Myth and music are the principal roots of drama. ... Adding a second actor and reducing the chorus from 50 to 12, Aeschylus laid the foundation for an aesthetics of drama that was to influence subsequent plays for well over 2,000 years. ... Studying the plots of a number of Greek tragedies, we find variations of two basic tragic situations: either the fatal situation is brought about by the man's miscalculation of reality or the characters find themselves between two conflicting principles and are confronted with a choice, the results of which are always fatal. ... The mass, with its d...

• Word Count: 1396
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Many critics evade commenting on Euripides's shift from the traditional Greek drama where men usually are the heroes. This unusual change in the Greek drama, exemplify Euripides" perception of women. ... His plays contain, hidden below the popular surface, an appeal to men to stop deceiving themselves about the benevolence of their institutions really involve (Vellacott, 10). // "His study of this, the most insistent and universal problem of human life, achieved a radical profundity, a freedom from conventional assumption, which was rare in his day as it has been in ever...

• Word Count: 881
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

"Medea" is a good play to study for its themes, as its structure makes them easily visible and definable. ... The fact that Euripides was very ahead of his time accounts for this, but all of the basic elements of the play are still current in many ways, which makes it an interesting piece of drama to study, and is why it should still be performed....

• Word Count: 879
• Approx Pages: 4

Soliloquies are when the characters are alone or at least they think they are and often used in drama, because there is no narrative point of view. ... Hamlets age is open to interpretation; however he is often known to be in young adulthood, since he returns from university studies to come home after his father's death. ...

• Word Count: 1574
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Question- Is King LEar a tragic tale of redemption or one who's final mood is one of pessimism? (8 mins) Critics tend to be divided on their responses to and opinions of Shakespeare's King Lear. Its complexity and somewhat ambiguity has hailed it a play unable to be staged. Ladies and Gentleman...

• Word Count: 1659
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School