Elizabethan Drama

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Elizabethan Drama

• What is a tragedy?
• Why do people write/watch tragedies?

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A Movement from Religious to Secular within the
Theatre

• Previously, most of the drama done was in the
  church in order to help educate the people about
  their religion
• Cycle plays were used to reenact history
• Creation by God
• Humans fall to Satan
• Life during the Old Testament times
• Redemption by Christ
• Final judgment at the end of the world
• In the 14th century the plays began to move out
  into the town courtyards where they began to take
  on a more secular tone

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What is going on with Theatre?

• Miracle and mystery plays
• Used to teach stories from the Bible
• Moralities
• Used to show people how they should live and die
• Interlude
• One-act plays
• Some used the framework of the Moralities
• Other were written for entertainment and could be
  quite farcical

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Writing and Developing Plays

• Scholars and writers were viewing the world with
  a more humanistic view (they were no longer
  focusing all their attention on studying of the
  divine)
• Though the views were more humanistic medieval
  practices and conventions dominated English
  theatre through most of the 16th century
• Playwrights were constantly intertwining secular
  and ecclesiastical stories
• Mixed both comic and serious
• Many bloody plots were used during this time
• King Henry VIII created the Church of England and
  the secular writing was more common

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Tragedy and Tragic Heroes

• Elizabethan Tragedy- a dramatic form in which a
  character of high rank is involved in a struggle
  that ends in disaster
• Elizabethan Tragic Hero- main character with a
  tragic flaw (usually excessive ambition, pride,
  jealousy, or some other human frailtyHow is this
  different than a Greek TH?)
• Catharsis purging of emotion, usually pity or
  fear
• Fatal Flaw (Hamartia or Tragic Flaw) a fatal
  weakness in the character that causes this person
  to become enmeshed in events that lead to his or
  her downfall
• Hubris excessive pride or self-confidence

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Meter

• Iambic Pentameter- five sets of an unstressed
  syllable followed by a stressed syllable
  (dun-DUN)
• (Shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmers DAY?)
• Blank Verse- unrhymed poetry written in iambic
  pentameter. Usually spoken by the noble
  characters, or when someone is being very serious.

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Words, Words, Words

• Soliloquy- longer speech in which a
  characterusually alone on stagespeaks as if to
  him/herself
• Monologue- a long uninterrupted speech by one
  character that others can hear
• Aside- a brief comment a character makes to
  reveal his/her thoughts to the audience or to one
  other character

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Shakespeare on Stage

• Public theater roofless courtyards (daylight
  only)
• Globe Theater (reconstructed)
• No scenery barest minimum of furniture
• Described in dialogue
• Elaborate costumes
• Scenes occurred rapidly colorful, fast-paced
  about two hours

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Other Facts

• Like Greece, only men and boys acted on the
  Elizabethan stage (it was considered immoral
  for women to act!)
• Elizabethan playwrights (especially Shakespeare)
  broke the Greek Tragedy rules of time, place,
  and action
• Violence could be shown on stageand it was!

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Elizabethan Theaters

• They were round and open to the air
• Higher-class people sat along the sides in seats
• The lower classes stood on the ground in front of
  the stage (groundlings)
• There were costumes, but no elaborate sets

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The expensive seats
Balcony
Groundlings
The Stage
The Globe Theater, London
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The Globe rebuilt in 1997 for the second time
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