Drama 2

Question 1

Comedy and Tragedy

Answer 1

• tragic characters tend to be round while comic characters tend to be flat
• plots of both can reveal character’s blindness + mistakes or surprising discoveries and reversals of situations but the consequences resulting from this for the individual + the community vastly differ in these two genres

Question 2

What defines the Tragedy?

Answer 2

= tragedy requires a serious + coherent action and an intermediate or mixed but consistent and noble character, whose fortune turns from good to bad because of an error

• if the protagonist is of a high social status his/her fall appears to be more tragic bc. of the greater loss (Fallhöhe)
• the protagonist suffers from the recognition of his/her mistake or quilt + in identifying w/ the tragic hero we experience pity + fear which has a chathartic effect on us
• tragic hero is an exemplary character with a tragic flaw –> suffer from their insight into + the punishing consequences of a bad deed, committed out of a bad judgement or by the force of circumstances

domestic tragedy:

• protagonist are ordinary middle or low-class inidviduals + not noblemen
• their downfall is a personal matter + affects private life rather than being an affair of state
• found its mature expression in the 19th century but there are examples in the 20th century like Arthur Miller “Death of a Salesman” –> both depict modern secular life w/ tragic grandeur, drowning on psychoanalysis + ancient tragedy

Question 3

What defines comedy?

Answer 3

= often stages ordinary people of the middle or lower classes as flat types w/ stereotyped forms of behavior that may hold the mirror up to society for its pleasure or education

• comic characters reveal shortcomings + flaws, violate rules + make mistakes but the consequences of these aren’t as serve as in tragedy
• tragicomedy blends aspects of the genres tragedy + comedy

Question 4

What are the types of comedy?

Answer 4

romantic comedy:
= light-hearted w/ happy ending; presents characters who overcome obstacles in their search for love + happiness

satiric comedy:
= individual flaws + social vices are exposed and ridiculed for the audience to laugh at; recognition of the flaws keeps audience from making the same mistakes

cringe comedy:
= dervies Humor from social awkwardness: protagonist overstep boundaries of political correctness + break social norms

comedy of humors:
= humors here refers to the temperaments + dispositions such as greed, arrogance and stupidity; is based on a typology that classified human beings according to their body fluids into four types

comedy of manners:
= thrived in the 2nd half of 17th century; less moralizing than its predecessor the comedy of humors; celebrated sophisticated taste + manners in battles of wit

Question 5

story and plot

Answer 5

closed or Aristotelian Form of Drama:

• conceives characters as agents in comedy story w/ a well-defined beginning, a logical development in the middle + a solution to the conflict at the end
• 5 acts of the closed form often present plot in a shape of a pyramid –> look at notes

open form:

• violated demand for unity of time, space + action which were through to promote a convincing illusion of reality on stage
• scenes are often fragmentary + loosely connected
• instead of coherent action, there are sub-plots to the main-plot
• plays-within-the-play (Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”)

Question 6

What defines the time?

Answer 6

• relatively short time of a theatrical performance forces the playwright to concentrate + telescope fictional time of a drama
• dramatic action shown on a stage can set in:
  ° at the very beginning of the story (ab ovo)
  ° start at same point during a story (in medias res)
  ° or at the ending of a story (in ultimate res)

Question 7

What defines the place?

Answer 7

• fictional locale drama is transformed on stage by:
  ° Stage design, such as setting + props
  ° Lightning
  ° sound effects
  ° special effects

Question 8

The stage

Answer 8

(pictures in notes)

open air Theaters in middle age + Renaissance:

• neither had technical means nor intention to Create a realistic locale
• didn’t clearly separate the stage from the audience
• performed in public places and on pageants

apron stage:

• in Shakespeare’s time stage was surrounded by up to 3000 spectators
• lack of probs + changeable settings was made up for by word scenery, description of locales by characters

indoor theatres:
- from the 17th century onwards indoor theatres gradually operated the stage from the audience

picture frame stage - Glückkastenbühne:

• presented realistic settings with help of elaborate technical equipment
• gave audience the illusion of watching the world on stage through a transparent fourth wall
• actors behave as if there are no spectators