as the traditional story goes, when
one of the producers, Thespis, drew one of
the members of the chorus apart to engage in a
dialogue with the group. The original chorus
consisted of fifty singing members.
Three
major playwrights of tragedy won the yearly
competition for drama most often. This famous triad
of dramatists is as follows in chronological order:
Aeschylus, who introduced a second actor;
Sophocles, who introduced a third actor and
worked with a fifteen-member chorus; and the more
modern Euripides, whose plays portray more
emotion and less respect for the gods. The Greeks
knew the plots of the dramatic productions of their
myths, so the emphasis was more on how the
playwrights developed situations, characters, and
the universality of theme. Not to be forgotten is
the famous creator of Greek comedy, Aristophanes.
His plays were satiric commentary on events of
contemporary public life in Athens. His most popular
play is “Lysistrata,” in which he satirizes
the bickering among the city states which led to the
Peloponnesian War, which caused the final demise of
the Golden Age of Athens and/or Greek culture. In
this play, the women of Greece unite and deny sex to
their men until the men consent to lay down their
weapons.
The
Greek plays were held in outdoor amphitheatres.
Costumes and settings were used, but no props. The
actors wore large masks and high heels for tragedy
and socks for comedy. The importance was on
speaking. A playwright for the contest had an entire
day to present his trilogy, consisting of three
closely-related plays in order to display the
classical unities of one plot, setting, and a
twenty-four hour time period.
Notes on Tragedy
There
is a legend in Greek mythology of a magnificent bird
which is born from fire and ashes. Ancient Greeks
named this bird the phoenix, and this strange
conception of strength and life rising out of
destruction is the foundation of tragic drama. The
subject of a tragedy is the downfall of a hero,
usually ending with his destruction or death. The
reader or playgoer who submits himself to tragedy
shares the emotions of the tragic characters. This
emotional tension increases almost to the breaking
point. Then, as the hero faces the final, horrible
truth, the audience experiences a release not
granted to the hero of the play. This release is
reminiscent of the phoenix, since form the ashes of
a devastating emotion there rises a feeling of calm,
a sense of harmony with the universe. The Greeks
called this effect catharsis.
There
are many theories about tragedy. Most of them stem
from the work of the Greek critic and philosopher
Aristotle. He examined the Greek tragedies and
described them in his book Poetics, a
book still widely read today. The following are a
few of the statements that have been made about
tragedy, and for which there is general agreement
among critics.
· Tragedy
arouses the emotions of pity and fear, wonder and
awe.” The reader watches the hero move toward
his destruction; he has pity for him; he shares the
hero’s fear and suffering; he experiences wonder and
awe before the forces of fate; he is moved to
consider momentarily the fate of all humans.
· “A
tragic hero must be a man or a woman capable of
great suffering.” He or she does not go to
pieces over trivia; he or she demonstrates
sensitivity and nobility.
· "Tragedy
explores the question of the ways of God to man.”
Man has always been disturbed about why God permits
his creatures to suffer, often so needlessly (from a
human point of view). Tragedy does not propose an
answer to the question. It presents the problem in
dramatic form for us to contemplate.
· “Tragedy
purifies the emotions.” It purges the baser
emotions so that the better ones shine forth.
· “Tragedy
shows how man is brought to disaster by a single
flaw in his own character.” A person’s nature is
composed not only of the noble, the dignified, and
the god-like, but also of the base, the ignoble, and
the bestial. Tragedy shows us a person who has noble
attributes, but whose character is marred by a flaw
which ultimately brings his downfall. His flaw may
have been a virtue carried to excess.
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