THTR-T 371 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Agnes De Mille, Red Scare, Melodrama
26 Jan 2017
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24- arthur miller / the dawn of the musical. Miller believed he had to defend the writing of american tragedy, because critics said that they have no gods to fuel a greek tragedy form of writing; Miller responds by creating death of a salesman. How to explain the differences in definitions and tropes when we compare classic tragedy and classic melodrama. The male bus driver, the female school teacher, the bus full of children. The bus goes up and over a hill, and on the way down the bus loses control. Male bus driver has a heart attack and dies, bus careens down the hill. Female school teacher rushes to the front and grabs the wheel. If she succeeds and manages to resolve the horror, it"s melodrama. But what kind of tragedy if she tries and fails, and all the children die, it"s bad tragedy and everyone cries and feels cheated by watching something so awful.
