Atnigone Blog

The violence occurring offstage, as was customary in Greek tragedy, greatly affected the audience's reactions. Since it was merely reported rather than shown, the audience had the ability to imagine in their own heads, to whichever extent they pleased, the violence that was described. If, however, the violence were to occur on the stage rather than off the stage, the violence would have affected the audience in their society differently than violence in movies and television shows affect audiences today. I think it was fitting for the Greeks to simple describe it not just because they lacked the special effects and technological abilities that we have today, but also because it created a stronger bond between the audience and the performance. For example, the direct and obvious violence shown in horror movies may be more violent actions than Antigone, but because the movie shows the audience exactly what happens as the action occurs, the audience loses the ability to imagine how such an action would take place and is therefore made into simply a spectator of another's imagination - the writer's - which weakens the bond between audience and performance. This directness also distracts the audience from the horrors of such violence. While it might seem like the opposite would happen, and that watching the violent acts would be more horrific, in fact one becomes jaded by all the violence that is displayed and graphically enhanced, so that we don't take it seriously if the graphics are not realistic enough in stead of paying attention to the actual violence that is occurring, we concentrate on the fake blood to distract ourselves from the murders occurring before our eyes. This also creates a society more accepting of violent behavior simply because it has become jaded in our eyes. While Greek culture may have been quite violent in war and in their stories, there are definitely more reported violent occurrences in today's society. Connection? Maybe.