Plautus, a proud Roman playwright, is best known for his work as a dramatist and his comedic plays. Some of the few works that survived the time period, Plautus gives readers a look into the start of the comedic genre as it was developed. Daily routine and average people seem to be the basis of all of his works, especially most of the plays seen in the collection Plautus: The Pot of Gold and Other Plays. In this paper, I will discuss each of the plays included in the collection and their main themes. All were comedic acts with an underlying message Plautus wanted the reader or viewer to pick up on. The first work was “Pot of Gold.” The main character that Plautus pokes fun at is Euclio. Euclio is an incredibly stingy, poor man who is worried with nothing more than keeping his fortune safe. This gold, worth a life changing amount, is viewed …show more content…
The egotistical solider, Pyrogopolinices, believes that he is irresistible to all women, having the ability to pick whatever woman he wanted as his own. This vanity is the exact thing that gets him beat at the end of the play. Pyrogopolinices abducts Philocomasium, the courtesan and lover of Pleusicles. Palaestrio, the slave of Pleusicles, goes to tell his master what has happened and in the end, is captured and put in the same house at Philocomasium. Keeping their friendship under the radar, the two find ways to reunite the lovers and to eventually free themselves from Pyrogopolinices. Pyrogopolinices is convinced to release the two from his capture because the wife of his neighbor is begging to be with him. With the ego mentioned earlier, Pyrogopolinices is aroused and it is an offer he cannot resist. However, after the release of the lover, the slave, and the man from Athens, Pyrogopolinices goes to his neighbor’s house expecting his new lover to be there, when instead he is met with beatings by Periplecomenus and his
Hippolytus is secretly in love with his father’s political prisoner, Aricia, and is almost at the point of losing all of the unloving pride that he is so proud to have maintained all his life. At the same time, his step-mother, Phaedra, is almost at her breaking point of revealing her overwhelming love for her step-son. Just like any normal teenager, Hippolytus craves the relationship with the pretty young girl and is appalled at the thought of the relationship that his step-mother is attempting to pursue. Likewise, in Tartuffe there is a young man, Damise, who longs to marry the sister of his sister’s future husband. Damise’s father, Orgon, calls of the wedding between Damise’s sister and her fiancé, Voliere, and instead tells her she will marry his deceitful guest, Tartuffe. Thus, it becomes impossible for Damise to marry Voliere’s sister and Damise is appalled by the relationship of his sister and Tartuffe. Tartuffe, the hypocrite praised by Orgon, tries to warm up to Orgon’s wife when he is not around, making another forbidden relationship that Damise does not want to
Pyrocles arrived in Arcadia and fell in love with Philoclea with a picture of her, then with Philoclea herself. Pyrocles who at this point is infatuated with Philoclea decides to become a woman. The reader understands Zelmane takes advantage of the forms of courtesy and friendship, trying to seduce Philoclea.
...lts of the insolent suitors in his own home. The anger of Odysseus is only matched by Telemachus whose restraint is forcefully elevated in order to hamper his new mature instinct of defending his father. Meanwhile, Odysseus is forced to couple this with control over holding his love, Penelope, in his arms. Yet, both characters are able to avoid the impediments and at last battle side by side against their foes.
Set ages apart, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex provide different perspectives on the topic of tragedy and what is defined as a tragic hero. Although Oedipus would be thought of as better representing the tragic hero archetype due to tradition and time period, the modern tragic hero of Oedipus Rex is more of a dismal one. Through analysis of their respective hamartias, it is exemplified that the New York businessman with his humble story proves to be more thought provoking than the King of Thebes and his melancholic tale. **By incorporating a more relatable character and plot, Arthur Miller lends help to making Willy Lowman spiral toward his own downfall while building more emotion and response from the audience than with Oedipus. When Oedipus learns of his awful actions, this invokes shock and desperation.
Roche, Paul. The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles. The New English Library Limited, London. New York and Scarborough, Ontario. 1958.
In the play, the women of Greece united to determine the affairs of the Peloponnesian War that was ensuing. Tired of their men being away for years to fight for their country, the women bound together and chose to handle matters themselves. The first part of the plan was to obtain control of the Acropolis entitling the women to control the finances of the polis. The second part of the plan was to withhold sex from their men until a treaty could be bound. This plan was no easy task due to the limitations of women’s rights and civil liberties. By withholding sex and taking control of the Acropolis from the men, they were able to change the outcome of the war and decide the matters of the polis.
Worthen, W. B. (2000). Oedipus the King. The Harcourt Brace anthology of drama (3rd ed., pp.
For ten years of Odysseus’ journey to Ithaca, all he wanted was to be a good husband to Penelope. One of Odysseus’s characteristic is being protective to his loved ones such as his wife and son. For Odysseus, family was his important mission, the reason of why he had to be home to Ithaca, knowing that the disgraceful suitors didn’t understand what “love and value” is Odysseus explained to them that Penelope is not just a woman, but also a human who deserves respect and love. Telemachus may not be the same as Odysseus, may not be skilled in battles and doesn’t have the knowledge about battles but Telemachus is his son and he is part of the family. With that say, while Odysseus was still traveling home by seas, the suitors Antinous and Eurymachus were the ones who had always schemed a plan how to kill Telemachus and how to win Penelope.
Corrigan, Robert W. Classical Tragedy, Greek and Roman: 8 Plays in Authoritative Modern Translations Accompanied by Critical Essays. New York, NY: Applause Theatre Book, 1990. Print.
The play was considered comic by the ancient Athenians because of its rhyming lyricism, its song and dance, its bawdy puns, but most of all because the notion and methods of female empowerment conceived in the play were perfectly ridiculous. Yet, as is the case in a number of Aristophanes’ plays, he has presented an intricate vision of genuine human crisis. In true, comic form Aristophanes superficially resolves the play’s conflicts celebrating the absurdity of dramatic communication. It is these loose threads that are most rife with tragedy for modern reader. By exploring an ancient perspective on female domesticity, male political and military power, rape, and efforts to maintain the integrity of the female body, we can liberate our modern dialogue.
One of Shakespeare's earliest plays (its first recorded performance in December 1594), The Comedy of Errors has frequently been dismissed as pure farce, unrepresentative of the playwright's later efforts. While Errors may very well contain farcical elements, it is a complex, layered work that draws upon and reinterprets Plautine comedy. Shakespeare combines aspects of these Latin plays with biblical source material, chiefly the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline Epistle to the Ephesians. While Menaechmi is the most frequently cited classical source for Errors, Plautus' Amphitruo is just as relevant an influence; Shakespeare's treatment of identity and its fragility is derived from this latter work. Of course, there are many other structural and thematic resonances between the three texts: each of the plays, to varying degrees, deal with the issues of identity, violence and slavery, while displaying a keen awareness of aspects of performativity, specifically the figure of the playwright, and the role of the audience.
The character of Troilus before Shakespeare’s play can be seen as a perfect archetype for the tragic romantic. His love is fated by the gods from the beginning. The romance and relationship with Cressida is elevated to that of a noble crusade. Then as if Sophocles himself dictated the events we see the achievement, conflict and eventual downfall. As with many of Shakespeare’s works we see that tradition and myth are great platforms for satire and irony. The noble and honorable Troilus approaches Cressida and instead of tragic hero we meet comedic melodramatic. The epic expressions of devotion and intent are drawn out to the point of ridicule and hyperbole. Although they may see inline with the Roman and Greek traditions of tragedy at first, the addition of flat and even openly sarcastic responses from Cressida cause the reader to question whether Troilus is noble and devoted in his actions or obsessive and pathetic. Where there was fate and honor we now see neurosis and narcissism. Dialogue from traditional tales such as:
Meanwhile, the only mortal woman to incur any suffering in this play is Phaedra herself, and she chooses her final fate. This theme is so obvious that Hippolytus points it out himself. “But a clever woman—that I loathe! . For Cypris engenders more mischief in the clever ones.” (Hippolytus, Lines 644-646).
...comes an ultimate tragedy because Hippolytus rejects her love for him. Her passion becomes too monstrous turning her ill emotionally and physically. She has become a slave to her emotions. She becomes an emotional wreck seeking to take her own life. But the love that Phaedra feels for Hippolytus is too immense that her emotions pulsate through her veins like a river. For love is indeed destructive and this is what Oenone admonishes to Phaedra. There is a sense of isolation that comes with the declaration because she knows that what she is doing very atrocious. She is in a constant battle with love and sin. Phaedra vows to take this chance and in the end she committed suicide from this tragedy. Phaedra’s ultimate quest to confess her love for Hippolytus in the event, she uses strong word choice, imagery, metaphor, and symbolism to channel and convey her emotions.
Theater is a natural outlet for our desire to hear and tell stories, and in some ways it is even more primal and powerful than the written word. At its worst, theater will merely bore; while at its best it will not only entertain but move and shape its audience. Two such genres of theater, or drama, have consistently achieved this effect. Tragedy, represented by the weeping actors’ mask, usually features the title character’s fall from greatness to ruin, guided by the gods or fate. Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, is the epitome of classic Tragedy, as defined by Aristotle (96-101). Here, Oedipus falls from kingship to blindness and exile. Drama’s other great genre, Comedy, is represented by the laughing actors’ mask. In Comedy the action is usually propelled by a problem or crisis of some sorts, but unlike tragedy it usually ends well. Lysistrata, written by Aristophanes, is a perfect example of classic Comedy. The farcical story line follows the title character, who rallies the women of Greece to withhold sex from their mates all in the good cause of ending war. At first glance these two genres would seem to have nothing in common with each other. Comedy entails laughter and good feelings while the audience will leave a Tragedy in tears. But the best of Comedy and the best of Tragedy will produce the same affect: catharsis. Catharsis is the purgation and purifying of the emotions, specifically fear or pity. (“Catharsis”) The plays that manage to produce catharsis in their audience are the ones that we return to time and time again. Although catharsis is one of the main objectives of Greek Tragedy (Jacobus 34), Comedy done well will shape and move its audience in the same way. These two classic genres use characters that are co...