Terence Tan 11/21/19 Period 2 - Blog #1

Aim: What are the attributes of Greek Drama

Do Now; Read each scenario and make a decision. Was your decision based on
emotion or reasoning?
1. A leader for whom you have the utmost respect is making a terrible
decision. Telling him/her would cast you out of his/her graces; not telling
him/her would lead to the failure and destruction of this leader.
2. You are a great lesser, but your people are suffering through a plague.
You can save your people, but it would cost you the reputation of your
husband/wife and children, they would be banished, but forced to walk with
shame for the remainder of their lives.
3. Someone has murdered your parent. To learn who would be a t a even
greater shick and devastation than what you are facing, but you have the
power to learn that truth.
4. Previously imperceptible, you recently learned that your spouse of many
years, with whom you've had children, is a direct kin relation. Your spouse
is oblivious to this fact.

Our class had many mixed responses to the Do Now. Bobby responded to
scenario 1 and said that he would tell the leader that he is about to make
a terrible decision since he feels emotionally obligated once seeing all of
his people suffer. Then Brain added on to bobby's statement by saying that
he would also inform the leader about the possible mistake because the
leader has done really good things for his city before and in this
situation he has had a lapse of judgment. He would then provide
alternatives and different solutions to the leader. Afterwards, Justin
responds to scenario 2 by saying that he would not save his people because
in his eyes, his family are the most important people to him so he would do
anything to keep them safe.

After discussing the Do Now, Ms.Fusaro said that all of these scenarios are
related to the Greek myth of Odepius Rex. The myth of Oedipus is one of the
finest examples of a tragedy. Aristotle defines a tragedy with the
following characteristics:
1) it is mimetic
2) it is serious
3) it tells a full story of appropriate length
4) it contains rhythm and harmony
5) rhythm and harmony occur in different combinations in different parts of
the tragedy
6) it is performed rather than narrated
7) it arouses feelings of pity and fear nd then purse these feelings
through catharsis

Six component parts:
Plot: each story must have a distinct plot
Character: relatable characters
thought: What the characters are saying
Diction: How the characters are saying
Melody: musical aspect
Spectacle: action and performance aspect

After discussing the characteristics of a perfect tragedy story, we moved
on to the topic of Catharsis. Ms. Fusaro gave the class a couple examples
of Catharsis; she was watching Lady and the Tramp on Disney plus and the
movie made her very emotional even though she had watched it numerous times
before. This is a similar reason for why the Greeks went to watch plays.

The biggest outlet for Greek drama was the Amphitheater, where a lot of
plays were performed.
The theasther was known to have wonderful acoustics considering how long
ago it was built. In terms of prices, it was similar to how it is today;
the cheap seats were by the back and the expensive seats were in the front.

One of the most important parts of these shows were the chorus. The Chorus
brought life and energy to the dialogue.

Reflection: Today I learned about the most important aspects of a Greek
Tragedy story and it mainly has to do with the way that the story is
presented and secondly,  the plot of the story itself. The tragedy aspect
of some Greek plays is what makes it so appealing for people at the time,
because it gives them a couple hours where they don't have to think about
what is going on in life  and just enjoy the show . For some, the horrible
events happening to the characters in the play make the audience feel
better about what is going on in their lives because they aren't going
through those events.