The Development of Drama in Greece
1). Drama is the most perfect form of literary art. Aristotle traces traces the stages of the rise of drama. It has originated in from the rituals associated with the festivals of Dionysus. Dionysus is a very interesting god . Originally he was not a Greek god. He came on the way from east but soon became very popular god . He had many functions. He was god of wine , ectasy, inspiration and prophecy. He was also the god of poetry, drama, and culture. He was, above all, the saviour god like Jesus. He died a violent death and then came back to life . Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross and on third day came back to life . They celebrate his death and resurrection. The followers of Dionysus celebrated his resurrection exactly as the Christians do . They celebrated his resurrection by eating a piece of bread and wine and thought that they were eating his flesh and blood. It was celebrated with great deal of enthusiasm and ecstasy. This was celebrated once in a year in spring . So the people had to meet at one place to celebrate his death and resurrection.
The earliest form of celebration was dance and choral song . There would be a group of singers who would dance in a circle and sing a song about Dionysus, his life and particularly his death and resurrection. The songs were sung with gestures and movements. From this developed the first stage of drama.
2) The next stage was that when the leader of the chorus was separated from the chorus and dialogue between the leader and the chorus took place. Dialogue was the exchange of questions and answers. The chorus would ask rhetorical questions and the leader would give the replies in the form of singing. So this became a sort of drama . If the story of Imam Hussain is related on stage it would become that type of ritual but this would be the sad drama. The Muslims also celebrate this occasion but there is difference ... The occasion with sadness and with a very sad end but those celebrations ended with a happy end because Dionysus came to life back. There was a kind of lamentation when they talked about his death buy the occasion did end with happy note, with anew note and with a new life . To them nature would come to life back, which was dead , on this occasion with the resurrection of Dionysus .
3) Then we have the writes Thespis who introduced a new actor , who was not a part of the chorus. He acted along with the leader of the chorus the story of Dionysus. So we had the actor playing different roles.
4) Then came Aeschylus, a great playwright. He introduced a second actor and developed the play in magnitude . He made dramatic part more important than the choral part. Secondly he introduced the mask , the dress and shoes actors wore . long shoes were essential dress used in tragedy , was introduced by him. The great contribution was that he did not use the story of Dionysus alone but introduced stories about other heroes. The heroes were taken from Greek mythology. Thus, the dramatic part was not confined to Dionysus.
5) Then came Sophocles . He introduced the third actor . Now dramatic part became more important than the choral part. Chorus was still there but it was going to the background. While the dramatic part was coming to the foreground. To Sophocles the artistic construction of plot is owed. His plot has a proper beginning, transitional middle and convincing end. What is more important according to Aristotle is discovery and reversal. Sophocles showed sufficient skill in handling the discovery. He brought about the discovery in the course of logical development of the story.His manner is the most perfect and artistic. So here tragedy reaches its peak.
Aristotle considers Euripides to be a great playwright but according to him the declined had already started . Aristotle is not concerned with the religious view of Euripides, but talking about art. He is the last man .After that drama went on declining. It became imitative . Here again we see the infancy, youth,maturity, decline and then death of drama. These are the various stages of the development of drama and is the highest and last stage of the development of poetry.......
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