The Greek TheatreEntertaining the masses

The first plays• The first plays were performed with just one actor (called a protagonist) and a chorus of

people who helped him to tell the story. However, throughout the 5th century BC playwrights continued to innovate.

• The playwright Aeschylus added a second speaking role, called the antagonist, and reduced the chorus from 50 to 12. His play 'The Persians', first performed in 472 BC, is the oldest surviving of all Greek plays.

• His pupil, Sophocles went on to add a third actor, while Euripides added both a prologue, introducing the subject of the play, and the deus ex machina, a divine figure who wrapped up any loose ends at the close.

Theatre of DionysusThe first plays were performed in the Theatre of Dionysus, built in the shadow of the Acropolis in Athens (fortress usually built at the top of a hill) at the beginning of the 5th century, but theatres proved to be so popular they soon spread all over Greece. It is a major open-air theatre and one of the earliest preserved in Athens. It was used for festivals in honor of the god Dionysus. Sophocles won the festival many times for his production of The Oedipus Plays (Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus).

Three types of drama● Comedy● Satyr● Tragedy

Comedy• The first comedies were

mainly satirical and mocked men in power for their vanity and foolishness. The first master of comedy was the playwright Aristophanes.

• Much later Menander wrote comedies about ordinary people and made his plays more like sit-coms.

SatyrThese short plays were performed between the acts of tragedies and made fun of the plight of the tragedy's characters. The satyrs were mythical half-human, half-goat figures and actors in these plays wore large phalluses for comic effect. Few examples of these plays survive. They are classified by some authors as tragicomic, or comedy dramas.

Tragedy• Tragedy dealt with the big themes of love, loss, pride, the

abuse of power and the fraught relationships between men and gods. Typically the main protagonist of a tragedy commits some terrible crime without realizing how foolish and arrogant he has been. Then, as he slowly realizes his error, the world crumbles around him.

• The three great playwrights of tragedy were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

• Aristotle argued that tragedy cleansed the heart through pity and terror, purging us of our petty concerns and worries by making us aware that there can be nobility in suffering. He called this experience 'catharsis'.

• Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King), written by Sophocles, is a tragedy.

The Tragic HeroQualities, characteristics and examples

DefinitionA tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction.

QualitiesAristotle once said,"A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall."

An Aristotelian tragic hero must possess specific characteristics, five of which are below:

1) Flaw or error of judgment (hamartia)

2) A reversal of fortune (peripeteia) brought about because of the hero's error in judgment.

3) The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions (anagnorisis)

4) Excessive Pride (hubris)

5) The character's fate must be greater than deserved (catharsis)

Additional traitsSome additional traits of a tragic hero include the following:

● Hero must suffer more than he deserves. ● Hero must be doomed from the start, but bears no responsibility for possessing his flaw. ● Hero must be noble in nature, but imperfect so that the audience can see themselves in him. ● Hero must have discovered his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him. ● Hero must understand his doom, as well as the fact that his fate was discovered by his own actions. ● Hero's story should arouse fear and empathy. ● Hero must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death. ● The hero must be intelligent so he may learn from his mistakes. ● The hero must have a weakness, usually it is pride.● He has to be faced with a very serious decision that he has to make.

**With a partner, write down three examples of a tragic hero (i.e. novels, tv, movies, real life, etc.)

Examples of tragic heroesLiterature and Texts

● Walter White, Breaking Bad● Dexter Morgan, Dexter● Ned Stark, Game of Thrones● Hank Moody, Californication● Jax Teller, Sons of Anarchy● Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight● Romeo, Romeo and Juliet● Hamlet, Hamlet● Jay Gatsby, The Great Gatsby● Holden, The Catcher in the Rye

Real Life (Celebrities)

● Tiger Woods● Barry Bonds● Charlie Sheen● Michael Jackson● Mike Tyson● Lance Armstrong● Michael Vick● Miley Cyrus● Justin Bieber● Lindsay Lohan

Assignment 9/28/15Directions: With your table group (one sheet per group) create a list of four tragic heroes from the following categories (one example per category): ● Literature● Television● Film● The Real World (celebrities, athletes, etc.)

For each category, you will write the name of each character/person and then include 3-4 complete sentences to explain the tragic heroe qualities that each example possesses.