Theatre History exam 1 Questions and Answers Latest Update 2025
19th century social/political trends that influenced realism - Answers - Era of radical change
1. Status quo vs. equality (ex.: France & Napoleon)
2. Nationalism (ex.: Germany's heritage, folk traditions)
3. Economic hardship (seeds of Industrial Revolution)
- Enlightenment
1. 18th C. trend
2. Reason, equality, moral optimism
Denis Diderot - Answers - Philosopher & theorist
- Foreshadows realism
1. "Fourth Wall"
2. Paradox of Acting (1773; pub'd 1836)
Drame/domestic tragedy & its traits - Answers - DRAME (domestic tragedy) = everyday problems of
bourgeois class
1. New genre for new society
2. Rewards middle-class morality
3. Influences minority movements in Europe...
Paradox of Acting - Answers - published by Denis Diderot
- argued that great actors do not experience the emotions they are displaying
- "The actor who plays from thought will always be the best; he has considered, combined, learned, and
arranged the whole thing in his head."
Romanticism's general dates - Answers - romanticism: 1800-1850
- Preface to Cromwell: 1827
- Hugo's Hernani: 1830
, romanticism's influences - Answers - nature
- dualism
- the individual
- will
- death
romanticism a rejection of the precepts of... - Answers - order
- calm
- harmony
- balance
- idealization
- rationality
french romanticism - Answers defined by:
- Victor Hugo
- 1827: Preface to Cromwell
Comédie Française - Answers - founded in 1680
- state theater of France
- oldest active theater company in the world
Victor Hugo - Answers - Poet, playwright, novelist, theorist
- (Les Miserables, Hunchback)
Preface to Cromwell - Answers - Anti-neoclassical
- Freer verse style (impure?)
- "Undignified" language
- Attacks unities
- Appeal to popular taste
- Death/violence onstage; shifts in mood
19th century social/political trends that influenced realism - Answers - Era of radical change
1. Status quo vs. equality (ex.: France & Napoleon)
2. Nationalism (ex.: Germany's heritage, folk traditions)
3. Economic hardship (seeds of Industrial Revolution)
- Enlightenment
1. 18th C. trend
2. Reason, equality, moral optimism
Denis Diderot - Answers - Philosopher & theorist
- Foreshadows realism
1. "Fourth Wall"
2. Paradox of Acting (1773; pub'd 1836)
Drame/domestic tragedy & its traits - Answers - DRAME (domestic tragedy) = everyday problems of
bourgeois class
1. New genre for new society
2. Rewards middle-class morality
3. Influences minority movements in Europe...
Paradox of Acting - Answers - published by Denis Diderot
- argued that great actors do not experience the emotions they are displaying
- "The actor who plays from thought will always be the best; he has considered, combined, learned, and
arranged the whole thing in his head."
Romanticism's general dates - Answers - romanticism: 1800-1850
- Preface to Cromwell: 1827
- Hugo's Hernani: 1830
, romanticism's influences - Answers - nature
- dualism
- the individual
- will
- death
romanticism a rejection of the precepts of... - Answers - order
- calm
- harmony
- balance
- idealization
- rationality
french romanticism - Answers defined by:
- Victor Hugo
- 1827: Preface to Cromwell
Comédie Française - Answers - founded in 1680
- state theater of France
- oldest active theater company in the world
Victor Hugo - Answers - Poet, playwright, novelist, theorist
- (Les Miserables, Hunchback)
Preface to Cromwell - Answers - Anti-neoclassical
- Freer verse style (impure?)
- "Undignified" language
- Attacks unities
- Appeal to popular taste
- Death/violence onstage; shifts in mood
