Term Paper on "Tragedy and Comedy"

Term Paper 5 pages (1935 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Comedy and Drama

Tragedy and Comedy

Fiction," says Jean Anouilh, gives life its form." Shakespeare derived his Comedy of Errors from Plautus' Menaechmi and many of Shakespeare's dramas are retellings of the ancient fictions of Greek myths, both tragedies and comedies. The basic form of the Elizabethan play (indeed, most plays written in successive periods, up until contemporary theater and film) is modeled after the Greek structure. One may recognize the structure still being used in theater and much narrative literature today. Utilization of this basic structure allows the story to flow naturally, allows the audience to recognize the reality and truth of life in the story, and to anticipate and yearn to find the moral or the message that resides in its heart.

In a Greek tragedy or drama, the structure is simple. First there is the prologue narration by one or more characters, the chorus enters with song and dance, then alternating scenes depicting spoken sections which may be dialogues between characters or between characters and the chorus, and singing sections which are danced by the chorus. The first song is called the Parados, (our word "parody" comes from this). The first episode and each episode after that is followed by a stasimon, or choral ode. The characters leave the stage, the chorus dances and sings a stasimon after the parados. The ode usually reflects on the things said and done in the episodes and puts it into some kind of larger mythological framework. Each episode is followed by a stasimon relating the theme in the previous act. The finally scene is followed by an exodus.

Attending a comedy in Athens in the 4th Century was quite different than watching a comedy on Broadway or even in Elizabethan England. Greek comedies, like some Elizabethan plays, were performed outdoors, but were held in what might be a natural theater in the round, where the hills cupped around a small valley. Patrons sat on the hillsides and the natural acoustics easily carried the voices from the stage or Skene, up to the listeners. In a Greek play there were almost always only three actors, no matter how many speaking characters were in the play. The actors would go backstage and change masks and costumes in order to play the part of another character.

Greek tragedies and comedies were not enacted entirely for entertainment, however; they were performed as part of a religious festival for the god Dionysus, only performed once, and then in competition with other plays to be voted on for first, second or third place. Comedies were done to make fun of current political figures and issues and it is no coincidence that "parados" is still in the vocabulary of the theater, as they turned out to be parodies.

Gustav Freytag (1816-1895) developed a classic analysis of Greek and Elizabethan plays (usually made up of five scenes), dividing them into five parts, the "exposition," the "rising action," the "climax" or turning point, usually in the center of the play, the "falling action," and the "denouement" or catastrophe that ends it.

Some say the sections become a triangle with the two top sides made up of the rising action and the falling action. The three points of the triangle thus are the Exposition or beginning, with rising action between it and the Climax, with falling action between the climax and the End (or resolution or denouement) (McManus 1998). (See Appendix)

The first point, the Exposition, basically gives background information needed to understand where the drama is going. Included in this information is background concerning the setting, the protagonist, the antagonist and the basic conflict between them. The exposition includes an incident that is the beginning point of the story and sets the action into motion.

The Rising action is just that. The conflict escalates, secondary conflicts arise and are resolved or aggravated, obstacles arise to frustrate the protagonist, both antagonist and protagonist are joined by other secondary characters in their actions as they all work toward a goal, either the same goal or conflicting goals.

The Climax marks a change for better or worse for the protagonist. In a comedy, the tide begins to turn for the hero and one begins to see a glimmer of hope. In a tragedy, the opposite is true.

Falling action denotes a slowing of the conflict between protagonist and antagonist, as mysteries are explained, relationships are resolved and explained, moving toward the betterment of the progatonist's state in a comedy, or against the protagonist in a tragedy. There may be, at the end of the falling action, a time of suspense, when the final outcome is uncertain.

The End or denouement or catastrophe (or "resolution" in a comedy) is the final scene in a play. The only real difference between a tragedy and comedy, Freytag pointed out, is that the hero is better off in the end of a comedy, and worse off in a tragedy, than they were in the beginning (McManus 1998).

Day after day we seek an answer to the ageless question Aris proposed in Ethics: How should a human being lead his life?" Critic Kenneth Burke tells us that stories are equipment for living (McKee 11). Throughout history, whether in the Greek or Elizabethan dramas or in succeeding period dramas, either comedic or tragic, the plot or story has been the mainstay of the theater. Morals and truth are acted out in the interplay between characters, guiding and teaching the listening mind. The basic structure of a story allows heroes and villains to interact and create conflict, then resolve it in a manner that teaches or guides the mind to a moral. The setting may be anywhere or any place, but to set up the environment in which the hero and villain meet is important to the flavor of the story. The introduction of both characters, telling some background of one or both, is important to the beginning of the story, though some modern playwrights often begin at the end and bring the catastrophe or falling action into the first scene, then create the rest of the play as a flashback and as background. In a drama, antagonism is central to the success of a story. Where there is no conflict, there is no tension, and therefore no story. The analysis of the conflict and antagonism is the underlying point of all drama (McKee 51).

David Worrall writes that the basic structure of British drama between 1773 and 1832, during the Romantic Period, was determined by plays put on in 'patent' theatres: Covent Garden and Drury Lane, and by the Lord Chamberlain, who censored them through the Examiner of Plays. Putting politics into plays without censor, while using parody was a skill developed during this period (Worrall 219).

Screenwriting is the contemporary descendent of playwriting, but it holds up when scrutinized, to the same analysis that Freytag left us. The screenwriter labors intensively over the plot and structure, yet very little of the writing is heard by the theater- or film-goer. The playwright's text is turned into stage settings, costumes and body language. The only words that reach the audience are the dialogue, which is left to the last in the process. Dialogue is the essence distilled from what is seen and interpreted from an actor's movements. As another superior story-teller and master of stagecraft, Alfred Hitchcock once remarked, 'When the screenplay has been written and the dialogue has been added, we're ready to shoot.' " (McKee 19).

In screenwriting, the story and plot are emphasized by McKee, who considers structure to be a prerequisite in the creation of a film. He claims that "we need a rediscovery of the underlying tenets of our art, the guiding principles that liberate talent." He calls upon the Greeks and other classics to guide his students and others who read his books for guidance.

Stories structured and couched in verbal and visual ways are craved by the masses, who watch their "stories" on TV, attend plays and films and listen to others tell or act stories out for entertainment. The audience may be criticized for trying to escape from life, but the theater is not escape, it is immersion in life. It is an involvement of the entire consciousness in a ceremony that is intellectually and emotionally satisfying, the ritual performed as one sits in the dark, searching for meaning, guided by the intertwined plots of the playwright's crafting (McKee 12).

The search for insight and understanding of human life as meaningful and rewarding incorporates both the emotion and the intellect when a good story is told. The triumph of good over evil, the expression of love and admission of truth are found in the performance of inspired wit and words, placed before the eyes in the story being acted out. Little wonder that the story is all-engrossing, when it tells each searching, questioning human being why they exist.

The structure of the story is complex in its subplots, yet simple in… READ MORE

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