theater research -Aeschylus-

Running Head : Aeschylus ' Contributions to Theater

Aeschylus and His Contributions to Theater

Aeschylus and His Contributions to Theater

Throughout time , people have desired to be entertained . Entertainment has surfaced in

many ways , but one of the first is still popular today . The theater has been a fascination of all societies for thousands of years . One man , in particular gave several innovations to drama and the theater , Aeschylus .Born in ancient Greece , Aeschylus lived from 525 to 455 BC . He grew up in the

and expanding the fairly primitive art of his

predecessors , led by the semi-legendary Thespis (Mitchell-Boyask ) He did this by adding more emotions and taking out scenes where there was bloodshed . More actors were added . Of course dummies were used , as in the scene where Prometheus was nailed to the rock and in one or two later tragedies it seems as if a fourth actor would have been required (Bellinger , Changes Made by Aeschylus

. 31 ) He created rich and ornate costumes which were pleasing to the eye . He also reduced the role of the chorus which had played such an important role in drama up to this time . Instead he relied on the actors and their dialogue . He had the stage decorated with art and used decorative sets . The use of music was essential to a production of Aeschylus . His diction is a trademark that is unique

The language is heavy and , in the Greek , often difficult to understand full of compound forms and complex metaphors , and all translators have to insert phrases to make parts of the drama intelligible for modern audiences if you find Aeschylus difficult to read in English translation , consider that it is infinitely harder in the original Greek (Mitchell-Boyask

In essence his work was like no other at the time . Whatever changes he made , Aeschylus always remained elemental and simple . He delighted in picturesque narrative and phrases such as "starry-kirtled night (Bellinger , Changes Made by Aeschylus

. 33 The tragedy is a form of entertainment as well as the comedy . Aeschylus knew that the audience wanted something real . The reality of life is that everyone will not have a happy ending , and not all situations work out for the good of all people . That is the quality of a tragedy that the human can identify . The members of the audience can attend a tragedy and come to the realization that their life is abnormal because of their problems

Aeschylus created the trilogy and was partial to it throughout his career . The trilogy is where one storyline overlaps another , and is summed up in three plays . This allowed him to develop his characters in depth . This type of drama is still popular and assures a playwright more than one successful work . Modern day examples would be the Star Wars Trilogy and the Lord of the Ring Trilogy . It keeps the coming back for more if the playwright does an incredible job engaging the audience in the plot and introducing them to interesting characters...