Thinking Task of 'Dryden's essay'

1) Do you any difference between Aristotle's definition of Tragedy and Dryden's definition of Play?
2) If you are supposed to give your personal predilection, would you be on the side of the Ancient or the Modern? Please give reasons.
3) Do you think that the arguments presented in favour of the French plays and against English plays are appropriate? (Say for example, Death should not be performed as it is neither 'just' not 'liely' image, displaying duel fight with blunted swords, thousands of soldiers marching represented as five on stage, mingling of mirth and serious, multiple plots etc.)
4) What would be your preference so far as poetic or prosaic dialogues are concerned in the play? 

1) Yes, the definition of both critics has different aspects in one or the other way. As far as the definition of Aristotle is concern, he defined tragedy as an ‘ideal’ representation of life. While the definition of Dryden says that is should be ‘just’ and ‘lively’ image of human life, and he has added delight also in the representation of life. Aristotle’s definition has ended with ‘catharsis’ while the definition of Dryden has ‘delight’.
2) If I suppose to give my personal predilection, I would like to be on the side of modern, because ancients have followed the rules and disciplines, and moderns have not only followed or imitated them but also have given something new with the help of new inventions in that era like in science and changes in the social world. Ancient used to write in different kind of boundaries like unities and as per the Greek tradition some scenes were not allowed to perform on stage. So the freedom of action is not there.
3) The arguments have presented in the favor of French and against of English plays are not appropriate in one or the other way because it’s true that French plays have its own rules and discipline. There are certain psychological reasons of all the actions in the play, and it has always proper manner of writing. It believes that the death should not be presented on stage and there should be only a narration of it. As far as English plays are concern they strongly believe that death scene should be performed because it can be have a great effect on the audience though it is not ‘just’ and ‘lively’. In English plays there are multiple plots woven together which used to support the main plot and helps the action to take place and tries to increase the interest of audience. The sense of realistic representation is there in the English plays. For E.g. Othello, there is a death scene in it, and in Hamlet there is a war and fighting scenes, but only description of those parts could not be effective as performance can do.
4) I would like to be preferred with prosaic dialogue, because as far as routine and common conversation is concern poetic language cannot give more justice to it, Poetic dialogues can define a very higher state of emotions like pain, catharsis, love and etc. As far as all the plays are concerned, there should be many kinds of themes in it, for e.g. a king cannot order his servant in poetic manner.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dr.Faustus as a tragedy.

Aristotalian tragedy vs shakespearean tragedy

Social, Religious and political background in Kanthapura.