Classical Tragedies and Elizabethan Tragedies
HASAN İNAL
İDE 305
DAMLA UĞUZ
112401002
ELIZABETHAN AND GREEK TRAGEDY Tragedy has its origins in Ancient Greek, it was a kind of performance to honor Dionysus. They were performed as competition between three playwrights. Actors who took part in the plays were all man and they all wore masks. They wore masks to impersonate satyrs.According to Aristotle ‘’ Tragedy depicts the downfall of a noble hero or heroine, usually through some combination of hubris, fate, and the will of the gods. 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.’’.(ohio.edu). The main theme of tragidies was the downfall of a hero which was a high-born; a noble man, a king, because of some mixture of fate, divine will and his hibrus. The protoganist has to have some imperfections in his character traits, such as hibrus,he can not be perfectly good or a villain, he has to be someone with whom the audience can relate with. Generally protagonist commits a sin, he does not realize his mistake due to his pride and because of this sin he is punished harshly. In Greek tragedies characters are not as important as the theme. There are three unities of Greek tragedy; unity of action, unity of place and unity of time. These unities were used to make the plays more believable. The Elizabethan drama took inspiration from Senecan Tragedies rather than classic Greek ones. Elizabethan Drama refers to plays produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The Elizabethan playwrights were very interested in the thme of revenge which was the main theme in Seneca’s plays. Seneca’s plays were to be read rather than to be performed on stage.Seneca’s plays were divided into 5 acts. ‘’During the reign of Elizabeth all the ten tragidies then ascribed to Seneca were translated into English verse.’’ (shakespeare-online.com). Translations of these works
İDE 305
DAMLA UĞUZ
112401002
ELIZABETHAN AND GREEK TRAGEDY Tragedy has its origins in Ancient Greek, it was a kind of performance to honor Dionysus. They were performed as competition between three playwrights. Actors who took part in the plays were all man and they all wore masks. They wore masks to impersonate satyrs.According to Aristotle ‘’ Tragedy depicts the downfall of a noble hero or heroine, usually through some combination of hubris, fate, and the will of the gods. 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.’’.(ohio.edu). The main theme of tragidies was the downfall of a hero which was a high-born; a noble man, a king, because of some mixture of fate, divine will and his hibrus. The protoganist has to have some imperfections in his character traits, such as hibrus,he can not be perfectly good or a villain, he has to be someone with whom the audience can relate with. Generally protagonist commits a sin, he does not realize his mistake due to his pride and because of this sin he is punished harshly. In Greek tragedies characters are not as important as the theme. There are three unities of Greek tragedy; unity of action, unity of place and unity of time. These unities were used to make the plays more believable. The Elizabethan drama took inspiration from Senecan Tragedies rather than classic Greek ones. Elizabethan Drama refers to plays produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The Elizabethan playwrights were very interested in the thme of revenge which was the main theme in Seneca’s plays. Seneca’s plays were to be read rather than to be performed on stage.Seneca’s plays were divided into 5 acts. ‘’During the reign of Elizabeth all the ten tragidies then ascribed to Seneca were translated into English verse.’’ (shakespeare-online.com). Translations of these works
Cited: http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/aristotletragedy.html http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/spanishtragedy/context.html