Theatre Appreciation --
SPD 141 -- Online Course
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Types of Drama / Plays: Tragedy
Resource: Wilson, Chapter 9
The Six Elements of a Tragedy / Play present in all plays, but
some standard forms can be discerned.
Verisimilitude -- the "illusion of truth" -- the
method of achieving it changes.
Form: the shape given to something so it may serve a useful
purpose.
For our purposes: form / genre / types are intended to
be categories that are not firm--there are endless sub-categories, and many
plays will fit into a number of different categories simultaneously.
It can become dangerous to evaluate a play as one form, when it
might not indeed fit that form.
Genre--(184) -- French for "category" or "type"
-- sharing a particular point of view/ forming a group.
Genre criticism --can show how a play does or does not fit into
a particularly category, but can also be useful as a way of examining the
plays and discovering more about them -- as a learning tool.
Such categories as "dramedy," "tragic farce," etc.
have been used to show the merging of "types."
Shakespeare's Polonius in Hamlet ridiculed categorical
obsessions: "tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral,
tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral." (Act II, scene
ii).
Tragedy
Aristotle's definition of Tragedy (See My web page HERE or HERE [these require RealPlayer, and you MAY have to click on the image and / or the
"play" button to see the image and hear the sound] ), and Poetics web page)
Characteristics of "Action" -- (Brockett on Aristotle)
1. Origins of Tragedy:
-
"tragos" + "oide" -- goat song usually involves
a calamity (death, etc.), but attention is focused on what reactions are
to that calamity by the characters and what those reactions can tell us
about life.
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The "dithyramb" -- hymns sung and danced in
honor of Dionysus (392).
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Usually about the struggles of the "protagonist", moral issues,
the effects of suffering.
-
Struggle is ethical, spiritual -- protagonist's integrity
is tested.
-
Tragedy raises questions about the meaning of human existence,
moral nature, and social / psychological relationships.
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Aristotle suggested a "certain magnitude."
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Evil often shown along with good, which does not always win.
-
Some tragedies (Greek) like Oedipus, suggest
that the protagonist has violated some moral order which must be vindicated
and reestablished.
-
Often seems inevitable and predetermined (we can look and
decide for ourselves later).
Magnitude: characters have high stature -- ethically superior
but sufficiently imperfect
modern tragedies -- more common characteristics (Willy LOMAN).
High seriousness: Tries to arouse (effect) proper purgation of
pity and fear -- [some have asked if the purgation is to be in the audience
or in the characters??]
"Catharsis" -- a purification -- the compassion accompanying
shared grief -- a humanizing force--
we return to a state of equilibrium after release of tensions (A-2) -- Contradictory
reactions -- pessimistic, yet not willing to surrender individuality -- a
form of victory..
The Tragic Hero (protagonist) (285...8) has a flaw
in character or makes an error in judgment -- "tragic flaw" (421)
-- from the term hamartia -- literally "missing the mark.".
"hubris" (419)-- a characteristic -- overweening pride
or self-confidence.
Aristotle suggests that the best plays (Oedipus)
have the hubris being too much of a good thing (what makes Oedipus strong
is his self-confidence and pride)
Universality -- Universal human values -- When a play touches
something that is human in all of us and has lasting value through time
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This page and all linked pages in this directory copyright ©
Eric W. Trumbull, 1998-2004.
Last updated:
April 29, 2004
