Ancient greece Quote by Ruth Padel
““Tragedy's language stresses that whatever is within us is obscure, many faceted, impossible to see. Performance gave this question of what is within a physical force. The spectators were far away from the performers, on that hill above the theatre. At the centre of their vision was a small hut, into which they could not see. The physical action presented to their attention was violent but mostly unseen. They inferred it, as they inferred inner movement, from words spoken by figures whose entrances and exits into and out of the visible space patterned the play. They saw its results when that facade opened to reveal a dead body. This genre, with its dialectics of seen and unseen, inside and outside, exit and entrance, was a simultaneously internal and external, intellectual and somatic expression of contemporary questions about the inward sources of harm, knowledge, power, and darkness.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: The Unseen Forces of Drama, 2015
The passage describes how tragedy reveals hidden inner forces through unseen physical actions, linking performance to deeper questions of power, knowledge, and darkness.
In simple terms: Tragedy shows hidden inner forces via unseen actions.
Key Takeaway
Explore unseen inner dynamics.
Themes
tragedy
perception
power
knowledge
darkness
Mood
thoughtful
introspective
Type
theatrical
philosophical
When to use this quote
- Theatre analysis
- psychological study
- creative workshops
- critical essays
- performance art
Key Concepts
Phenomenology
embodiment
dialectics
Questions to Reflect On
- What inner forces drive visible conflict?
- How can audiences perceive the unseen?
A Different Perspective
Unseen aspects may be misinterpreted or ignored.
![“We come away from the tragedies of [William] Shakespeare with a profound sense of having encountered reality in its most pristine form - yet the art-work is elaborately artificial, the very genre of tragedy in poetry an anti-naturalist perspective.” quote by Joyce Carol Oates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/604/joyce-carol-oates-344_art_we-come-away-from-the-tragedies-of-willi_1717511.jpg)
