Transcript From Romanticism to Realism

From Romanticism to
Realism
The Essential Theatre. Ch6.
Introduction
The late XVIII and early XIX centuries
brought a reaction against the neoclassical
rules that had dominated dramatic writing
since the mid-seventieth century.
 Most of the strictures of neoclassicism
were applied only to ‘regular’ drama
(comedy and tragedy written in five acts).
Perhaps for this reason a number of
‘irregular ‘ forms gained [popularity during
the XVIII century

The Emergence of Romanticism

Toward the end of the eighteenth century,
the attitudes that had supported
neoclassicism began to change, and
several playwrights in Germany (Storm
and Stress) school began to write serious
plays the experimented both with bold
subjects and dramatic form.
The Emergence of Romanticism

Perhaps the changes in critical attitudes
are best summed up in relation to
Shakespeare. Although Shakespeare had
always been popular in England, where
many of his plays held a firm place in the
repertory, they were not performed in
any other European country until the late
eighteenth century.
The Emergence of Romanticism

In sum, the theatre underwent major
alterations during the early nineteenth
century. In this new climate melodrama
flourished, becoming to the general public
what Shakespeare was to elitist audiences.
The Emergence of Romanticism

Romanticism was to be the dominant
artistic movement during the first half of
the nineteenth century.
Melodrama

Melodrama was the popular-culture
manifestation of Romanticism and as such
was the most popular dramatic form of
the nineteenth century.
Melodrama had a large
musical element, as
suggested by its name,
which literally means
‘music drama’.
Melodrama

The popularity of melodrama in the
nineteenth century is explained in part by
fundamental changes in social and
economic conditions stemming from the
industrial revolution.
Melodrama

London had supported only two or three
theatres during the eighteenth century ,
but between 1800 and 1850, its
population doubled and the number of its
theatres grew to more than twenty.
Melodrama

Because the pattern of melodrama is
always the same (good threatened by evil,
with the eventual triumph of good),
variety was gained through such novelties
as exotic locales, ever-more-spectacular
effects, increased realism, incorporation
into the action of the latest inventions,
and dramatizations of popular novels or
notorious crimes.
Melodrama

After electricity became common in the
1880s , electric motors were coupled
with treadmills to stage horse or chariot
races.
Melodrama

In melodrama, realistic spectacle, thrilling
effects, novelty, suspense, and the
vindication of virtue were the major
appeals.
Monte Cristo
Monte Cristo is a dramatization of
Alexandre Dumas pere’s The Count of
Monte Cristo (1845), one of the world’s
most popular novels.
 At first it was in twenty acts (two
evenings to perform). In 1885, James
O’Neill purchased the rights to this
version and made numerous revisions.

Monte Cristo

Reducing Dumas’s novel of several
hundred pages to a play that could be
performed in two or three hours was a
formidable task, but not unusual in the
nineteenth century, because popular
novels were typically dramatized quickly
following their publication.
Monte Cristo
The sweep of Monte Cristo is neater to
that of Shakespeare’s plays than to that of
plays by Sophocles or Moliere.
 Like other melodramas, Monte Cristo
shows goodness victimized and evil
triumphant for a time, but ultimately evil
is exposed and punished and goodness is
vindicated.

Monte Cristo
The turning point , Edmund’s escape, has a
miraculous quality both in the event itself
and in Faria’s legacy of enormous wealth,
which makes Edmund’s revenge possible.
Monte Cristo

Characterization is far simpler than plot
in Monte Cristo. The characters can be
divided into three categories:
◦ good (Edmund, Mercedes, Noirtier, Albert),
◦ evil (Danglars, Fernand,Villefort),
◦ functional (sailors, fishermen, policemen,
servants).
Monte Cristo
The characters are always wholly
conscious of their motives and feelings
and state them to the audience.
 Next to suspenseful and morally satisfying
plots, melodrama owed its appeal most to
spectacle.

Monte Cristo

Monte Cristo requires eight sets, two of
which were probably simple and very
shallow, permitting more complex sets to
be erected behind them while a scene
was in progress.
Monte Cristo

The demands of the Chateau d’If scene
illustrate the changes that had occurred in
scenic practices by the late nineteenth
century.
Monte Cristo

By the late nineteenth century, the stage
floor in most theatres was divided into
sections a few feet wide, any of which
could be removed to create an opening
extending completely across the stage.
Monte Cristo

Touring such complex productions was
made possible by the development of
dependable transportation, which became
a reality with the spread of railroads.
Monte Cristo

Melodrama’s visual appeal was further
enhanced by lighting, the potential of
which had increased greatly after gas
replaced candles and oil during the first
half of the nineteenth century.
Monte Cristo

O’Neills production of Monte Cristo calls
attention to another change then
underway: Long runs of single plays
performed by actors hired for that
production only were replacing a
repertory of plays performed in rotation
by a permanent company.
Monte Cristo
With melodrama, the theatre in the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
achieved its greatest mass appeal.
 The popular entertainment of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
especially melodrama, was the meeting
ground for theatre and film and was
crucial in the subsequent history of both.

The Advent of Realism

Even as James O’Neill was achieving his
great popular success in Monte Cristo,
other theories and beliefs were
undermining the absolutist moral values
on which melodrama depended.
The Advent of Realism

In the nineteenth century, a number of
intellectual and scientific developments
called many biblical passages into question.
The greatest controversy was provoked
by Charles Darwin’s The Origin of
Species(1859).
The Advent of Realism
•
Darwin’s theories have many
implications.
First, suggest that heredity and
environment are the primary
causes of everything human
beings are or do.
Second – people cannot be held
fully responsible for what they do
(because of no control over
individual heredity and little
control over the environment ).
Third, strengthen the idea of
progress.
The Advent of Realism

These implications were crucial in the
development of the modern
temperament, because they suggested
that change is the norm.
The Advent of Realism

The new ideas about human conscience
were stated most fully in the writings of
Sigmund Freud. Freud argued that the
basic human instincts are aggression and
sexuality – self-preservation and
procreation.
The Advent of Realism

According to his view, then, not only are
moral values relative, but also language
and behavior are only partially reliable
indicators of a person’s state of mind and
motives.
The Advent of Realism

Relativity eventually affected every area of
thought and action. It eventually entered
the theatre through realism and
naturalism, even though these movements
were seeking objective, scientific
explanations of human behavior.
Realism and Naturalism
Realism was first recognized during the
1850s, naturalism (a more extreme
version of realism) during the 1870s.
 The views of realists and naturalists were
grounded in the scientific outlook: the
need to understand human behavior in
terms of natural cause and effect.

Realism and Naturalism

The real issue for realists and natuaralists
was the role of art in society:
◦ Should art, as in melodrama, always show
good triumphant?
◦ Should art reaffirm traditional values even
though they have not triumphed in this
instance?
Or should art, as the realists and naturalists
argued, follow truth wherever it leads?
Realism and Naturalism
These issues were brought into focus
about 1880 by Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906),
a Norwegian playwright often called the
founder of modern drama.
 His plays stirred worldwide controversy
because the endings did not reaffirm
accepted values.

A Doll’s House

In a Doll’s House (1879), Nora Helmer is
faced with the consequences of having
forged her father’s name to borrow the
money needed to restore her husband’s
(Torvald) health (although by law she
couldn’t do it without her husband’s
consent).
A Doll’s House

After her husband recovers, the man from
whom Nora borrowed the money
(Krogstad) threatens to expose her as a
criminal if she does not help him keep the
job he is about to lose at Torvald’s bank.
A Doll’s House
Nora wishes to consider, free from the
emotional blackmail of home and children,
what it means to be a woman in a society
that deprives her of all rights.
 The outrage also stemmed from Ibsen’s
refusal to allow the audience the escape
that Torvald had sought – the pretense,
following a moment’s anxiety, that the old
social order was secure.

A Doll’s House
Mrs. Linde and Krogstad serve as
contrasts to Nora and Torvald.
 Nora, as she herself eventually realizes,
has spent her life being treated like a doll,
protected from harsh realities but having
learned to manipulate men by feeding
their fantasies about female helplessness.

A Doll’s House

Another major character, Dr. Rank, also
serves as a contrast to Torvald. Nora can
talk freely and share confidences with
Rank about things that Torvald would find
shocking.
A Doll’s House
A Doll’s House can serve as a model of
cause-to-effect dramatic construction.
 A Doll’s House uses a single setting
throughout.
 Characters seem to live in the settings.
Action, character, and environment are
intertwined.

Zola and Naturalism
Naturalism, unlike realism, had little
success in the theatre, probably because it
was too extreme in its demands.
 It’s chief advocate was Emile Zola (18401902).
 One of his followers suggested to take
naturalistic plays as slice of life – a
segment of reality transferred to the
stage.

Zola and Naturalism

Zola, who often compared naturalistic art
with medicine, believed that, just as the
medical pathologist seeks to discover the
cause of a disease so it can be treated, the
dramatist should expose social ills so
their causes can be corrected.
Zola and Naturalism

Together, realism and naturalism struck
major blows against rigid social codes and
absolute values. They laid the foundations
on which modernists built.
The Emergence of the Director

The present-day director who assumes
responsibility for interpreting all of the
elements that make up a production, is
primarily a product of the late nineteenth
century.
The Emergence of the Director

A convergence of the modern director,
One of these developments involved the
growing need for someone to coordinate
and unify all the elements of production.
The Emergence of the Director



The acceptance of the modern director
owes most to two influences: the theory of
Wagner and the practice of Saxe-Meiningen.
Wagner erected a new kind of theatre
building, opened at Bayreuth in 1876.
Georg II, duke of Saxe-Meiningen(18261914) is now usually considered the first
director in the modern sense. He extered
complete control over every aspect of
production.
The Emergence of the Director

The Meiningen Company validated many
of Wagner’s views, and the need for
unified production soon became a
fundamental tenet of theatrical
production.
The Independent Theatre
Movement
By the 1880s, innovative plays by realists
and naturalists had appeared, but
censorship had kept most of them from
production.
 The new drama and the new staging had
been remained isolated from each other.
They were finally to meet in “independent”
theatres.

The Independent Theatre
Movement
The first independent theatre was the
Theatre Libre, founded in Paris in 1887 by
Andre Antoine.
 In 1889, the Freie Buhne was founded in
Berlin.

The Independent Theatre
Movement

London’s independent theatre’s inaugural
production of Ibsen’s Ghosts, created
enormous scandal that did much to call
public attention to a new type of drama.
The Independent Theatre
Movement

Another organization that emerged from
the independent theatre movement- the
Moscow Art Theatre- was to be of special
importance.
The Independent Theatre
Movement

Founded in 1898 by Konstantin
Stanislavsky and Vladimir Danchenko, it
achieved its first major success with the
plays of Anton Chekhov (1860-1904).
The Independent Theatre
Movement

The Moscow Art Theatre eventually made
its greatest impact through Stanislavsky’s
system of acting, became the most
pervasive influence on acting during the
twentieth century.
Conclusion
By the late nineteenth century, realism in
the theatre was well established.
 Melodrama was grounded in the
assumption that human beings innately
know the difference between right and
wrong, that moral behavior has little to
do with environment, class, or wealth.

Conclusion
Realism and naturalism tended to view
the world scientifically rather than
morally and were based on the idea that
forces of heredity and environment
determines human behavior.
 A pathway was thereby opened for those
ideas and practices that have come to be
labeled “modernist.”
