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ATINER's Conference Paper Series ART2016-1937 ATINER CONFERENCE PAPER SERIES No: LNG2014-1176 Athens Institute for Education and Research ATINER ATINER's Conference Paper Series ART2016-1937 May the Force Be Within You: Reactivity in Greek Tragedy Andrew B. Harris Professor University of North Texas USA Kerry L. Goldmann Adjunct Assistant Professor University of Texas at Dallas USA 1 ATINER CONFERENCE PAPER SERIES No: ART2016-1937 An Introduction to ATINER's Conference Paper Series ATINER started to publish this conference papers series in 2012. It includes only the papers submitted for publication after they were presented at one of the conferences organized by our Institute every year. This paper has been peer reviewed by at least two academic members of ATINER. Dr. Gregory T. Papanikos President Athens Institute for Education and Research This paper should be cited as follows: Harris, A.B. and Goldmann, K.L. (2016). "May the Force Be Within You: Reactivity in Greek Tragedy", Athens: ATINER'S Conference Paper Series, No:ART2016-1937. Athens Institute for Education and Research 8 Valaoritou Street, Kolonaki, 10671 Athens, Greece Tel: + 30 210 3634210 Fax: + 30 210 3634209 Email: [email protected] URL: www.atiner.gr URL Conference Papers Series: www.atiner.gr/papers.htm Printed in Athens, Greece by the Athens Institute for Education and Research. All rights reserved. Reproduction is allowed for non-commercial purposes if the source is fully acknowledged. ISSN: 2241-2891 17/08/2016 2 ATINER CONFERENCE PAPER SERIES No: ART2016-1937 May the Force Be Within You: Reactivity in Greek Tragedy Andrew B. Harris Professor University of North Texas USA Kerry L. Goldmann Adjunct Assistant Professor University of Texas at Dallas USA Abstract George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, popularized the concept of “the Force,” but Lucas acknowledges the idea of a “life force” has been used “for the last 13,000 years.” This article will illustrate how that force enhances natural and mental abilities and gives strength to tragic characters. By analyzing scenes from Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Electra and Euripides’ Medea, the presenters will show the similarities in approaches. In each of these plays, the force is revealed through the strength of a reaction to external circumstances. From Cassandra’s prophetic vision in Agamemnon to the sorcery of Medea, the Greek authors demonstrate not only that the Greeks believed in the force, but also introduced a way of depicting its impact in performance. Moreover, the tragic authors established an alternative way to viewing action that goes beyond having the actor simply seek external objectives. Through reactivity the Greeks found a way of revealing the character’s inner life through the emotional release of dramatic energy. For today’s theatre, understanding reactive energy can lead to fuller understanding and appreciation of these early masterpieces. Keywords: Greek Tragedy, Force, Reactive Energy, Greek Theatre, today’s theatre Acknowledgements: We wish to thank colleagues, Ms. Sally Vahle and Dr. Lorenzo Garcia both of the University of North Texas, for their support as well as Ms. Sandra Schulte for her editorial assistance. 3 ATINER CONFERENCE PAPER SERIES No: ART2016-1937 George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars franchise, popularized the phrase “May the force be with you.” The vagueness of the word “force” is obviously intended, and yet its role is crucial for the survival of a certain kind of prototypical American hero who is constantly being threatened by a totalitarian regime easily identifiable as Neo-Nazis. However, the leader of the armored white army is clad in black and represents the dark side of human nature. By contrast, the “force” that animates the heroes represents the “force” of light and reason. Greek tragedy has none of the simplicity of the Lucas world view, for the Greeks were able to portray the Trojan princess Cassandra in more or less sympathetic terms. Like the two vessels that are in the concluding stanzas of Book XXIV of the Iliad, good and evil, dark and light, are mixed together, and it takes a god-inspired intelligence to decipher which is which. About the only overlapping feature between the Greeks and Lucas is that the quest for understanding this mixed jar of light and dark forces begins with the encomium of the Delphic oracle: “know thyself.” In Star Wars, knowing who you are puts you in touch with the “force” and can make you a true Jedi warrior possessed of magical survival skills. In the three examples we will look at from the Greeks, understanding the force does not guarantee survival: in fact, the overwhelming evidence is that this god-like knowledge seems to confirm one’s mortality even as it bequeaths a certain immortality of spirit that lives on long after the body dies. This “force” does not come from robots, tokens, or totems; rather, it emanates from some intangible element deep within the character. To begin our journey, we need to think of the drama not as entertainment, but as a species of rational discourse, a process to which the Greeks attributed transcendental qualities. In other words, the tragedies were considered an exemplification of what the Greeks held to be most dear—wisdom. It was Aristotle in the Poetics who established certain parameters for tragedy by emphasizing the relationship of part to whole. Unlike Plato, he emphasized structure and construction of the work as something made by man, not inspired by gods. He observed that the special energy that flowed through tragedy was dependent on agents or actors. He distinguished two kinds of actors: protagonists and antagonists. Protagonists impel action by seeking purposeful and meaningful objectives. The resistance to them comes from counterforces often associated with pathos or feeling. However, sometimes these actors have their own goals. The point is that this back and forth movement resolves at long last in a result or ending that in tragedy is a perception or active thought. In the Oedipus Rex, we find Oedipus possessed by a purpose: solving a murder. As it turns out, he is also living not in light but in darkness about who he really is. When he solves the crime, he discovers that he is the murderer he seeks. Sophocles creates an intense discovery scene, in which the hero undergoes a reversal of fortune. This is the climax of the play. The combined and simultaneous action purges the protagonist as well as the audience of the 4 ATINER CONFERENCE PAPER SERIES No: ART2016-1937 emotions of pity and fear, leaving the opportunity for a final scene that codifies the thought or perception. The chorus observes: Count no mortal happy till he has passed the final limit of his life secure from pain.1 (ll: 1529-30) On its own, this take-home bit of wisdom is banal and meaningless, but in the context of the preceding drama, it achieves a level of profundity that brings the audience a bit closer to understanding the strange and often unknowable workings of the gods.2 If we take from this brief discussion that the purpose of tragedy is to bring the audience to the level of an awareness of divine will so that the audience is able to see the “force” of light in a blind beggar’s misfortune, then we can understand the essence of the three scenes we will be examining today. But first we must accept that not all action in a tragedy is accomplished by a single protagonist. And sometimes action is not outer-directed. Circumstances may dictate an adjustment so that the actor’s energy is expended reactively.3 Clearly, this is the case in the Cassandra scene from Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. Aeschylus makes use of one of Sophocles’ innovations, the addition of the third actor, by bringing Cassandra on stage with Agamemnon, but he does not have her utter one word while Clytemnestra entangles Agamemnon in her metaphoric net of purple cloth. The audience has all but forgotten Cassandra, when Clytemnestra makes an extraordinary second entrance to order the enslaved princess and spoil of war to follow her master. The chorus is already fearful when Clytemnestra expresses her impatience. She states: the cattle are standing ready for sacrifice by the central hearth stone, victim for the fire, a joy we never hoped to have.4 (ll. 1200-1202) The audience, who knew what Clytemnestra had been praying for, must have felt a shiver go up their spine. Yet, Cassandra makes no reply and gives scant indication that she understands Greek. It is not until Clytemnestra leaves the stage and the Chorus Leader expresses some sympathy for the captive that Cassandra leaps from Agamemnon’s chariot dressed as a priestess of Apollo screaming a shrill cry of pain and suffering to Apollo that we have any indication of how Aeschylus intends to use Cassandra in this play. 1 David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. trans. Oedipus Rex in The Complete Greek Tragedies Vol II. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959) 76. 2 Francis Fergusson introduction to Aristotle’s Poetics. trans. S. H. Butcher. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1961) 7-13. 3 Bernard Beckerman. Theatrical Presentation: Performer, Audience and Act (New York: Routledge, 1990) 143. Beckerman discusses reactivity as structural basis for scenes. Cf. Beckerman’s Dynamics of Drama (New York: Drama Book Specialists, 1979) 97. 4 Aeschylus. The Oresteia. trans. by Alan Shapiro and Peter Burian (Oxford, University Press, 2003) 80. 5 ATINER CONFERENCE PAPER SERIES No: ART2016-1937 She is a creature possessed, a prophetess with a vision in a drama that for now is completely her own. She laments her fate when she realizes that it is now intertwined with the evil house she has been ordered to enter.
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