Alazon

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Alazon
Alazn (Ancient Greek: ) is one of three stock characters in comedy of the theatre of ancient Greece.
[1]
He is
the opponent of the eirn. The alazn is an impostor that sees himself as greater than he actually is. The senex iratus
(the heavy father) and the miles gloriosus (the boasting soldier) are two types of alazn.
[2]
Miles Gloriosus
Miles Gloriosus (literally, "braggart-soldier", in Latin) is a stock character of a boastful soldier from the comic
theatre of ancient Rome, and variations on this character have appeared in drama and fiction ever since.
[2]
The
character derives from the alazn or "braggart" of the Greek Old Comedy (e.g. Aristophanes). The term "Miles
Gloriosus" is occasionally applied in a contemporary context to refer to a posturing and self-deceiving boaster or
bully.
Literary instances
In the play Miles Gloriosus by Plautus, the term applies to the main character Pyrgopolynices. This foolish Miles
Gloriosus brags openly and often about his supposed greatness, while the rest of the characters feign their admiration
and secretly plot against him. Heavily borrowing from Plautus, the Stephen Sondheim-Burt Shevelove-Larry Gelbart
musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum features a warrior named Miles Gloriosus.
Shakespeare uses the type most notably with the worthless Captain Parolles in All's Well That Ends Well and with
Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2 and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
In Commedia dell'arte, the figure of Il Capitano is a miles gloriosus.
[3]
In music, the title role of Hry Jnos by Kodly is an example of the character.
Senex iratus
The senex iratus or heavy father figure is a comic archetype character who belongs to the alazon or impostor group
in theater, manifesting himself through his rages and threats, his obsessions and his gullibility.
His usual function is to impede the love of the hero and heroine, and his power to do so stems from his greater social
position and his increased control of cash. In the New Comedy, he was often the father of the hero and so his rival.
More frequently since, he has been the father of the heroine who insists on her union with the bad fianc; as such, he
appears in both A Midsummer's Night Dream, where he fails and so the play is a comedy, and Romeo and Juliet,
where his acts are successful enough to render the play a tragedy.
Pantalone in Commedia dell'arte acts as a senex iratus.
In his Anatomy of Criticism, Northrop Frye considered all blocking humors in comedy to be variations on the basic
function of the senex iratus.
Alazon
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References
[1] [1] Carlson (1993, 23) and Janko (1987, 45, 170).
[2] Frye, Northrop. 1957. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. London: Penguin, 1990. ISBN 0-14-012480-2.
[3] John Rudlin, Commedia dell'Arte: An Actor's Handbook, p 120, ISBN 0-415-04770-6
Further reading
Carlson, Marvin. 1993. Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present.
Expanded. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8154-3.
Janko, Richard, trans. 1987. Poetics with Tractatus Coislinianus, Reconstruction of Poetics II and the Fragments
of the On Poets. By Aristotle. Cambridge: Hackett. ISBN 0-87220-033-7.
External links
Character Functions (http:/ / virtual. clemson. edu/ groups/ dial/ sfclass/ Fryechar. htm)
Article Sources and Contributors
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Article Sources and Contributors
Alazon Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=540945569 Contributors: ***Ria777, Amalas, DionysosProteus, Dmbrown00, Eirra, Goldfritha, Jajhill, Pegship, Peter-cruickshank,
Quiddity, Stefanomione,
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