An Evolution of Tragedy

A detailed Summary of An Evolution of Tragedy

An "imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and has sufficient size, in a language that is made sweet...exciting pity and fear, bringing about a catharsis of such emotions," is now Aristotle defined tragedy (trans. Gudeman). Basic Greek tragedies, like Sophocles' Antigone, have transformed through the centuries. Shakespeare's King Lear displays a blatant evolution of character, theme, and plot structure. This, in turn, caused a revolution in the genre, providing a new audience with new interests and economic stature. More complex standards were set for tragedies to come.

In Antigone Sophocles created a story lacking complexity for the most part. This left the audience to simply experience the play and not have to do much contemplation along the way. There was no sub-plot in Antigone, which also aids in the simplicity of this piece. This provides a basic example of works from this time period.

King Lear has a more intricate plot than that of Antigone. The main plotline of the story involves a king named Lear who banished his daughter Cordelia. Lear also has two other daughters, Regan and Goneril, who have split his former kingdom. Their marriages to Cornwall and Albany diverge into their own subplot, if you will, but

King Lear gives a dramatic speech when he finally realizes that banishing Cordelia was a tremendous mistake. This also happens to be the climax of the story. Self-realization can be very powerful and emotional when displayed for such an audience. To see such a strong and resilient character like Lear retrogress into a mere shadow of his former self, and then recognize that he's left with nothing, pulls the audience into Lear's life and they sympathize with him.

Complexity is not used as a negative trait in King Lear. The complicated plot and sub-plot help to keep the story interesting and the audience attentive. This also introduces a number of different emotions to the audience, and not all of these are stem from pity and fear. "Pillicock sat on Pillicock Hill. Alow, alow, loo, loo," (Shakespeare 73) rambles Poor Tom. There is some comedic relief provided by such crazy characters as the Fool and Poor Tom, which helps to break up the tragic mood otherwise invoked by the play itself.

There is an apparent progression between Antigone's characters and those of King Lear. The individuals in King Lear show more personality and develop throughout the play more than those of Antigone. Through time, characters have become more three-dimensional, like real people one would meet in everyday life. As time goes by, people are constantly looking for people to identify with. They look for characteristics in others that they also find in themselves. The use of these three-dimensional characters displays somewhat of a more sophisticated version of the original Greek plays, but not necessarily better. A good writer writes about what or whom they know, and in so doing, an audience grows to know the characters as well as their own family. The audience sees the personalities of Lear, Cordelia, or Edgar, and can actually say, "I know someone like that." This really personalizes the play for the audience, making fear more frightening and pity more compassionate.

The characters of Antigone and King Lear overlap in some respects and the evolution from Antigone to King Lear is evident. Antigone addresses the predicament of the story when she states "But Polynices, just an unhappily fallen - the order says he is not to be buried, not to be mourned; to be

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Approximate Word count = 1519
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English