When Diana Taylor describes the social drama surrounding Princess Diana's death, she describes the "quasi-sacred" realm on which an "illusion of a cohesive, 'universal' audience" is played out (135). Like Di's death, the terrorist attacks of September 11 offered a global spectacle. September 11 was ...

In southeastern Europe, along the Mediterranean Sea is the mountainous peninsula called Greece. It is a small country (only about 50,000 squares miles in area) and almost the size of New York. Greece is a very beautiful land. The long coast line is so broken that the deep blue sea seems to be every...

The reputations that people carry have a lot to do with their code of honour. Showing honour makes a person respected and strong and dishonour brings shame and misfortune. In the Greek tragedy Antigone written by Sophocles and the Shakespearean tragedy Othello written by William Shakespeare, honou...

Four thousand years ago the humanities were introduced by the Ancient Greeks. The men began to record their feelings and ideas in the form of architecture, sculpture, plays, and paintings which make up the humanities. These numerous artists, writers, and politicians set the foundation for the whole...

The basis of Greek drama was a religious festival, which paid homage to Dyonicis, god of wine and fertility. Greek drama consisted of a protagonist, the main character, of noble birth whose life is full of happiness in the beginning, but ends up in agony in the end due to their tragic flaw or weakn...

In Ancient Greece, boys go to school, while the girls stayed at home to help their moms cook and look after the household. In Athens, it was a man's world. In the family, the father was the head of the family. The wife stayed at home and ran the household. The husband could divorce, if the wife wa...

Authorial InformationEuripides was born in 484 BC and took up drama at the young age of 25. At most drama competitions, however his plays came in last place until he was about 45 or 50 years old. In his entire life, he wrote 92 plays of which only five received first place awards at competition. Eur...

Tragedy involves the downfall of an important figure, the protagonist, who usually becomes isolated or detached from his or her environment or social standing (Tragic pg). Moreover, the downfall includes others as well, such as his or her family or a society as a whole (Tragic pg). Unlike comedy, w...

Although most readers would not immediately recognize it, a number of the so-called "Tales of Terror" by American author Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston in 1809 and the youngest son of Elizabeth and David Poe. Jr., contain central themes associated with tragedy and tragic drama. With a det...

Aristotle's key principles as found in Oedipus the King Drama was an important way to transmit culture, education, morality and religion during the Golden Age of Greek theatre, which lasted from about 500bc to 400bc. There were three main tragedians in Greece at this time. Aeschylus, also k...

Hamlet\'s Delay Everyone contains a tinge of Hamlet in his feelings, wants, and worries, and proudly so, for Hamlet is not like the other tragic heroes of his period. He stands apart from other Shakespeare\'s heroes in his today much-discussed innocence. Is this supposed tragic hero may be an ideal ...

To fully explain the conditions governing Classical Greek Theatre it is first necessary to go back in history to understand its origins. Greek Theatre began over 2,500 years ago – 2,000 years before Shakespeare – in its earliest form it took the form of religious rites, involving songs and danc...

The definition of tragedy in the Oxford dictionary is, "drama ofelevated theme and diction and with unhappy ending; sad event, serious accident,calamity." However, the application of this terminology in ShakespeareanTragedy is more expressive. Tragedy does not only mean death or calamity, butin fa...

By 1600, international trade routes, which had been centered around the Mediterranean Sea for centuries, were almost entirely based around Northern Atlantic countries like Spain, France, and England. The economic explosion and widespread circulation of money that came with this were accompanied by ...

Few plays written touch us as Romeo and Juliet do. It has touched our very souls, and has even worked itself into everyday conversation. No one can necessarily point out the reason for this, but everyone will agree that it is one of the defining \"tragedies\" of all time. On the contrary, Rome...

Over 2,300 years ago, Aristotle wrote his famous manual for contemporary authors. This guide, entitled Poetics, covered what aspects a tragedy should contain. Of these aspects, one of the most important points in Poetics made by Aristotle is what characteristics a tragic hero, the protagonist of ...

SAKUNTALA VS. WESTERN PLAYSUnlike Western plays, there is no tradition of tragedy in India, and Kalidasa's plays always have happy endings. In Hinduism, everyone has an infinite number of chances to achieve enlightenment and liberation from the wheel of rebirth. A life that ends badly is only a prol...

Upon the setting sun I, Hecubus, fondly recall the days of pride and honor I felt in my tribe, as a member of a dramatic, dithyrambic chorus. Acting was not simply my occupation, but a lifestyle highly revered and respected by my fellow Athenian citizens. We entertained, taught moral lessons of th...

Oedipus is a prime example of a tragidy, according to Aristotle's definition in the "poetics". Aristotle's Poetics is considered the first work of literary criticism in our tradition. The couple of pages in the book mainly describe tragedy from Aristotle's point of view....

Oedipus is born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. A few days after his birth, his parents took him to the Oracle as they did in those times and the Oracle prophesied that the boy would grow up and kill his father and marry his mother. Shocked by this news, they had a servant take the baby t...

?Can Oedipus the King play be adapted to moderns firms and still be successful. Twenty-five hundred years ago, two thousand years before Shakespeare, Western theater was born in Athens, Greece. Between 600 and 200 BC, the ancient Athenians created a theater culture whose form, technique and terminol...

Along with Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, Othello is one of four Shakespeare's greatest play that deals with tragedies. More than anything else, what distinguishes Othello from its great tragedies appears in the role of its villain, Iago. Iago is a character who essentially writes the play&apo...

There are likely as many similarities between these two plays as there are dramatic differences. And yet, both are extremely well- written, both allow the audience to peek into the living rooms and lives of interesting people, and both also put a microscope on socie...

Sophocles uses a mixture of both visual and emotional imagery to create the morally questioning, Greek tragedy \'Oedipus Tyrannus\'. He presents the audience with an intense drama, which addresses the reality and importance of the gods that the Greeks fervently believed in. The play also forces th...

More Joy in Tragedy Tragedy is defined as a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. All definitions of tragedy and all tragic...