Download The Three Unities - Coweta County Schools

The Literature of
Antiquity
Greek Drama:
Oedipus Rex
Learning Objectives
• Learn about the elements of Greek theatre.
• Explore Aristotle’s contribution to our understanding
of Greek drama.
• Understand Nietzsche’s viewpoints on the Apollonian
and Dionysian influences in Greek culture/theatre.
• Learn about the tragic story arc.
• Get the background knowledge about Oedipus and his
family that we need to know to understand the action of
the text.
Greek theater arose
from the worship of the
god Dionysus.
Religious songs called
dithyrambs attempted
to reenact Dionysus’
life, death, and
resurrection. These
songs, performed by a
chorus, became the
first plays.
Tragedy – comes from the
Greek word tragoidia meaning
“goat-song.” It is considered
the highest form of drama.
Comedy
Also called satyr plays.
It is considered the lowest
form of drama due to
bawdy or vulgar content.
Chorus
•Chanted dithyrambs in unison.
•Men only – no females performed.
•Meant to provide commentary on the
actions of the actors. Show audience how to
react.
•Lead by the choragos
Thespis
• Introduced the first
actor apart from the
chorus – someone who
played a role other than
himself.
•Where the word
thespian comes from.
Aeschylus
•Introduced a second
actor
•2 actors allowed for
conflict between
characters (and the
beginnings of
tragedy).
Sophocles
• Introduced the third
actor
•Reduced the
importance of the
chorus – focused on
plot.
•Most famous &
successful tragedian
City Dionysia
Religious festival held annually in Athens to
honor Dionysus. The best playwrights
performed their tragedies and comedies in
hopes of winning the prize.
Mask
with built-in
megaphone
in the mouth
aperture for
increasing the
volume of the
voice.
Korthornoi
Raised shoes
to increase
the height of
tragic actors
in order to
show their
importance.
Aristotle’s Poetics:
•335 B.C.
•The very first bit of literary theory! Hurrah!
•Vocabulary
•Mimesis – imitation/representation
•Catharsis - purgation
•Peripeteia - reversal
•Anagnorisis - recognition
•Hamartia – miscalculation/flaw
•Catastrophe – final tragedy
Six Elements of Tragic
Drama:
1. Plot – complex, yet realistic (3 unities)
2. Character – good, but flawed, and consistent
3. Thought – should be spoken aloud
4. Diction – elevated and poetic, but simple
5. Melody – chorus should be integrated well
6. Spectacle – costumes, backdrop, special
effects should blend well
The Three Unities:
Unity of Time
Play must occur
within a single
day. Tragedy
strikes quickly.
The Three Unities:
Unity of Place
Setting will be in one place
The Three Unities:
Unity of Action
There are no
subplots– the plot
will drive
consistently to its
tragic end.
The Tragic Hero
• Must be noble and honorable
• Must suffer a downfall due to an error in
judgment or character flaw (hamartia)
• Usually lives in order to learn from his/her
mistakes
• Downfall evokes pity and fear in audience
•Francis Fergusson: Greek tragic theatre is “a
solemn rite of sacrifice that purges the
community of its collective guilt by punishing a
scapegoat, one man who perishes for the good
of the people.”
Map
of
Hubris = pride and arrogance
Tragic
Hamartia/Ate = fatal mistake/flawAction
Aristeia = moment of greatness
Peripeteia = reversal of fortunes
Anagnorisis = understanding
Catastrophe = final tragedy
Catharsis =
emotional
cleansing
The Birth of Tragedy
•Written in 1886
•A work against nihilism and
pessimism
•Tragic drama allowed the Greeks to
see themselves as worthy—it
reaffirmed existence and meaning.
•The universe understood in terms
of the Apollonian vs. the Dionysian.
•Man must be able to participate in art
• chaos
• music
• destruction
• intoxication
• sexual license
• group mentality / loss of
individuality / mob
• fragmentation /
dismemberment
• Nature / Wilderness
• Non-reality
• emotional/intuitive/ecstatic
• unpredictable /
absurdity/meaningless
• order
• sculpted/plastic arts
• creation
• sobriety
• chastity
• individualization
• wholeness/sanity
•city / civilization
• Reality
• rational / logical / calm
• pattern / meaning
• According to Nietzsche, the ancient
Greeks used tragic theatre as a safe way of
experiencing the ecstasy and abandonment
of the Dionysian with all the built-in
safety/sanity features of the Apollonian.
•Sophocles, 429 B.C.
•Wins first prize at City
Dionysia
•Considered by Aristotle to
be the prime example of
tragic drama.
•King Laius and Queen Jocasta learn from
an oracle that their newborn son will
one day kill Laius. To prevent this fate,
Laius orders the baby’s ankles to be bound
and for the child to be exposed.
•A shepherd finds the child and pities him. He takes it
to his king and queen in Corinth for protection. Since
they were childless, they decide to adopt the boy as
their own. They name him Oedipus or “Swollen Foot.”
•At a dinner party, a drunken guest taunts
Oedipus, telling him he is a bastard child—
not really son of the King of Corinth.
Oedipus sets out to ask the Oracle at
Delphi the truth.
•The Oracle tells him he is destined to “mate with his mother
and kill his father.” To avoid this fate, Oedipus leaves Corinth.
•On the road, Oedipus kills an impudent man who refused to
give him right-of-way (Laius).
•Later on, Oedipus answers the riddle of
the Sphinx and kills the monster laying
siege to Thebes.
•As reward for saving the city, Oedipus is
made king (since the last one mysteriously
died) and married to the existing queen –
Jocasta.
•When Apollo sends a plague upon
Thebes, Oedipus vows to root out the
source of the god’s displeasure… which
ends up being himself.
Sigmund Freud’s theory:
•Children are torn between feelings of love
for one parent while feeling a sense of
competition with the other.
• According to Freud, this tension is one
possible cause of neuroses in later life.
• According to Freud, the boy wishes to
possess his mother and replace his
father, who he views as a rival for his
mother's affections.
desire for mother /
jealously and anger towards his father.
Themes and Motifs in Oedipus Rex
•Freud: “The lesson which, it is said, the deeply moved spectator should learn
from the tragedy is submission to the divine will and realization of his own
impotence.”
•Robert Fagles:“Terror of the unknown future which we fear we cannot
control—our deep fear that every step we take forward on what we think is the
road of progress may really be a step toward a foreordained rendezvous with
disaster.”
•Sophocles: “Count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last.”
•To what extent is man responsible for his own actions? How do we reconcile a
need for divine order and meaning with our need for individuality and free
will?
•Sight, blindness, vision, hunters, plowmen, sailors, detectives,
prophecies
Literary Terms to
know:
Dramatic Irony