humanities 16 Flashcards
What are the most common elements of Shakespearean play
The fatal flaw - all of the heroes in Shakespeare’s tragedies have a weakness in personality that eventually leads to their downfall.
Fall of the nobleman - many of the men in Shakespeare’s tragedies have extreme wealth and power, making their downfall more tragic.
External pressure - Shakespeare’s tragic heroes often fall victim to external pressure from others, such as evil spirits and manipulative characters who play a role in their downfall.
Hero - The hero has opportunities for redemption but never takes advantage of these in time, which leads to death.
Shakespeare’s tragedies usually share several features, including:
Shakespeare’s tragedies begin in an ordered society but end with chaos.
Change is often reflected by changes in the environment, with storms or other happenings in the natural world.
The audience often develops sympathy for the hero.
The protagonist is usually a person of good character who is destroyed by his own ego or desire for self-advancement.
Hamlet is a coming-of-age story about a young man who wants to avenge the death of his father. Hamlet ends up being a tragic hero who perishes in pursuit of revenge.
Shakespearean tragedy
King Lear is a tragic story about an aging king who loses his power and descends into madness.
Shakespearean tragedy
Macbeth is about a warrior who rises to power but has a tragic downfall because of ambition and greed.
Shakespearean tragedy
Othello tells the story of a military man who falls in love with a woman and is eventually destroyed.
Shakespearean tragedy
Coriolanus is about a Roman general who was sent to exile after trying to gain power.
Shakespearean tragedy
Peer Gynt is a self-centered, lazy young man who lives to break rules and moral codes. He ruins one wedding by stealing the bride and then abandons her. He marries an elf princess, has a child by her and abandons her, as well. He gains the love of a woman who waits for him all of her life. Gynt commits such acts as pushing another sailor overboard to save himself and slave trading. In addition he peddles idols, rum and, of all things, Bibles. Gynt lives a life of wild abandon and only lives for himself. However, he honors his mother.
He even meets a monster who lets him go because he hears women singing and bells ringing. The monster believes Gynt has defeated him because he has women who back him up. Finally, he meets a Button-moulder who tells Gynt that because he is not good enough for Heaven, nor evil enough for Hell, he will melt him down to nothingness. Then, the Button-moulder tells him he may choose between absolute nothingness or Hell. Somehow, Gynt redeems himself enough to live a little longer by returning to the woman he abandoned long ago.
Peer Gynt play by Henrik Ibsen
portrays a seemingly happy couple, Nora and Torvald. Torvald naively believes that his wife is childish, someone who has an empty head, who just loves to play house. He loves to see her dance for him and refers to her as his ‘little lark,’ or ‘bird.’ He calls her a ‘spendthrift,’ assuming she wastes money. Torvald has strict standards and his views are very black and white.
Some years earlier, Torvald was very ill, and Nora borrowed money so that they could travel to a place where he could get well. She has hidden this fact from Torvald, who is very against borrowing money, so Nora penny pinches to repay the loan.
Nora is being blackmailed by the loan shark Krogstad, for whom, oddly enough, we feel some pity because he is losing his job due to a promotion Torvald is receiving at the bank. Eventually, Nora realizes that Torvald is shallow and their marriage a sham. She is tired of playing house and feels it is more important to find who she is. Nora does not feel she can really be a wife or a mom until she can stand on her own and know herself. So, she leaves Torvald.
A Doll’s House play by Henrik Ibsen
Conventional theatre of the time, called ________, was geared toward the elite and bourgeoisie and looked to create an ‘illusion of reality’ to imitate real life
naturalistic theater
For revolutionary thinkers like ________ and _________, this form of theatre kept the audience passive and unthinking. Both men wanted theatre for the masses; something that would change the way the audience experienced the theatre.
Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud
In the late 1920s, German playwright _____________, inspired by his political pledge to Marxism, wanted to create an ideal theatre that would spark the audience to seek political and social change.
Bertolt Brecht
To encourage the audience’s rational thought, the method of alienation was used to distance the audience from the events that were happening on stage so they could think about them critically and understand that they were only viewing one version of events
V-effect
Bertolt Brecht
To achieve this effect, he kept many of the staging elements visible: lighting was left uncovered; the musicians were visible to the audience ; half curtains might be used to allow the audience to see scene changes; actors would play multiple characters ; and, the audience was directly addressed, which meant that sometimes the stage directions were spoken aloud. To further encourage the audience to reflect, the events for the following scene would be projected onto the stage so that the audience would anticipate the story and reflect as they watched.
a musical drama that he co-wrote with composer Kurt Weill. The play explores morality as both a luxury and a tool as it warns that society should be concerned with the welfare of others rather than upholding empty morals. The plot itself was inspired by John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and tells the story of Macheath, or Mack the Knife, and the fine line between the middle and lower classes.
Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera
play that is known as the essential epic theatre piece. First produced in 1941, this play warns against the evils of profiting off of war. Anna Feirling, the main character, is a Swedish army canteen worker during Germany’s Thirty Years War.
Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children
as the creation of French director, actor, and writer Antonin Artaud. His view that theatre should confront the audience’s fears in order to help them overcome them can best be understood if we first look at Surrealism.
Theater of Cruelty
a play partially adapted from Percy B. Shelley’s story that told of a 16th century Italian noble who was killed by his servants. His telling of the story was both disturbing and graphic, especially at the point where Count Cenci is murdered on stage. Light and sound are used to enhance the audience’s shock at the torture, incest, and rape happening in front of them.
Artaud’s The Cenci
Theater of Cruelty
This play, which is only about four pages long, has no stage description and has generic characters such as a Young Man, a Young Girl, a Knight, and a Wet-Nurse. The stage directions are surreal in nature and ask for such things as hurricanes and live pieces of human bodies to fall from the sky.
Artaud’s The Spurt of Blood
Theater of Cruelty
believed that if there was purpose in life, then it was up to each individual to find and fulfill his or her own purpose through free-will choices and actions.
existentialists
the most famous absurd drama, shows us that by making our own, conscious choices, we can give meaning to the world through our actions, thus creating purpose in our lives
Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot
left an indelible mark on the American theater. His plays covered expressionism, racism, class and much more. They were mostly tragedies, but then, he lived a difficult life. Alcohol played a big role, but he managed to produce a multitude of significant works despite his obstacles. Among his many notable works are The Emperor Jones, Anna Christie, The Iceman Cometh and Long Day’s Journey Into Night.
Eugene O’Neill
life was full of emotional struggle, and his hardships serve as inspiration for his plays. In terms of style, Williams’ plays are known for their symbolism and metaphor, as well as for being examples of Southern Gothic writing. His plays depict realistic portrayals of psychology of the South, as well as realistic portrayals of powerfully tragic and psychologically disturbed characters.
Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie A Streetcar Named Desire Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The Rose Tattoo The Loss of Teardrop Diamond
what artistic style is described by the following themes:
De-emphasis on the figure
Mastery of light and shadow
realism in all things
new subjects like landscape, still life, and self portrait
Baroque painting
a large semicircular or polygonal recess in a church, arched or with a domed roof, typically at the eastern end, and usually containing the altar.
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