Greek Theatre – Tragedy & Comedy As part of the festival called Dionysia which honoured the God Dionysus‚ tragedy‚ comedy & satyr play were the three genres to emerge from the theatre of ancient Greece. Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes in its audience an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in the viewing. From its obscure origins in the theatres of Athens 2‚500 years ago‚ from which there survives only a fraction of the work of Aeschylus‚ Sophocles and Euripides
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Tragedy or Comedy The play writer William Shakespeare is widely considered one the greatest playwrights in history. His work transformed English literature forever. Most of his plays were either comedies or tragedies and some seemed to have the line blurred between the two as they contain elements of both. The play Merchant of Venice is one of these plays that contains flavours of both a comedy and a tragedy. Many scholars have frequently debated whether the play is either classified as a comedy
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ambiguity. It’s fun‚ and it’s fun because it’s hard.” In other words‚ just like people‚ character’s expressed in stories should be portrayed as inconsistent to make them be more human and realistic instead of just one-dimensional. In the play The Bacchae‚ by Euripides‚ the Dionysus is displayed as absurd in order for the audience to be provoked in a way to question what constitutes justice‚ forcing them to ask themselves whether notions of justice in this world are illogical. By presenting cases
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Comedy and Tragedy | | Comedy According to Aristotle (who speculates on the matter in his Poetics)‚ ancient comedy originated with the komos‚ a curious and improbable spectacle in which a company of festive males apparently sang‚ danced‚ and cavorted rollickingly around the image of a large phallus. (If this theory is true‚ by the way‚ it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "stand-up routine.") Accurate or not‚ the linking of the origins of comedy to some sort of phallic
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clear-cut comedies and tragedies‚ while others are more ambiguous. The Merchant of Venice is a play that falls under the latter type‚ and it has been hotly contested whether this literary work should be classified a comedy or a tragedy. However‚ since the majority of the characters received a happy ending‚ the abundance of comic relief scenes and characters‚ and lightheartedness of the plot relative to other Shakespearean works leads me to conclude that The Merchant of Venice is indeed a comedy.
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The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy‚ written by playwright Euripides in 405 BC. The play displays the six elements of drama described by Aristotle in the Poetics. These elements include plot‚ character‚ diction‚ thought‚ spectacle‚ and song. Though all six elements are important‚three are most evident within The Bacchae‚ including plot‚ character‚ and thought. The plot is the most important part of The Bacchae‚ because it provides readers with a storyline. The plot intrigues readers to continue
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Chesapeake College theater department performed “The Bacchae‚” an ancient greek tragedy‚ during the final two weeks of October. The actors put on a show filled with music‚ dance‚ and death. Overall‚ the talented actors brought life to the early B.C. drama‚ but the antiquated‚ choppy dialogue left the play to only be enjoyed in moments. The few enjoyable moments all had one thing in common‚ humor. The college students incorporated their 21st century comedy into the ancient drama‚ in a way through which
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The Catcher and the Rye: Tragedy or Comedy? In the novel The Catcher and the Rye by J.D. Salinger‚ I viewed the novel as a tragedy. This novel is based on a sixteen-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield who has not decided what he wants to pursue in life. From the beginning of the novel you get an assumption of what state of mind Holden is in. He began saying in the text “ IF YOU REALLY want to hear about is‚ the first thing you’ll proberly want to know is where I was born‚ and what my lousy
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c The subtle yet powerful combination of comedy and tragedy in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis was not an accident. Kafka combined these genres in order to convey the mixture of emotions that accurately mirrors the cruelty of life. The main character‚ Gregor Samsa‚ is used to illustrate the betrayal that can exist in a family unit as well as a place of employment. Together‚ Kafka is making a strong commentary on life in order to express his own feelings of desolation and cynicism regarding society
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Medea and The Bacchae agitate the definitions of Greek tragedy. They both contain the basic devices of a tragedy: a chorus‚ a flaw‚ a catastrophe‚ and an intervention of fate or free will. However‚ they lack the feeling of moral purpose found in the works of Aeschylus or Sophocles. The senselessly violent endings and ambiguous character development in Medea and The Bacchae are purposeful to the overall theme of confusion. In terms of a theatrical spectacle‚ the uncertainty of what is happening on
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