Durham E-Theses
Seneca's tragedies and the aesthetics of pantomime
Zanobi, Alessandra
How to cite: Zanobi, Alessandra (2008) Seneca's tragedies and the aesthetics of pantomime, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2158/
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4 Introduction: monologues of self-analysis
ln Seneca's tragedies, monologues are numerous. As has been discussed in Chapter 2,
the preponderantly mono logic nature of Seneca's tragedy is a feature possibly prompted
by pantomime, which, as the evidence suggests, was a performance of a predominantly
soloistic nature and favoured the dramatisation of emotional dilemmas. Grysar has
suggested that pantomimic libretti contained a high proportion of monologues.' Thus
the influence of the aesthetics of pantomime on Seneca's tragedies can be seen working
at the level of structure, since the plays are built along an alternation of monologues,
and in one category of monologues in particular, i.e. monologues of self-analysis in
which a character gives an extended and detailed self-description of the divided feelings
he is experiencing. 2
Monologues of self-analysis are to be found already in Euripides, but, as Gill has
argued, there is a substantial difference between the handling of this type of monologue
in Euripides and Seneca; in Euripides monologues retain the character of a dialogue (i.e.
they are addressed to others), while in Seneca monologues have a "soliloquizing" and
"self-related (even solipsistic) character".3 Gill has further argued that the "the
obsessively interior character of the Senecan monologue constitutes a deliberate
realization of a certain kind of figure in a distinctive dramatic style, and not a failed
1 Grysar ( 1834) 56; Sargent ( 1996) 89-90; Hall (2008) 2 77. 2 Tarrant ( 1976) 199-200 has remarked that Seneca borrows a technique deriving in part from Ovid and in part from Virgil; the dramatisation of emotional dilemmas is Ovidian (Ovid's heroines often describe themselves as caught between conflicting forces, especially in the Heroides and in the Metamorphoses); as Tarrant has observed, the feelings involved in Ovid's descriptions are often more schematic and involve less complex feelings than Seneca's ones. The lengthier narration of more complex emotional situations is Virgilian, as, for example, in the description of Tumus (Aen. 12, 665-671) or of Lavinia's blush (Aen. 12, 64-70). 3 Gill ( 1987) 26. 186 .· ·- ' . ' ...... , J:"':.""" 1 1 .. ~~ l~~Uj attempt to create a real character who interacts with other such characters".4
I would suggest that monologues of self-analysis recall closely, share common stylistic features of, and have the same function as running commentaries. The most important element which connects