Chapter-I. Introduction

Transcription

1 1 Chapter-I Introduction A man's character is his fate Heraclitus Drama arose out of the fundamental human needs in the dawn of civilization, and has continued to express them for thousands of years. Drama presents stories to be performed for an audience. No consensus exists regarding the birth of drama, the origin of drama may be dated back thousands of years, to a time when all types of literature were oral-were spoken aloud rather than written down. People have been telling stories for thousands of years, long before writing was invented, and stories were told around crackling campfires and at family meetings. Story telling formed a part of community ceremonies and public gatherings. As time passed, these stories were sung by wandering minstrels who knew them by heart and recited them with musical accompaniment. The earliest of these stories are called myths. Myth is a special kind of a story, usually about a country s gods and goddesses and their encounter with the mortals. There are plenty of definitions given for the term myth. According to Barry B.Powell, Originally, the Greek word mythos meant speech or story or plot... (2). A rather funny interpretation of Myth is given by William G.Doty, Myths are not like cotton candy at a circus that disappears with the first lick, but they graph fundamental

2 psychological realities of everyday life: the family, sibling rivalry, male or female hero worship, or the respect or disrespect a society affords the aging (21). 2 A myth has a threefold plot with a beginning, middle and an end and is classified into three main types: Divine myth, Legend and Folk tale. Divine myth contains a plot which is completely woven around the supernatural characters. Unlike the divine myth, the central characters in a legend are human beings. The heroes and heroines are drawn from the ranks of the nobility like kings, queens, prince, princess and the other members of the aristocratic origin. Their stories are exciting and unforgettable. A folk tale, on the other hand, is not easy to define like the other two types because of the variety of traditional stories grouped under this heading. The central characters in a folk tale are ordinary men, women and children rather than kings and queens. Mythology is considered to be the back bone of literature. Thomas Bulfinch comments on the importance of mythology thus, For mythology is the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness (3). Drama is the forerunner of the modern films, but unlike modern movies, drama reflects only reality, as Marjorie Boulton points out in The Anatomy of Drama: THERE is an enormous difference between a play and any other form of literature. A play is not really a piece of literature for reading. A true play is three dimensional; it is literature that walks and talks before our eyes. It is not intended that the eyes shall perceive marks on paper and the imagination turn them into sights, sounds and actions; the text of the play is meant to be translated into sights, sounds and actions which occur literally and physically on stage (3).

3 3 Watching a play is an exciting event than reading any form of literature. This can be easily noticed in the present day audience. They are more interested in watching television or a movie than reading a book. The success of a play basically depends on the performer. There are so many dramatic clubs and societies which are saving this art from its downfall. Amateur dramatic societies provide worthwhile experience to many. An element which is necessary to complete the minimum requirement of the drama is a plot or a story. The plot of the play, like that of any other form of literature, is the actual story. The plot should be very clear to the audience so that they can follow it at the necessary speed. A play must have twists and turns to retain the interest of the audience till the end. There is a general formula to write a drama, and it involves four steps; the Introduction or Clarificationto learn who the characters are, their roles in the play and the problems faced by them; the First Crisis-startling development from which arose, new problems to the characters; Complicationcrisis to crisis, knots, twists and turns and untying the knot; Denouement- final action. There are tragedies, comedies and modern plays which are written following this formula. The plot of a tragedy, a comedy and a modern drama can be examined briefly in the light of this general formula. The play Macbeth is briefly examined on the basis of this method in the book The Anatomy of Drama: In Macbeth the first two scenes provide most of the Clarification; we learn that there are three Witches who plot evil with Macbeth as a tool, that a battle has just taken place and gracious and admired personality, is the King of Scotland. The first crisis comes in the next scene, when the Witches greet the so far noble

4 4 Macbeth with the promise that he shall be king hereafter! As he is not the legal heir to the throne this leaves him, and the audience, wondering how this can be fulfilled. The prediction works upon the minds of the warrior and his ambitious wife until it brings about the second crisis, the murder of Duncan, an act setting Macbeth irrevocably on the path of crime. This leads to the third crisis of the murder of Banquo, a fourth crisis when the ghost of Banquo appears at the feast and a fifth crisis when Macbeth, having consulted the Witches again, decides upon the murder of Macduff and allows the murder of the latter s helpless wife and children The denouement comes in the last battle, when the Witchess prophecies about Birnam Wood and the nature of the man who should defeat Macbeth come true and the tyrant is killed (43-44). The earliest work of literary criticism in western civilization is Aristotle s Poetics, an attempt to define and classify the different literary genres that use rhythm, language, and harmony. Aristotle identifies four genres of literature in his work namely, the epic poetry, the dithyrambic poetry, comedy and tragedy that have in common their attempts to mimesis or imitation of human activity. According to the authorities, drama originated in Greece 2500 years ago, as an outgrowth of the God Dionysus or Bacchus, son of Jupiter and Semele. The god is associated with male fertility, agriculture and seasonal survival. This sect was said to have originated in Asia Minor. They practised rituals which may have included alcoholic intoxication, human and animal sacrifices, and perhaps even hysterical rampages by women called maenads. The rituals included uninhibited dancing which created an altered mental state. This altered state

5 5 was known as 'ecstasis', from which the word ecstasy is derived. Ecstasy was an important religious concept to the Greeks, who used to see theatre as a way of releasing powerful emotions through its ritual power. The cult spread through the tribes of Greece. In these Dionysian festivals, a group of fifty citizens of Athens known as Chorus, outfitted and trained by a leader, or Choragos, performed hymns in praise of the god. These songs were later branded as dithyrambic poetry. The celebration concluded with the ritual sacrifice of a goat, or tragos. The two main genres of drama originally took their names from these rituals: Comedy from komos, the Greek word for festivity and tragedy from tragos, the Greek word for he-goat. A play does not make the same demand on our visual descriptive imagination as any fiction or a descriptive poem does. Drama is the form of literary art which is most restricted by conventions. The conventions are of two kinds: the violent impact and the one that protects the audience from too violent an experience. Theatre is also a means of communication achieved through speech, songs, dance and music. There are many kinds of drama other than tragedy. Some of the important types of drama include: Melodrama, eg: Shakespeare s Titus Andronicus, The Heroic play, eg: Dryden s Don Sebastian, The Problem play, eg: The Plays of Henrik Ibsen such as A Doll s House, Ghosts etc. Comedy, eg: William Congreve s The Way of the World, Dance drama, eg: Chandalika by Rabindranath Tagore etc. Tragedy is one of the highest achievements of mankind. The term tragedy as it is given in "Tragedy." MAX notes to Guide to Literary Terms is, The term is from the Greek tragoidia formed by combining tragos, meaning he-goat, and oide, meaning song. (A tragoidos was a tragic poet and singer; probably called a goat singer because he wore goatskins or because a

6 6 he-goat was the prize in a competition among tragoidos) < Tragedy is a play with a sorrowful ending, usually with at least one death in the end. The actions and thoughts are treated seriously and with a respect for human personality. An important feature of a tragedy is that the audience is left with a sense of greatness of man as well as of the suffering involved in human life. The emotional conflicts in a tragedy are deep and almost unbearable, but the characters who suffer these agonies are worth the concern of the audience. The word Tragedy is defined thus by Aristotle in his work Poetics: Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation (catharsis) of these emotions According to A Dictionary of Literary terms, the word Tragedy : is a kind of protest; it is a cry of terror or complaint or rage or anguish to and against whoever or whatever is responsible for this harsh rack, for suffering, for death. Be it God, Nature, Fate, Circumstance, Chance, or just something nameless. It is a cry about the tragic situation in which the hero or heroine find themselves (706).

7 7 D.Vanice Smith, in an article, gives his interpretation of tragedy, where he relates tragedy with place and time. He says, Tragedy follows the transformation of a place that may be topographical, political, mnemonic, or psychological into a space that is threatened by and involved in the flux or oblivion of time (377). There are six constituents that determine the quality of tragedy. They are the plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song. The most important element out of these six elements is the plot. Plot is the order of incidents; the imitation of action. It is the soul of a tragedy. Tragedy is a representation not of people but of action and life. Plot is the action in a tragedy. A well-constructed plot should, therefore, be single in its issue, rather than double. The plot in a tragedy is more important than that in a comedy. The plot of a comedy can be slighter, but it has a happy ending unlike that of a tragedy. There are many dramatic forms like coincidence, contrast, surprise, silence, shock etc. that play an important role in heightening the emotional intensity of a drama. Character takes the second important place in a tragedy. The character must be good and the playwright should see to it that the character is true to life and consistent. The third important property of tragedy is thought, the ability to say what is possible and appropriate in the given circumstances. Fourth is the diction, the expressive use of words and this has the same effect in verse and prose. Song is the pleasurable element in a tragedy. Spectacle or stage effect is the last element in a tragedy which gains the immediate attention of the audience. There are quantitative parts in a tragedy namely the Prologue, Episode, Exode and the Choric song. The Prologue is the entire part of a tragedy which precedes the parode of the Chorus. The Episode is the part of a tragedy between the choric songs. The Exode is an exit song

8 8 of the Chorus. The Choric song is divided into Parode and Statismon. The Parode is the first undivided utterance of the Chorus; the Statismon is a choric ode without anaepaests or trochaic tetrameters. These are common to all plays; peculiar to some are the songs of actors from the stage and the commoe. The Greek drama opens with a prologue by a single character who introduces the theatrical situation to the spectators, and then the Chorus enters the Orchestra, singing and dancing to suit the situation. The part of the Chorus in the Greek drama is perhaps equivalent to the role of the poet in an epic. The Chorus comments on the action and the play and seeks to reflect the audience s opinion. The Chorus stays throughout the play interjecting now and again to perform such a role and imparts continuity to the narrative element of the play. The play starts immediately after the Chorus episode. Greek drama comprises three main elements, which may be observed in the verse form of the plays. First is the lyric element which underlines the moods and feelings aroused by the consequence of the dramatic events. The lyric element in the Greek tragedies is confined to the Chorus, and is expressed in various and complex meters. These lyrics were sung with an instrumental accompaniment. The second element is the scenic or mimetic element, and the third element is none other than the declamation. The features of these three elements are briefed by Flora.R.Levin: The three elements described above, which we may here call speech, declamation and song, are exemplified in the dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The songs, in their turn, may be divided into three types: the stage songs (aposkênês), in which one or two actors took part; the lamentations

9 9 (commoi) and threnodies (threnoi), in which one or two actors sang in conjunction with the Chorus (5). The Chorus is a central feature of the Greek drama. It has its own traditions, habits of thought and feeling. The Chorus dominated Greek theatre in the fifth century; in a sense the theatre was derived from it. The Chorus was foremost in the Greek drama because there used to be only one actor and the actor had to leave the stage to change characters. During such times, the stage is filled by the presence of the Chorus. The Chorus is a homogeneous, nonindividualized group of performers in the ancient Greek plays that comprised costumed actors and their place in the theatre was the dancing floor or Orchestra. The Chorus recited or sang the text and emphasized the words with gestures or dance steps. The dance figures were an essential part of the Greek theatre. Great care was taken by the actors to impress the audience. They used colourful costumes and masks to attract the audience. The members of the Chorus used to entertain the audience by providing advice, opinion, and also would question the audience on important issues. The Chorus in the very beginning of the Greek drama was a band of persons who sang a song together in honour of some god or hero. It consisted of fifty members which was later reduced to twelve by Sophocles, then increased to fifteen by Euripides. The dramatic role of the Chorus varied from playwright to playwright. There are four main practical uses for which the Chorus was employed in the tragedies, says David Grene in Three Greek Tragedies in Translation. Firstly, the Chorus is used as a main character in addition to the role of an actor. They were given separate scenes which were of

10 10 utmost significance in the play. The Suppliants of Aeschylus and The Bacchae of Euripides are some examples of this kind of plays. The Second use of the Chorus is to create an emotional atmosphere necessary for the dramatic effect of the play. The Chorus in Sophocles s Oedipus is an example for this type. And the third use is to act as a narrative of antecedent events necessary for the proper understanding of the plot. The Chorus here gives a complete picture of events which in turn helps the audience in understanding the plot well. The first Chorus in the play Hippolytus by Euripides is an example of this type. Finally, the Chorus is used by the dramatist as an expression of his own sentiments and opinions and the Chorus in Euripides s Hippolytus is a good example for this use of Chorus. The actors were professionals unlike the members of the Chorus, no more than three actors were allowed on the stage and the players often had double roles. Women, although they were allowed to be the members of the Chorus, were not allowed to act in the play. Female roles were played by men. Men used to wear masks for the female roles. They also changed the timbre of their voices. The Greek drama has no act or scene divisions in which the modern drama uses them. The action is continuous but division of the action is made by the Chorus reciting lyrics or invocations to the gods between the episodes. The costumes and masks of the actors added spectacle and their movement and dance heightened the dramatic effect. Music too played a predominant role in the Greek Tragedies. The fusion of music with poetry was common in those days. Greek poetry was quantitative and the rhythmic unit was the syllable. The lyric element in it underlines the moods and feelings aroused by the effect of the dramatic events. This lyric

11 11 element is combined with the Chorus, and is expressed in complex meters. These lyrics were sung with the accompaniment of an instrument. The treatment of Chorus by Euripides is different from the other two master playwrights. Aeschylus is known for his long choral passages. Sophocles s Choruses in a sense, exists as living entities, which are not found in the plays of Euripides. Euripides is known for his skillful handling of the Chorus. The members of Chorus too had a part to play in the drama; sometimes their part with the plot was intimate. They were usually supposed to be friends or servants of the major characters. The playwright handled his Choruses creatively. In the play Ion, he had subdivided the Chorus to make a scene more creative. He had also introduced a supplementary Chorus for dramatic effect in plays like Hippolytus and Iphigenia at Aulis. The Chorus of the huntsmen in Hippolytus and the Chorus of Argive men in the play Iphigenia at Aulis are supplementary Choruses. The language used in the Choruses of Euripides is in par with the language of the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles. The Chorus of Euripides contains beautiful poetry. Some critics believe that Euripides has corrupted the Chorus by minimizing its part and dealing with it impatiently and negligently. As Francis Fergusson points out in his article, The beautiful lyrics sung by Euripides s Choruses are, as I have said, incidental music rather than organic parts of the action; they are not based upon the feeling that all have a stake in the common way of life and therefore in the issue of the present action ( 11). But Aristides Evengelus Phoutrides argues that this is not true:

12 12 Of the twenty-six thousand one hundred and thirty-three verses which are contained in the nineteen extant plays, five thousand five hundred and twenty-six are devoted to the Chorus, that is, twenty-one percent of the whole work of Euripides is choral. If we compare with these figures of those of Sophocles, we find that the percentage in Euripides is even larger than that of his predecessor (81). He argues that Euripides has given importance to Chorus in his plays wherein the dialogue between the Chorus and the actors in his plays is by no means less important than the plays of the other two tragedians. He gives the example of the play Ion where the Chorus not only is effective but also mingles with the action. Tragedy always revolves around the elemental conflict between a man and a destiny which he cannot master. Helen Gardner observes this in Religion and Literature: Tragedy shows man as a social being, involved with his fellow men, doing them good and evil, ordering his life and the lives of those around him, making mistakes according to his nature, pursuing his ends, sometimes selfishly, sometimes unselfishly, receiving good and evil at the hands of his fellows, acting wisely and unwisely in all relations of life as husband or father or wife or son or king or citizen. Greek tragedies are unashamedly didactic and deeply concerned with moral conduct (47).

13 13 According to Aristotle, tragedy originated from the improvisations of the exarchontes (song leaders) of the dithyramb, while comedy originated with the leaders of the "phallic songs. A dithyramb was a religious hymn sung in honor of Dionysus, and the Dionysiac origin of tragedy was in antiquity taken for granted, being the god of theatre as much as the god of wine, vegetation, and fertility. However, tragedy lost its Dionysiac associations very early, and only one of the preserved plays, indeed the very last tragedy of Euripides, Bacchae, has a Dionysiac content, namely the myth of resistance to the introduction of cult to Thebes, and the god's devastating revenge upon the city. Dithyramb, too, gradually lost its religious connection to and developed into choral poetry that drew its subject from mythology like tragedy. Dithyrambs were also regularly performed in the Dionysiac festivals. The Archaic period (800 BC 480 BC) was a period of ancient Greek history that followed the Dark Ages of Greece. This period saw the rise of the polis, the setting up of colonies, the growth of classical philosophy and theatre in the form of tragedies. During the archaic period there occurred an intellectual revolution in Greece. Greek literature was closely linked to religious belief and moral teaching. Classical Athens in the fifth century BC was a burgeoning democratic state with a population of about 300,000. The term democracy in the fifth century Athens differed considerably from the modern term. Only the adult male citizens were eligible to participate in the decision- making process. This circumstance was responsible for the class conflict and the perennial struggle between different forms of government. The philosophies and theories of Aristotle and Plato were integrally shaped by awareness of these political struggles.

14 14 Athens then was not only a democracy but also an imperial power, head of the so-called Delian League of more than a hundred city- states, from whom she exacted tribute. By 500 BC, the ideals of social equality and democratic structure were furthered in Athens by leaders and law givers such as Solon, who made the law courts democratic. Athens was in the peak of its supremacy in 479 BC, and these were the most powerful years of Athens, when prosperity and cultural centrality developed. This year was the time when the famous Pericles dominated the Athenian politics and the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles were staged. There were many important developments that influenced the nature of Literature, Criticism, Philosophy and Rhetoric. One such development was the evolution of the polis or City-state. The polis is the place where people could assemble and deal with a problem face to face. Even the internal structure of drama was influenced by the idea of Polis. The Chorus was the representative of the community or Polis. Literature and Poetry had a public and even political function. There is another element that shaped the evolution of literature in archaic and classical Greece and it was Pan-Hellenism. It is the development of certain literary ideals and standards among the privileged of the various city- states of Greece. The ancient Athenians shaped a theatre culture between 600 BC and 200 BC, its form, technique and terminology have lasted two millennia. They created plays that are still considered to be the supreme works of world drama. Athens had produced five equally great playwrights. Greek tragedies and comedies were always performed in the outdoor theatres. Early Greek theatres were probably little more than open areas in the centre of the city or near the hillsides where the audience, standing or sitting, could watch the play. The plays were also

15 15 performed under the open sky. The audience seated on semicircular tiers of stone benches, consisted of many of the citizens of the city. The performance possessed the tensions of an athletic contest, as well as the aura of the ritual because the plays were judged on performance. On the day of the performance, various civic ceremonies were performed. Although the three great dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides often won prizes, they were even failing most notably when in competition with one another. The plays were usually given as trilogy and not as individual units. Oedipus Rex of Sophocles was an exception to this rule, being a single play from the time of its production. The city government supervised the production of plays, from first to last during the festival. The playwright who was interested to compete had to first submit the manuscript of his plays to the archon (leader). The archon also maintained ten choragi, or the leaders of the Chorus, one from each of the ten tribes of Athens. The Choregus selected the Chorus and flute players and organized them, bearing the expenses for himself. A few days before the actual performance, the poet and the actors presented themselves to the public at a small theatre next to the main one. They gave a selected preview of the play they would be presenting in the competition. Such performances were called proagon or the fore action. On the day of performance, after a round of plays, ten judges, chosen by the council and the choregi, voted for the winner of the dramatic competitions. Five ballots were chosen at random to determine the victor, who was then proclaimed by the herald. He and the choragus were crowned with ivy on the spot, and the winning poet was awarded a substantial sum.

16 16 The classical theatre in the fifth century, (the Theatre of Dionysus) consisted of a semicircular or horse-shoe shaped auditorium or theatron, a circular dancing area or Orchestra for the Chorus, The very word theatre first occurs in the fifth century: theātron means a place where things are seen, the audience are hoi theātai-those who look on, the spectators. So, too, with the word drāma: something that is acted out, a communication through action (Taplin 2). From the late sixth century BC to the fourth and third centuries, there was a steady evolution towards more intricate theatre structures, but the basic layout of the Greek theatre remained the same. The architecture of the ancient Greek theatre consists of three major parts: the Orchestra, the Scene and the main theatre, called Koilon. The Orchestra was situated in front of the scene or Skene (stage) facing the audience. At the middle of the Orchestra was situated the Thymeli, which in the early years was meant to be an altar and later on became the place of the leader of the Chorus (koryphaios). The scene had one to three entrances for the actors. The sides of the Scene facing the audience served for background and were decorated as a Palace or a Temple. Later on, the painted panels with other themes, such as woods, army camps, etc., were placed as background and this method was called skenographia. Sophocles introduced the skenographia or scene painting. The theatre itself is centred on the Orchestra or the dancing place, where the Chorus stood during the performance. It was a level space where the Chorus would dance, sing, and interact with the actors who were on the stage near the scene. The earliest Orchestras were simply made of hard earth, but in the Classical period some Orchestras were paved with marble and other materials. The Orchestra of the theatre of in Athens was about sixty feet in diameter.

17 17 Fig.1. The Ancient Greek Theatre as it may have been <

18 18 The Parodoi or Parodos (literally, "passageways") are the paths by which the Chorus and some actors (such as those representing messengers or people returning from abroad) made their entrances and exits. The audience also used them to enter and exit the theatre before and after the performance. People who come from the city or the port enter from the right Parados and those who come from the fields or abroad enter from the left Parados. The Koilon (or Theatron) was the auditorium of the Greek theatre, where the audience sat. The shape of the Koilon was semicircular, built around the Orchestra. In the beginning, the spectators were sitting around the Orchestra; later the Greeks started building the Koilon. It is believed that during the fifth century, the spectators carried cushions along with them to sit on. Radial stairs separated the Koilon into wedge shaped sections, in order to make the entrance and exit of the viewers easier. The front seats were called Proedria and were reserved for officials and priests. The most honorable spectator of the theatre was the priest of Elefthereos, who would sit in a throne made of marble. The parts of the theatre were wooden and mobile in the fifth century BC other than the Orchestra. At the end of the fifth century, the Greeks started building permanent Scenes and Koilons made of stone. Inside the permanent scene, were kept the machines used during the performance like- the Aeorema, a crane with which the gods or the dues - ex- machina appeared on the scene. The indoor theatres were called Odeia and were reserved for musical performances. The Greeks considered drama as an amusing spectacle. They felt that they gained social experience and intellectual, moral and aesthetic interpretations of life through drama. The plays

19 19 were considered to be very important during the great religious festivals and the actors were given due respect. The drama attained a matured state in the classical age of Greece and Rome. The first masters of the drama are in sense masters of life. John Gassner gives his opinion on the rise of early drama, Tragedy, it is true, had acquired more scope in the hands of the playwrights Choerilus, Pratinas, and Phrynichus who succeeded Thespis. Phrynichus, in particular, made signal contributions to the early drama by introducing female characters and developing descriptive and lyrical passages greatly admired by the Greeks (22-23). The oldest dramatist poet was known by the name Thespis, but none of his work survives. More evidence remains of Choerilus, whose career began at the same time as that of Thespis in the sixth century and his works include a couple of small fragmented and one title, Alopé, which was a satyr play. Phrynichus, claimed victory in the poetic competitions, during the last decade of the sixth century. Capture of Miletus is the most interesting tragedy of Phrynichus. The oldest tragedies consisted of almost exclusively of lyrical Chorus parts that were interrupted now and then by a single actor. The Greeks believed Aeschylus as a god-intoxicated man, who achieved his effects by intoxication. Around sixth century BC, an official spring time festival known as the Greater Dionysia or city Dionysia, was established in Athens, where prizes were awarded for the best poems. At about the same time a special Orchestra -dancing place was constructed, a circular area surrounding the altar, and permanent seats, or the Theatron- seeing place, arranged in a semicircle around the Orchestra were added. In 1502, seven extant plays of Sophocles were published by the famous Venetian printer Aldus. A year later Euripides is accorded the same

20 20 honor, and in 1518 Aeschylus, whose older Greek was more difficult to decipher, is printed by the same press. For years the work of editing and translating the Greek drama absorbs the energies of scholars and poets to the exclusion of genuinely creative work. The zenith of Greek tragedy began with the tragedian Aeschylus. He is known as the father of tragedy and was born in the year 525 BC in Eleusis near Athens. He was one of the first extant playwrights. He was a soldier, playwright, religious participant, and also an actor. Aeschylus had created colourful characters, many of them supernatural, oriental and barbaric. It was the destiny of the theatre s first master to be linked with political and cultural history at almost every point in his exciting and moderately long life. No playwright ever found himself so frequently at the crossroads. Aeschylus appears to have believed that he stood alone in his philosophy, and he probably did this at the beginning of his career. But his thought grew naturally out of a period which witnessed the transformation of Greek Society. Later on, his intellectual peers expressed the same vision, and one of them, Pericles, even strove to give it concrete realisation in the Athenian state. John Gassner states that a dramatist is a comprehensive personality: Primitive man was an accomplished mimic and a creature of the play. He was from the beginning an imitator who shared this attribute with the higher animals but surpassed them in the flexibility of his body and voice, the developed consciousness of his will, and the ordering capacity of his mind.wherever the theatre flourishes, man is again unapologetically a superior animal or child

21 21 imitating the creature world and enjoying the equally fundamental pleasure of playing with the aid of all his faculties (3-4). Aeschylus s growth as a playwright was exceedingly gradual. He did not win a prize until he was forty one. Aeschylus extended the scenes or acted portions of his plays. These portions were called as the episodes by the Greeks. The episodes were not originally the part of drama but they added to the performance. Before Aeschylus s period, there was only one actor in tragedy, and he was limited to conversing with the Chorus. Aeschylus is credited with having added a second actor. Only seven of his plays have survived into modern times, and there is a debate about his authorship of the play Prometheus Bound. Some of his plays include Agamemnon (458 BC), The Choephori (450 BC) Eumenides (458 BC) etc. Aeschylus fought the Persians at the battle of Salamis and Marathon. His masterpiece is the Oresteia, the only extant trilogy from Greek drama. Aeschylus had won first prize for his play in the annual competitions held in Athens in 484 BC In 472 BC he took first prize with a tetralogy- three tragedies with a connecting theme, and a comic satyr play. He had later won first prize for another tetralogy: Laius, Oedipus, The Seven against Thebes, and the satyr play The Sphinx. In 463 BC, he won the first prize with the tetralogy now known as The Suppliants, The Egyptians, The Danaids, and the satyr play The Amymone. In 458 BC, he gained his last victory with the trilogy Oresteia. The date of another trilogy, the Prometheia, is unknown, but it was probably produced sometime between The Seven against Thebes and The Oresteia. Only seven of the perhaps ninety plays that Aeschylus wrote are preserved.

22 22 Aeschylus is credited with having introduced many features in the traditional Greek theatre. Among these were the rich outfit, decorated cothurni a kind of footwear, sober dances, and perhaps stage machinery. Aeschylus also added parts for a second and a third actor; before his time plays were written for only one actor and a Chorus. He is said to have acted in his own plays and designed his own choral dances. He is the most spectacular dramatist. His use of language is clever and elaborate. He loves to impress his audience and tried all possible methods to accomplish it. His death in 456 BC coincided with the beginning of the Periclean age, a period during which Athens's population grew to 150,000, its government embraced democracy and the arts flourished. Sophocles ( BC) enjoyed the comforts of a rich merchant s son as well as the fruits of one of the most civilized epochs in the world history. He is known as the most elusive and self-conscious writer of the three great tragedians. He started competing with the established playwrights after twelve years of rigorous study. It is believed that he competed in the dramatic fest and it was Aeschylus who lost prize to him. He wrote more than one hundred and twenty three plays in the course of his life. Only seven of his tragedies have survived into modern times with their text completely known. The most famous of his works are the three tragedies concerning Oedipus and Antigone: these are often known as the Theban plays or The Oedipus Cycle, (Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, & Antigone) although they were not originally written or performed as a single trilogy. Sophocles influenced the development of the drama, most importantly by adding a third character and thereby reducing the importance of the Chorus

23 23 in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus. Characterisation is the prime feature in Sophocles s plays and his extant work can be conveniently divided into, character plays- The Trachiniae, Ajax, and Electra; social drama- Antigone; idyl- Philoctetes and the tragedies of fate Oedipus the King and the Oedipus at Colonus. At the time of Sophocles, tragedy had -evolved into an art form with a complex set of conventions. Each playwright would submit a tetralogy, a set of four plays to the competition. The first three plays with a common thread were called trilogy and the fourth play satyr-play was comic one. Only one complete trilogy, the Oresteia by Aeschylus, and one satyr-play, The Cyclops by Euripides, have survived. The plays of Sophocles on the life of Oedipus- Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone are still performed, but these plays were written at separate times and the other tragedies that accompanied them were lost. Sophocles represented human life at its best and most heroic. The focus of his plays is not on ideas but mainly on the doing and suffering of mortals and the suffering always carries with it, the serious danger of ruin. The playwright concentrated on physical suffering. His situations and characters are closer to human experience. Human beings are always live characters in his world, they are not merely the conventional figures of the tragic stage, but are with feelings and passions. Female characters are given importance by the playwright. They stand out as individuals and are treated in par with men. The characterisation of Antigone is a good example for the playwright s characterisation of women. Sophocles, like Euripides, made the characters and passions of man, his objects. The age of Sophocles was followed by the age of Euripides.

24 24 Euripides began to write his conventional tragedies in his late twenties after the death of Aeschylus. C.E.Vaughan compares Sophocles to that of his successor Euripides: Sophocles is the last representative of the purely classical spirit in Greek tragedy. With Euripides new elements force their way into prominence, the character of Greek tragedy is profoundly changed, and the classical mould is strained to the point of breaking. The genius of Euripides was full of originality; his temper was naturally restless; he eagerly welcomed the spirit of innovation which was at work on every side of him, and applied it with feverish activity in the field of tragedy (61). Euripides, the perfect surveyor of human psychology has brought the tragic feat down to reality in his plays. The playwright is known as the precursor of new comedy. He exposed the follies and immortalities of religion. The speeches in his plays are the pure portrayal of his characters minds. Euripides s characters, both men and women are tragic; they even go to the extent of destroying each other by their intricate love and hate. He is well-known for his depiction of the immortals and mortals, including the intelligent serving class. The playwright is courageous when compared to his contemporaries. He is bold in depicting the supernaturals putrid. His women characters are the strongest of all the other of its types ever created, they vary in behaviours, which may range from generous to tightfisted; loving to venomous; and gentle to ferocious. They are predominant in almost all his plays and have an important part in setting up the action of the play. Euripides s works still remain as a miracle to his critics. Aristides Evengelus Phoutrides brings out his opinion on Euripides thus:

25 25 PERHAPS no other author of antiquity, with the exception of Aristotle, has caused more confusion to critics than Euripides. From Aristophanes and Antiphanes to Schegel and Goethe, he has been praised and satirized with the warmest admiration and the bitterest invective The astonishing versatility of our tragedian makes him the Proteus of Dramatic Literature. There are passages in his works which rise to Aeschylean grandeur; others, which are full of Sophoclean serenity; and others, which startle us with the modern spirit of Shakespeare or Ibsen (77). Euripides was born of Athenian parents on the island of Salamis. Euripides, says William Nickerson Bates, was born on the island of Salamis in the year 480 BC, probably on the very day of the great battle, as it is stated by Plutarch and other authorities (5). Euripides s father Mnesarchus was a merchant; his mother Clito, is known to have been of a very high family. Despite the mockery of the comedians, he was probably neither poor nor of humble origin. Euripides as a boy poured wine for the dancers and carried a torch in religious festivals. The boy s father is said to have trained him as a professional athlete. Euripides discovered the dramatic gift in him at a very early stage. He began his career as a dramatist at the age of eighteen, and in 455 BC he was granted a Chorus, that is, he was permitted to compete for the tragic prize, but he did not win a victory until 442, thirteen years after his first appearance before the public.

26 26 Euripides was a fertile writer, but the exact number of his plays cannot be determined with certainty. According to some, the plays of Euripides are numbered ninety two and many others say that he has written ninety eight plays. Of the large number of plays which he composed nineteen have come down to the modern times. The playwright was honored only towards the end of his life. It was because he was overshadowed by Aeschylus and Sophocles, the two tragic masters who had preceded him. It took some time for the Athenians to secure a proper perspective, and to realise that they had among them a third great tragic genius worthy to rank with the other two. The fame of Euripides did not come to an end with his death; instead it started to increase as the Greek culture started to grow. Some records portray Euripides as a hater of women. Even the playwright Aristophanes in his Thesmophoriazusae, produced in 411 BC, portrays Euripides as a woman-hater. A number of his plays contain detailed and sophisticated parodies of scenes from Euripedean tragedy: In the Thesmophoriazusae, produced in 411 BC, Aristophanes portrays Euripides as a stereotypical woman-hater who has repeatedly slandered the female sex in his tragedies A number of Aristophanes plays contain detailed and sophisticated parodies of scenes from Euripidean tragedy (Murray XVI-XVII). The main tragic characters in the dramas of Euripides are happened to be women. Several of the women characters of Euripides attain to true tragic heights. There is a scarcity of tragic heroes in his plays. Nobody knows the truth but may be accounted for in two ways. It may

27 27 be because of the story of his unhappy married life or would have arisen from the fact that certain of the female characters in his plays were such as to inspire resentment towards them in the minds of the audience. The comment of William Nickerson Bates on the character of Euripides is as follows: The fact is that Euripides seems to have been the first to appreciate the dramatic possibilities of representing on the stage the passions usually attributed to women. Thus in the Hippolytus we find vividly portrayed slightly love, fear and revenge; in the Medea, envy and hate; in the Hecuba, revenge. But this does not indicate anything at all as to the personal feelings of the poet about women. It is simply proof of his dramatic genius. Furthermore not all of his heroines are inspired by evil motives (14). Euripides has given a dignified role for his characters Alcestis and Iphigenia in the plays Alcestis and Iphigenia at Aulis respectively. Euripides never would have given importance to his women characters, if he is a women hater. He does not belong to the category of women haters. He is called so because of the misinterpretation of the ancient commentators and biographers, who have been impressed only by his Phaedras and Medeas. These people have thus done a grave injustice to Euripides by calling him a women hater without understanding the fact clearly. Euripides is one of the most innovative tragedians who had reshaped the formal structure of Greek tragedy. He is known for depicting the society completely including the intelligent serving class. His immortal characters are the strongest and different when compared to all the

28 28 other of their types ever created. They play the important part in many of his plays. They vary in behaviour, ranging from generous to tight-fisted; loving to venomous, and gentle to ferocious. Unlike his other contemporaries, Euripides seems to have little part in politics and war. Euripides is said to have had three sons who survived him. Mnesarchides, the eldest, became a merchant; the second, Mnesilochus, was an actor; and the youngest Suidas followed his father s profession as a tragic playwright. Euripides died in 406 BC. Towards the end of his life, he received honors and distinctions in Macedonia, where like other men of letters; he went at the invitation of King Archaelaus. He spent his last years at the Macedonian court, high in the favor and confidence of the King, and when he died, the King cut off his own hair as an expression of his grief for the greatest dramatist. His death seems to have been caused by an accident in a most tragic manner. One day he was walking in the woods at some distance from the city when the King was out hunting. When the party had passed the city gates, the dogs were released and they came upon Euripides and attacked and killed him while the huntsmen were at some distance. The playwright s lyre, stylus and tablets were brought for a tablet of gold by Dionysus of Syracuse, who enshrined them in the temple of the muses. Euripides was buried in Macedonia near the town of Arethusa. The Athenians sent an embassy to bring back his remains, but the Macedonians declined to give them up. A cenotaph was then erected to his memory on the road leading from Athens to the Piraeus. The tragedies of Euripides are different from his contemporaries because of the various motives found in them, The tragedy of Euripides then is seen to be tragedy with various

29 29 motives. The plots develop in accordance with the circumstances which the incidents call forth. The interests are human interests, and they are not dominated by a preordained fate from which there is no escape (Bates 41).The motives include tragic sequences, humourous elements, relationships and sentiments, Supernatural elements etc.there are nineteen extant plays of Euripides which include The Alcestis, The Andromache, The Bacchae, The Cyclops, The Electra, The Hecuba, The Helen, The Heracles Furens, The Heraclidae, The Hippolytus, The Ion, the Iphigenia among the Taurians, the Iphigenia at Aulis, The Medea, The Orestes, The Phoenissae, The Rheseus, the Suppliants, The Traodes. The dates of some plays are known whereas the dates of the other plays are not certain. The age of Euripides was followed by the age of classic tragedies. The fourth century playwrights were merely successful day-labourers. Tragic contests continued for a long time with an old play used as an introduction to the new ones, but the latter were comparatively weak, and the actors became more important than the playwrights. Plays also began to be written at this time for the closet rather than the theatre. The fourth century was also the age of criticism. It was the period of the Poetics of Aristotle. Aristotle, in his Poetics described the principles of Greek dramaturgy as he found them in the works of his contemporaries and their predecessors. The fifth century Athenians, like all sensible people who could give themselves to laughter, continued to regard comedy as a sacred function by giving it a place in the sacrosanct festival held annually in honor of Dionysus. From these rites of obscure times, Mediterranean civilization began to develop a number of somewhat differentiated performances which were destined to flower in those two more or less distinct forms, the satyr-play and Aristophanic

30 30 comedy. Social satire became more firmly established when a crude form of farce or mime was imported from Sicily, where it attained some literary development in the work of the two poets Epicharmus and Sophron. Southern Italy continued this species of humour for several centuries and it not only influenced Roman comedy but even outlasted it. Greek comedy had two periods: Old Comedy, represented by Cratinus and Aristophanes; and New Comedy, whose main exponent was Menander. Aristophanes s plays were as noble as the tragedies of Aeschylus. Aristophanes was undoubtedly endowed with a disposition for slashing satire, and if we knew more about his life. Aristophanes no doubt had an aristocratic bias, and he was not concerned with an abstruse theory of democracy. After the death of Aristophanes, the playwrights were compelled to confine themselves to comedies of sentiment and private embroilments. Many writers responded to the new interest and created the form of domestic comedy or comedy of manners which has held the stage for twenty two centuries with only minor modifications. The New comedy, unlike the Aristophanic comedy, employed stereotyped plots, was decidedly less imaginative and ambitious and possessed an essentially commonplace outlook. Comedy was infused with vivid observation of everyday details and supplied with a unified plot. Romantic love, long kept out of the comic theatre, was added to the inventory of dramatic situations and soon dominated the laughter of the stage as it is done till date. Aristophanes s works include The Acharnians-425 BC, The Knights- 424BC, The Wasps- 422 BC, The Frogs- 405 BC etc. The play The Frogs has a special place in the history of criticism.