Approaching Drama

1. Approaching Drama • with a focus on Shakespeare

2. Live Theatre • By witnessing events & passions on stage we can experience what life has to offer (more immediately that prose or poetry). • can cause life-changing mental reactions or smaller physical reactions (crying, laughing) • is a public event which clarifies private thoughts of the playwright. • contains a didactic element: it has the power to dramatise what people do not understand but want to understand. • serves as a debating chamber for current and perennial moral issues. • enables the audience member to share in the humour or horror of the drama.

3. The audience • Dramas are written with the audience in mind. • They had and still have direct impact on the production and the performance. • If audiences aren’t drawn to the issue, characters, humour or conflict in the play, the play does not endure. • Some government officials, monarchs have the ability to shut a play down, so these would be considered by the playwright.

4. Drama • oldest genre of literature • originated in 500 BC Athens, Greece • spring festivals dedicated to Dionysus • 3 tragedies and a satyr play • tickets subsidised under Pericles so that the poor may attend as well • dramas were used as moral teachers of the people

5. Early forms of Drama: The Greek Tragedy • one of the earliest forms of drama • featured only a chorus • group identical in dress; danced, chanted, reacted to tragic situation. • later individual actors added and comedy genre developed. • tragic flaw of the hero leads to the play’s moral or lesson.

6. Early forms of Drama: Medieval Morality Plays • a basic but more sophisticated dramatic format compared to Greek tragedy • a primitive tussle between angels and devils for Everyman’s soul • exploration of what it is to be human • This form is closest to modern drama.

7. Elizabethian and Jacobian Theatre • Theatre in England became popular with Londoners, the wider English public, monarchy. • Very accessible: location of playhouses and no need for literacy. • theatre served as a debating chamber for current & perennial moral issues. • Many of our greatest plays written during this time (Shakespeare’s time).

8. Writing about Drama • Rule #1: Refer to the audience, not to the reader. • Bring your awareness to performance of the play, e.g. gesture, movement, stage position and groupings, as well as physical appearance and setting. • Think about what you see and hear.

9. Dramatic effect • Drama is the product of a conflict which leads to a climax. • essay questions often ask for an analysis of the dramatic effect of parts of a set drama text. • in this context, “dramatic” does not just mean exciting or violent.

10. Conflict and Tension • The literary meaning of “dramatic” pertains to the representation of conflict and creation of tension. • When answering questions that ask you to explain “how the writer makes the scene dramatic”, think in terms of how conflict and tension are created.

11. Creating conflict • sudden change in hierarchy or routine • competition • family disagreement or problem • misunderstanding between married partners • betrayal between friends • political crisis demanding an immediate response • love triangle

12. more causes of conflict • “duty versus desire” dilemma within an individual • opposing attitudes or beliefs between a couple or within a group • crisis of conscience caused by guilt or secret knowledge • an act of injustice precipitating revenge • arrival of an outsider who acts as a catalyst • accusation which polarises family or community

13. Tension • surprise • dramatic irony • soliloquy or sharing of pain with the audience. • time pressure, deadline or ultimatum • the suggestion that fate is against the character. • new characters arriving unannounced or characters deciding to leave. • waiting for someone or something • use of sound effects, particularly bad weather and screams

14. Further causes of tension: • threats, curses, prophesies • use of pauses in delivered speeches, or silence on stage • emotion (or lack there of) expressed between characters as expressed in dialogue, tone of voice, facial expression and body language. • characters present on stage; entrances and exits • raising of voices, or speaking simultaneously • whispering, hissing or any changes from normal use of voice • actions performed clandestinely without knowledge of other characters. • body language or use of objects to symbolise disturbed mental states.

15. Shakespeare’s Comedies • A genre of Drama which ends justly, happily, but not always satisfactorily. • initial problem becomes an elaborate confusion to the final resolution and state of harmony; the denouement usually involves removal of disguise and reunion of family members and lovers. • Shakespeare comedies typically end with a triple wedding, feasting, singing, dancing, all of which are symbolic of unity. • Green world location in a pastoral setting to contrast with the corrupt milieu of the court and city.

16. Shakespeare’s Tragedies • A serious early problem related to death, war or failure of judgement into a catastrophic situation requiring further deaths and noble sacrifices in order for the previous status quo to be restored.

17. Tragedies • A move from the court to a contrasting place brings enlightenment, or alternative viewpoint. • A final anagnorisis, the recognition of a truth about something or someone. • often comic scenes serve as ironic juxtapositions.

18. Tragedies: Questions raised • What is a human being? • Are humans in control of their own destiny? • How can we tell right from wrong?

19. Tragedies:The Tragic Hero • someone of importance within his own society (Shakespeare, not Miller who triumphs the Everyday man). • this character has, what Aristotle termed, a tragic flaw.

20. Shakespeare’sTragic flaw • this takes the form of a seriously mistaken decision, taken freely and usually against advice • starts off a disastrous, irreversible and seemingly inevitable chain of cause and effect events as the hero falls from high to low. • The course that each tragic hero believes will lead to success in fact leads to destruction.

21. The complex tragic hero • The sense of waste and loss comes from the fact that the hero has great qualities in other respects. • Because free will is involved, an accident of birth or fate alone cannot be blamed, making the dilemma more complex and a cause of concern to all humans with fears and desires.

22. Resolution of a Tragedy • after a multiple body count (at least 5), and restoration, a survivor (usually a trusted character) makes the final chorus-type speech summing up the tragic events and looking forward to a brighter future; things can only get better. • The audience is expected to feel purged by the extreme emotions of pity and fear it has been made to feel on another’s behalf. • We are asked to identify with the hero because of his exceptional gifts and are “warned” on acting on our questionable desires - a flaw which we all share.

23. Structure • All Shakespeare plays are now printed as 5 acts divided into a variable number of scenes. • The third act is likely to contain a climax of the dramatic tension (except Macbeth). • There may be an chorus or a character who delivers an introduction or epilogue in or out of character. • The last scene gathers all of the characters together, or as many as are still alive. • the classical unities of time, space and action are only loosely adhered to, with time jumps, double time schemes, and subplots, especially in Comedies.

24. Form • Audiences rarely notice the use of verse, especially blank verse, which is unrhymed iambic pentameter, which is used throughout. Along with caesura and frequent enjambments and irregular metre, giving the impression of natural dialogue. • Rhyming couplets are used at the end of scenes for climactic or conclusive effect or for characters making significant or formal speeches. • Prose is reserved for peasants, servants and clowns and for higher-status characters when being underhand or off-duty. • Note changes from prose to verse and vice versa within a scene or a character’s utterances, and note to any overall patterns. • Note the sharing and completing of each other’s lines (the witches) which reveals something in their relationship. Incomplete or half lines suggest a highly emotional state. • Also note songs, poems and letters.

25. Diction • The language Shakespeare uses is over 400 years old. • Surprisingly, few words are unknown to us. • It is the unusually ordered syntax which makes hearing so difficult at first. • avoid the desire to “translate” the meaning of a phrase or quote, rather “interpret” what the character is hinting at, or is motivated by saying what he or she has said. Know that the examiner understands what these quotes literally mean. The task is to show them that you understand the significance of the line in the context of understanding the play’s themes and characters.

26. Themes and images • Closely related in Shakespeare’s plays; one is often the abstract version of the other. • imagery therfore is worth exploring closely as being key to the play and not just a descriptive aid or plot issue. • Note recurring imagery: blood, animals, bad weather, heaven and hell, light and dark, bonds and divisions.

27. Theatrical Conventions • Trapdoors and balconies allowed haeven adn hell to be represented in the theatre (one is up, the other down) • A character is disguise - not recognizable by other characters, even relatives and spouses. • An aside can be heard only by the audience, despite the other characters on stage being easily within earshot. • A mortally-wounded character takes an unrealistically long tome to die and manages to continue to speak at length until the last moment. • Talking to oneself, aka soliloquy, is presented as a natural mode of discourse. The character speaks the truth about his or her thoughts and feelings. • All actors were male and therefore female parts were played by boys. • Actors would often play more than one part and even major parts were sometimes doubled, but audiences had to pretend not to notice this.

28. Elizabethian Views • Justice and Mercy • Microcosm/macrocosm • Machiavelli • Women • Nature • Appearance • Chain of Being • Reason • harmony • Kingship • Evil • Seven Deadly Sins

29. Chain of Being • Elizabethans inherited from medieval theology the concept of every creature falling into a pre-ordained social order. God, Angel, King, man -then woman- animal, vegetable, mineral - in that order. • Any attempt to rise above one’s proper station on the ladder resulted not only in the offender being cast down several rungs, but in disorder and violent consequences being inflicted upon adjacent parties and the surrounding social fabric.

30. Reason • Elizabethans believed it was dangerous to let reason be dominated by passion. (Think of Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man). • Overly emotional characters are headed for a fall as they are no in control of their intellect.

31. Harmony • terror of anarchy, chaos, civil wars of prior Tudor period • principle governing movement of stars • cycle of nature • sought perfect form of gov’t

32. Kingship • King seen as being nearer to heaven, God. He administered God’s temporal power on Earth. • Role of king conflicted with other family roles. • King’s duties required sound judgement. • Because a King was believed to be divinely appointed, the killing or usurping of a king was a heinous offence that had devastating consequences for the state.

33. Nature • contradicting aspects of nature: • the benevolent and harmonious, reflecting a divine order • the wild and the violent, symptomatic of punishment and breakdown. • Shakespeare plays examine closely the concept of human nature - “kind” or “unkind” - and its relationship to nature as a whole.

34. Appearance • External appearance was believed to be an indicator of what lay within, i.e goodness or evil. • A physical deformity was considered to be the mark of the devil, and many deformed women were burned at the stake as witches. • Appearance versus reality is a central issue in many of his plays, tormenting the heroes and permeating the language.

35. Evil • Evil spirits surround people, waiting for an opportune moment to snatch a soul. • his characters who invoke spirits from murky hell to help them commit foul deeds invite their own damnation. • fear of hell, which is a real place to them. • Belief in all forms of ghosts, spirits, witches, possession and the devil disguised as man or woman.

36. Seven Deadly Sins • pride, envy, gluttony, lechery (lust), avarice (money), wrath, and sloth. • foundation of morality in medieval and Elizabethan periods.

37. Justice and Mercy • Justice is the prerogative on man over man. • should be tempered with mercy. • Justice is cognate with judgement, another key word and concept of the plays.

38. Machiavelli

39. Women

40. Julius Caesar • Elizabethans flocked to plays in the revenge tragedy genre (of which JC is an unconventional one). • Julius Caesar was one of the first plays staged at the newly built Globe theatre. • Shakespeare would have been drawn to the setting of JC’s Rome and its traditions of rhetoric and persuasive public speaking. • Use of rhetorical questions and of figurative language, in self-persuading soliloquies and in speaking to the public, both Roman orators and Elizabethan orators shared a passion for rhetoric.