Transcript document

Greek Drama:
Tragedy
&
Oedipus Rex
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SOPHOCLES
• Born in Athens, Greece,
between 500-494 BCE
• Belonged to an affluent
Athenian family
• Wrote at least 120 plays,
90 of them tragedies
• Died 406-405 BCE
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Social & Political Athens
5th Century BCE
• Athenian government was an
“exclusionary democracy,” run by
elected officials in the form of an open
assembly.
– Only about 10% of the population was
eligible to participate.
– Women, slaves, & “non-citizens” were
excluded.
Social & Political Athens
5th Century BCE
• Although Sophocles was a member of
the ruling class, he was aware of the
social inequalities in Athenian society.
• His plays include repeated attempts to
warn his fellow Greeks of the divine
retribution that would come to them as a
result of their prejudices & injustice to
the poor.
Religious Ideas
• The Greek pantheon consisted of
hundreds of deities in a complex
hierarchy.
• The familiar “Olympian” gods - closest
to humans - were a relatively small part
of the overall scheme.
Religious Ideas
• While immortal & powerful, the gods were not
all-powerful in the sense of our modern
concepts of God.
• The gods themselves were subject to FATE
and to each other’s will.
– In Oedipus Rex, the Delphic Oracle is the prophet
of Oedipus’s doomed fate, but she’s not the cause
of it - nor is Apollo.
Fate & Free Will
• The Greeks did, to some extent, believe
in FREE WILL.
• Still, FREE WILL was not more powerful
than DESTINY.
– Oedipus is a perfect example of the belief
that, try as they might, people cannot avoid
the destinies to which they are born.
Fate & Free Will
• Nonetheless, as Oedipus’s FATE is the
result of his father’s earlier misdeed,
human FREE WILL cannot be
completely dismissed either.
Oedipus’s Backstory
• Laius - Oedipus’s birth father - was
raised by a single mother who ruled
Thebes as her dead husband’s regent.
• Laius’s two young cousins usurped the
throne & plotted to kill young Laius.
• So, Laius was smuggled out of Thebes
and given to Pelops, King of Pisa, to
raise.
Oedipus’s Backstory
• Laius became the tutor of Pelops’s favorite
son, Chryssipus, whom he abducted and took
back to Thebes.
• The two cousins having died, Laius claimed
his throne & held Chryssipus captive.
• Pelops raised an army & demanded the
return of his son, but it was discovered
Chryssipus was already dead.
Oedipus’s Backstory
• Laius & his house were cursed because of
his poor treatment of Pelops & Chryssipus.
• When Laius married Jocasta, he was warned
NOT to have children by her because his son
by Jocasta would one day kill him.
• One night, while drunk, Laius imprudently
disregarded the prophecy* - and Oedipus
was conceived.
Oedipus’s Backstory
• Thus, while Oedipus is, to a large
extent, a pawn of FATE, at the root of
that ill destiny is an act of FREE WILL
that went against nature and angered
the gods.
One More Note on Oedipus’s
Backstory
• Oedipus came to rule Thebes by solving
the riddle posed by the Sphinx and thus
saving Thebes from chaos and
destruction.
What was the Sphinx?
• The Greek Sphinx was a demon of
death and destruction and bad luck.
• It was a female creature, sometimes
depicted as a winged lion with a
feminine head, and sometimes as a
female with the breast, paws and claws
of a lion, a snake tail and bird wings.
• She sat on a high rock near Thebes and
posed a riddle to all who passed.
The Sphinx
• The riddle was: "What animal is
that which in the morning goes on
four feet, at noon on two, and in
the evening upon three?”
• She strangled those who could not
solve the riddle.
• Finally, Oedipus came along to
save the day.
Oedipus & the Sphinx
• Oedipus was the only who could answer
that it was ”man, who in childhood
creeps on hands and knees, in
manhood walks erect, and in old age
with the aid of a staff.”
• The Sphinx was so mortified at the
solving of her riddle that she cast
herself down from the rock and
perished.
Oedipus & Greek Drama
• So, how did Oedipus’s story end up on
the stage in play form?
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Origins of Greek Drama
• Sixth Century BCE
– According to legend & recorded by
Aristotle, Thespis essentially invented
acting by stepping in front of the chorus &
performing a solo.
– The word “thespian” has come to mean
“actor.”
Origins of Greek Drama
• Fifth Century BCE
– Athens made tremendous advances in
philosophy, rhetoric, literature, science,
architecture, and visual arts.
– Tragedies were performed in annual
competitions that were a part of the Lenaia
and the Great Dionysia, religious festivals
held in honor of Dionysis.
Dionysis
• One of the twelve
Olympian gods
• God of wine &
ecstasy
• Inspirer of ritual
madness
• Patron of theater &
agriculture
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Theatre of Dionysus, Athens
Theater of Epidaurus
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At the religious festivals…
• Each competing playwright produced 3
tragedies & a satyr-play.
• The three best submissions were
approved & given a chorus for
performance.
• On the last day of the festival, a prize
was awarded to the tragic playwright
voted best of the year.
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The Three Greatest Athenian
Tragic Playwrights
• Aeschylus - wrote the Oresteia, a tragic
trilogy, & introduced the use of a second actor
onstage, interacting with the first. He also
began to develop a more complicated plot.
He won 13 festival competitions.
• Euripides - wrote Medea. He won 4 festival
competitions.
The Three Greatest Athenian
Tragic Playwrights
• Sophocles
– brought a third actor on-stage, created
scene design, and enlarged the chorus
from 12 to 15.
– wrote the “Theban plays,” Oedipus Rex,
Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone.
– won 20 festival competitions.
The “Theban Plays”
• While Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and
Antigone are often anthologized together and
in “chronological” order, they are not a trilogy.
• Antigone was written first and Oedipus at
Colonus last - about 40 years later.
• Each work should be considered a separate
work, NOT episodes in a serial.
Conventions of the Greek
Theater
Dramatic Irony
– The audience was already familiar with the
plots, taken from well-known myths.
– Therefore, they always had more
information about the action than the
characters onstage did.
– Suspense was in HOW the well-known
events would transpire & in the audience’s
watching the events unfold in “real time.”
Conventions of the Greek
Theater
• Plays were acted in the daytime, with
minimal sets and props.
• Actors were all male.
• Actors wore masks, wigs, and highheeled boots, which increased their
visibility to the audience & added to the
formality of the experience.
Greek Tragedy Masks
Greek Tragedy Masks
Conventions of the Greek
Theater
• To increase dramatic intensity, the plays
observed the THREE UNITIES
described by Aristotle…
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Unity of Time
• All the action of the play took place
within twenty-four hours, in continuous
time.
• Dialogue and the Chorus provided
background information.
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Unity of Place
• All of the action was limited to a single
setting.
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Unity of Subject
• One single main plot focused on the
main character. There were no subplots.
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Conventions of the Greek
Theater
• Due to the religious intent and dignified
style, no violence was shown on stage.
• The messenger ran on stage and spoke
to the audience of any deaths or killings.
The Chorus
• Was used to present exposition & to
provide commentary on the action &
characters:
– 15 men represented the citizens.
– They were always on stage, and they
frequently sang and danced.
– They always had a leader who carried on a
dialogue with the main characters or with
the rest of the chorus.
The Chorus
• The function of the chorus was to…
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Set the tone
Give background information
Recall events of the past
Interpret and summarize events
Ask questions
Offer opinions
Give advice, if asked
Stay objective
Act like a jury of elders or wise men who listened
to the evidence and reached a moralistic
conclusion at the end of the play
The Chorus
• Performed in song with a highly formal
and stylized back-and-forth movement
that heightened the emotion of their
performance:
– Strophe - first part of a choral ode
– Antistrophe - follows the strophe
– Epode - completes the chorus’s movement
Greek Tragedy
Aristotle’s definition in his Poetics:
“an imitation of an action that is serious, complete,
and of a certain magnitude; in language
embellished with each kind of artistic ornament,
the several kinds being found in separate parts of
the play; in the form of action, not of narrative,
through pity and fear effecting the proper
purgation of these emotions” (VI.2, p. 23).
Key to Tragedy: Catharsis
• Aristotle said tragedy aroused the
emotions of PITY and FEAR.
• Ideally, tragedy brings about a purging
of these emotions.
• This release of feelings = Catharsis.
Key to Tragedy: Catharsis
• The release was/is thought to produce
emotional relief and encourage
psychological health.
• Tragedy heals.
• Catharsis = the end goal of tragedy.
The Tragic Plot
• Tragedy is not true in the sense that
history is true.
• It’s not a duplication of life, but a
representation.
• Plot consists of a self-contained and
concentrated single action.
• Only those incidents integral to the
action are included in the play.
3 Major Elements of the
Tragic Plot
• Peripeteia / Reversal of fortune
• Anagnorisis / Recognition
• Scene of suffering / Pathos
1. Peripeteia - “reversal of fortune” from good
to bad.
3 Major Elements of the
Tragic Plot
2. Anagnorisis - a change from ignorance to
knowledge, producing love or hate between
the persons destined for good or bad fortune.
This recognition = discovery of true identity or
involvement, establishment of guilt or
innocence, & revelation of previously
unknown details.
*In the best tragedies, the peripeteia (reversal) &
anagnorisis (recognition) occur together and create
suspense.
3 Major Elements of the
Tragic Plot
3. Scene of Suffering - a destructive of painful
action, such as death, bodily agony, or
wounds. This destructive or painful action
should be caused by loved ones. This will
arouse the most fear & pity.
*All 3 of these elements appear near the play’s
conclusion because they are the probable &
inevitable results of the exposition & complications.
Hamartia
• The tragic condition is often the result of the
tragic hero’s hamartia, often defined as the
tragic flaw that leads to the hero’s downfall.
• More accurately, hamartia is an error in
judgment or perception, the hero’s inability
to see his flaw or to accurately foresee the
consequences of his decisions or actions.
Hubris
• A common trait associated with hamartia is
hubris (or hybris).
• Hubris = exaggerated self pride or self
confidence, which often results in fatal
retribution.
• Hubris against the gods is generally regarded
as a character flaw of the heroes in Greek
tragedy and the cause of their destruction.
The Tragic Hero
• The tragic hero’s misfortunes are not caused by vice
or depravity - but by some great error.
• The error makes him human to the audience; thus,
he arouses fear and pity in us because we can see
ourselves in his place.
• We - the audience - are able to sympathize with the
protagonist because he is imperfect, just like us, and
his suffering exceeds what he deserves.
• This sympathetic identification makes catharsis
possible.
Oedipus as the Tragic Hero
• As you read Oedipus Rex, consider Oedipus
as a tragic hero…
• Do you believe he is a pawn of FATE? How
much blame does he bear for his situation?
• Do you feel fear & pity for him?
• Does the play move you to a cathartic
response?