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.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Influences on Elizabethan and Jacobean Tragedies
- Political and philosophical influences
- The medieval world view
- Machiavelli's Il Principe
- Literary influences
- Ben Jonson's Sejanus His Fall
- The basic dualism of good versus evil
- Evil in the play
- The tragic hero
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This paper examines Ben Jonson's Sejanus His Fall as a tragedy representative of its time, considering its connections to the shifting political and philosophical landscape of early seventeenth-century England. The paper explores the play's adherence to Aristotelian tragedy, its reflection of the transition from Elizabethan to Jacobean England, and its portrayal of the collision between medieval and Renaissance ideologies. It analyzes the play within the context of the socio-political and philosophical influences of the time, and concludes with an analysis of Sejanus His Fall through the lens of Aristotle's Poetics.
- The impact of the transition from Elizabethan to Jacobean England on drama
- The interplay of medieval and Renaissance worldviews in Jonson's Sejanus
- The portrayal of good versus evil in the play
- The characteristics of the tragic hero in Sejanus His Fall
- The relevance of Aristotle's Poetics to the understanding of Sejanus His Fall
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- Introduction: This chapter introduces the concept of tragedy as a form of societal psychotherapy, arguing that its rise reflects periods of intense social and political tension. It contextualizes the play within the tumultuous transition from Elizabethan to Jacobean England, highlighting the concurrent presence of medieval and Renaissance ideologies.
- Influences on Elizabethan and Jacobean Tragedies: This chapter delves into the historical and philosophical influences on tragedies of the time, particularly focusing on the political and philosophical shifts in England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It explores the impact of the Wars of the Roses and the war with Spain on the adoption of Renaissance ideas, and discusses the tension between the medieval world view and the emerging Renaissance ideologies, particularly in relation to the concept of divine right and the shift in societal structure.
- Ben Jonson's Sejanus His Fall: This chapter provides an overview of Ben Jonson's Sejanus His Fall, specifically focusing on the interplay of good versus evil and the representation of evil within the play. It also discusses the portrayal of the tragic hero in the play, examining the character's motivations and tragic downfall.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The main keywords and focus topics of this paper include: Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, tragedy, Ben Jonson, Sejanus His Fall, Aristotle's Poetics, medieval world view, Renaissance, divine right, political and social tension, good versus evil, tragic hero.
- 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
