ENG 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Lyric Poetry, Aeschylus, Euripides
17 May 2016
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Aeschylus: serious plays dealing with inherited sin. Sophocles: the most psychological of playwrights, breathes life into his characters, meaning of life and death, fate, free will, etc. Euripides: many women-related plays, anti-war plays, combination of tragedy and comedy, most performed today. *the many life-related ideas portrayed by the dramatists are later picked up by the philosophers. Aristotle: philosopher, scientist, first literary critic, says that drama is all about mimesis an imitation of life, literature is supposed to inform and delight, plot is the most important thing. *the best of plays have the reversal occurring because of the anagnorisis. The perfect character is heroic and good, but has some sort of flaw (hamartia, usually pride) The fall of this character creates a sense of pity and fear. Pity because of the horrible and unearned fate of the hero. Fear because it could easily happen to us. Greek theatre was born when poet bacchylides wrote his lyric poems from the character"s perspectives.
