EVOLUTION OF ELIZABETHAN DRAMA AND IMPACT

Background

From 1558 to 1603, the powerful monarch Queen Elizabeth ruled over Protestant England. She was a keen enthusiast of the arts which further stimulated theatrical activities during her reign. Due to the interest in these activities, theatres were set up in Court and around the borders of London.

Playwrights such as Ben Johnson, William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe were able to make a contented living during this time and people of all ages and gender attended their theatre to watch performances. However, the crowdedness of the theatres attracted negative attention of criminals and due to this undesirable impact, the puritans were overtly against theatrical activities and were able to shut them down in 1642.

Discussion

Drama takes its origin from the days of the Ancient Greeks and Romans where there was an emphasis on religion and conveying the teachings of the Gospel; it was a method of teaching the moral lessons in the Bible to the people.
The earliest plays were Mystery and Miracle plays which had a religious purpose; Mystery Plays revolved around the narratives of the holy scriptures while Miracle Plays portrayed incidents in the lives of martyrs and saints. These were performed in the Church to help people differentiate between right and wrong. Afterwards, the plays shifted to the marketplace. All the guilds in the fourteenth century were entrusted with responsibility of performances that represented their trade.

The Miracle and Mystery plays gave birth to Morality plays and interludes. Unlike their predecessors in which both comic and serious elements were utilized, Morality plays portrayed serious topics, had symbolic or allegorical characters, and were of a didactic nature. An example is The Castle of Perseverance which explores the theme of spiritual progress of mankind from birth to Judgement Day. Interludes were primarily for entertainment purposes and these were played in between a Miracle or Morality play just for laughs. Examples include New Learning, Nature of Four Elements etc.

Queen Elizabeth’s era was the prime time of drama. The playwrights manufactured their dramas on the foundations set up by Greek tragedy, Miracle plays, Morality plays, and Interludes. Drama was strictly divided into two main branches. If the ending was sad, it was a tragedy otherwise (if it was a happy ending) it was a comedy.

Comedy

It is a type of drama that is humorous and satirical while having a light tone. Since there is almost always a happy ending, the main theme is triumph over antagonistic situations resulting in a joyful conclusion. Comedy is further divided into five types—romantic comedy, comedy of humors, comedy of manners, tragicomedy and sentimental comedy.
William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a good example of a romantic comedy. It is a play that conveys a love story in a light-hearted and humorous way. The young lovers fall in and out of love, their problems disappear, adversaries reconcile and they reunify for a cheerful conclusion.

Every Man in His Humor by Ben Johnson is a comedy of humors. That story revolves around a gentleman named Kno’well, concerned for his son’s moral development, attempts to spy on his son with the help of his servant but the servant keeps getting in the way. All the while, a merchant named Kitely grieves with jealousy, fearing that his wife is cheating on him with some other man brought by his brother-in-law. Both of these characters are surrounded by humorous characters which makes the play more comic. The unpleasant difficulties in the play terminate when Justice Clement, hears and resolves all of the characters’ complaints, exposing each of them.

Comedy of manners is a play that satirizes a society’s manners. It deals with the question of whether or not a certain character meets a society’s standards. An example is The Country Wife by William Wycherley which was written sometime after the Elizabethan Age.

Sentimental Comedy is a genre that started in the 18th century as a response to the immoral tone of English Restoration plays. In sentimental comedies, the protagonist is from the middle-class socioeconomic group and he/she victoriously beats a chain of moral trials. Sir Richard Steele’s play, The Conscious Lovers, has immense exaggeration, dealing with the trials of an impoverished protagonist. The play ends well with the discovery of her as heiress.

Tragicomedy

Tragicomedy is an amalgamation of tragedy and comedy. All’s Well that Ends Well, a famous play by William Shakespeare, depicts that story of Helena who attempts to win over her lover. She employs a great deal of trickery by disguising herself as her lover’s other, and fakes her death. Her lover discovers her treachery at the end but realizes she did all that for him and expresses his love for her.

Tragedy

Tragedy is “a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character (“Tragedy | Definition of Tragedy by Oxford Dictionary On Lexico.Com Also Meaning of Tragedy”). It has a successful and happy hero, who has a flaw that causes his life to turn towards misery and destruction. The play strikes sympathy and pity into our hearts for the protagonist and, at the same time, acts as a warning for us to rid ourselves from such tragic flaws.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth tells the story of a strong and successful warrior who tries to betray and murder the king but is later defeated by his friends and people who once supported him.
Greek Tragedy had the same concept of acting as catharsis for emotions such as pity and fear. Both Elizabethan tragedy and Greek tragedy show the fall of the hero from glory to despair and the whole story revolved around the main character. Greek tragedies impacted the development of Shakespearean dramas as can be seen in dramas such as Hamlet etc. in which the plot is quite similar to the ones of Greek tragedies.

Final Remarks

However, Greek tragedies had a linear plot while Elizabethan tragedies never had a proper beginning (something had already happened before the play begins). Also, the Greeks portrayed that a divine power controlled and ruined the hero’s life while playwrights of the Elizabethan age claimed that it was man himself who brought about his deterioration.
The most important thing was that the drama was always relatable to the audience and although the drama focused on rich, extraordinary characters, it was psychologically pleasing to everyone.

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