评论
打印
Aeschylus：The Father of Greek Tragedy
Aeschylus was the first known dramatist to use more than one character in his plays, and he therefore invented the concept of dialogue between characters. Before Aeschylus, plays consisted of one protagonist and were narrated by the chorus.
Some plays had a chorus of only one actor, while others used a large group. Aeschylus' plays also feature a chorus, but the majority of the stories are told through dialogue. Many typical dramatic concepts, such as props, scenery, and costumes, also originated in Aeschylus' works. He also invented the dramatic trilogy. His tragedies were performed in sequences of three plays stretched out over time. After each trilogy was concluded, he staged a comedy called a "satyr drama".
In a typical satyr drama, the characters are mythological creatures and the chorus is a satyr, a mischievous creature that is half-man, half-goat. The language and meter used by Aeschylus in his plays was the forerunner of blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Blank verse became the dominant poetic and dramatic style of the English literary renaissance, which occurred nearly 2 100 years after Aeschylus. Writers such as William Shakespeare, John Milton and Christopher Marlowe almost exclusively used blank verse in their famous works. Alexandrine, another writing style, is also derived from Aeschylus' verse.
