Drama

The form of literary composition designed for performance in the

theater, in which actors take the roles of the characters, perform the indicated action, and speak the written dialogue

Terms

• Soliloquy

• Aside

• Greek chorus

• Monologue

Tragic Hero

• A worthy person, frequently someone of high rank in society, whose tragic flaw ultimately destroys him

Tragic Flaw

• Defect in character which causes the downfall

• Hubris

• Excessive pride the most common tragic flaw in Greek literature

Catharsis

• A release of emotions

• A release from tension

Chorus

• A group of 15 to 20 townspeople (usually elders) who represent conventional wisdom and who comment on the action

Greek Theater

• Orchestra Dancing place

• Skene Building with three doors-

• backdrop

• Parodos Entrance song of the chorus

Satyr Play

• The fourth play – a comedy

• A satyr is a mythological subject having goat like qualities

Verbal Irony

• Saying one thing but meaning another

Dramatic Irony

• situation in which there is an incongruity between what is said or done by a character versus what is known by the audience.

• The audience knows more

Dionysis

• Greek god of wine and procreation

Oedipus Complex

• Sexual feelings of a child toward the parent of the opposite sex

Soothsayer

• Person who predicts the future

• Oracle

• A person through whom a diety is believed to speak giving wise or authoritative decisions

Greek Theater

• The roots of modern theater

• The Theban Plays by Sophocles

Most Famous Greek Playwrights

• Aeschylus

• Sophocles

• Euripedes

• Aristophanes

Greek Philosophies

• Know Thyself•

• Nothing in Excess

Oedipus

• Demonstrates the perfect tragic hero as understood by Aristotle

• Read text pages 1210 - 1213

Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero

• 1. Comes from nobility

• 2. Has Tragic Flaw

• 3. Undergoes a reversal of fortune

• 4. Has a downfall

• 5. Recognizes his mistakes

The Unities – a way of providing a central focus to a play

• Aristotle believed that perfect tragedies had

• Unity Of Time: 24 hour period

• Unity of Place: one setting

• Unity of Action: One plot

Tragedies

• 1. Tragedy is meant to reaffirm the fact that life is worth living, regardless of the suffering or pain that is part of human existence

• 2. Tragedies are about people in conflict with the universe.

• Tragedies are always about spiritual conflicts, never about every day events

• 3. Tragic actions arise from a character’s inner conflict

– A tragic protagonist must have magnitude: his struggles are great because he is important to society

• 4. The tragic protagonist must fall from high to low and will have a noble soul.

– The audience must care about the tragic protagonist

5. The tragic protagonist is a good man, but not perfect.

• 6. The protagonist’s actions should arouse feelings of both pity and fear in the audience.

• Pity because the protagonist is better than we are, so we place ourselves into his position.

• Fear because we too do not know our future or our fate.

• 7. By the end of the play, the audience should be purged of pity and fear, so they go through a catharsis.

• 8. The tragic protagonist must ask the first and last of all questions:

• • What does it mean to be?

• A. He must face the world alone, unaccommodated and kick against his fate.

• He can never escape his fate, but he will insist upon accepting fate on his own terms.

The Theban Legend

• Legend - a traditional narrative handed down through popular oral tradition to illustrate and celebrate a remarkable character, an important event, or to explain the unexplainable. Legends claim to be true and usually take place in real locations, often with genuine historical figures.

Urban Legends

• How many do you know??????

Riddle of the Sphinx

• What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?

• Sphinx – a monster with the head of a woman, wings of an eagle and body of a lion

Archetype

• “universal human consciousness”

• A character, action, or situation that is a prototype or pattern of human life

• Generally, a situation that occurs over and over again in literature such as a quest, or an initiation, or an attempt to overcome evil

• Birth

• Growing up

• Love

• Family

• Death

• Struggles between parent and child

• Fraternal rivalry

The fundamental facts of human existence are archetypal:

Characters or personality types:

• Rebel• The Don Juan• The all conquering hero• Braggadocio• Local youth who makes good• The self made man• The traitor • The snob• Damsel in distress

Creatures

• The lion

• The eagle

• The snake

Themes

• Arduous quest or search

• Pursuit of vengeance

• Overcoming of difficult tasks

• Descent into the underworld

Carl Jung

• A Swiss psychologist

• Determined the theory - archetype meaning first molds or patterns