Coming to you just a bit late: Moliere Questions

1) As pretty and "refined" as it is, Moliere's characters use his verse as a weapon, wielding their rhymes against each other. What other plays or movies are you familiar with that do this, arm their characters with vicious verbs and pointed pronouns instead of, well, guns? Which form of attack do you find more engaging?

2) Moliere (and to some degree Shakespeare) used stock characters, recognizable archetypes/stereotypes for many of his plays. What sort of stereotypical characters do we see repeated over and over again in today's movies? What can take a stereotypical character and make it unique?

Shakespeare Questions

Heya guys! Thanks those of you who responded to the Greek questions. Take a look at these over the course of the Shakespeare unit:

1. On the surface, Shakespeare's dialogue is very different from how we speak today. What similarities do you find however, and why do you think these plays are still done?

2. Shakespeare is revered in part because he was a master of the comedic and the dramatic, the vulgar and the poetic, the great and the small. Which do you think the more "important" sort of performance, comedy or drama? What do both have to offer our society?

Ian

Jacki's Reflection

Hey to all...
As for those questions....
1. I believe that the purpose of drama today is to both entertain, and to teach people. It's purpose is to not only make people laugh, but to also get important issues across to them. As Brecht said, to make the audience think.

2. As far as unusual aspects of Greek theatre-no. Now maybe this is because i'm used to drama, and expect it to bring about Drama. However what does make me wonder is the fact that i believe Ian said that with Greek drama, a lot of the major action took place off stage, and the after math appeared on the stage. Now, i know that this was done because they didn't have the technology as we do today, but what about the attempt to heighten the intensity or mystery of what was "going on" backstage? I found it not cool that it was only performed once a year...but i suppose its understandable because drama was not popular back in the day like that.
That is all!

Greek Notes

Theatre began as a ritual to worship Bacchus, drama and wine. There was a chorus that told stories and praised Bacchus, and danced, very orgiastic. Then Thespis (ie thespian) got drunk and got out of line (literally) and made the great leap: impersonating the character, speaking for them, not just talking about them. Ah, the insights of wine.

Now, because the chorus danced while they performed, their words had to be in rhythm (again, just like rap). The beats in each line were called feet because of this and had two parts, stressed and unstressed, like a foot hitting the floor. Also, because they were talking about gods and heroes (and were very drunk) they needed elevated language.

Given the ritual nature of it, theatre was IMPORTANT. It was performed once a year, for the festival, in Athens. The winning playwright was HUGE. Only citizens (no women) could attend.
Structure of the festival: Satyr play (satire), then tragic trilogy (Only surviving trilogy: The Orestia)
Big Four: Aeschylus (the first, 525-456), Sophocles (the greatest 496-406, 123 plays, seven survive), Euripides (the innovator, 484-406), Aristophanes (the comedian).

Tropes: Chorus. Audiences address. Technical specs for performance (masks, stilts, doors, deus ex machine, seating, orchestra). Invocation of the gods. Stories the audience knew (and watching how it unfolds, character vs. plot, irony). Tragic structure (peripetiea (unintended effect), anagnorisis (realization), catastrophe (pity and fear), catharsis (purging)) Messenger speeches (violence offstage, occasional reveals (the Furies and giving birth)).

Questions for the Greeks

Alright, time to get some discussion going. Take a look at these two questions and submit your answers to the blog. There's no minimum/maximum length for your answers, but really think about what you're saying. Try to get your answers posted before we finish the Greek unit on Wednesday.

1. Greek drama had a very specific purpose, to lead to catharsis a "vomiting of emotion." What's do you think is the purpose of drama today? Is it just entertainment? Or should it try to accomplish more than that?

2. What things strike you as most unusual about Greek theatre? Have you discovered anything surprising or intriuging about it?

Ian

Those two poems

Here are those two poems, so you can explore them a little before class on Thursday. Look especially at which are the "scrumptious" words in each.

Love is not all: It is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain,
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
and rise and sink and rise and sink again.
Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
pinned down by need and moaning for release
or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It may well be. I do not think I would.


Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade
How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash;
And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.
Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads
Which long to muzzle in the hearts of lads.
Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth,
Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.
For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple.
There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;
And God will grow no talons at his heels,
Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Broughton Verse Blog! This forum is designed to give you a chance to share your reflections about the process of exploring text. In addition to answering the questions for eacdh unityFeel free to post anything you like, thoughts, links to other websites, your own poetry. Just remember, everyone in the class can see what you write, so be responsible in the dimension. Beyond that, the important thing with this blog, as with our study of verse, is being able to express that which you are passionate about.

Ian

Welcome!