GDT - Module Overview

 

Greek Drama: Tragedy 

Introduction

Tragic events are a universal experience. Just as they happen today, they happened centuries ago. Thousands of years ago, popular Greek playwrights, including Sophocles and Euripides created performances to explore the idea of tragedy for an audience. The goal of a Greek tragedy in this time was to produce a feeling of pity and sadness within the audience in order to inspire empathy for the characters. The tragic movies and television shows you watch today come from the ideas of an ancient philosopher named Aristotle who originated various theories about what a true tragedy should reflect. In this module, you will learn the elements that form the definition of a true tragedy according to Aristotle. You will then choose and read a Greek Tragedy and will analyze your chosen play. After analyzing a Greek Tragedy, you will use your newfound skills to compare and contrast a tragic hero from a modern day film with the tragic hero from the Greek Tragedy you read.

Essential Questions

1. What is the essence of a Greek tragedy?
2. Can I present organized, developed information that contains evidence to support my claims?
3. Can I analyze how an author's choice of how to organize the events in the text create mystery, tension, or pity?
4. Can I analyze an experience or point of view that appears in a work of literature from outside of the United States?

Key Terms

Antagonist:  A character or force against which another character struggles.

Act:  A major division in a play. An act can be sub-divided into scenes. Greek plays were not divided into acts. The five act structure was originally introduced in Roman times and became the convention in Shakespeare's period. In the 19th century this was reduced to four acts and 20th century drama tends to favour three acts.

Aside:  Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, but not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play.

Catharsis:  The purging of the feelings of pity and fear. According to Aristotle the audience should experiences catharsis at the end of a tragedy.

Anagnorosis: Aristotle's term describing the point in the plot (climax), especially of a tragedy, when a character experiences understanding; the point in the play when the protagonist recognizes or verbalizes his or her tragic error or some other character's true identity or discovers the true nature of his or her own situation.

Drama: A story written to be performed by actors in front of an audience.

Chorus: A traditional chorus in Greek tragedy is a group of characters who comment on the action of a play as though they are participating in it.

Deux Ex Machina:  When an external source resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention. The Latin phrase means, literally, "a god from the machine." The phrase refers to the use of artificial means to resolve the plot of a play.

Dramatic Irony: When something happens to a character that he or she did not expect but the audience or reader knew was going to happen..

Exodos: The final scene and exit of the characters and chorus in a classical Greek play.

Hubris:  A Greek term that means arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one's abilities. This overwhelming pride inevitably leads to a downfall.

Motivation:  The thoughts or desires that actively drive a character to pursue a want or need

Peripeteia (Reveral):  The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist- from failure to success or success to failure.

Plot: The sequence of events that make up a story.

Protagonist: The main character of a literary work.

Tragedy:  A type of drama in which the characters experience reversal of fortune, usually for the worse. In tragedy, suffering awaits many of the characters, especially the hero.

Tragic Hero:  A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and/or fate, suffers a fall from a higher station in life into suffering.

Tragic Flaw (Hamartia):  A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.

Catastrophe:  The final event of the dramatic action especially of a tragedy, The problem often spirals outwards and causes suffering to the hero and people he/she loves or wants to protect.

Key Terms Review

In order to for you to discuss the elements of drama, you need to become familiar with various dramatic terms. Many of the dramatic terms in this module are review, but make sure to familiarize yourself with both old and new dramatic terms below:

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