Tragedy and Comedy: Greek Dramatic Structure Explained

Introduction: Fiction Gives Life Its Form

"Fiction," says Jean Anouilh, "gives life its form." Shakespeare derived his Comedy of Errors from Plautus' Menaechmi, and many of Shakespeare's dramas are retellings of ancient Greek myths — both tragedies and comedies. The basic form of the Elizabethan play (indeed, most plays written in successive periods, up until contemporary theater and film) is modeled after the Greek dramatic structure. One may recognize this structure still being used in theater and much narrative literature today.

Utilization of this basic structure allows the story to flow naturally, allows the audience to recognize the reality and truth of life in the story, and to anticipate and yearn to find the moral or the message that resides in its heart.

The Structure of Greek Drama

In a Greek tragedy or drama, the structure is relatively simple. First there is the prologue, narrated by one or more characters; the chorus then enters with song and dance, followed by alternating scenes depicting spoken sections — dialogues between characters or between characters and the chorus — and singing sections performed by the chorus.

The first song is called the Parados (our word "parody" comes from this term). The first episode, and each episode after it, is followed by a stasimon, or choral ode. After the characters leave the stage, the chorus dances and sings a stasimon following the parados. The ode usually reflects on the things said and done in the episodes and places them within a larger mythological framework. Each episode is followed by a stasimon relating the theme of the preceding act. The final scene is followed by an exodus.

Attending a comedy in Athens in the fourth century BCE was quite different from watching a comedy on Broadway or even in Elizabethan England. Greek comedies, like some Elizabethan plays, were performed outdoors, but in what might be called a natural theater in the round, where hills cupped around a small valley. Patrons sat on the hillsides and natural acoustics easily carried voices from the stage, or Skene, up to the listeners.

Performance in Ancient Athens

In a Greek play there were almost always only three actors, regardless of how many speaking characters appeared in the play. The actors would go backstage and change masks and costumes in order to portray another character. Greek tragedies and comedies were not enacted entirely for entertainment, however; they were performed as part of a religious festival for the god Dionysus, performed only once, and then in competition with other plays to be voted first, second, or third place. Comedies were written to make fun of current political figures and issues, and it is no coincidence that "parados" remains in the vocabulary of the theater — these performances were, in essence, parodies.

Gustav Freytag (1816–1895) developed a classic analysis of Greek and Elizabethan plays — usually composed of five acts — dividing them into five parts: the "exposition," the "rising action," the "climax" or turning point (usually occurring near the center of the play), the "falling action," and the "denouement" or catastrophe that ends it.

Some describe these sections as forming a triangle, with the two upper sides made up of the rising action and the falling action. The three points of the triangle are thus: the Exposition or beginning, rising action leading to the Climax, and falling action leading to the End — also called the resolution or denouement (McManus 1998).

Freytag's Pyramid: Five-Part Dramatic Analysis

The first point, the Exposition, provides the background information needed to understand where the drama is headed. This includes the setting, the protagonist, the antagonist, and the basic conflict between them. The exposition also includes an inciting incident that sets the action into motion.

The Rising Action is exactly that: the conflict escalates, secondary conflicts arise and are either resolved or aggravated, obstacles frustrate the protagonist, and additional characters join both sides as they all work toward their respective goals.

The Climax marks a change — for better or worse — for the protagonist. In a comedy, the tide begins to turn in the hero's favor and a glimmer of hope emerges. In a tragedy, the opposite occurs.

The Falling Action denotes a slowing of the conflict between protagonist and antagonist, as mysteries are explained, relationships are resolved, and events move toward the betterment of the protagonist's situation in a comedy or against the protagonist in a tragedy. There may be, at the close of the falling action, a moment of suspense when the final outcome remains uncertain.

The End — the denouement, catastrophe, or "resolution" in a comedy — is the final scene of the play. The only real difference between a tragedy and a comedy, Freytag observed, is that the hero is better off at the end of a comedy and worse off at the end of a tragedy than they were at the beginning (McManus 1998).

Conclusion: The Enduring Power of Story

The play is the thing, it is said; and an inspired drama may bring one individual's explanation of that thing called life to an intrigued mind. The playwright must know himself first. Self-knowledge, combined with deep reflection on reactions to life and adversity, is hung upon a structure — the basic five-part structure derived from the Greeks, a natural and enduring set of guidelines from playwrights centuries ago, used by Shakespeare himself (Burkert 88).