Name : Shikha Singh Roll No:19Sub: DC-13

Topic : Domestic TragedySem-VI, 2012.

WHAT IS A TRAGEDY?

The term ‘Tragedy' refers to a spectacle of human suffering leading to death and destruction, The sufferer/protagonist is a man belonging to high rank or station, neither all good nor all bad, but generally inclined to goodness, a man who, through some error, declines from prosperity to adversity, thereby arousing the emotions of pity & fear, and achieve a catharsis or purgation of these kindred emotions.

DOMESTIC TRAGEDY

Domestic Tragedy, drama in which the tragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or lower-class individuals, in contrast to classical and Neoclassical tragedy, in which the protagonists are of kingly or aristocratic rank and their downfall is an affair of state as well as a personal matter.

The form became popular in the mid-18th century and reached its maturity in the 19th-century. Tragedies of Henrik Ibsen. Gerhart Hauptmann, Eugene O'Neill, and Arthur Miller were famous for writing domestic tragedies in 20th-century

FAMOUS PLAYS CONSIDERED AS DOMESTIC TRAGEDIES:

Henrik Ibsen’s William Shakepseare’s

A Doll’s House Othello

EUGENE O’NEILL’S THE ICEMAN COMETH

THOMAS MIDDLETON’S A YORKSHIRE TRAGEDY

Henrik Ibsen (1828 - 1906) is one of the very greatest names in world literature. He was a central figure in the modern break-through in the intellectual life of Europe, and is considered the father of modern drama. His plays are still highly topical, and continue to be staged in all parts of the world. It is said that Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare. Ibsen wrote in all 26 dramatic works and published one collection of poetry.

About Henrik Ibsen

His Famous Works.Catiline (1850)Norma (1851)Love’s Comedy (1862)The Pretenders (1863) First edition of GhostsThe League of Youth (1869) Poems (1871)Pillars of Society (1877) A Doll’s House (1879) Ghosts (1881) An Enemy of the People (1882) The Wild Duck (1884)The Lady from the Sea (1888)Hedda Gabler (1890) The Master Builder (1892) Little Eyolf (1894) When We Dead Awaken (1899)

HENRIK IBSEN’S A - DOLL’S HOUSE

Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House is a landmark in modern playwriting. If we look back over theatre history, few plays have a woman as the protagonist (central character). Whilst some of the Greek plays contained this factor (Euripides’ Medea, Sophocles’ Antigone and Aristophanes’ Lysistrata which has an almost all-female cast) we must not forget that only men were permitted to act in these plays when first performed. The same applies to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as it was not until after the Restoration in 1660, that women were allowed to act on the English stage for the first time. It is well known that young boys were playing such roles as Juliet in the days of Shakespeare.

In 1879, Denmark, the world witnessed the opening of Ibsen’s remarkable play A Dolls House with the protagonist Nora, being performed by a woman. The play caused a near-riot. The sensation was all to do with a wife leaving her husband, which the critics and theatre-going public considered too risque for the times. Not deterred, Ibsen soon opened the play in Berlin.

It is a little-known fact there are actually two endings to A Dolls House. At the Berlin premiere the theatre manager also found the conclusion to Ibsen’s play too dangerous. The result was a re-write and Ibsen was forced to write an alternate conclusion where Nora remains with her husband and children, instead of leaving. Unhappy with the dent on his artistic integrity, Ibsen thereafter returned the play to its original ending and until this day the standard edition of A Dolls House has Nora walk out on her family in the final scene.

It is no accident Ibsen titled this play A Dolls House, as Nora is her husband Torvald’s little plaything; his doll. Throughout most of the drama Nora has clearly been subservient to her dominant husband, but in this final section of the play, Nora is a strong woman, fighting to keep herself together as she decides to tell her husband she is leaving him and their small children, forever

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S OTHELLO

  This drama is one of the great tragedy

themed plays by William Shakespeare. Othello is a highly esteemed general in the service of Venice. Iago is Othello's ambitious friend. Othello promotes the Michael Cassio to the position of personal lieutenant and Iago is deadly jealous. Iago begins an evil and malicious campaign against the hero. Othello elopes with Desdemona but Iago starts to plot against them. Othello becomes jealous and suspicious of Desdemona. He confides in Iago that he plans to poison Desdemona. Plots and murders ensue and Othello returns to the castle to kill his innocent wife. He eventually smothers her to death. Emilia tells Othello the truth about the scheming Iago. Othello wounds Iago, then kills himself. Iago kills Emilia.

EUGENE O’NEILL’S THE ICEMAN COMETH

The play contains many allusions to political topics, particularly anarchism and socialism. Hugo, Larry and Don are former members of an anarchist movement. Larry, who is now a bitter man who claims to be waiting for death, is approached by his ex-girlfriend's son, Don, at the beginning of the play, and Don remains at the bar. Don admits that he informed the police of the illegal activities of his mother and other anarchists. He gives several reasons for this but later admits that they are not the real ones. He claims that he did it out of patriotism and then that he wanted the money, but finally admits that he did it because he hated his mother, who was so obsessed with her own freedom that she became too self-centered and often either ignored or dominated him. The conversations between Don and Larry are among the most emotional in the play. Some of these conversations also often involve Hickey, whose actions somewhat parallel Don's.

THOMAS MIDDLETON’S A YORKSHIRE TRAGEDY

The play is based on events that took place in Calverley, East Yorkshire, in 1605. Walter Calverley, a young man from a staunchly Catholic family, was made a ward of court at 17 and forced to marry a woman chosen by his wealthy guardians. The marriage was unhappy and within a few years Calverley was heavily in debt; he was also convinced that his three children had been fathered by another man. Four centuries later, the resulting tragedy sounds like something from a modern tabloid newspaper. Calverley killed two of his children, attempted to kill his wife, and went in search of the remaining child with every intention of wiping out his entire family. He was soon caught and executed by the particularly ghastly method of pressing to death.