God of Carnage: Day 3; Aristotle's Poetics & Ancient Greek Theater

Period 1:

Please complete our viewing of The God of Carnage. As you watch the film based on the play (and when you read the script of the play), examine the characters:

• Alan Raleigh
• Annette Raleigh
• Michael Novak
• Veronica Novak

Using the character types we discussed last class, argue what kind of character or what role(s) these 4 characters play within the drama. How do they shift or balance or grow or conflict? Which are protagonists or antagonists and when does this role shift in the play/film? Use evidence from the film or play to support your answer. Take notes as you watch/read to help you build your case or answer.

Share your ideas with a neighbor or small group after viewing. Due to elections, rehearsals, and coffeehouse performances, turn in your work today (if you have it done) or Tuesday, Nov. 15. This is an extension on the homework.

After turning in your homework/classwork on the character analysis, please turn in your script. Before we move forward to the beginning of theater, you should know who Yasmina Reza is and what she wrote. Contemporary writer.

Now for something a little ancient:

Period 2:

Aristotle’s Poetics (circa 330 B.C.E.)

Aristotle Introduction

Here's a 20 point summary of the first established literary critic's masterpiece "The Poetics" by Aristotle.

1. People like to imitate and learn.
2. Arts (Epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dithyrambic poetry, flute-playing, lyre playing) are all modes of imitation. Just as color and form are used by artists, the voice, language, and harmony are used singularly or in combination. IE. Theatrical arts are REPRESENTATIVE of reality, not reality in and of themselves.
3. Objects of imitation should be above our common ilk; characters in a play/subject matter should be of high quality (and scope).
4. Poetry soon broke into two parts: tragedy/comedy. Serious poets would write about serious subjects; Humorous poets would write about frivolous and happy subjects.
5. Tragedy originated out of the dithyramb (choral ode); Comedy out of phallic songs.
6. Aeschylus limited his chorus, introduced the “second” actor, and made the dialogue take the leading part of the play.
7. Sophocles introduced the third actor.
8. As tragedy deals with noble subjects, comedy imitates men worse than average.
9. Tragedy is different from epic (although both are serious) in length, in one kind of verse (narrative form); epic includes tragedy, but tragedy does not necessarily include epic.
10. Aristotle’s six parts of a play:

a. Plot
b. Character
c. Theme (Idea)
d. Spectacle
e. Melody
f. Language (diction)

11. Plays should have a beginning, middle, end
12. Plays should not include so much as to bore, or too little
13. It is better in a tragedy for a good person to come to ruin, rather than a bad person
14. It is better to create catharsis from language and plot, rather than spectacle
15. Characters should have a discovery (anagnorisis) that leads to a turning point or crisis/climax (peripety) (plural peripeties)
16. The chorus should act together as a “character” and integral to the whole
17. Characters should act according to verisimilitude (semblance of reality).
18. Diction should be clear, correct, poetic, but not inessential.
19. Plot should be made up of probable events
20. The poet, being an imitator (like a painter) must represent things either as they are, or as they are said to be, or as they ought to be – which is accomplished by skillful use of language to create a catharsis (emotional purging) in the viewer of a play.

Key Words to Know:

• Hamartia (fatal or tragic flaw)
• Catharsis
• Peripety
• Deus Ex Machina
• Comedy
• Tragedy
• Dithyramb

Play Reading: Begin reading Antigone by Sophocles. Sign up for a role on the role sheet. Let's read the introduction and then begin the play itself. I will have to leave for a meeting with my district accusers half way through the period most likely.

HOMEWORK: Complete the character analysis for God of Carnage if you have not already done so. Please bring your Antigone scripts back with you next class as we continue to discuss Greek Theater.