Drama has always fascinated people. Seeing other people’s fates presented on stage has for ages held an incredible attraction for the audience because it not only satisfies human curiosity, but it also functions as a means by which dramatists can take up current and relevant issues of the time and visualize these concerns in a comprehensible as well as literarily graspable way. Witnessing the action on stage and riding on an emotional ‘roller coaster’ during the play can lead to a certain relief at the end of the dramatic built-up, a relief of emotional stress. Human beings have developed two ways to handle this reduction of tension: laughing and crying. According to Aristotle, tragedy, in particular, is to evoke pity and fear when seeing the tragic hero fall and make the audience leave the theatre clarified and purified by this experienced catharsis.
Aristotle uses this term in a medical sense. For him, fear (phobos) arouses the audience to an emotional climax, pity (eleos) breaks down the bottled-up sensations and leaves the audience pleased and relieved by this ‘controlled working off’2. Gelfert defines tragedy as a ‘societal psychotherapy’.
When we accept this definition of tragedy as an attempt to assimilate social
tension in general, the production of tragedies must have had its peak in times of
intense political, social, religious and other tensions in particular. Gelfert calls such a
place a seismic centre where two ideological plates collide, leading to an eruption in
the form of a tragedy. One of these tragic ruptures took place in the seventeenth
century, at the transition from Elizabethan to Jacobean England. Political events as
well as social and religious changes caused the people to be captured in between an
old and a new order. Due to ongoing wars as well as inner and outer political issues,
the arising Renaissance came to England much later than to continental Europe.
Therefore, the medieval conception of the world was still very common and
widespread, while the new ideology was moving in.
This paper investigates the Aristotelean theories of tragedy with Ben Jonson's play "Sejanus His Fall", particularly the issue of the tragic hero.
At a glance
- Grade: 1.0 (1.0 is the best grade)
- Applies Aristotle’s Poetics to Jonson’s Sejanus His Fall
- 25 sources in the bibliography
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Influences on Elizabethan and Jacobean Tragedies
2.1. Political and philosophical influences
2.2. The medieval world view
2.3. Machiavelli’s Il Principe
2.4. Literary influences
3. Ben Jonson’s Sejanus His Fall
3.1. The basic dualism of good versus evil
3.2. Evil in the play
3.3. The tragic hero
4. Conclusion
Objectives and Topics
This study examines the extent to which Ben Jonson’s Sejanus His Fall conforms to Aristotle’s conception of tragedy and represents the political, social and intellectual changes of its time. It connects the play’s treatment of power, morality and the tragic hero with competing medieval and Renaissance ideas.
- Political and philosophical change in Elizabethan and Jacobean England
- The medieval chain of being and divine providence
- Machiavelli’s ideas about rulership and power
- Good and evil in Jonson’s play
- Aristotelian tragedy, character and catharsis
Excerpt from the Book
2.2. The medieval world view
The medieval world was regulated by divine Providence. A hierarchically ordered universe with its according macro and micro structure, with God as the highest authority, followed by the angels, the human beings, animals and minerals, with each level being subdivided into levels itself, each human being had his or her assigned restricted position within the social ladder. It was not possible to surmount this chain of being which was mirrored in the society, in the family and in the gender ratio, where women were considered inferior to men and closer to the animal passion than to the human reason. This outer structure of the universe was also mirrored in the microcosm of the inner processes of the human soul. Reason was considered the superior motive for any action, followed by the noble passions situated in the heart and the lower passions located in the liver. Passion, considered as low emotion and sinful, must not rule over the virtuous reason because otherwise the divine order of the universe would be disturbed and the cosmos was threatened to break apart. People believed, then, that the cosmic world order was divinely given and had to be accepted as such. Rebellion caused chaos, and thus misfortune and misery were considered strokes of fate. The belief in the wheel of Fortune was wide-spread. The concept of fate being determined by divine Providence from birth and is an aspect of Elizabethan tragedy as well. Through the upcoming Renaissance, the idea of individualism and self-determination, concentrating on the actions of the human being and not on a future already set in advance by a god, would become more prominent, but in peak of Elizabethan tragedy, this old conception of the world was still very much anchored in the minds of the English.
It is important to know that there were two existing world views at the time in order to understand the dividedness that people had to face both politically, religiously, philosophically, socially and culturally. As was said above, tragedy needs this rupture to be able to come to its climax as a means to express the fears and hopes of a people that was unsure about its future. Especially the question of how a monarch should be natured was a predominant issue. Machiavelli’s Il Principe is an important source for a legitimate answer to this question and shall be looked at very shortly due to its immanent relation to Jonson’s Sejanus His Fall.
Chapter Summaries
1. Introduction: The introduction outlines tragedy as a response to social tension and presents the study’s questions about Aristotle’s theory and the historical context of Jonson’s play.
2. Influences on Elizabethan and Jacobean Tragedies: This chapter considers political change, the medieval world view, Machiavelli’s ideas about rulership and classical influences on tragic drama.
3. Ben Jonson’s Sejanus His Fall: The central analysis examines the opposition between virtue and vice, the portrayal of evil and the extent to which Sejanus fits Aristotle’s model of the tragic hero.
4. Conclusion: The conclusion brings together the discussion of classical tragedy and the play’s response to the ideological and social tensions of its period.
Keywords
Ben Jonson, Sejanus His Fall, tragedy, Aristotle, Poetics, Machiavelli, Renaissance, Jacobean drama, Elizabethan drama, chain of being, political power, tragic hero, catharsis, good and evil
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this study about?
It examines Ben Jonson’s Sejanus His Fall as a tragedy shaped by the political and intellectual tensions of its time.
What are its central themes?
Its themes include political power, virtue and vice, competing world views, the tragic hero and the relationship between history and drama.
What is the main research question?
The study asks how far Sejanus His Fall is an Aristotelian tragedy and how far it represents the changes occurring in early seventeenth-century England.
What scholarly method does the author use?
The author offers a textual and contextual interpretation of the play, drawing on Aristotle’s Poetics, Machiavelli’s Il Principe, Jonson’s Discoveries and literary scholarship.
What does the main analysis cover?
It considers the opposition between good and evil, the characters’ exercise of power and Sejanus’s status as a tragic hero.
Which keywords characterize the study?
Key terms include tragedy, Renaissance, political power, the chain of being, Machiavelli, Aristotle, catharsis and the tragic hero.
Why is Machiavelli’s Il Principe relevant?
The study uses Machiavelli’s account of rulership, appearances and the maintenance of power to illuminate political conduct in Jonson’s play.
How does the medieval chain of being relate to the play?
The study considers the chain of being as a framework for understanding ideas about social hierarchy, obedience and attempts to rise in status.
How is Aristotle’s concept of the tragic hero used?
The author compares Aristotle’s account of a protagonist’s error and downfall with Sejanus’s character and the play’s treatment of pity, fear and catharsis.
- Quote paper
- M.A. Susanne Fiebig (Author), 2005, The Aristotelean theories of tragedy with Ben Jonson's play "Sejanus His Fall", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/86294
