Aristotle could be considered the first popular literary critic. Unlike Plato, who all but condemned written verse, Aristotle breaks it down and analyses it so as to separate the good from the bad. He studies in great detail what components make a decent epic or tragedy. The main sections he com...

A tragic hero is a man who "... is highly renown and prosperous, but One who is not pre-eminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune, However, is brought upon him not by vice or depravity, but by some Error in judgment or frailty (hamartia)..." (Aristotle). As defined in Poetic...

Tennessee Williams is one of America's most respected playwrights. He was one of the select few playwrights responsible for American theatre's 'golden age', and with works like The Glass Menagerie and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, it is no surprise. Williams was born in Mississippi an...

Twenty-five hundred years ago, Western theatre was born in Athens, Greece. Between 600 and 200 BC, the ancient Athenians created a theatre culture that has influenced theatre through history. They created plays that are still considered among the greatest works of world drama. Their achievement ...

Tragedy was performed in Athens at the annual festival of Dionysus, the Great, or the City, Dionysia in late March. Competition was held on three successive mornings of the festival. Three tragic poets, who had been selected earlier in the year, each presented a tetralogy, consisting of three traged...

Plot Overview The Chorus introduces the players. Antigone is the girl who will rise up alone and die young. Haemon, Antigone's dashing fiancé, chats with Ismene, her beautiful sister. Though one would have expected Haemon to go for Ismene, he inexplicably proposed to Antigone on the night ...

Cain, from the Bible, is the person who brought the evil of fratricide into the world. He opened the gates for two very evil characters in Grendel of Grendel and King Claudius of Hamlet. Throughout their respective epic poem and play, these characters portray the utmost evil within our society. &quo...