100% tevredenheidsgarantie Direct beschikbaar na je betaling Lees online óf als PDF Geen vaste maandelijkse kosten
logo-home
Eerder door jou gezocht
Eerder door jou gezocht
logo
The messenger speech is crucial to Greek tragedy. To what extent do you agree or disagree? $5.99
In winkelwagen
Snel navigeren naar
Voorbeeld
  2.  
  3. OCR
  4.  
  5. Classics: Classical Civilisation
  6.  
  7. H408/21 Greek Theatre

Essay

The messenger speech is crucial to Greek tragedy. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
 2 keer verkocht
  • Vak
  • H408/21 Greek Theatre
  • Instelling
  • OCR

30/30 A* answer to the OCR Classical Civilisation 'Greek Theatre' exam question: ' The messenger speech is crucial to Greek tragedy. To what extent do you agree or disagree?'

Voorbeeld 1 van de 3  pagina's

Document informatie

  • 4 juli 2023
  • 3
  • 2022/2023
  • Essay
  • Onbekend
  • A+

Onderwerpen

  • a level
  • classics
  • classical civilisation
  • greek theatre
  • ocr
  • sophocles
  • oedipus
  • frogs
  • euripides
  • aeschylus
  • h40821 greek theatre

Geschreven voor

  • A/AS Level
  • OCR
  • Classics: Classical Civilisation
  • H408/21 Greek Theatre
Alle documenten voor dit vak (6)

Verkoper

avatar-seller
frankiegt

Ontvangen beoordelingen

Voorbeeld van de inhoud

The messenger speech is crucial to Greek tragedy. To what extent do you agree or
disagree?

I agree that ‘the messenger speech is crucial to Greek tragedy’, as it plays both a dramatic and moral
role as well as a practical role in the play. By looking at Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Euripedes’
The Bacchae, the messenger speech is revealed to hold an extremely important role in the structure
and message behind a Greek tragedy; the importance of these speeches in terms of practicality, the
creation of dramatic tension and the inclusion of moral messages relative to a contemporary audience.

The messenger speech is essential to the structure and format of a Greek tragedy, in that it provides a
pivotal turning point in the play and ensures movement and structure for the tragic events. It describes
explicitly something that cannot be shown on stage, whilst also providing the climax and advancing
the plot in order for the play to reach a conclusion. At a base level, it is a dramatic device used to
structure the play and allow for the moment of peripeteia that is significant to any Greek tragedy. The
messenger speech usually comes in the form of a character entering the stage in order to relay news to
more important characters; and often this news is what shifts the play entirely, releasing the build of
tension created by the playwrights and revealing the characters’ tragic fates. In Oedipus the King, a
messenger speech is exactly what shifts the entirety of the play and leads directly to Oedipus’ moment
of anagnorisis. Here, a messenger is used as a vehicle of revelation, as he provides Oedipus with the
knowledge that his adoptive father Polybus had died, whilst simultaneously revealing that Polybus is
not his biological father: as a shepherd had given Oedipus to Polybus as a baby. The words of the
messenger form a chain reaction, as the shepherd mentioned by the messenger is summoned to speak
to Oedipus and later tells him that he was, in fact, adopted and is not the biological son of Polybus.
The messenger speech is what reveals Oedipus’ situation to him, and ensures that the moment of
peripeteia that is fundamental in any Greek tragedy is achieved. This moment of peripeteia and
anagnorisis is significant in ensuring that Sophocles’ audience experiences feelings of catharsis, as
pity and fear are invoked when they watch Oedipus’ downfall and reflect on themselves. This links to
Aristotle’s ideas in Poetics, as he believed a good tragedy should be able to create feelings of
‘catharsis, fear, and pity’ - all of which Sophocle’s achieves through the news revealed in the
messenger speech.

Fear and pity were also emotions created by the inclusion of graphic, often disturbing details of the
plot that messenger speeches tend to involve. Again, in Oedipus the King, the messenger is the one to
expose to the audience the horrifying consequences of Oedipus’ hamartia: ‘over and over raising the
pins, raking them down his eyes. And at each stroke blood spurts from the roots [...] nerves and clots -
black hail of blood pulsing, gushing down’. The use of such emotive and graphic description ensures
that the audience is at once flooded with some form of fearful pity, as the true horrors of what Oedipus
has done to himself are left up to the imagination. Julia H. Caverno argues that ‘Certain pathological
details of madness, horrible in fact, horrible in repetition, may be less than that in presentation’1,
highlighting that hearing such horrific details through the messenger instead of seeing them attempted
on stage is often much more impactful. This is further expanded upon during a similar scene that
occurs in Euripides’ The Bacchae; as the messenger relays to the audience Pentheus’ horrific fate after
his moment of peripeteia. ‘One of them was carrying a forearm, one a foot with a sandal still on it; his
ribs were laid bare by the tearing, and all the woman, bloody handed, were playing catch with the
flesh of Pentheus’: the, once again, horrifying use of close description enables the audience to imagine
the bacchants tearing Pentheus apart themselves - without doubt forming a lasting image of fear and

1
The Messenger in Greek Tragedy - author(s): Julia H. Caverno, Smith College

Dit zijn jouw voordelen als je samenvattingen koopt bij Stuvia:

Bewezen kwaliteit door reviews

Bewezen kwaliteit door reviews

Studenten hebben al meer dan 850.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet jij zeker dat je de beste keuze maakt!

In een paar klikken geregeld

In een paar klikken geregeld

Geen gedoe — betaal gewoon eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of je Stuvia-tegoed en je bent klaar. Geen abonnement nodig.

Direct to-the-point

Direct to-the-point

Studenten maken samenvattingen voor studenten. Dat betekent: actuele inhoud waar jij écht wat aan hebt. Geen overbodige details!

Veelgestelde vragen

Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?

Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.

Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?

Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.

Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?

Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper frankiegt. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.

Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?

Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor $5.99. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.

Is Stuvia te vertrouwen?

4,6 sterren op Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

Afgelopen 30 dagen zijn er 63950 samenvattingen verkocht

Opgericht in 2010, al 15 jaar dé plek om samenvattingen te kopen

Begin nu gratis

Laatst bekeken door jou

Tentamen (uitwerkingen) ·

(0)

Applicator Certification Test / Aquatic Pest Management Study Guide Exam Fully Solved 2024.

Voordeelbundel ·

(0)

Hootsuite social marketing certification (4 sets) Questions with Answers,100% CORRECT

Tentamen (uitwerkingen) ·

(0)

EPA 609 Technician Certification 2023/2024 Questions With Complete Solutions Guaranteed A.

Tentamen (uitwerkingen) ·

(0)

TNCC Exam 8th edition study Questions and Answers Latest (2023 / 2024) (Verified Answers)

Overig ·

(0)

Week 6 i Human Assignment Reflection Worksheet Course Advanced Physical Assessment (NR-509)

Tentamen (uitwerkingen) ·

(0)

ATI PN Predictor Exam - PN-LVN Latest Questions and Answers (2023/2024) (Verified Answers)

Samenvatting ·

(0)

NR 449 What is primary and secondary data collection and which one is best to use amongst

Samenvatting ·

(0)

Samenvatting ondervoeding, sondevoeding (richtlijnen), schema sondevoeding + drinkvoeding

Tentamen (uitwerkingen) ·

(0)

CBSPD Tech Certification Exam Questions With Answers Latest Updated 2024/2025 | Graded A+.

$5.99  2x  verkocht
  • (0)
In winkelwagen
Toegevoegd