Introduction
Drama refers to plays that involve a lot of action. The show usually consists of three broad elements categorised as follows: performance elements, which involve non-verbal expressions such as body movement gestures and many more. Secondly, there is the element of physical items. The material component contains things such as the costumes used to make actors different from the non-actors. Back-up also falls into the category of the physical element. Finally, the last component of drama involves the characters, dialogue, narration, themes, plot, and setting of the play. The above items fall under the critical element as a category of drama. In the scene, the actors are referred to as characters. Characters are of different groups as follows: flat characters, round characters, foil characters, and static and dynamic drama, among others. The authors of a play develop the show chronologically and in a specific pattern (Warren, Kathleen. P. 85). The flow of information and events is known as the plot. Other things in a play include themes such as political themes or conflict and stylistic devices such as irony, humour and sarcasm. On basing the argument on the different elements, the essay will describe how a play develops over different historical periods.
To start with, the main characters during the first stage have supernatural powers. The supernatural power is seen during the Dionysius ceremony, where a performance of a dithyramb. The dithyramb explained the god’s lifestyle. The ability to interpret the story of any god depicts supernatural powers to most people. During ancient Greece, only a few individuals could explain the story of a god. During the dithyramb performance, the performers would stand still to illustrate the position of the earth. The different movements ranged from clockwise to anticlockwise, representing the change of the stars and the planet. The anticlockwise direction showed the motion of the planets during antistrophe, while the clockwise direction illustrated the movement of the star during the strophe period. Since only a few were able to know the course of the evolution of the stars and the planets, not all individuals performed. The performance just occurred when the people with the powers understood the movement of either the star or the world.
During the performance, the performers did not take the role of characters, but the presentation was made by the entire group. Another superpower appears in the situation where one of the performers assumes the role of an actor (Rusten, p. 76). The performer later developed from an individual character to an elaborate play where the solo character represented many actors during the Great Dionysia.
Again, in the play of Oedipus Rex, the oracle warns the king and the queen that the king’s son will kill the father and marry the mother. The father abandoned the son to ensure that the son dies, but luckily a shepherd finds the son. The shepherd took the son to the king of Corinth. The king of Corinth adopted the son and named him Oedipus. Oedipus later learns about the prophecy and runs away from home to avoid the prophecy of killing the father and marrying the mother. Unfortunately, Oedipus meets Laius, his original father (Rusten, p. 78). The two enter into a quarrel, and Oedipus kills Laius. After that, Oedipus continues to wander. Oedipus comes to the gate of Thebes, which happens to be Oedipus’s home village, without knowing. At the entrance, individuals were required to answer a riddle before getting in due to terrorism. Oedipus becomes the first person to respond to the question correctly. At this point, Oedipus shows supernatural powers. The citizens of Thebes made Oedipus the king and married Jocasta, the biological mother. The prophecy passes, showing that Oracle has superpowers to prophesy.
The other development stage of drama involves some kinds of perfection portrayed by different individuals in a play. During the medieval period, the Christians of the Catholic Church are described as perfect. Where missing church becomes an offence, every person attends church even without understanding what happens in the church (Brundage, p. 20). The people are in the church as a usual way of life to be considered as perfect. Due to the inability of the Christians to understand the events happening in the church, they took the initiative of dramatising the essential elements of the service to ensure that the congregation followed the ceremony as well as participating. All the events demonstrate the perfection of the people. During the same period in the play Everyman, death represents achievement. Only individuals brave enough would travel along with death. Friends of Everyman requested to accompany Everyman on the journey with death, but only good deeds managed to complete the trip. Finishing the tour by good deeds illustrated perfection from the good deeds.
The upper class, though ordinary individuals constitute the third way in which characters are presented in a play. The individuals in the third stage were associated with high status and high living standards. As seen in the Shakespearean Tragedy, the Elizabethans represented the monarch in England. Only individuals of the upper class associate themselves with the ruler. As such, the authors of the play during the Elizabethan time classified the plays as Elizabethan (Bradley, p. 51). The reason behind categorising the plays is to ensure that the authors are associated with such individuals of high class. Again, after the death of Elizabeth, the plays were composed in a different Jacobean category. Those under the Jacobean category wanted to be associated with James, the person who took over the English kingship after the death of Elizabeth. This situation shows how people classify themselves in different categories in the state. No one wanted to associate with the middle or low-class individual. The royal patron with royal licenses chose people to act in the play the patrons composed.
The royal patron usually consisted of a well-up individual able to acquire the permits from the relevant authorities. The person responsible for approving the play had a name by the master. The issuing of licenses was in the hands of the same master. The urge to be among the group of those considered of the upper class made Duncan order the release of the Cawdor’s Thane. The idea comes up due to the knowledge that Macbeth would execute the freedom and become the king (Bradley, p. 50). On learning about the execution of the Thane of Cawdor by Duncan, Macbeth organised the killing of Duncan. Macbeth goes ahead to kill the king’s bodyguards and the son. Macbeth makes all the killings to become the king. Becoming the king meant that Macbeth would become part of the high standards of individuals.
Finally, the last stage entails an individual who is neither upper nor middle class in society. The characters here are comprised of children, animals, or people who are considered to have low standards in the community. In the 17th-century drama, Rousseau, a philosopher, says that people are born with no sin, but as they continue to live, society corrupts their minds. When the thoughts are corrupted, people become sinners and seize the goodness acquired during birth (Iebbtt, p. 110). A person with sin assumes the same class as the animals, and therefore, immediately, a person gets corrupted by the world, which is considered a low-class status in society. Again, Voltaire, a philosopher, illustrates the categorisation of the French state into three groups. The three groups included the aristocrats, the wealthy and the church. The highest population of about 90% constituted of everybody else taxed and without power. The class paying taxes involves people from less fortunate families. Tartuffe is a criminal in the play. Tartuffe aims to show how the people of the low level misbehaved until the criminals found a way to prison. Again, women and minds are not considered as people in French society. In the comedy The Way of the World, Wish Fort would take half of the property owned by Millmant if Millmant dared to marry Mirabell.
In conclusion, the stages of the development of any character in a play or a comedy follow the four steps. From the beginning of the essay, the first stage was illustrated by the supernatural powers bestowed on Oracle. Oracle was a prophecy who prophesied that the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta would kill the king and marry the mother. The prediction comes to pass in due time when Oedipus, the son of Laius, murders King Laius and marries his mother, Jocasta (Rusten, p. 73). In the same play, Oedipus shows extraordinary knowledge by answering a question that gives Oedipus a gate pass to Thebes. The gate pass allowed Oedipus to marry the mother. In the second stage, the Christians pretend to be living holy and perfect lives by going to church. The Christian went to church but understood nothing related to the service. The lack of understanding from the Christians made the church demonstrate the essential parts of the service.
The third stage comes when everyone wants to be associated with Queen Elizabeth and King James. The association made people fit the class of the fortunate in society. The urge for acknowledgement and to fit on the upper level caused Macbeth to plot for the death of Duncan to become the king (Bradley, p 51). Finally, the last stage constitutes the people considered as sinners and of low class. Women and maids fall under the category of the minority. The state also categorised the members as church members, the wealthy group, the aristocrats and the rest of the population. Those taxed and with no power fall under the last category of the rest of the community and constitute the highest number of citizens.
Works Cited
Bradley, Andrew Cecil. “From Shakespearean Tragedy.” Macbeth. Routledge, 2015. 45-57.
Brundage, James A. Law, sex, and Christian society in medieval Europe. University of Chicago Press, 2009. 13-25
Iebbtt, Katherine. The Style of the State in French Theater, 1630–1660: Neoclassicism and Government. Routledge, 2016.102-113
Rusten, Jeffrey S., ed. The birth of comedy: texts, documents, and art from Athenian comic competitions, 486-280. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.70-87
Warren, Kathleen. “Empowering children through drama.” Issues in Expressive Arts Curriculum for Early Childhood. Routledge, 2017. 83-97.
