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Medieval Drama

• Medieval theatre refers to theatrical performance in the period

between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century
A.D. and the beginning of the Renaissance in approximately the 15th
century A.D. Medieval Theatre covers all drama produced in Europe
over that thousand-year period and refers to a variety of genres.

• Miracle plays – dramatized events from the bible

• Saint plays – based on legends of saints
• Mystery plays – based on biblical history
• Passion plays – address the last week of Christ’s life
• Morality plays – taught the difference between right and
wrong (context of devil and God battling for souls).
 English Renaissance Drama
• English Renaissance theatre is English drama written between the Reformation
and the closure of the theaters in 1642, after the Puritan revolution. It may also be
called early modern English theatre. It includes the drama of William Shakespeare,
along with many other famous dramatists, such as Ben Jonson and Christopher
Marlow.

• English Renaissance drama is sometimes called Elizabethan drama, since its most

important developments started when Elizabeth I was Queen of England from 1558
 to 1603. But this name is not very accurate; the drama continued after Elizabeth's
death, into the reigns of King James I (1603–1625) and his son King Charles I
 (1625–1649).

• Renaissance theater derived from several medieval theater traditions, such as the 
mystery plays that formed a part of religious festivals in England and other parts of
Europe during the Middle Ages.
• Playwrights worked in both the classic types of drama, tragedy and comedy. They
also began their own type of history play, mainly about earlier English kings and the
events of their reigns. Shakespeare's Richard III and Marlowe's Edward II are two
examples of this type of English history play.
 Greek Terminology
• Parados: A song sung by the Chorus on first entering
• Stasimon: Greek choral ode between the episodes.
• Kommos: A dirge or lament sung by the Chorus and one
or more of the chief characters.
• Exodos: The final scene, containing the play's resolution.
• Catharsis: A purging or cleansing of the emotions- a
release of tension. It is achieved by two emotions: pity&
fear.
• Hubris: Greek word for excessive pride or arrogance.
• Hamartia: A defect in the character of the tragic hero.
 Greek Gods and Goddesses

• Zeus: god of the sky

• Hera: goddess of marriage, motherhood and families.
• Ares: god of war.
• Artemis: goddess of virginity, childbirth, and hunting.
• Apollo: god of prophecy and oracles, music, song and
poetry.
• Dionysus: goddess of fertility and wine.
• Hades: god of the underworld and death.
• Athena: goddess of wisdom, arts, crafts, and war.
 Aristotle’s Tragedy
• A good plot has Peripety or Discovery--sometimes both.

• Peripety is the change from one state of things at the beginning of the
play to the exact opposite state by the end of the play. This could be
something like the change from being rich to being poor, or from being
powerful to being powerless, or from being a ruler to being a beggar. The
change that takes place in a tragedy should take the main character (and
possibly other characters) from a state of happiness to a state of misery.

• Discovery is a change from ignorance to knowledge. This often happens

to the tragic hero who starts out “clueless” and slowly learns how he
himself created the mess he ends up in at the end of the play.
 Oedipus a Tragic Hero
• Aristotle believes that the tragic hero must be a character of noble
stature and greatness. Under this heading, Oedipus occupies the
highest position in society. He was the King of Thebes. He had royal
blood because his father was indeed a King.

• In Aristotle's understanding, all tragic heroes have a "hamartia.“ The

flaw of Oedipus was his conviction that he can elude the oracle, his
destiny and the will of the gods. Oedipus thought that he can avoid
the oracle or his dreadful fate that he will murder his own father and
marry his own mother.

• Aristotle’s story of a tragic hero must be a source of self-discovery

and learning for its audience. The tragic fate of Oedipus was meant
for people to learn from his mistakes, and thus allow us to overcome
unhealthy tendencies in life.
 Dr. Faustus a Tragic Hero
• According to Aristotle, the tragic hero must be of a higher status. As a doctor, Faustus
already stands in a higher position than others. Faustus is also a man of a higher status
because of the degree of education that he has received in his life in which it is stated
that he has learned the ways of logic, law, medicine, and religion. This shows that
Faustus is a man of a much higher education than most people even hope for.

• The second definition that Aristotle points out is the fact that the main character must
have a hamartia or a characteristic flaw. Faustus actually has quite a few flaws that
make up his character, but two flaws that stand out the most are his ambition and
greed. From the beginning of the play, Faustus’s ambition was to gain knowledge
through a noble art. His choice to sell his soul to Lucifer in order to feed this ambition
and greed is what directly leads to Faustus’s eventual downfall.

• Faustus does learn a vital lesson of life by the end of the show. Once the twenty four
years of service come to an end, Faustus begins to realize the seriousness of the sins
he has committed. He comes to the conclusion that there is nobody to blame but
himself for what is about to happen. Dr. Faustus now fits the final criteria according to
Aristotle because he finally learns a lesson in humility. He now knows that selling your
soul for forbidden knowledge is a sin and that he must take responsibility for that
decision. 
 Literary Terms
• Drama: the genre of literature represented by works intended for the stage.

• Tragedy: a serious play that tells the story of a seemingly heroic figure
whose major character flaw causes the story to end with his tragic downfall.

• Comedy: a literary genre and a type of dramatic work that is amusing and

satirical in its tone, mostly having a cheerful ending.

• Soliloquy:  a literary device often used in drama when a character speaks to

himself or herself, relating thoughts and feelings, thereby also sharing them
with the audience.

• Comic relief: a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from

a comic episode interposed in the midst of serious or tragic elements in
a drama.
 Types of Greek Drama
Tragedy: character is confronted with a
difficult moral choice and usually ends in
.his or her death

Comedy: a humorous entertaining

.performance with a happy ending
 Two Types of Drama
1. Tragedy
• shows the downfall or death
of a tragic hero, or main
character. In ancient Greek
plays, the hero was a good
person brought down by a
tragic flaw, or defect in
character. In a modern plays,
the hero can be an normal
person destroyed by an evil in
society.
• emphasizes human greatness.
2. Comedy
• often shows a conflict
between opposite age
groups , genders, or
personality types.
• typical comedies involve
confusion, jokes, and a
happy ending.
• stresses human
weaknesses.