Romanticism In Theatre

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Prior to Naturalism: Romanticism Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, modern European drama and theatre began to develop. The predominant theatrical artistic movement from the late eighteenth century onwards, was Romanticism. This style of theatre focused on the individual actor’s imagination, emotion and appreciation of nature. Between 1750 and 1800, Romanticism took hold, and flourished between 1789 and 1843 in Europe. Romanticism put trust in nature’s goodness. Romantic poets based their plays on emotions, because emotions are natural (Theatre History - Part 2, 2017). Emotions and instinct were more important than reason. It believed in the glorification of "The Natural Man" and that the simple and unsophisticated…show more content…
Realism was another artistic movement that moved away from the unrealistic situations and characters that had been the main feature of the Romantic period in theatre (Developments in drama: Naturalism and realism, 2017). Due to this, realism aimed to portray real life on the stage (BBC News, 2017). It often focused on middle class characters in order to make it more believable for the audience. It was more sympathetic in its approach towards the storyline and as a result of this it gained the attention and the liking of the audience (Difference Between, 2017). They could relate to the activities occurring on stage and the individuals involved. The audience could relate and sympathise with the characters. They could understand the difficultly the characters had from breaking free from difficult situations. (Developments in drama: Naturalism and realism, 2017). The move away from melodrama and stilted dialogue to “the plain truthful language of reality” was led by Henrik Ibsen, who is often called the father of modern realism. Ibsen also broke with convention by taking the everyday lives of his middle-class audience as subject matter for serious drama. The playwright Henrik Ibsen is regarded as the father of realism because of the three-dimensional characters he created and the situations in which he put them (Naturalistic/realistic drama,…show more content…
It approached art in a more scientific, almost clinical, manner than realism (Developments in drama: Naturalism and realism, 2017). Therefore, naturalistic plays were not heart-felt or passionate, they were realistic stories. Naturalistics plays were used to demonstrate to the audience or show the audience how this would appear in real life (Theatrelinks - Naturalism, 2016). Compared to realism, naturalistic playwrights portrayed true characters and situations, focusing on lower-class characters and/or characters with a poor education. As a result, naturalistic plays were not that popular with the audience (Difference Between, 2017). Unlike realism, Naturalism portrayed the belief that a human character is formed by what they have inherited from their family and their environment (BBC News, 2017). It sought only to study the situation, characters and other factors without interpretation. Naturalistic plays were difficult to create and due to the above were rarely popular (Developments in drama: Naturalism and realism, 2017). Naturalism attempted to establish a “perfect illusion” of reality (Theatrecrafts.com. 2017). The bourgeoisie audience were middle or merchant class people. Naturalistic plays sought to mirror the bourgeoisie's lives and homes on stage. Another attribute to the social

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