The Thirty-six Dramatic Situations |
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according action Adultery Aeschylus already appear Avenged become beginning Beloved Brother cause Century character Class combinations comedy Corneille Crime criminal death desire Discovery dramatic Dumas Duty element error Euripides example fall Familiar Father fiction fils finally Goethe Gozzi Hatred hero Historic honor Hugo human Husband Ideal imprudence instances interest Jealousy Kinsmen less Lohengrin Lover Madame means Metastasio Miracle mother motive natural Object offer passion perhaps Person play present pure Racine reason Relative remains Rivalry role Sacrificed Schiller Shakespeare simple single Situation Slaying Sophocles story struggle Third thirty-six tion Tirso de Molina turn vengeance Victim VIII Voltaire Wife XVII XVIII XXII XXIV XXIX XXVI XXVII XXXI XXXIII XXXIV XXXVI Zola
Popular passages
Page 95 - Curee") and similar to the quasi-incestuous passion of "Dr. Pascal." The love is platonic in Alfieri's "Philip II," and Schiller's "Don Carlos." (3) — A Woman Being the Mistress, at the Same Time, of a Father and Son, Both of Whom Accept the Situation: — "L'Ecole des Veufs
Page 9 - Gozzi maintained that there can be but thirty-six tragic situations. Schiller took great pains to find more, but he was unable to find even so many as Gozzi.
Page 75 - A (1) — Life Sacrificed for that of a Relative or a Loved One...
Page 17 - Heraclidse" of Euripides ; the "Minos" of Sophocles. Cases in which the fugitives are guilty : the "Oicles" and "Chryses" of Sophocles ; "The Eumenides" of Aeschylus. A partial example : Act II of Shakespeare's "King John." Familiar instances : scenes from colonial protectorates. (2) — Assistance Implored for the Performance of a Pious Duty Which Has Been Forbidden. — Complete examples: "The Eleusinians" of Aeschylus and "The Suppliants
Page 11 - ... that is all, absolutely all. Finally, in brief, I rediscovered the thirty-six situations, as Gozzi doubtless possessed them, and as the reader will find them in the following pages ; for there were indeed, as he had indicated, thirty-six categories which I had to formulate in order to distribute fitly among them the innumerable dramas awaiting classification. There is, I hasten to say, nothing mystic or cabalistic about this particular number; it might perhaps be possible to choose one a trifle...
Page 131 - ... to the return of the opposed powers, at the moment of the spectator's departure, to the exact positions which they occupied when he entered the hall ; in their plays of complicated plot, they triple, quadruple, quintuple the surprise, so long as their imaginations and the patience of the public will permit. We thus see, in these vicissitudes of struggle, the first means of varying a subject. It will not go very far, however, since we cannot, however great our simplicity, receive from the drama,...
Page 68 - ... pathetic in the preparations for the crime than in the results. This permits a happy ending, without the necessity of recourse, as in the Eighteenth, to a comedy-process of error. A simple recognition of one character by another will suffice, — of which our Situation XIX is, in effect, but a development. A (1) — Being Upon the Point of Slaying a Daughter Unknowingly, by Command of a Divinity or an Oracle: — Metastasio's "Demophon.
Page 16 - Every virtue is laudable, Kindness is a virtue, Therefore kindness is laudable. It is really remarkable that from this kind of start, which seems so innocently simple, there has been developed a grand array of powerful procedures by means of which reasoning can be kept tidy and dependable. Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland and a mathematician at Christ Church, Oxford...
Page 11 - A maximun of thirty-six emotions, — and therein we have all the savor of existence ; there we have the unceasing ebb and flow which fills human history like tides of the sea; which is, indeed, the very substance of history, since it is the substance of humanity itself, in the shades of African forests as *I have replaced the word "tragic", used in the quotation, with "dramatic".
Page 76 - Le Petit Jacques." Case in which the loved one is guilty: "La Charbonniere" (Cremieux, 1884) ; "Le Frere d'Armes" (Garaud, 1887) ; "Le Chien de Garde" (Richepin, 1889). The Same Sacrifice Made for the Honor of a Loved One : — "Pierre Vaux
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Thirty-six Dramatic Situations A Writer paperback library book |
| Author | Georges Polti |
| Translated by | Lucille Ray |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Writer, Incorporated, 1921 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Feb 25, 2008 |
| ISBN | 0871161095, 9780871161093 |
| Length | 181 pages |
| Subjects | › Drama / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |