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THE oRIGINS o! THE MODERN THEATER 1129

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dramatic prcsentations of ancient Greece developed out of reli8idus performed to honor gods or to mark the coming of spring. Pldyi
such as Aeschylus (525-456 B.c.), Sophocles (496-406 n'c.),'illld (480?-406 r.c.) composed plays to be performed and iudged at )ns held during the yearly Dionysian festivals. Works to bil prb: were chosen by a selection board and evaluated by a panel of iudges. compete in the contest, authors had to submit three tragedies, which either be unrelated thematically or based on a ccmmon theme, and Greek redy. comedy. Unfortunately, relatively few of these ancient Greek plhls ,ive today. :oday. The open-air Isemicircular ancient Greek theater, buitt into the side of oDen-air looked much like a primitive version of a modern sports stadlum. Greek theaters, such as the Athenian theater, could seat almost sev' thousand spectators. Sitting in tiered seats, the audience wtiuld down on the orchestra, or "dancing place," occupied by the chorusra group of men (led by an individual called the choragos) who and chanted and later a group of onlookers who commented on

Dramaf io lLitenaf *oe

'l'he distinctive appearance of a script, with its stage di rections, parts, and divisions into acts and scenes, identifieS drama as a u iorm of literature. A play is written to be Performed in front of an ence by actors who take on the loles of the characters and who p

story through dialogue and action. (An exception is closet which is meint to be read, not performed.) Indeed, the term theafer cond from the Greek wotd thusthai,-dnlctr means "to vlew.,, or "td see." Tlius drama is different from novels and short itories, which are meant to
read.

Dramatic works differ from other prose works in a number of cant ways. Unlike novels and short stories, Plays do not usually rators to tell the audience what a charactel is thinking or what in the past; the audience knows only what the characters reveal. velops primarily by means of dialogue, the lines spoken by the chai t.rs. Tt u plot and the action of drama uniold on the siage as the characl interact. In addition, playwrights einploy various techniques to sate for the absence of a narator. For example, playwrights use mor( logrrcs-extended speeches by one character. (A monologue in which chlracter exprcsscs private thoughts whlle alone on the stage ts called sollloquy,) Playwrights can also use asldes-brief comments by an a who addresses the audience but is assumed not to be heard by the oj characters on the stage-to reveal the thoughts of the speaker. Like the servations of a narrator, these rhama-tic techniques give the audience sight into a character's motives and attitudes. In addition, costunes, scenery, and lighting enhance a dramatic pedolmartce, as actors' and dilectffs' interpretations of diatogue anC stige directions. I
1128

H
Theater ( f Dlonysus at Athens. Redrawn from
Flickinger, The Grcek Theqtet and lts Druma (L9"18).
a

drawing by

1130 CHAPTER 2O UNDERSTANDING DRAMA

the drama. Raised a few steps above the orchestra was a platform on Y the actors performed, behind which was a skene, or buildinS, that nalty served as a resting place or dressing room. (The modern term scefl, derived from the Creek skene.) Behjnd the skene was a line of pittars a colounade, which was covered by a roof. Actors used the skene for enil ances and exits; Jeginning with the ptays of SoPhocles, painted drops were hung there. These backdrops, however, were most likely
pdtodos,
sented

THE ORIGINS OI THE MODERN THEATER

1131

decorative than realistic. Historians believe that realistic props scenery were probably absent from the ancient Greek theater. Instead,

settiirg was suggested by the play's dialogue, so the audience had to ine the specific physical detaiis of a scene. TWo mechanical devices were used: One, a rolling cart or platform,. sometimes emptoyed to introduce action that had occurred offstage. example, actors frozen in position could be rolled onto the roof of skene to illustrate an event such as the killing of Oedipus's father, occurred l-.efore the play began, Another mechanical device, a small was useo to show gods ascending to or descending from heav:n. vices enabled playwrights to dramatize many of the myths that wre brated at the l)ionysian festivals. The ancient Greek theater was desiSned to enhance acoustics. Thq stone wall of the skene rcflected the sound from the orchestra and stage, and the curved shape of the amphitheater captuled the sound, abling the audience to hear the lines spoken by the actors. Each actor a stylized mask, or persona, to convey to the audience the traits of the particular character being portrayed-a king, a soldier, a otd man, a young girl (female roles were played by men). The these masks were probably constructed so they amplified the voicc projected it into the audience. In addition, the actors wore kothetnoi, shoes that elevated them above the stage, perhaps also helping to p their vorces. Because of the excellent acoustics, audiences Who see peformed in these ancient theaters today can hear cleally v'ithout d
phones cr speakeT systems., Becausd actors wore nihsks and because males played the P women and gods as well as men, acting methods in the ancient ater were probably not rcalistic. In their masks, high shoes, and fulltunics (called chiton), actots could not hope to aPpear natural ol to

in which the chorus entered and commented on the events prein the prologue. Following this were several ePisodia, or episodes, in characters spoke to onr another on the stage and dcveloped the central conflict of the play. Alternating with episodes werc stqsimo (choral odes), in which the chorus commented on the exchanges that had taken du- ing the preceding episode. Frequently the choral odes werc divided into strophes, ot stanzas, that were recited or sung as the chorus moved across the orchestra in one direction ar.d antisttophes that were recited as it moved in the opposite direction. (Interestingly, the chorus lt:'. between the audience and the actors, often functioning as an addiaudience, expressing the political, social, and moral yiews of.the ,i y.) Iinally came the exodos, t}re last scene of the play duriog l the conflict was resolved and the actors left the stage. Using music, dance, and verse-as well as a variety of architectural I : technical innovations-the ancient Greek theater was able to conve&lilj.: i themes of tragedy. Thus, the theater powerfully ezpressed ideas , i; 1.. --...-----.----.:.; were central to the religious festivals in which they first appeared:-the , . for the cycles of life and death, thd unavoidable dictates of gods, and rhe inscrutable workings of fate. E ELIzABETHAN T H EAT[, R
Elizabethan theater, influenced by the classical traditions of Roman
Greek dramatists, traces its roots back to local religious pagants per-

the attitudes of everyday life. Instead, they probably recited while standing i.r stylized poses, with emotions conveyed moie and tone than by aciion. Tlpically, three actors had all the spia one actor-the protagonlst-' 'ould play the centlal role and largest speaking part. Iwo othel actors would divide the remalning bet$/een them. Although other characters would come on and stage, they would usually nct have speaking roles. Ancient Grcek tragedies werc typically divtded into five parts. came lhe prologos, in which an actor Save the backgrou,Id or that the audience needed to follow the rest of the d ama. Then

at medieval festivals during the twetfth and thiteenth centuries. town guilds, organizations of craftsmen who worked in the same proreenacted Old and New Testament stories: the fall of man, Noah the flood, David and Goliath, and the crucifixion of Christ, for examChu ch fathers encouraged these plays because they brought the Bible 'a largely illiterate audience. Sometimes these spectacles, called mysplays, were preserted in the market square or on the church steps; at other times actors appea red on movable stages or wagons called , which could be wheeled.to a given location. (Some of these wagquite elaborate, with trapdoors and pulleys, and an upper tir simulated heaven.) As mystery plays became more popular, they wem in series over several days, presenting an entire cycle of a holideath and resurrection of Christ during Easter, for example. Related to mystery plays are morality plays, which developed in the and fifteenth centuries. Unlike mystery plays, which deprct from the Blble, moraltty plays alleSorlze the Chrlstian way of ,lfe. ally, characters representing various virtues and vices struggle or deover the soul of man. Everyman (1500), the best known of these plays, the good and bad qualities of Everyman and shows his struggle what is of value to him as he ioumeys to$ ard death. By the middle of the sixteenth century, mystery and morality plays lost ground to a new secular drama. One reason for this decline was

1132 CHAPTER 2O UNDERSTANDING DRAMA

that mystery and morality plays werc associated with Catholicism and sequently discouraged by the Protestant clergy. In addition, newly ercd plays of ancient Greece and Rome introduced a dramatic tradition supplanted the traditions of religious drama. English plays that fotlow the classic model were sensational and bombastic, often dealing with der, revenge, arnd blood retribution. Appealing to privileged. commoners atir'e, these plays were extremely popular. (One source mates that between 20,000 and 25,000 people attended the
aters each week.) Companies of Drofessioual actors

TI-Ii ORIGINS OF THE MODERN THEATER

1133

peformed works

Christopher Marlowe'j Thmburlaine and Thomas Kydls The Spanish in tavern courtyards and then'evehtually in theaters. According to the structure of the Elizabethan theater evolved from these The Gtobe Theater (a curner of which was unearthed in 1989), Shakespeare's plays weie peformed, consisted of a large main extended out into the open-air y|rd w}f,erc the groundlings, ot people, stood. Spectators who paid'more sat on small stools in two or t levels of galleries that extended in front of and around the stage. (The ater could probably seat almost two thousand people at a Most of the play's action occured on the stage, vvhich had no could be seen from thrce sides. Beneath the stage was a space hell, which could be rcached \/hen the floorboards were rcmoved. space enabled actors to "disappear" or descend into a'role or grave the play called for such action. Above the stage was a roof called the eflsl which protected the actors from the weather and contained ropes pulleys used to'lower props or to create special effects. At the rear of the stage was a narrow alcove covered by a curtain could be open or closed. This curtain, often painted, functioned as a orative rather than a realistic backdrop. The main function of this alcic\ was to enable actors to hide when the script called for them to do so. Elizabethan theatem contained a rear stage instead of an alcove. Be the rear stage was concealed by a curtain, props could be arranged ahead oI time. When the action on the rear stage was finished, the would be drawn and the action would continue on th front stage. On either side of the rear stage was a door through which the could entei and exit the front stage. Above the rcar stage was an curtained stage called ttLe chorlber, which functioned as a balcony or any other setting located above the action taking place on the stage On either side of the chamber were casement windows, which actors use when a play called for a conversation with someone leaning out a dow or standing on a balcony, Above the chamber was the music

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balcony that housed the musicians who provided muslcal throughout the play (and doubled as a stage lf the play requtred it). huas, windows located above the music gallery could be used by playing lookouts or sentries. Because oI the many acting sites, more one action could take place simultanously. For example, lookouts stand in the towers of Hamlet's castle while Hamlet and Horatio
the walls below.

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C. walter Hodges, The Global Restored.
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1134 CHAPTER 2O UNDERSTANDING DRAMA

During Shakespeare's time the theater had many limitations that have challenged the audience's imagination. Because women did not
example,

THE ORIGINS OF THE MODERN THEATER

1135

form on the stage, young boys-usuatly between the ages of ten twelve-played all the women's parts. ln addition, there was no lighting, so plays had to be performed in daylight. Rain, wind, or could disrupt a pedormance or ruin an image-suah as "the morn in set mantle clad"-that the audience was asked to imagine. Finally, few sets and props werc used, the audience had to visualize the high of a castle or the rrees of a forest. The plays themselves were perf< without intermission, except for musical interltrdes that occu[ed at ous points. Thus, the experience of seeing one of Shakespeare's staged in the Elizabethan theater was different from seeing it todav in a modern theater.

THs MoonnN Tue err,n

Unlike the theaters of ancient Greece and Elizabethan England, seventr and eighteenth.centuiy theaters-such as the Palais ?oyal, where the Frcnch playwright Moltere presnted many of his plays-were roof, bef,utlfully decorated, and illumlnated by'candles so that plays : be perr'ormed at night. The theater rcmained bdghtly lit eveu formances, partly because there was no easy way to extingulsh of candles and partly because people went to the theater to see each as much as to see the play. A curtain opened and closed between acts, audience of about five hundred spectators sat in a long room and viewed play on a plcture-frame stage. This type of stage contained the within a proscenium arch that surrounded the opening through the audience viewed the performance. Thus, the action seemed to take in an adioining room with one of its walls cut away. Painted scenery elaborate costumes were commonplace, and for the first time women formed female rcles. Because the theaters werc small, audiences were tively close to the stage, so actors could use subtle movements and expressions to enhance their performances. Many of the first innovat,ons iu the theater were quite basic. For, ample, the first stage llghting was produced by candles llning the the stage. This method of lighting was not only ineffective-actors ' lit from below and had to step forward to be fully illuminated-but dangerous. Costumes and even entire theaters could ;nd did catch fire. l^ater, covercd lanterns with reflectors provided mqrc the nineteenth century a device that used an oxyhydrogen flame on a cylinder ( f lime created extremely bright illumination that wlth the ald of a lens, be concenttatd lnto a spotltght. (It ts from. method of stage lighting that we get the expression to be in the Eventuall, in the t&entieth century electric lights provided a and safe way of lighting the stage. Electric spotlights, footlights, and ing light bars made the actors clearly visible and enabled
create special effects. In Ar lhur Millet's Death of a Salesman (p. 1458),

lighting focuses attention on action in certain areas of the stage while leavin8 other areas in complete darkness. Along with electric lighting came other innovations, such as electronic amplification. Microphones made it possible for actors to speak conversationally and to avoid using unnaturally Ioud "stage diction" to proiect their voices to the rear of the theater. Microphones placed at various points around the stage enabled actors and actresses to interact natunlly and to deliver their lines audibly even without facing the audience. More recently, small wireless microphones eliminated the unwieldy wires and th "dead spaces" left between upright or hanging micrcphones, allowing characters to move freely around the stage. The true revolutions in staging came with the advent of realism in the middte of the nineteenth century. Until this time scenery was painted canvas backdrops that trembled visibly, especially when they were intersected hy doors through which actors and actrcsses entered. With realcame settings that were accuratc down to the smallest . detail. lighting, vrhich revealed the inadequacies of painted backdrops; contributed to the introduction of realistic stage settings.) Backdrcps replaced by the box set, three flat panels arranged to form con: walls, with the fourth wall removed so the audience had the iur.tof looking into a room. The room itself was decorated nith real plalts, and pictures on the walls; the door of one room mi8ht aonnect to another completely fu.nished room, or a window miSht open a garden filled with realistic foliage. In addition, new methods of scenery were employed. Elevator stages, hydraulic lifts, and movplatforms enabled directors to make complicated changes in scenery r ut of the audience's view. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, playwri3hts reacted against what they saw as the excesses of rcalism. introduced su ealistlc stage settings, in which colol and scenery designed to miror the uncontrolled images of dreams, and expresstage settings, in whlch costumes and scenery werc exaggerated distorted to rcflect the workings of a troubled, even unbalanced mind. addition, playwrights used tighting to create areas of li8ht, shadow and that reinforceC the themes of the ptay or rcflected the emotlons of protagonist. ln The Emperot lones, for example, Eugene O'Neill used a of e/pressionistic scenes to show the mental state of the terrified
Sets

's The Glass Menogetie (p. 1898) to a stark, dreamlike set for EdAlbee's T/re Sdfldbox (p, 1695). Motortzed devlces, such as rcvolvlng and waj,o,xj-scenery mounted on wheels-make possible rapid of scenery. The Broadway musical les Miserables, for example, rescores of elaborate sets-Parisian slums, barricades, walled gardensbe shifted as the audience watches. A gigantic barricade constructed on at one point in the play is later rotated to show the carnaSe that has

in contemporary

plays run the Samut from realistic

detailed recreation

of a room in a

production

of

to fantastic,
Tennessee

1:36 CHAPTF,R 2O UNDIRSTANDING DRAMA

taken place on both sides of a battle. Li8ht, sound, and smoke are Ircighlen the impact of the scene. Toda7 as dramatists attempt to hreak down the bariers that audiencei from th3 action they are viewinS, plays are not limited to picture-frame stage; in fact, they are performed on many differenttinds staSes; Some plays, for example, take place on a thrust stage, whichil anirea that prolects out into the audience. Othels are performed oni' arena stage, wittr the audience surrounding the actors. This kind of'

KINDS OI DRAMA

1137

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formance is often called theater ln the round. In addition, ments have ben done with environmental sta{ing, il which the' surrounds the a\dience or several stages arc situated at various throuShout the audience. Piays may also l'e performed outdoor in settl ranging from parks to city strce:s. Some playwrights eten try to blur tine that divides the audience from the stage by having actorsi thrcugh or sit in the audience-or even by eliminatin8 the stage ( For eximple, Tony 'n Tina's tqeddinS, a 1988 "participatory drama"
by the theater Sroup Artificiat IntelliSence; takes place not ifl a thea ai a church whire a wedding is peformed and then at a catering hall the wedding reception is held. Throughout the play tt 3 membels of dienc. function as Suests, ioining in the wedding celebration and minl with the actors, who improvise freely. More recent examples of such teractive" drama include Grundma Sylvia's Funerul arLd Off the which audiences "attend" an art auction. Today, no single

'..,j1

na Theater. The audience surrounds the stage area, which may or may' be raised. Use of scenery is limited-perhaps to a single piece of scenery,, alone in the middle of the stage. defines the theatu. Perhaps the most that can be said is.that the stage is a flexible space suited to the many varieties of contempotheatrical production.

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Thrust-Stage Theater. Wlth seats on thlee sides of the stage area, the ' thrust stage ;nd its background can assume many forms other than the conventio;al Iiving-room interior in the illustration. Entrances can be ma(
from the aisles, from the sides, through the stage floor, and from the backi

his Poetics, Aristotle (384-322 a.c.) sums up ancient Greek thinking drama when he writes that a tragedy is a drama treating a serious and involving persons of significance, According to Aristotle, the members of an audience see a tragedy, they should feel both pity (and thus closeness to the protagonist) and fear (and thus revulsion) be' they recognize in themselves the potential for similar reactions. The of these emotions that the audience experiences as they see the action unfold before them is called catharsis' For this catharsis to occur, the protagonist of a tragedy must be worthy of the audlence's atand sympathy. Because of his or her exalted position, the fall of a protagonist is greater than that of an average person; therefore, it arouses more pity and fear in the audience. Often the errtire society suffers a result of the actions of the protagonist. Before the action of Sophocles' Oedipus the King (p.1590), for exampte, oedipus has freed Thebes from the grasp of the Sphinx by answerlng her liddle and, as a result, he has been welcomed as kin8. But because of his sins, Oedipus ls an affront'to the gods ano brings famine and pestilence to the city. When it finally
comes, his

fall is sudden and absolute.

1138 CHAPTER 2O UNDERSTANDING DRAMA

According to Aristotle, the protagonist of a tragedy is neither all ncr all evil, but a mixturc of the two. He is like the rest of us-only morei exalted and possessing some weakness or flaw (hamartla). This flaw-perhaps narrowness of vision or overwhelming pride (hubris typically the element that creates the conditions for tragedy. Romeo and Juliet, for example, are so much in love they think they can nore the blood feud that rages between their two families. However, naive efforts to sustain their love despite the feud lead them to their deaths. Similarl, Richard III'S blind ambition to gain the throne him to murder all those who stald in his way. His unscrupulousness into motion the forces that eventuallv cause his death. Irony is central to tragedy. I)ramatic irony (sometimes

KINDS OI DRAMA
of time-that the events depicted by the play take no longer than the actual duration of the play (or, at most, a single day). , The three unities have had a long and rather uneven history. In some of his plays-The Tempest arld The Comedy of Errors, fot example-Shakespeare observed the unities. Shakespeare, however, had no compunctions about writing plays with subplots and frequent changes of location. He
also wrote

1139

traglcotnedles,

such as The Merchant of Verire, that have a se-

tragic irony),

whieh emerges from a situation in which the knows more about the dramatic situation than a character does, As a the character's words and actions may be consistent with what he or she pects but at odds with what the audience knows will happen. Thus, a acter nlay say or do something that causes the audience to infer a beyond what the character intends or nalizes. The dramatic irony is for example, when Oedipus announces that whoever has disobeyed the tates of the gods r,,r'ill be exiled. The audience knows, although Oedipus not, that he has iust condemned himself. Cosmlc irony, sometimes lrony of fate, occ,rrs when God, fate, or some larger, uncontrollable seems to be intentionally deceiving characters into believing they can cape their fate. Too late, they iealize that trying to avoid their d( jtiny is

rious theme appropriate for tragedy but end happily, usually because of a sudden turn of events, During the eighteenth centurt with its emphasis on classic form, the unities were adhercd to quite strictl, but with the onset of romanticism and its emphasis on the natural in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, interest in the unities of place and time waned, Even though some modern dramatists occasionally observe the unities-The Sandbox, fot instar\ce, has a single setting and takes place during a peri<d of time that coresponds to the lenJth of the play-few

1:

adhere

to them strictly.

Ideas about appropriate subiects for tragedy have also changed. For Aristotle, the protagonist of a tragedy had to be exceptional-a king, for example. The protagonists of creek trlgedies were usually histOrical or figur rs. Shakespeare often used kings and princes as protago,

tile. Years before Oedipus was born, for example, the oracle of foretold that O,rdipus would kill his father and become his mother's band. Naturally, his parents attempted to thwart the prophes, but cally, their actions ensured that the prophesy would be fulfilled. At some point in a tragedy-usually after the climax-the recoSnizes the reasons for his or her downfall. It is this recognition ( accompanying acceptance) that elevates tragic protaSonists to and gives their suffering meaning. Without this recognition there would no traSedy, just pathos-suffering that exists simply to satisfy the mental or morbid sensibilities of the audience. In spite of the death, the protagonist, then, tragedy enables the audience to see the nobility the character and thus to experience a sense of elation. In King Lear, for example, a king at the h^ight of his powers decides to his kingdom among his daughters. Too late he realizes that withoutr power, he is iust a bothersome old man to his ambitious children. after going mad does he understand the vanity of his former dies a humbled but enlightened man. According to Aristotle, a tragedy achieves the illusion of reality when it has unity of action-that i:, when the play contains only tions that lead to its tragic outcome. Later clltics concluded that a destroys this un:ty and that tragic and comic elements should not mixed. To the concept of unity of actior, these later critics added
other requircments I unity of plice-that the play have a sirrgle

and Hamlet, for example-but he also used people:of kr owr times intercst in the lives of monhas been overshadowed by involvement in the lives of odinary, peoModem tragedies-Death of a Salesman, for example-are more llkely focus on a traveling salesman than on a king. Iank,
as

II

in

Romeo and Juliet.

With the rise of the middle class in the nineteenth century, ideas of tragedy changed. Responding to the age,s desire for sentimentality, playwrights produced melodramas, sensational plays appealed mainly to the emotions. Melod--amas contain many of the
about the naturc
elements of tragedy but end happily and often rely on convenllonal plots .and stock characters. Because ttre protagonists in melodramas-often to-

tally virtuous heroines suffering at the hands of imposstbly wicked vllendure their tribulations without ever gaining insight or they never achieve tragic status. As a result, they remaln cutouts who exist only to exploit the emotions of the audience; Melodrama survives today in many films and in television soap operas. Reallsm, which arose in the late nineteenth century as a response to atificiality of melodrama, developed serious (and sometimes tragic) themes and believable characters in the context of everyday contemporary Writers of realistic drama used their plays to educate their audiences about the problems of the society in which they lived. For this reason, reallstic drama focuses on the commonplace and eliminates the unlikely co-, and excessive sentimentality of melodrama. Dramatists like Henrik Ibsen scrutinize the lives of ordinary people, not larger-than-life After great suffering, these characters rise above the ltmita, tions of their mediocre lives and exhibit courage or emotional strergth. The insight they gain often focuses attention on a social problem-the

I14O CHAPTER 2O UNDERSTANDING DRAMA

restrictive social conventions that define the behavlor of women in teenth-century marriages, for example. Realistic drama also features. tings and props similar to those used in people's,daily lives and inclu,
,l dialogue that reflects the way people actually Developing alongside realism was another literary rdovement naturallsm. Like realism, nat"ralisiit reiected the unrealistic plots

KINDS OF DRAMA
'on exchangerl or confused identities. The wordplay and verbal nonsense ;of comedy adds to this gcneral confusion. Comedies t)'pically rely on ce ain familiar ptot devices. Many come-_ dies begin with a startling or unusual situation that attracts the auiience,s

1141

speak.

sentimentality of melodrama, but unlike realism, naturallsm explore the depths of the human condition. Influenced by Charles win's ldeas about evolution and natural selection and Karl Marx's about economic forces that shape people's llves, naturai sm is a philosophy that presents a world which at worst is hostile and at best different to human concerns. It pictures human beings as higher animals who are driven by basic instincts-especially hunger, fear, sexuality-and arc subiect to economic, social, and biological forces yond their understanding or control. It is, thercfore, well suited to.t
themes.
The nineteenth-century French writer Emile,Zola did much

,attenti(,n. In Shakespearc,s A Midsummer Night,s Dream, for example, Tlte. isexs, the Duke of Athens, rules that Hermia will either marry theinan her has chosen for het or be put to death. Such an event could lead to if comedy did nct intervene to save the day. |.,'| ,::: '-, 'Comedv often depends on obstacles and hindrinces to further its,plot: more difficult the problerns the lovers face, the more satisfylngrih;ir triumph will be. For this reason, the plot of a comedy is risually complex than the plot of a tragedy. Compare the rather itralghtfor. plo_t of Hamlet (p.1355)-a prince orderedto avenge his murdelted fa-

s death is driven mad with indecision and, af-ter finally acting , is killed himsetf-with the mix-ups, mistaken identtiies, ani
confusion of Much Ado about Nothiry (p. 1633).

t)

the theory of naturalism, and later so.diq the American writers Crane, Fmnk Norls, and.Th( cdore Drciser. Natumlism also finds its into the work of codtemporary,dramatists, such as ,Arthur Millerj other tragic protagonists, the prctagonists of natriralist works aie not by the gods or by fate, but by poverty, anlmal dr .ves, or soclal Willy Loman ln Death of a Salesman, for example, is subiect to thel nomic forces of a society that does not value its workers and discards it no longer finds useful.

i,

rinatty, comedies

death, comedy ends by affirming tife. Evantua[y the coniusion and "rg"ay misreach a point where some resolution must be achieved: The Ities of the lovers are overcome, the viuains are banished, and the mary-or at least express their intention to do so. In this way lovers establish their connection with the rest of soclet, and its values

;"" h6;y-il;;,i #r,"i#

ends,with

affirmed.

CovEov
A comedy is a dramatic work that treats themes and characte$
humor rnd typicatly has a happy ending. Whereas tragedy focuses on hidden dimensions of the tragic hero's character, comedy concentrates the public persona, the protagonist as a social being. Tragic figures typicatty seen in isolation, questioning the meaning of theh lives

The first comedies, written in Greece in the fifth century B.c., heavily :ized the religious and social issues of the day. In the fourth and third 8.c., this Old Conedy gave way to New Comed% a comedy of

with stock characters-lovers and untrustworthi seruants, for rple-and conventional settings. Lacking the bitter satire and bawdi_
of. Old Comedy, New Comedy depends on outrageous plots, mistaken
e-s,

:ng to comprehend their suffering. Hamlet-draped in

sable,

death, and self-consciousty contemplatinS his duty-illustrates the tion of the tragic hero. Unlike tragic heroes, comic figures are seen in the public where people intentionally assume the masks of pretension dnd importance. The purpose of comedy is to strip away these masks and pose human beings for what they are. Whereas ttagedy reveals nobility of the human condltion, comedy demonstrates lts inherent portraying human beings as selfish, hypocritical, vain, weak, and capable of seli-delusion. Thus, the basic function of comedy is cal-to tell people that things are not what they seem and that ances ale not nece"sarily reality. In the comic world nothing is solid predictable, and accldents and coincidences are more important to

plot than reason. Many of Shakespeare's comedies, for example,

young lovers/ intefcring parents, and conniving servants. Ulti_ the young lovers outwit all tltose who stand betwe-en them and in ,doing aifirm the primacy of youth and love over old age and death. Old and New Comedy represent two distinct lines oi humor that extend to modern times. Old Comedy depends on satlre_bitter humor that diminishes a person, idea, or instituiion by ridiculing it or holeing it up.to scorn. Unlike comed, which exists simply to malie people laugh, satire is social criticism, deriding hypocris, pretension, and vanity or condemning vice. At its best, satire appeals to ihe intenect, has a serious purpose, and arouses thoughtful laughter. New Comedy may also be satiric, but it frequently contains elements of farce, comedy'in which :!:::",yp,::i] characters_ engage in boisterous horseplay an-d slapstick , attthe while makirg,okes and sexual innuendoes_as they^do in Chekhov's The Brute (p. . English comedy got its startt34Z). sixth century A.D. in the fom.of in the farcical episodes that appearcd in morality ptays. Ouring the n..ruisru.rce comedy developed rapidly, beginning in 1Sj3 with Nich;tas UdaU,s Xarprr
Roister

Doist* and eventually evolving into

Shakespeare,s

i"-ootf"

II42 (:IIAI''TT]R 2O UNDT,RSTANDING DRAMA

as Much Ado about NothinS, in which love is the main suband idealized heroines and Iovers endure great difficulties until the inJcct cvitable happy ending is reached. Also during the Renaissance, particularly in the latter part of the six' teenth century, writers like Ben Jonson experimented with a different.

A No'I'I] ON TRANSI,ATIONS

1T43

cornc.ly-such

whose behavior is controlled by a characteristic ltait, ot humour. the Renaissance a person/s temperament was thought to be determined the mix of fluids, or humours, in the body. When one humour dominated,

/pe of comedy-the comedy of humours, which focuses on characters,

antlhcrocs, characters who possess the opposite attributes of a hero and whose pllght frequentty eticits laugtrter, .'Jt piiy the audience.-Black comedlcs, tor cxample, rcly ".i'i"ar, for tireii comJv on tne morbid and the absurd. Thcse works are usually'so *ai.,. tfrrt over thc edse rnto tragedy rn",..""nfiu/Jjor"pn -Jr,ippi* :lip -Heller's novel Catch 22, which ends wittia cna racier on his own men, is a classic example of black comedy. or absurd, which includes comedies such as The Saruibox, u"!i"-.rl,iinin ursumption
feature

f..-

jljt:I"::::,,.-

"nl-iii., t..0, itJitei tte

a certain type of disposition resulted. Playwrights capitalized on this bel lief, writing comedies in which characters are motivated by

behaviors that result from the imbalance of the humours, In cious husband and the miser can be manipulated by others because of their predictable dispositions. Closely related to the comedy of humours is the satiric comedy of manners, which d"veloped durinS the sixteenth century and achieved great popularity in the nineteenth century. This form focuses on the manners and customs of society and directs its satire aSainst characters who violate sociat conventions and rules of behavior. These plays tend to be memorable more for their witty ar,rd sparkling dialogue than for their velopmlnt of characters or setting. Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to
qxcr an.t George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion are examples of this type comedy In the eighteenth century a rcaction against the pelceived of the cornedy of manners led to sentimental comedy, which ally achirved great popularity. This kind of comedy relies on em(,tion rather than on wit or humor to move an audience. It also on the \irtues rather than on the vices of tife. The heroes of comedy are unimpeachably noble, moral, and honorable; the pure, ous, middle-class heroines suffer trials and tribulations calculated to the audience to tears rather than laughter. Eventually the distress of hero and heroine is resolved in a sometimes contrived but always happy end in8. such as Jonson's Voloone and The Alchemist, characters such as the suspi.

drama does not have a discernible plol; instead, it p;'r;;i;'; ,"ri.r,or up_ imaSes and iltogicat exchanges o'r ai"rogr; ."u;, ,o ,"_ l_"j^"1]1,1"::t":.d idea.that human beings tivc in a rcmore, confrising, and often rncomprehensible universe, Absurdist dramas seem to go in circles, never progressing to a crimax or aclrieving a resolution, reinro"rcrng tne ttrlme ot the endless and meaningless repetition that characterizes .3a*" iif".

that the human condition is irrational. rypicjly, ttrii-ivpe or

]::r:ilT

In his 1877 essay The ldea of Comed.y, novelist and critic Meredith suggests that comedy that appeals to the intellect should
called high comedy, Shakespeare's As You Like It and Shaw's can be chalacterized in this wav. When comedv has little or no tual appeal, accordlng to Meredith, lt ls low comedy. Low comedy pears in parts of Shakespeare's ?he To,ning of the Slrew and as comic
io, Macbeth-

The twentieth century has developed lts own characterlstic forms. Most reflect the uncertainty and pessimism of a century that seen two world wars, the Holocaust, and nuclear desrr,rctlon, as wll threats posed by environmental pollutton and ethnic an(l raclfll Comhining laughter and hints r,f lragc(ly, tlrcsc llx)(lcrn lrilllc(