Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy

Study: M.A SEM: 1

SUBJECT: Paper no.3 Literary Theory & Criticism

ROLL NUMBER: 32

GUIDED By: Dr.Dilip Barad

 Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

 Topic: Greek and Shakespearian Tragedy.

Introduction:

                The genre of Tragedy is rooted in the Greek dramas of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles. One of the earliest works of literary criticism, the poetics of the Greek philosopher ARISTOTLE

Includes a discussion of tragedy based in part upon the plays of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles. While Shakespeare probably did not know Greek tragedy directly, he would have been familiar with the Latin adaptations of Greek drama by the roman playwright Seneca. A Medea and an Oedipus, both Seneca and Renaissance tragedy were influenced by the theory of tragedy found in Aristotle’s poetics.

According to Northrop Frye Tragedy divide in to five types:

·       Encroachment: Encroachment means Protagonist takes on too much, makes a mistake that causes his/her  “Fall”. This mistake is often unconscious an act blindly done, through over-confidence in one’s ability to regulate the world or through insensitivity to others but still violets the norms of human conduct.

·       Complication: The building up of events aligning opposing forces that will lead inexorably to the tragic conclusion. “ just as comedy often sets upan arbitary law and then organize the action to break or evade it, so tragedy presents the reverse theme of narrowing a comparatively free life in to a process of causation.”

·       Reversal: The point at which it becomes dear that the hero’s expectations are mistaken, that his fate will be the reverse of what he had hoped. At this moment, the vision of the dramatist and the audience are the same the classic example is Oedipus, who seeks the knowledge that proves him guilty of murdering his father and marrying mother; when he accomplishes his objective, he realizes he has destroyed himself in the process.

·       Catastrophe: The catastrophe expresses the limits of the hero’s power and dramatizes the waste of his life. Piles of dead bodies remind us that the forces unleashed are not easily contained; there are also elaborate subplots which reinforce the impression of a world inundated with evil.

·       Recognition: The audience recognizes the larger pattern. If the hero does experience recognition, he assumes the vision of his life held by the dramatist and the audience. From this new perspective he can see the irony of his actions, adding to the poignancy of the tragic events.  

After all this definition or concepts we can easily

Understand the meaning of tragedy. In the simple language we can say that Tragedy is which has an unhappy ending or an unusual number of dead bodies on the stage. For the critic or student of literature How-ever the word has a rather different and more specialized meaning.

                            

                             Tragedy is always accepted in the genre of drama. In the literature there are some novels written by Hardy like ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ and tragic poems like Arnold’s ‘Sohrab and Rustam’

but these two types are not accepted by audience so Tragedy always written in the genre of drama, and Drama divided in to two types:

·       Tragedy

·       Comedy

There are two types of tragedy:

·       Greek Tragedy or Aristotelian Tragedy

·       Shakespearean Tragedy

Greek Tragedy:

               

                             The Greek philosopher Aristotle provides a definition of tragedy that we can describe in to seven parts. He writes ‘Poetics’ and in it he writes about tragedy. According to Greek Tragedy ‘Destiny is Character’ they believed that in the drama main character is who ever or do what ever but when they face tragic fall that is their destiny. They are believed in character’s deeds but they are not give importance to deeds they always thought that destiny is powerful and our future decide destiny and we can’t change our future.  Aristotle believed in that TIME, PLACE and ACTION.

                            

Aristotle explained  these six characteristics:

·        Stories already well known to the audience: the dramatist was not expected to invent new character or plots, but to use the old stories of gods and kings and heroes.

With this characteristics Aristotle wants to presents old stories with new concept but writers has no right to present their own story they must present old and well known story. and they don’t want to create new plot or new character they has to present dominant or upper class people like King, queen, prince, princess with all this characters.

·        A strong religious element: the great drama festivals in Athens were held in honour of the wine god, Dionysus, they felt that the world was controlled by moral law and that men who broke that law would be published by divine justice and fate. This feeling or belief lies behind all the great classical tragedies.

           Aristotle make this characteristic because he thinks that when writers presents old and strong religious events to Audience so they like to read it and they easily convinced with the situation of character. and they try to convinced about the God super natural power that this power is controlled their life and their future so people don’t do wrong work in the society and people don’t try to broke rules of society. so Aristotelian writers write moral play so people always afraid from the god.

·        A dislike of horror and violence on the stage: the subject of tragedy were often shocking and terrible, but the evil deeds were done off the stage. The audience learned of them from the chorus or from ‘messengers’.

Aristotle dislikes horror or violence so he says that on the drama performance no one can act violence and horror scene in the theatre if any one act it so its not good for audience. In the play if writer need to inform people whats going on during the play so that was telling by chorus or messenger.

·        Few actors: the earliest plays had only two actors and a chorus, In the great days of Athenian tragedy however there were four, five or even six chief actors, and a chorus of fifteen men. No plays had anything like the number of actors found for example in a Shakespeare play.

In the Greek Tragedy only two or four even just six characters to perform a drama and them easily perform it and chorus to tell the story to the audience. Its opposite in Shakespearian tragedy there are many actors for performance and fifteen choruses for explaining story.

·        Characters above the level of ordinary men: all the chief figures in a tragedy were kings, queens, princess or heroes. The idea of ‘domestic’ tragedy, in which the people on the stage are ‘just like ourselves’, would have been quite strange to a Greek tragedian. The Greeks may have invented democracy, but it does not appear in their tragedies.

In the Greek Tragedy writer has to use domesticate class who ordered and lower class people do their work and upper class marginalized them because of their personal need or intentions.

·        No mixing of tragedy and comedy: a Greek tragedy had ‘unity of action’- that is to say, it had one story and only one. It would have been unthinkable for Aeschylus or Sophocles or Euripides to include comic characters and scenes in serious plays, as Shakespeare so often did. The Greeks liked fun as much as any other people however, and many of them no doubt felt a little fun as much as any other people however, and many of them no doubt felt a little tiered after watching a tragic trilogy for several hours. It became usual therefore to end the performance with a ‘satyr play’ – a play quite separate from the tragic trio logy, and often crudely comic.

In the Greek Tragedy There is no mixed up of comedy or Tragic elements. there is only one elements which is very serious to perform and when this writers use comedy elements in the tragedy that time audience not easily understand that what actor trying to say it is very difficult to persuade people with this elements. So we can say that Greek tragedy is very difficult to understand for common people and this is very serious task to do it every person is not like it, and not enjoy the tragedy.

                  

Shakespearean Tragedy:

                   

                                 

                             At the time of queen Elizabethan age many writers write plays for London Theater Shakespeare is one of them. During this time He writes many Tragedies but He is not following Aristotle’s Method for Tragedy but He writes his own way, with these characteristics. Shakespeare is believed that Character is destinies in the play what character do well or bad it reflects to his or her destined so destiny is not powerful but person’s own deeds are powerful and character’s deed’s decides their future. He Creates this characteristics for the tragedy. He is totally against from the Aristotle or Greek Tragedy Let’s see the characteristics of it:

·       Tragic / fatal flaw:

 A ‘tragic flaw’, by definition, is a personally trait that leads to the downfall of the protagonist. It can also be a wrong action performed by the protagonist that results in his own ruin. It is the most important element in the tragedy and almost every hero/ heroine of a Shakespearean tragedy possess a tragic flaw. Examples of tragic flaw in Shakespearean tragedy are: Macbeth’s obsession with power, Othello’s jealosy and Hamlet’s indecisiveness.

·       Super natural elements

Use of super natural elements is a common characteristic of the Elizabethan drama, to which shakespeare’s plays are no exception. Supernatural powers contribute to the fate of the protagonist. However, they are not solely responsible for the downfall of the hero; it still lies in the deeds/actions of the hero. Usually, these actions are the outcome of the protagonist’s over- ambitious nature or the feeling of revenge.

·       Internal and external conflict

The external conflict, as we can easily make out, is the conflict between two people, the tragic hero and another main character of the story. It can also be the conflict between two people, the tragic hero. The result of the external conflict is always in favor of the other party as it is the good party. When talking about the inward struggle of the hero, the conflict represents the struggle of thoughts in his mind. The result of this struggle, many a time is that the hero goes Insane.  The inward struggle also includes the action of spiritual forces which work against the hero.

·       Fate / fortune

As the tragic hero/heroine is of high estate and is a public figure, his/her downfall produces a contrast which affects not only his/her personal life, but the fate and welfare of the entire nation or the empire. It reflects the powerlessness of human beings and the omnipotence of fate that a personal story of a peasant or a worker cannot produce. The adverse effects of fate on the empire are evident in Macbeth, when Duncan’s sons Malcolm and at the same time trying to support the collapsing kingdom. macduff suggests that Malcolm take the throne, but Malcolm is not mature enough to hold the falling empire.

·       The Theme of foul and revenge

As it is a tragedy, foul has to counterfelt fair; an unwritten rule of a Shakespearean tragedy. In fact, “Fair is soul and foul is fair” Is the refrain of the play. The entire play revolves around the theme of foul turning fair the very first line of the first scene of the play spoken by the three witches shows the intensity of the them built cleverly right from the beginning of the play and making it the driving force behind the character of Hamlet.

·       Paradox of life

Shakespeare’s tragedies reflect the paradox of life, in the sense that the calamity and suffering experienced by the tragic hero are contrasted with the previous happiness and glory. This paradox is very clear in the play Macbeth is portrayed as the bravest and loyal soldier of the nation is rewarded by King Duncan for his bravery and love for the nation However, Macbeth is not satisfied with whatever he gets and desires more. This desire or over-ambitious nature leads him to think evilly and act on it which is an extreme end of his real personality.

·       Catharsis

Any piece of literature, or any art for that matter, is successful when it evokes pity, fear and other such emotion in the audience. It is known as catharsis, where the audience fees sympathy for the character and empathize with his/her sufferings. If the play has the capacity to move the audience by its plot, people who are reading the play or watching it in the theatre can identify with the there can identify with the characters and feel that they have similar experience in their life.

·       Tragic structure

Exposition is the beginning of the play where the reader/audience gets to know the characters and their traits, the general setting of the story, the major conflict in the story and most importantly, the tragic flaw of the hero. Normally, exposition begins and ends I the first act itself, however, sometimes there are some characters who enter late in to the story.

Comparison between Shakespearean Tragedy and Greek Tragedy:

·        In the Greek Tragedy They Believed in Destiny is Character and In Shakespearean Tragedy They believed in Character is Destiny.

·        In the Greek Tragedy They used to well known stories and Shakespearean Tragedy They Creates their own Story and use the Fatal Flaw.

·         Greek writers use strong Religious Elements and Shakespeare use Supernatural elements, in the Tragedy.

·         Greek writers don’t like to act Violence and Horror on the stage but Shakespeare does that and use internal and external conflict performs on the stage.

·         In the Greek Tragedy there are only six characters and chorus but in the Shakespearean Tragedy there are sixteen characters and chorus he is believed in Fate.

·        Greek writers always use the theme of upper class people

and shown dominant personality of the class discrimination,          and Shakespeare use the theme of Foul and revenge.

·        Greek writers use the only Tragic element in the drama they don’t like to use Comedy element and Tragic element in the same drama, but Shakespeare use some comic elements in the drama so audience like to saw that and they feel relaxation with this elements

·        Greek writers not believed in Catharsis, but Shakespeare believed in it and he thinks that if audiences sympathize with character so their own emotions are come out and they like it so according to this Shakespeare write the play with the use of catharsis.

·        Greek writers just use main plot in the play but Shakespeare use sub plot in the play.

·        Greek writers use TIME, PLACE and ACTION, but Shakespeare is not consider it.

Conclusion:

So at the end we can easily explain about the two types

 Of tragedy, when we compare Greek tragedy with Shakespeare Tragedy we mostly favor Shakespearean Tragedy Because with Shakespearean tragedy we feel catharsis at some situation or part and after it we sympathize the character and with it our all emotions come out and we feel comfort or relax. After it Readers bored when they listen only one story Greek writers just use it So some times readers don’t like that and Shakespeare write there own story, so people exciting to know whats going on during the play. So mostly audience like to saw Shakespearean tragedy. For my personal point of view Shakespearean tragedy is better than Greek Tragedy. J J J