Structure of Ancient and Modern Dramas to Term Paper

structure of ancient and modern dramas to highlight their differences and similarities. The paper also shows how drama evolved over the centuries with references to Greek, Elizabethan and Modern plays.

MODERN AND ANCIENT DRAMA: A COMPARISON

Drama has an inherent ability to adapt itself to the thinking and wishes of the society in which it takes birth. Therefore modern drama with all its intensity, relevance and eloquence is certainly more popular among modern audiences than its ancient counterpart. Still we cannot deny the importance of ancient dramatic concepts, models and devices in the development and evolution of modern drama. While ancient plays are mostly remembered for their grandeur and myths, close analysis reveals that there is more to them than meets the eye. All ancient Greek tragedies contain some similar elements, which set them apart from tragedies of later eras. While they basically concentrated on highlighting the significance of myths, something which modern audience doesn't quite appreciate, ancient playwrights were nonetheless the first ones to give us a proper definition of a tragedy and they were ones who developed the concept of a tragic hero.

Aristotle in his Magnus-opus Poetics (330 B.C.) created the first model of a Greek tragedy, complete with 'characteristics' of a tragic hero and description of situations he might encounter.He was of the view that a tragic hero must be a highborn, someone who is born into nobility with almost everything in his power. He should also possess a tragic flaw that would ultimately bring about his doom. Most ancient playwrights including Sophocles and Euripides followed this model. In Sophocles' play Oedipus, for example, the hero indeed enjoys a very high position in the society, "I am, myself, world-famous Oedipus," and true to Aristotle's model, he too possesses a tragic flaw which in this case was arrogance. This tragic flaw leads him to his doom which is clear from the closing speech of Choragos where he says, "Men of Thebes: look upon Oedipus. This is the king who solved the famous riddle And towered up, most powerful of men. No mortal eyes but looked upon him with envy, Yet in the end ruin swept over him."

Shakespeare was deeply influenced by Greek tragedies and this is clear from the model that he followed in his famous tragedies namely Hamlet, Macbeth and Julius Caser. Not only did his tragic heroes possess 'one fatal flaw', they were also members of royal families mostly….....