Greek Tragedy context

Greek Tragedy

1. “A true tragedy should evoke pity and fear on the part of the audience.”​ Pity and fear are the natural human responses to spectacles of pain and suffering especially to the sort of pain and suffering that can strike anyone at any time. The effect is that we feel relief in the end through catharsis (purging/cleansing of emotions)and to achieve catharsis is the purpose of a tragedy.​

According to Aristotle, a tragedy is a drama that depicts the downfall of a fundamentally good person through fatal error or misjudgement. This produces suffering and insight 'on the part of the protagonist and arousing pity and fear on the part of the audience.'​

There are 3 principles to a Greek Tragedy.

2. “The tragic hero [protagonist] must be essentially admirable and good.”​ ​ The fall of a scoundrel or villain evokes an applause ​ rather than pity. Audiences cheer when the bad guy goes down. Whereas, the downfall of an essentially good person disturbs us and stirs our compassion. As a rule, the truly admirable person is, the greater will be the source of our anxiety or grief at his or her downfall. ​

3. “In a true tragedy, the hero's demise must come as a result of some personal error or decision.”​ ​ According to Aristotle, there is no such​ thing as an innocent victim of tragedy, nor can a genuinely tragic downfall ever be purely a matter of blind accident or bad luck. ​ ​ Instead, authentic tragedy must always be the ​ product of some fatal flaw and/or mistake (harmatia), for the tragic hero must always bear at least some responsibility for his own doom. ​

The Plot

Plot is the most important component.​

Incentive Moment- starts the cause-and-effect chain, but cannot be dependent on anything outside the compass of the play (i.e., its causes are downplayed but its effects are stressed). ​ Climax- must be caused by earlier incidents and itself cause the incidents that follow it (i.e., its causes and effects are stressed). ​ Resolution- must be caused by the preceding events but not lead to other incidents outside the compass of the play (i.e., its causes are stressed but its effects downplayed) The end- should therefore solve or resolve the problem created during the incentive moment.​ ​ ​

According to Aristotle, plot refers not to the story itself, but to the “arrangement of incidents,” or structure and presentation of the play.​ ​ Each incident must be part of a tightly constructed cause-and-effect chain of actions.

Plot must contain a beginning, middle, and ​ end and must be structurally ​ self-contained, with the incidents bound together by internal necessity.Each action leading inevitably to the next: this is called “unity of action.”​ ​ There can be no “outside” intervention: Deus ex​ Machina (an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel).​ ​

The cause-and-effect chain leading from​ the incentive moment to the climax is called the desis, or “tying up." In modern terminology the complication. ​ ​ ​ The more rapid cause-and​-effect chain from the climax to the resolution is called the lusis, or “unraveling.” In modern terminology the dénouement. ​

Plot can be simple or complex.​ ​Simple plots have only a “change of fortune” (catastrophe). The catastrophe marks the protagonist’s failure and usually occurs at the end of the drama. ​ ​ Complex plots have both “plot reversal” (peripeteia) and “tragic recognition or insight” (anagnorisis) connected with the catastrophe. ​

Novelist Gustav Freytag developed this narrative pyramid in the 19th century, as a description of a structure fiction writers had used for millennia.Freytag’s Pyramid describes the five key stages of a story, offering a conceptual framework for writing a story from start to finish. These stages are: -Exposition -Rising Action -Climax -Falling Action -Resolution

Peripeteia ("plot reversal"): a pivotal or crucial​ action on the part of the protagonist that changes his situation from seemingly secure to vulnerable. ​​ Anagnorisis ("tragic recognition or insight"):​ according to Aristotle, a moment of clairvoyant insight or understanding in the mind of the tragic hero as he suddenly comprehends the web of fate that he has entangled himself in. ​

Fate: the supposed force, principle, or power that predetermines events. ​ ​ The Greeks believed that everything happened for a reason, and that the path they led in life was prescribed for them by the gods: there was no escaping their fate. ​

Characters

The Tragic Hero- The protagonist should be renowned and prosperous, so his change of fortune can be from good to bad. ​ ​The tragic hero's powerful wish to achieve some goal inevitably encounters limits, usually those of human frailty (flaws in reason, hubris, society), the gods (through oracles, prophets, fate), or nature. ​ ​

Aristotle says that the tragic hero should have a​ flaw and/or make some mistake (harmatia). ​ ​ The hero need not die at the end, but he/she must undergo a change in fortune (catastrophe). ​ ​ In addition, the tragic hero may achieve some​ revelation or recognition (anagnorisis) about human fate, destiny, and the will of the gods. ​

Hubris ("violent transgression"): overweening pride or insolence that results in a misfortune of the protagonist of the tragedy. ​ ​ Hubris leads the protagonist to break a moral law; they will attempt vainly to transcend normal limitations or ignore divine warning with calamitous (disasterous) results; placing one's self equal to the gods. ​ ​

Nemesis ("retribution"): the inevitable punishment or cosmic payback for acts of hubris. ​

Thought- theme

Thought is third in importance, and is found “where something is proved to be or not to be, or a general maxim [truth, principle, or rule of conduct] is enunciated.” ​ ​It is what the characters think or feel during their development within the plot. The thought is expressed through their speeches and dialogues. Thought can also reveal the theme (main idea/message) of a play. ​

Diction- the use of literary devices

Diction is fourth, and is “the expression of the meaning in words” which are proper and appropriate to the plot, characters, and end of the tragedy. ​ ​The medium of language or expression through which the characters reveal their thoughts and feelings.Metaphor- a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. ​ For example: Life is a journey; The eyes are windows to the soul.​

Song- Chorus

Song, or melody, is fifth, and is the musical element of the chorus. ​ ​Aristotle argues that the Chorus should be fully integrated into the play like an actor; choral odes should not be “mere interludes,” but should contribute to the unity of the plot.​ Music is described as an embellishment of language. The lines assigned to the chorus in a tragedy are usually conveyed in song accompanied by rhythmical movement.

Spectacle

Spectacle is last, for it is least connected with literature: spectacular effects depend more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet/author. Spectacle includes all aspects of the tragedy that contribute to its sensory effects: costumes, scenery, the gestures of the actors, the sound of the music and the resonance of the actors' voices.​ ​ Aristotle argues that superior poets rely on the inner structure of the play rather than spectacle to arouse pity and fear.​

Key words and definitions:- Catharsis (purging/cleansing of emotions)​- Fatal flaw and/or mistake (harmatia)- Deus ex Machina (an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation- The cause-and-effect chain leading from​- The incentive moment to the climax is called the desis, or “tying up,” and in modern terminology the complication​- The more rapid cause-and effect chain from the climax to the resolution is called the lusis, or “unraveling,” and in modern terminology the dénouement.- “change of fortune” (catastrophe).- Peripeteia ("plot reversal"): a pivotal or crucial​ action on the part of the protagonist that changes his situation from seemingly secure to vulnerable.

The revenge drama derived originally from the Roman tragedies of Seneca but was established on the English stage by Thomas Kyd with The Spanish Tragedy (performed c. 1587). This work, which opens with the Ghost of Andrea and Revenge, deals with Hieronimo, a Spanish gentleman who is driven to melancholy by the murder of his son. Between spells of madness, he discovers who the murderers are and plans his ingenious revenge. He stages a play in which the murderers take part, and, while enacting his role, Hieronimo actually kills them, then kills himself. The influence of this play, so apparent in Hamlet (performed c. 1600–01), is also evident in other plays of the period. In John Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge (1599–1601), the ghost of Antonio’s slain father urges Antonio to avenge his murder, which Antonio does during a court masque. In George Chapman’s Revenge of Bussy d’Ambois (performed c. 1610), Bussy’s ghost begs his introspective brother Clermont to avenge his murder. Clermont hesitates and vacillates but at last complies, then kills himself. Most revenge tragedies end with a scene of carnage that disposes of the avenger as well as his victims. Other examples are Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (performed 1589–92), Henry Chettle’s The Tragedy of Hoffman (performed 1602), and Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy (1607).​

Senecan tragedy, body of nine closet dramas (i.e., plays intended to be read rather than performed), written in blank verse by the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca in the 1st century ad. Rediscovered by Italian humanists in the mid-16th century, they became the models for the revival of tragedy on the Renaissance stage. The two great, but very different, dramatic traditions of the age—French Neoclassical tragedy and Elizabethan tragedy—both drew inspiration from Seneca.​

Seneca’s plays were reworkings chiefly of Euripides’ dramas and also of works of Aeschylus and Sophocles. Probably meant to be recited at elite gatherings, they differ from their originals in their long declamatory, narrative accounts of action, their obtrusive moralizing, and their bombastic rhetoric. They dwell on detailed accounts of horrible deeds and contain long reflective soliloquies. Though the gods rarely appear in these plays, ghosts and witches abound. In an age when the Greek originals were scarcely known, Seneca’s plays were mistaken for high Classical drama. The Renaissance scholar J.C. Scaliger (1484–1558), who knew both Latin and Greek, preferred Seneca to Euripides.​

The Elizabethan dramatists found Seneca’s themes of bloodthirsty revenge more congenial to English taste than they did his form. The first English tragedy, Gorboduc (1561), by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, is a chain of slaughter and revenge written in direct imitation of Seneca. Senecan tragedy is also evident in Shakespeare’s Hamlet; the revenge theme, the corpse-strewn climax, and such points of stage machinery as the ghost can all be traced back to the Senecan model.​

In Seneca's plays the element of impiety towards the gods was replaced by the theme of revenge. In consequence the emotions displayed were crude rather than elevated and various devices were employed in these plays, which added to the atmosphere of terror and retribution. These became common features of the genre.​ Other critics have argued that, in addition to Seneca's influence, the Italian novella provided another literary source for the revenge tragedy. Many of these Italian tales feature a sinister Machiavellian villain, sexual betrayals that culminate in private revenge, and bloody vendettas between rival families.

The characteristic revenge tragedy is a grim, cynical statement on the moral and spiritual chaos that results from a society which has decayed and morally disintegrated. Works from this period include:​ Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy (1606)​ Webster's The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1614)​ Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (c. 1630-33) and The Broken Heart (c. 1630-33)​ Shirley's The Cardinal (1641).​ A revenge tragedy pits justified and morally upright avengers against their enemies. But the avengers in The Duchess are themselves implicated in the corruption of society.​ ​

Dumb show - Murders and other horrific events are often shown through a ‘dumb show'. ​Machiavellian villain - The works of the Italian writer, Machiavelli, were popular at the time. In his book The Prince, he advised kings and other rulers how to plot and use cunning in order to keep their power. ​ Soliloquies - These are necessary, not only for advancing the plot, but also to reveal a character's state of mind. ​Disguise - They symbolise deception. They employ irony because the characters are disguised as figures very different from themselves.​ Madness and feigned madness

Murders and corpses - There are usually a number of murders that happen both on and off-stage in revenge tragedies. ​ Ghosts - Ghosts of murder victims often appear to persuade family members of friends to avenge their deaths.​ Physical torment - There are usually a number of murders that are often both ingenious and brutal. The murders and methods of death are often sensational and sometimes presented at length so that the suffering of the victim is seen.​ Sudden reversals (peripetieia)