Modernist Drama

Madison Micucci

Since 300 B.C, dramatists all over the world have modeled their works after Aristotle’s definition of drama as “the imitation of an action that is serious…in a dramatic rather than narrative form with incidents arousing pity and fear wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.” Aristotle’s ideas have endured centuries of change and continue to transcend cultural and historical boundaries. Countless works, whether classical or contemporary, follow the example set by the ancient Greeks, Shakespeare and others, to create dramatic masterpieces that thrill, dazzle and overwhelm the audience by appealing to their emotions. However, the dawn of twentieth century gave rise to new theatrical forms that take the audience into a world of unfamiliarity and deep introspection. While modern plays differ vastly in form, scope and origin, they all deviate from Aristotle’s code by rejecting the fundamental belief that a drama must arouse specific emotions in its spectators. Specifically, the plays of Anton Chekhov, Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, and Samuel Beckett eschew emotional stimulus by deemphasizing sentimentality and encouraging a more cerebral experience in which the audience must actively evaluate and contemplate what they see.

Anton Chekhov was the first of the aforementioned modern playwrights to achieve this effect. His most famous work, “The Seagull” has become a hallmark example of indirect action, a technique that intentionally places the most climactic or important moments offstage and disallows emotional reactions to those events. For example, Chekhov informs the audience that the innocent young Nina naively follows her desires into a dangerous whirlwind that leaves her penniless, alone, and p...

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...ion for action by Estragon and an unspoken, mutual decision not to move. Since the unknowable fate of Vladimir and Estragon cannot arouse sympathy, the audience is challenged to contemplate the significance of such an ending.

As a final reflection on modernist drama, one should recognize its indefinable nature. While this discussion calls attention to the thread of emotional detachment that runs through all of the above plays, modernism in general knows no boundaries in terms of style, content or structure. The criteria once used as a standard to determine the validity of a play have lost some their former credence to many modern playwrights. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, modern dramatists have evolved so divergently that their only commonality is the desire to push the limits of tradition and introduce alternative methods of provoking thought.