The influence of greek tragedy as filtered through seneca can still be seen in modern plays, movies, and literature. select a play, movie, or literary work with which you are familiar. in the space below, write a short piece of writing presenting and analyzing the evidence you find of greek tragic elements as discussed in relation to elizabethan and senecan drama. include examples of at least three different elements, with an explanation of each one. be sure to include the title of your selected work, as well as its type (play, movie, or literary work such as a book or short story). elements you might choose from include the tragic hero, premonitions, prophetic dreams, or revenge.

In the sixteenth century the popularity of Seneca's tragedies was immense. To English dramatists, struggling to impose form and order on the shapeless, though vigorous, native drama, Seneca seemed to offer an admirable model. His tragedies contained abundance of melodrama to suit the popular taste, whilst his sententious philosophy and moral maxims appealed to the more learned, and all was arranged in a clear-cut form, of which the principle of construction was easy to grasp. The great Greek tragedians were little studied by the Elizabethans. Greek was still unfamiliar to a large number of students; and it may be doubted whether in any case Aeschylus or Sophocles would have been appreciated by the Elizabethan public. The Senecan drama, crude, and melodramatic as it seems to us, appealed far more strongly to the robust Englishmen of the sixteenth century, whose animal instincts were as yet only half subdued by civilization.

The importance of the influence exercised by Senecan tragedy upon the development of the Elizabethan drama is now generally admitted. The extent of this influence has been demonstrated by J. W. Cunliffe in his Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy, and by R. Fischer in Kunstentwicklung der englischen Tragodie. It affected both the substance and the form of the drama. The division into five acts, and the introduction of the Chorus, as in Gorboduc, The Misfortunes of Arthur, and Catiline, may be taken as examples of the influence of Seneca on the form of the Elizabethan drama, whilst in regard to matter and treatment Senecan influence was yet more important.

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