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Oresteia Essay

Decent Essays

The Six Aristotelian Elements of a Play

1. Plot – these are the events or incidents that take place on the stage. The plot is clearly defined problems that the characters must solve. The plot is very different from the story line and is chronological detailing events that have happened on and off stage. Events that happen off stage are often introduced through a narrative dialogue. The playwrights often create a plot that is sincere and astounding.
2. Characters – agents of the play, they provide motivation for the plot. “Vivid Characters” are the ones who are faced with “obstacles that we the audience can recognise”.
3. Theme – the reason behind why the playwright wrote the play. “Patterns of life”, a slice of reality.
4. Language – the …show more content…

In tragedy men are better than they really are – idealised.
• Shows how humans are better in real life.
• The great hero, who is brought low by his wife, Clytaemnestra, a good woman and an evil wife, also an ideal of a murderous wife.
• This story comes in the form of dramatic action.
• Characters speak as themselves.
• The action takes place over one day, the play goes back to the Trojan War and carry on in the play Oresteia. The turning point is Agamemnon and Cassandra being killed.
• Pity, fear and emotions are purged through the dramatic actions. The scene contains painful actions such as death on stage, bodily agony and wounds.
• A tragic hero, “an extraordinarily man, who brings misfortune on himself.
• Reversal “a change in the play that is transformed into their opposite.
• A change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between persons; the poet for good or bad fortune.
• The best recognition can be reversal in any situation.
• We learn why Clytaemnstra must kill her husband, therefore the actions are not clear. There is no clear recognition for the hero, Agamemnon’s death is unwitting, but Casandra recognises the impending slaughter and tells the audience and the chorus why we cannot understand

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