drama/tragedy Flashcards
what is drama?
a story, told in action, by actors who impersonate characters
plays were put on in honor of what god?
Dionysus: god of wine, drunkness, madness, ectasy, masks, harvest, impersonation - 3 day festival
how many actors on stage at a time?
never more than 3
greek tragedy?
based on mythology, only men actors, more masks to indicate nature of character played
greek chorus?
consists of 12-15 actors, choreographed movements, represented people of Thebes and Athens, served as a narrator
the “reversal, fall, climatic turn of action”
peripitia
the “tragic flaw”
hamartia = hubris: the sin of excessive pride
what is tragedy?
an imitation or action that is of a certain magnitude, imbelllished language, in action not narraration, through pity and fear, effecting the proper purgation of these emotions
what is a tragic flaw?
an overwhelming passion, or limitation in character, or forces beyond the protagonists control
what are the 4 things that describe a tragic hero?
a man of great reputation, but a man not preeminently virtuous or just, who however, brings his misfortune on himself, through some flaw in character, and who moreover arouses in the spectator pity and fear
what is catharsis?
to purge pity and fear (Aristotle)
what are the 10 steps in tragic action?
- establish the enveloping situation; setting
- establish the situation
- introduce hero and qualities of his character that will ultimately destroy him
- show temptation of the hero
- show hero in self-debate which ends in self-commitment
- show the fatal act itself
- represent the hero in a succession of “fatal decision”
- climax
- represent the falling action, the worsening of the hero’s position which runs streight on to his destruction
- final lift (shakespeare, not greeks)
stoicism?
exalts vitue, endurance, self-sufficiency, no emmotions
what does “renaissance” mean?
rebirth
where did the renaissance start?
italy
