• IBSEN COURSE •
Course Syllabus
Required Reading
Week I Material
Week II Material
Week III Material
Week IV Material
Week V Material
Week VI Material
Week VII Material
Week VIII Material
Week IX Material
Week X Material
Week XI Material
Week XII Material
Week XIII Material

WEEK IV: Three Tragic Masterplots

A)  In the classic master plot the given scene is a 'Good Order' that has been disrupted or overthrown by an aberrant force(Creon; Clytemnestra, Claudius)  and must be put right by the displaced exalted hero (Orestes, Hamlet)  or often heroine in Greek drama: (Antigone, Elektra). The heroic agent opposes the aberrant force and this collision brings about a devastation that, ultimately, restores the disrupted scene to its former state. 

In this scenario, the heroic agent needs to be highly placed in the hierarchy of the Good Order: often wrongly displaced (Orestes; Hamlet) by the violator.   Through his/her Integrity, by restoring Order, the heroic agent recovers his/her place in the good hierarchy.   Alternatively this restorative action leads to the tragic destruction of the heroic agent. 

B)   The Romantic/Ibsen s master plot the given Scene of Order is ostensibly Good ‘(normal’) but whose repressive contradictions and conflicts are hidden, keeping the protagonists in 'false consciousness'.  In Ibsen's plays a triggering action (often an unexpected visitor) gradually exposes the hidden contradictions to an ‘awakened’ (alienated) consciousness that suffers the devastation of his/her idea of the world.  The result of this dialectic is that the agent seeks a more adequate self-identity within a more adequate Order..  He/she often is destroyed in this attempt.

In Ibsen’s scenario, the agent needs to be capable of painful self-enlightenment and can emerge from any class in the social order.  Usually the agent is ‘typical’ of the social structure.  His/her tragic journey increases the audience’s adequate understanding of problematic reality.

C)  In the Tennessee Williams scenario, the 'Bad' Order is manifestly defective (violent; corrupt) but has become an established norm.   The triggering agent is an unhappy misfit or a vulnerable intruder (the 'fugitive kind').  This sympathetically aberrant individual arouses the lethal hostility of the Bad Order, which triumphs, and the triggering agent becomes a victim.

In this scenario the heroic agent is someone who possesses qualities and values that are
aberrant and anathema to the powerfully established Bad Order.  The conflict destroys the agent/victim but clarifies to the theater audience tragic division in the social structure.

The three scenarios show a progressive displacement of the tragic agent from central Insider to victimized Outsider.

1. Displaced centre of the true social Order
2. Critical rejection of the false social Order
3. Victimization by the established social Order.