“DRAMA”

Types of Drama Tragedy: [solemn, personal, religious & Social Issues] Tragic Flaw & Catharsis

Types of Drama Tragedy: [solemn, personal, religious & social issues – often

ends in death] Tragic Flaw [our hero often suffers from great pride (hubris) and this

leads to a grave mistake leading to tragedy] Catharsis [Pity & Fear: The audience pities the actors suffering on

stage and fears they too might make a mistake and suffer a similar fate]

Comedy: [humorous/solving – often ends in a marriage] Farce = Physical [think three stooges] Satire = Morals/ Manners [makes fun of society

and its ways]

Analyzing Drama: Setting

Scenery illustrates location, time period, social class

Lighting shows time, season, mood, action, and character

Costumes reveal age, class, profession, and ethnicity

Props have significance!

Dramatic Structure [similar to novels] Exposition ( who, what, where, when) Conflict (Problem of main character)

In Phaedrea, what is her main problem? Climax (Pivotal point in action)

What happens when Phaedra is rejected by Hippolytus? Resolution ( How does it all work out?)

What happens to Phaedra, Hippolytus and Theseus at the end?

Expo

ConflictClimax

Resolution

Characterization

Types of Characters Protagonist vs. Antagonist Confidant (friend or servant) Stock characters: comic, victim, braggart, pretender, fool

How do characters reveal themselves? Externally: Names, appearance, physique, speech,

accent, dress, status, class, education, friends, family, interests.

Internally: thoughts, feelings, emotions.

Theme & Overall Message

Theme: main points of the play In Phaedra, love, revenge, & suicide are some

themes Overall message of the play

In Phaedra, love can be terrible, revenge causes great pain, and suicide does not solve problems

Irony

Dramatic Irony: Contrast between what the characters know and what the audience knows.

Neo-ClassicismRacine’s Phaedra is a tributeto classical plays of old and followsNeoclassic conventions described below:

Neoclassic plays illustrated• a regard for tradition and reverence for the

classics, with an accompanying distrust of innovation

• a sense of literature as art--that is, as something "artificed" or "artificial," made by craft; hence the value put on "rules," conventions, "decorum," the properties of received genres.

• a concern for social reality [tenets or rules of society].

Neo-Classicism

Also illustrated 4. a concern for "nature"--or the way things are (and should be). This

relates back to the distrust of innovation and inherent conservatism of neoclassicism. The artistic rules of old, for instance, Pope describes as having been "discovered, not devised" and are "Nature methodized"; so too, "Nature and Homer" are "the same" This belief in "nature" implies a conviction that there is a permanent, universal way things are (and should be), which obviously entails fundamental political and ethical commitments.

5. a concern with "pride" as the root of threats to the above. We might see pride as in part standing for individual self assertion against the status quo ("nature"). Pope:

Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind, What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

Neoclassic plays followed the Three Unities The three unities or classical unities are rules for drama derived

from Aristotle's Poetics. In their neoclassical form they are as follows: The unity of action: a play should have one main action that it follows, with no or

few subplots. The unity of place: a play should cover a single physical space and should not

attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place.

The unity of time: a play should represent an action that takes approximately the same amount of time as the play; years should not pass during the hours a play takes.

Aristotle does not mention the unity of place. It should be noted that Aristotle was writing after the golden age of Greek drama, and many Greek playwrights, notably Aeschylus, wrote plays that do not fit within these conventions.

However, 16th century Italian and 17th century French critics of the neoclassical movement expanded Aristotle's descriptions to make them into rules for how any play must be structured.