Greek Tragedy according to Aristotle

“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.”

“All virtue is summed up in dealing justly”

“At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.”

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

"Poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history: for poetry tends to express the universal, history the particular."

Aristotle summarized what had been worked out by trial and error for good

tragedy – he looked to the past,

studying the poets and playwrights who

wrote 100 years before his time.

Aristotle admired Sophocles and thought of his

plays as models for good tragedy.Sophocles plays show MAN AS HE OUGHT TO BE!

“Tragedy is the imitation of an action which is serious, complete, of a certain magnitude, couched in poetic language. It should be dramatic, with incidents arousing pity and fear, which bring about purgation of the emotions.”

PURGATION/CATHARSIS:

A CLEANSING, A RELEASE OF EMOTIONS. PITY IS AROUSED IN THE AUDIENCE FOR THE CHARACTERS – WE DON’T WANT THE SAME MISFORTUNE TO HAPPEN TO US!

DRAMATIC UNITIESTime: 24 Hours for the action of the play

Place: No change in scenery. Any action that happens off stage is told by another character.

Action: No subplot

A Tragedy Must Have a Tragic Hero:1.) Undergoes a morally significant struggle that ends disastrously.2.) Essentially a superior person who is treated sympathetically (he makes us like him)3.) His destiny or choice is to go down fighting rather than submit4.) Not all good or bad (very human!)5.) Has a high, respected position when story begins.6.) Falls from high position to unhappiness or death because of a TRAGIC FLAW!

Tragic Flaw – some defect in the tragic character that helps cause his own ruin!

HUBRIS: Excessive pride or arrogance. The flaw may seem to be jealousy, anger, ambition, but it will always be that the character thinks himself superior in some way.

The Classic Tragic Plot

The Reversal of fortune – the good begins to slide or go bad

Ignorance to knowledge – the hero realizes his own critical flaw that has brought him to this low point

Suffering and a final submission of the hero

EURIPIDES• Closest to our own time with concern

for realism and his determination to expose social, political, and religious injustices

• Plays show characters pushed to the limits of endurance

• Shows understanding of problems of women in a society dominated by men

• “Shows Man as he is”• Author of Medea

AESCHYLUSEarliest writer of Greek tragedy whose plays exist in complete form

Plays are deeply patriotic and religious

Added a second actor to plays

SOPHOCLES Dealt with a specific struggle

of a strong individual against fate

Wrote single plays rather than trilogies

Added a third actor Only seven of his 100 plays

survive Aristotle especially admired

Sophocles and used his plays as his standard or model

ARISTOPHANESGreatest Greek

writer of COMEDY!

*Theatrical events were performed annually at the festival of Dionysus*Going to the theater was to take part in a religious ritual*Dithyrambs – choral odes sung in the honor of Dionysus*THESPIS – was the first to use an actor; this allowed the chorus more complicated stories

COMPETITION! Each writer submitted 4 plays – a “tetralogy”

to be performed consecutively on single day Three tragedies (a trilogy) and a light-hearted

satyr play. Satyrs: mythological creatures, represented

as men with pointed ears, short horns, and goat legs.

At the end of the festival, plays were judged by a jury of citizens, and a prize awarded to the winning author.

Plots of Plays Were religious in time, place and

nature, and were usually drawn from mythology and dealt with the relationship between the human and the divine.

Actors wore masks, elaborate costumes, and raised shoes

Most of the audience knew the legends being dramatized, but different versions and the writer’s inventiveness created suspense – not from what would happen, but how

DRAMATIC IRONYSituations or speeches that have one meaning to the play’s characters but another for the audience.

Simply Put: the audience knows more than the character about a given situation

Structure of a Tragedy Prologue: introductory section, gives background,

usually expository rather than dramatic Parados: entrance of the chorus, chanting. More

background of the story. Episodes/Stasimon: action begins with first episode,

following the parados. Usually 5 episodes, Episodes are separated by choral odes called “stasima”

Exodus: section after the last stasimon, contains final action of play. Two features in the exodus are the “messenger speech” and the “deus ex machina” (god from machine) – a deity is brought in by stage machinery to intervene in the action. Today we use this term to mean an unsatisfactory solution to a problem in the story.

Structure of Tragedy Continued…Chorus: always a chorus in a Greek tragedy;

tragedy began with choral songs to which actors were added. Chorus fulfills several functions:

1.) Members sang, danced, played instruments2.) Ideal audience- responded to action as poet

wished3.) Modulated the atmosphere and tone –

represented the “typical Athenian citizen” – conservative but not submissive

4.) Questions new characters as to origin and purpose

5.) Choral odes showed passage of time