Friday 1 August 2014

Secularization of Tragedy in Modern Drama



Sami ul Haq
Madam Mubarra
 Modern and contemporary Drama
Lahore Leads University Pakistan
27 May, 2014
Secularization of Tragedy in modern Drama

            Before we explain secularization of tragedy in modern drama, let us have a look at the definition of the words “Tragedy” and “Drama” tragedy

 Tragedy is  pronounced as /ˈtradʒɪdi/ it is an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe i.e a tragedy that killed 95 people [mass noun]: his life had been plagued by tragedy. A play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character: Shakespeare’s tragedies.
Drama is originated from early 16th century: via Late Latin from Greek drama, from dran 'do, act', it is pronounced as /ˈdrɑːmə/. A play for theater, radio, or television ie  a gritty urban drama about growing up in Harlem [mass noun] Plays as a genre or style of literature: Renaissance drama
 The activity of acting: teachers who use drama are working in partnership with pupils [as modifier]: drama school. An exciting, emotional, or unexpected event or circumstance: a hostage drama [mass noun]: an afternoon of high drama at Wembley.
History of drama is traced back to Greek , 6th century, Thespis Aeschylus and Euripides. It is reemerged hundreds of year later by Christian church in medieval time for  Easter and Christmas services with Biblical characters and a Christian message. These plays were called as morality plays with themes such as good deeds, sin, virtue, life etc. in Elizabethan and Shakespearean period drama was not completely concerning with morality but its themes were Power politics, good- bad, love-jealousy and duty –revenge etc.
After the death of Shakespeare and his contemporaries drama suffered for about  two centuries ,even Congreve , Sheridan and Goldsmith could not restore drama to the position in which it held during the Elizabethan age (Mullik, A Critical History Of English Literature )
Two major figures revived drama in 1980 those are Ibsen and G B Shaw. They treated drama with another point of view due to scientific inventions and major shift in trends, as people   started questioning Church specially Roman Catholic, other ideologies, peoples become more educated and  reason was held uplift. As a result of growing intellectual curiosity, humans began to question the rules and tenets of the Catholic Church. On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther[1] nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church, sparking the Protestant Reformation. Soon after, the Catholic Church launched a Counter-Reformation, filled with heavy propaganda.(Wikipedia)
 The aesthetic movement “Art for art’s sack” also brought change. In reaction to the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), the Pre-Raphaelites embarked on a second phase — the Aesthetic Movement headed by avant-garde artists who believed that beauty, rather than the sociopolitical, should be the objective of art. This led to the popularity of decorative art, the innovative use of the art and design for functional objects. Middle class and females were given importance, Victorian notions were completely rejected. This rebellious state of mind gives birth to “Modern Drama”
            Due to the philosophies of Hegel, Sigmund Freud, Nietzsche and Karl Marx the life of people were completely changed and drama started depicting real people with real life worries, which were dearer to them. Tolerance is stopped and people started rethinking religion, this decline of religion, rise of atheism can be understood in the following quotation of Nietzsche.
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” (Nietzsche)[2].
French revolution gives another blow to old traditions old concept of tragedy changed, Drama tragedy and comedy both went under change, as in Shakespeare’s drama “Antony and Cleopatra” he says:
“If a king dies
Heaven itself shoots forth its wrath,
If a beggar dies,
Nothing moves : nothing stirs.”
            Unlike Shakespeare the in the modern age tragedy is revived, Ibsen , Strindberg and G B Shaw depicted real life in which no king or general  but normal Bourgeoisie were shown as protagonist. , as Raymond William in “Tragedy and Contemporary ideas” says:
“the tragedy of a citizen could be as real as the tragedy of a prince.” (William)
In the same manner morality is expressed in the modern times like this:
   “An evil system is protected by a false morality. This balance is always delicate,
    and it can seem easier and clearer to turn, not against the system , but against the morality.”(William)
            Tragedy is derived from the Greek:  tragōidia, "he-goat-song", it is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes in its audience an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in the viewing, while many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term tragedy often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization. (Wikipedia)
 Earlier tragedies were based on Greek and Bible, Miracle plays and tragedies were based on biographies of saints. 10th to 16th century tragedies were at large mystical. Secularization is the deviation of society from ecclesiastical footings to non-clerical values and institutions; to philosophers this is the decline of religious level. Modern drama is the result of naturalism, Nihilism, Enlightenment, surrealism, and realism, it portrays people with real life worries and issues, it is somewhat opposite to idealism.
In modern tragedy we can see characters act and talk like real people in real settings. In Shakespearean drama There was suspension of disbelief, soliloquy and aside but in Modern drama these things are replaced by Stream of consciousness technique, which were first used by Anton Chekhov and later by Virginia Woolf  in “To the Light House”. In Shakespearian tragedy the audiences loves to be scared but in Modern time’s audience are kept alive to the situation so that willing suspension of disbelief could not be happened. Modern drama, drama of comedies  and drama of manners or ideas ceased to deal with themes remote in space and time. Ibsen taught men that the real tragedy must deal with human emotions, with things which are nearer and dearer to them and it has its own standard, where a middle class man or women could act like hero , there is no need of “Ideal tragic hero”.
Twentieth century tragedians also depicted  normal ordinary peoples , this can be seen in Tennessee William’s “A Street Car named Desire”(1947), “The Glass Managerie”(1944) and Arther Miller in “Death of a Salesman”(1949). In absurd theater comedy is mixed with tragedy as in “Waiting for Godot”.
            The new dramatists dealt mainly with the problems of sex, of labor and of youth, fighting against romantic love, capitalism and parental authority which were the characteristic features of Victorianism. Modern drama deals with real life issues, pleasant and unpleasant it portrays both sides of the tragedy. Life is presented with detailed accuracy, regardless of moral or ideological considerations. The woes and suffering of the poor, their misery and wretchedness as well as the good in them, old values have been discarded and  is replaced with new one , conflict between theses contemporary situations gives new shape to Modern tragedy , which became independent.
            The theories of psychologists like Freud and Havelock Ellis, new biological theories and birth control, boredom and frustration caused by the war brought change into consideration. Sex is treated and discussed as freely as possible, the problems of love, sex, and marriage both inside and outside of marriage is portrayed without hesitation.
Due to this new kind of tragedies, Ibsen  is considered as the father of modern drama as he introduced reality in  plays, Oscar Wilde is the father of comedy of pure entertainment, whereas George Bernard Shaw is the father of comedy of ideas.
Tragedy, in the modern theater, is a genre more honored in repute than in performance, and Ibsen, in as much as he is admired, is not admired generally as a tragedian. In college courses tragedy, in various guises, is taught respectfully; and having a "tragic vision" is always considered an impressive cachet for a dramatist to possess. Hegel did not reject moral scheme that had been called “poetic justice”, but he described it as the triumph of ordinary morality, and the work that embodied it as social drama rather than tragedy. What is important as such in tragedy of Hegel is not suffering, mere suffering but its causes.

Henrik Ibsen is famously known as the Father of Modern Drama.  He brought realism to the drama, he conceived of how the theater should evolve, and, against great adversity, fulfilled his vision. He presented Hedda a female character with a Hero like quality which was ignored by the earlier dramatists. In “A Dolls House” he portrayed Nora as a doll first in the hands of her father and then in the hands of her husband, she left her husband in order to find herself, we can see in this tragedy that there is a shift from conventional tragedies of morality or religion.
George Bernard Shaw who alone understand Ibsen but his plays are characterized by jest and verbal wet. Ibsen doctrine, ‘Be Thyself’ is much closer to Shaw concept of “superman”.
Shaw wrote with the purpose of propaganda as he was influenced by the theories of Marx. He himself said:
            “my reputation has been gained by my persistent struggle to force the public , to reconsider their Morals”. In Mrs. Warren’s profession Shaw highlighted that for the evils of prostitution, the society and not the procures s is to be blamed. In “Man and Superman” Shaw dealt with his favorite theme of “Life Force”. In getting married he dealt with unnaturalness of home life.
Bertolt Brecht in his most famous plays “Aman is a man”, “The three Penny Opera”, “Mother courage” and “Caucasian Chalk Circle” in all these plays response to suffering is crucial, he tells that weight of sufferings generates consciousness which is not hyperbolic but real, precise and literal. This is called rejection of tragedy. In the same manner “In the Life of Galileo” a normal man is characterized.
There are a lot of definitions for tragedy from Aristotle to the present age  as Raymond William says “We come to tragedy by many roads…” and as he says  in “Three Penny Opera” that Pea chum using pity as a trade.
In “Dance of Death” and “Master Builder” we can see that these are secular tragedies in the form of revenge. Oscar Wilde’s plays became popular due to style and wit. John Galsworthy says that naturalistic art is like a steady lamp, held up from to time , in whose light things will be seen for a space clearly in due proportion.
New realistic drama is also revived by Lady Gregory, W B Yeats etc they introduced floury, richness of peasant’s Irish culture and poetry into drama.
To conclude modern tragedy is the result of many aesthetic movements, Naturalism, realism, nihilism and Avant grades. Modern play wrights adopt new style , where real life is depicted without any restriction due to religion, morality and any other, and by doing it modern dramatist successfully dramatized normal middle class bourgeoisie and they also treated these topics in such a way which are nearer and dearer to the people.



References and Bibliography

Gabriel, Vahanian. The Death of God .New York: George Braziller, 1961.Print
Palmer, R. R. A History of the Modern World . New York: McGraw Hill, 2002.Print
William, Raymond. Modern tragedy:Raymond William. Pamela :McCallum, 2006.Print
Styan,J.L. “Modern Drama in Theory and Practice:  Realism and Naturalism” Cambridge 2(1981).Print 
Richard ,Drain. Twentieth-Century Theatre: A Sourcebook.  Place : Taylor & Francis,1999.Print



[1] Martin Luther OSA was a German monk, Catholic priest, professor of theology and seminal figure of the 16th-century movement in Christianity known later as the Protestant Reformation
[2] Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philologist, philosopher, cultural critic, poet and composer.

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