Drama

What Is Drama? A drama is a story enacted onstage for a live audience.

The Origins of Drama The word drama comes from the Greek verb dran, which means “to do.” The earliest known plays . . . were written around the fifth century B.C. produced for festivals to honor Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility

Tragedy A tragedy is a play that ends unhappily. Most classic Greek tragedies deal with serious, universal themes such as right and wrong justice and injustice life and death Tragedies endeavor to display human limitations.

Tragedy The protagonist of most classical tragedies is a tragic hero. This hero pride is noble and in many ways admirable has a tragic flaw, a personal failing that leads to a tragic end rebelliousness jealousy

Greek Tragedy Tragedy comes from tragos, the Greek word for a goat: fertility. The first tragedies were mere dances around sacrificial goat. The great Greek dramatists-Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides-wrote religious drama geared towards portraying the moral relation bet. Gods and men , having always an instructive moral purpose

Oedipus: disease, famine. Parricide& incest Oedipus: disease, famine. Parricide& incest. Gods are just: suicide of his mother& self inflected blindness are means of expiating his crime. Pity& fear. Purgation. Milton:' calm of mind, all passion spent'. Catharsis: Aristotle said that the function of tragedy was purgation of the feelings through the arousing of pity and terror.

Greek vs Shakespearian Tragedy Greek tragedy: no free will, the gods are in control of a man's destiny. Shakespearian hero: has free will. Example : Othello &Hamlet. Greek tragedies have so little influence on English drama because of the immense difference bet. the Greek view of life and the Christian one: fate VS free will.

Comedy A comedy is a play that ends happily. The plot usually centers on a romantic conflict. boy meets girl boy loses girl boy wins girl Comedy comes from the Greek komos, meaning a revel, the sort of rough country party which honored the god Dionysus(god of vegetation).

Greek and Roman comedies: Roman drama assumed more influence on English drama, particularly Seneca: the gods may have the monopoly of power but not of virtue. Greek and Roman comedies: The main purpose of classical comedy is to make us laugh at the follies of mankind and correct those follies in ourselves.

Dramatic unities: One admirable thing about the Greek tragic dramatists is their sense of form. The traditional unities of Greek drama-one plot(action), one day(time).Renaissance dramatists Added a third unity , that of place. Shakespeare emerged to violate all these unities.

The End