Aristophanes, Plautus, And Euripides Section: Theater Essays
By making his characters unreal and placing them in unlikely situations, made the audience once again feel as if they were in another world. At the time Plautus was writing and performing his plays, Rome was very conservative. There were moral laws and censorship on almost everything. The plays Plautus wrote broke these limitations and gave the people a sense of freedom. One of the limitations Plautus broke was allowing slaves in his plays to outwit their masters.
This was unheard of and the mere thought of this happening was surreal. In Plautus' play, The Swaggering Soldier, this very event occurs. A conceited soldier, Pyrgopolynices, is deceived by own his slave, Palestrio. Palestrio, knowing his master is a woman-lover, tricks him into thinking he can have a married woman. Pyrgopolynices is caught by her husband and loses everything he has, almost his life.
The downfall of a highly ranked soldier caused by his slave is a fantasy in this era and the people of Rome enjoyed seeing this. Observing Plautus' plays allowed people to feel as if none of the rules applied. They saw laws and norms broken and this was invigorating to them. He presented himself and his plays in a cathartic manner that engulfed the audience and enabled them relax and feel at ease.
Many times in Plautus' works he would remind the audience that what they were watching was just a play, but in the smallest way the people in the theater felt as if they contributed to freeing some of their censorship. A Grecian playwright, Euripides, had the same effect on his audience, but not by the same technique. It was not humor and satire that made the audience relax it was Euripides' plots and characters. Perhaps this is far fetched, but in some way he made the audience feel relieved to be themselves.
Many of the characters he created were in horrible situations or simply horrible people. For the audience, watching other people's lives fall apart, although sad, created a sense of relief. It made their chores, laws, and troubles seem somewhat minimal compared to the characters in Euripides' plays. In one of his tragedies, Medea, the characters are in terrible condition. The main character, Medea has been abandoned by her husband for a younger, wealthier woman. This is an awful experience to have fall down upon someone, but this is not the end to Medea's tragic story. She becomes so consumed in hate and revenge she murders her children as a reprisal for what her husband has done. This play is heartbreaking and depressing, but it makes the audience do some thinking.
The dramatic ending in Medea puts most problems to shame. The audience reflects on what was once a major cause of stress and anxiety and realizes their problem is trivial to the one Medea and her family experiences. Characters in Euripides' plays usually suffer tremendously. They go through trial after trial, only to end up losing. As twisted, as it may seem, the audience feeds off of their pain to come to realize the important things in life. The audience walks away with a clearer direction in life and learns not to dwell on the trifling obstacles in life. Drama in ancient civilizations was a favorite pastime. Aristophanes, Plautus and Euripides were quite popular and well appreciated among the citizens of Greece and Rome.
Their works were embraced and enjoyed not only for their literary purposes, but also for the fact that they helped the audience escape their worries and stress. By creating these surreal worlds, the people were able to escape their harsh reality and connect with the characters. These characters who break the rules and norms, and question authority give the audience a liberating feeling as if they participated in the actions themselves. Since theses times, many new concepts of stress releasing and enjoying oneself have come along, but art remains one of the most popular.
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