Similarities Between Roman And Roman Cinema

Most readers are aware of the many famous deaths or acts of death within the Shakespearean plays. And when the main characters die in Shakespeare’s plays, indeed, the readers would categorize the play as a tragedy. The problem with any tragedy definition is that most tragic plays do not define the tragedy conditions explained or outlined by Aristotle. According to Telford (1961), a tragedy is a literary

Classical tragedian Euripides’s play Medea is often hailed as a work of art and one of the best plays to survive from ancient Greece; however, if examined by Aristotle's standard, outlined in his book Poetics, it lacks all the necessary elements of a well-written tragedy. In his book, Aristotle clearly states that a good tragedy must imitate things as they have the possibility of being, but not merely recounting what has already taken place; they must incorporate peripety, recognition, a plot that meets his standards, a tragic hero, and catharsis.

In the works of Greek and Roman literature many aspects of their writings are similar. For example, in both Greek and Roman literature universality is stressed which means that we are only moved by the fall of the heroes in their plays because we can relate to their situations and project ourselves into similar circumstances. I believe that is completely true, only through the fall of our heroes we see ourselves in the characters. Before their downfalls, we don’t see us in them because they seem basically perfect. Since none of us are perfect it is only when they make mistakes leading to their downfall we see that the heroes are like us.

The play demonstrates recognition of Othello in Act V, his character changes from gullible and insecure to aware. The ideas of Aristotelian tragic components are discussed in depth in his Poetics. Aristotelian components include; the importance of events, the catharsis, the dramatic form, the reversal and recognition, and the tragic hero giving substantial proof that the play is an Aristotelian tragedy, and that Othello is a tragic hero according to Aristotle.

In the Roman Empire, culture was almost solely dependent on the several forms of entertainment, which consisted of various sports along with theatre. Panem et circenses, meaning “bread and circuses”, was penned by the Roman poet Juvenal who wrote that those were the only two things the people “anxiously desire”. The phrase is used by Juvenal to deplore/condemn the declining heroism of the Romans after the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the heavy-handed Roman Empire began. The government kept the Roman populace happy by disrupting free food (bread) and staging huge spectacles (circuses). Spectacle, or spectaculum - meaning “a show”, is a term of art in theatre, referring to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Playwrights would use humour in their plays to connect with the audience as a chorus of laughter meant that the audience were attentive. As a playwright’s main focus was to entertain and teach, the attention of the audience was essential. Roman dramatists like Plautus incorporated humour in many of his plays to achieve the praise of audiences.

Characters within a Greek tragedy should follow a basic set of guidelines in order to fit the premise of Aristotle’s poetics. The characters presented to the viewer should “be consistent, good, likeable, and of high status and reputation, but do not need to perfect” (Connelly).

In the Poetics, Aristotle provides an outline of how the artist is to portray or represent the perfect Tragedy. A Tragedy, of course, was nothing more than a drama, in which the characters appeared "better" than in real life (in a comedy, they appeared "worse," according to Aristotle). Aristotle's Poetics makes several references to other dramatic works to illustrate his points, but he most commonly calls upon The Odyssey to support his argument for how a dramatic structure should be designed. However, along with the Odyssey, Aristotle extensively references Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Both poetic works were enormously popular in their time (the former had been passed down orally for generations, and the latter won the top prizes at the dramatic festivals). Therefore, Aristotle is comfortable using both to support his viewpoint concerning Tragedy and the Tragic Hero. This paper will analyze the standards that Aristotle sets out concerning the definition of the Tragic Hero and show how Sophocles' Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle's definition of a Tragic Hero.

In the late fourth century, Roman society had changed in two things: Christianity had become a powerful social, political, and religious force, and the Roman spectacles had grown to enormous proportions. Even though the games were supported by the emperors, those spectacles experienced some changes, especially because of a special legislation that produced norms on their performance.

‘Othello’ was written between 1601 and 1603. It was first performed in the Elizabethan courts during the Christmas season. The idea of a ‘perfect’ tragedy is the idea that the tragedy is faultless; it does what is expected; so makes the audience feel empathy and sympathy for the characters who suffer. There are two different types of tragedy: classical tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy. The tragic hero in this play is the main character, Othello. Othello's misfortune comes about because of his jealousy, trust, and his pride. This essay aims to look at, and compare, how Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, and how other tragedies are written. I will mainly compare ‘Othello’, for Shakespearean tragedy, and ‘Oedipus Rex’, by Sophocles, for

The Etruscans were famous for emphasizing circus-like elephants and things like them. Most Roman theatre was very parodied and exaggerated during the 1st century BC. Slowly the show 's got more and more realistic as time went on.

Greek theatre and medieval drama were both very popular artistic events in their own periods of performance. However, from ancient Greece to the renaissance, time has set them apart in terms of methodology; their practitioners use a creative process based off of different mindsets. Therefore, the significant time lapse between the two genres has had an evident impact on the way theatre was perceived and presented. In comparing aspects such as religious motivations, conditions of violence and character development, the distinct theatrical natures of Greek theatre and medieval drama will be made apparent.

Apart from the colossal amount of Greek plays that contain tragedies in the history of showings, there lies a wondrous assemblage that stands alone. This collection is meant to service our great people with humorous reassurance from the extreme connotation of tragedy and misfortune. The people of these great city states rejoice in celebration after these showings, intended to neutralize the solemness and earnest lifestyle that comes with living in our Greek society. If you asked me to compare the concepts expressed in comedies and in tragedies, I would merely laugh at the contradictoriness of these opposing forms of play writing. However, even the atypical nature of this comedy there is an underlying value that yearned for awareness of

Tragedy as a form works differently than modern drama when compared to the ancient Greeks. When it comes to modern drama, the main character is usually an ordinary person, someone who is middle class. Where as with Greek tragedy, the main character is someone important and noble, such as a king or queen. Modern drama revolves around everyday problems such as social, economical, or personal conflicts. Greek Tragedies seem to be very linear. It’s mostly about the hero making a bad decision from the beginning of the play, which leads to his or her downfall in the end. Although, they were of higher ranking, ancient Greek’s beliefs made the main character powerless to avoid their fate, which was controlled by the gods. As far as conventions go, Greek Tragedies are very unified. The tragedy of the royal protagonist will go through only one time span, a day or less, one setting, and one story. In a modern tragedy, however, the ordinary protagonist’s story goes through multiple realistic settings and a realistic time line. Also, the story would contain multiple plots, which may contain flashbacks.

The closer we examine early Christian life alongside ancient Greek and Roman cultures, the vast differences on how they individually viewed life becomes apparent. The ancient Greeks and Romans beheld extreme importance in living the good life with the view of living in the here and now, whereas early Christianity was concentrated on living a life for the hereafter. These two drastically different life views are best revealed through the independent ways in which figures were depicted and how faith was expressed through symbolism in works of art, in addition to the way in which religious architecture was arranged during these time periods.

Aristotle defines a tragedy as a ‘representation of an action which is important, complete and limited in length. It is enacted not recited and by arousing pity and fear, it gives an outlet to emotions of this type.’