Form and Meaning in Drama: A Study of Six Greek Plays and of Hamlet (University Paperbacks)

The author analyzes six Greek tragedies -the Orestes trilogy, Ajax, Antigone, and Antigone ; it also contains a chapter on Greek and Elizabethan tragedy, another on Religious drama and its interpretation and a final, extended, chapter on Hamlet . To quote from the author's preface: I have come to believe more firmly, and I hope to follow more consistently, as a principle of criticism, the idea that in a great work of art, whether a play, a picture, or a piece of music, the connexion between the form and the content is so vital that that the two may be said to be ultimately identical. {...} The presumption with Aeschylus, Sophocles and Shakespeare when he wrote Hamlet, is that the dramatist was competent. If the dramatist had something to say, and if he was a competent artist, the presumption is that he has said it, and that we, by looking at the form which he created, can find out what it is. Agamemnon -- Choephori -- Eumenides -- Philoctetes -- Antigone -- Ajax -- Greek And Elizabethan Tragedy -- Religious Drama And Its Interpretation -- Hamlet. H. D. F. Kitto. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.