Research Paper on "Spontaneous Playfulness and the Instinctive"

Research Paper 8 pages (3012 words) Sources: 15 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Greek tragedies, such as Agamemnon, are intended to be presented at festivals to honor Dionysus, the only ancient god who is unpredictable.

Such shows seem dedicated to persuade the unpredictable god to be merciful and accept the theoretic sacrifices of human lives on stage, for the sake of testifying the acknowledgement of the sinful character of the human race, therefore and asking for forgiveness. On stage, the whole range of human emotions is unleashed and nothing is too much. By the end of the day, the spectators have trembled with fear, cried along with those who were murdered or wronged, hoped for deliverance and sighed the violence was contained at the stage's limits. The repeated description of the original sin of the house of Atreidae, Agamemnon's family is gruesome. By modern standards, the repetition about the initial crime, with a bounty of details, is more suitable for a horror film than for the stage: "The spectre-children sitting -- look, such things / As dreams are made on, phantoms as of babes, / Horrible shadows, that a kinsman's hand / hath marked with murder, and their arms are full -- A rueful burden -- see, they hold them up, / The entrails upon which their father fed! "

Ibsen seems to follow the path of classic Greek playwrights and keep violence behind the scene, although there is violence suggested in his play. The fact that his characters do not boil infants and feed them to their parents does not make ruthless mayors like Peter Stockmann, and businessmen like Morten Kiil les repugnant to the spectator. They simply ignore the fact that people could fell ill or even die after having come to their town's baths for cure. It is like a condemnation, a premeditated murder, in cold blood, for the sake economic gain. The story is probably far from being just an imagined story and it makes the message it even more powerful this way. Ibsen stays away from transforming it in a fairytale and the end is uncertain. The future of those who have chosen to stand alone, like the doctor, on the side of the truth and confront the mob is completely questionable and far form being rewarded. The audience is shaken by what is a gruesome perspective: the tannery works full time and the business flourishes. The sacrifice here starts with the image of the processing of animal skins and although it remains in the back of the story, the effect is very strong. One can almost visualize the human skin being tanned in the "health" baths.

Death is overwhelmingly present in Agamemnon, of course, just as it is in all the classic Greek tragedies, but the act of violence leading to death is never actually shown on scene. There are many possible explanations for this, starting with the lack of means to render such scenes credible, but one of them seems to make more sense: the wish to keep the seriousness of death out of the trivial. One is dealing with a theatre stage and the spectators would be willing to accept a scene of murder even if they new the protagonists do not really end in dying. On the other hand, such scenes could easily fall under the ridicule, depending on how they could have bee performed. Greek tragedies do not take death easily, even if they are overflowing with shed blood.

Although, as pointed out before, Ibsen's plays are far from the blood shed in Aeschylus tragedies, it does not lack a good amount of merciless actions. For example, the two male protagonists who are fighting with major differences of opinion are brothers. Their positions are irreconcilable, though. Moreover, the one with the power, the Mayor, proves to be ruthless. He pretends to be caring for the well being of the whole town and be putting its interests before his own brother and the latter's family, but this is just a disguise for his absolutely selfish motivations. He is committing a mortal sin, which by standards of the classical Greek tragedy should be enough to condemn his entire family and their offspring. Fortunately, Ibsen does not write for a festival to revere the gods in the fifth century B.C., so his characters are able to take fate into their hands and not become mere toys of it.

As Frederic Will points out, "Greek tragedy does not invite sympathy for its characters"

. The spectator is following the protagonists as they arise only to fall, most often, because of their own foolishness, but they should be able to keep their distance and not get "identify" themselves with these characters. The actions happening on the ancient Greek stage are mostly out of the ordinary, even for the ancient world. The human emotions, feelings and interactions are taken from reality, of course, but the course of action is less likely to happen in one's own life, thus making the story more palatable.

In the case of Ibsen's play, An Enemy of the People, the case seems to be pretty straight forward. One cannot imagine the play ending with Dr. Stockman's agreement to go with the town's leaders and keep quiet. Ibsen's main positive character, Dr. Stockmann, was meant to ring a bell and his actions were possibly meant as a reaction to what society could have perceived as the hopeless spread of evil to all parts of society. The interestin fact is that the dr. thinks at one point of taking his family and seeking his fortune away from the entire Norway and even of the old continent. For a moment, he gives up hope on the old world and steers toward the New World. As the play progresses towards the end, he will change his mind, letting the spectator think about his reasons. It must have been among Ibsen's intentions that the public ponders on the possibility that human nature is possibly less corrupted elsewhere. He hints, of course, to the falseness of such a premise when he lets the good doctor stay and fight on his own. There are numerous other subject for pondering upon viewing or reading the play. It serves the purpose of asking questions that remain unanswered on stage precisely because those who see are given the chance to think for themselves. The theme of free will emerges out of such contexts. On the contrary, Greek tragedy does not give any chance to free will. Ancient gods are merciless and human being are the mere puppets of fate. Generation after generation are doomed because an initial offending of the gods.

Bibliography

1. Aeschylus, The Oresteia Trilogy. Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola New York. 1996

2. Hart, Mary Louise. The Art of Ancient Greek Theater. J. Paul Getty Museum. 2010

3. Ibsen, Henrik. An Enemy of the People.

Available at: http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/h-ibsen/'enemy-people.pdf

4. Tragedy: The Basics. Available at:

http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Tragedy.htm

5. Raaflaub, Kurt A., van Wees, Hans. A Companion to Archaic Greece. John Wiley & Sons, Dec 21, 2012

6. Goldhill, Simon. Aeschylus: The Oresteia. Cambridge University Press, Jan 19, 2004

7. Chomsky, Noam. Voting Patterns and Absentions. Z Magazine, February 2001. Available at: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/200102 -- .htm

8. Henrichs, Albert. Drama and Dromena. Bloodshed, Violence and Sacrificial Metaphor in Euripides.

9. Pathmanathan, R. Sri. Death in Greek Tragedy. Greece and Rome Vol. 12, No. 1, Apr. 1965. Pp. 2-14

10. Will, Frederic. The Knowing of Greek Tragedy. he Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Jun., 1958), pp. 510-518. Published by: Wiley

Article Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/428049

11. Van Laan, Thomas F. Generic Complexity in Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. Comparative Drama, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Summer 1986), pp. 95-114

Published by Comparative Drama at Article Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/41153226

12. Kahn, Peter. Ibsen's Enemy of the People: Teaching Toward an Ethical Sensibility. American Secondary Education

Vol. 15, No. 2 (1986), pp. 3-5

Published by: Dwight Schar College of Education, Ashland University

Article Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/41063774

13. Northam, John. Ibsen: A Critical Study. CUP Archive, 1973

14. Harrington, Spencer P.M. Calder III, William M. Traill, David A. Demarkopoulou, Katie and Lapatin, Kenneth D.S.

15. Alford, C. Fred. Greek Tragedy and Civilization: The Cultivation of Pity. Political Research Quarterly

Vol. 46, No. 2 (Jun., 1993), pp. 259-280

Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.

Article Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/448886

http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Tragedy.htm

Ibsen, Henrik. An Enemy of the People. 9. Available at: http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/h-ibsen/enemy-people.pdf

Ibsen, Henrik. An Enemy of the People. 9. Available at: http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/h-ibsen/enemy-people.pdf

Chomsky, Noam. Voting Patterns and Abstentions. Z magazine. February 2001

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/200102 -- .htm

Ibsen,, Henrik. An Enemy of the People. 15. Available at: http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/h-ibsen/enemy-people.pdf

Hart, Mary Louise. The Art of Ancient Greek Theater. J. Paul Getty Museum. 2010

Aeschylus, The Orestia Trilogy. Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola New York. 1996

Will, Frederic. The Knowing of Greek Tragedy. he Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism-Vol. 16, No. 4 (Jun., 1958), pp. 510-518. Published by:

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black

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How to Reference "Spontaneous Playfulness and the Instinctive" Research Paper in a Bibliography

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