Form and Meaning in Drama: A Study of Six Greek Plays and of Hamlet

by H.D.F. Kitto

The author analyzes six Greek tragedies -the Orestes trilogy, Ajax, Antigone, and Antigone; it also contains a chapter on Greek and Elizabethan tragedy, another on Religious drama and its interpretation and a final, extended, chapter on Hamlet.

To quote from the author's preface:

I have come to believe more firmly, and I hope to follow more consistently, as a principle of criticism, the idea that in a great work of art, whether a play, a picture, or a piece of music, the connexion between the form and the content is so vital that that the two may be said to be ultimately identical.
{...}
The presumption with Aeschylus, Sophocles and Shakespeare when he wrote Hamlet, is that the dramatist was competent. If the dramatist had something to say, and if he was a competent artist, the presumption is that he has said it, and that we, by looking at the form which he created, can find out what it is.

Genres: Theatre

341 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Humphrey Davy Findley Kitto, FBA was a British classical scholar of Cornish ancestry.

He was educated at The Crypt School, Gloucester, and St. John's College, Cambridge. He wrote his doctorate in 1920 at the University of Bristol. He became a lecturer in Greek at the University of Glasgow from 1920 to 1944. On that year, he returned to the University of Bristol where he became Professor of Greek and emeritus in 1962. He concentrated on studies of Greek tragedy, especially translations of the works of Sophocles.

After his retirement, he taught at College Year in Athens (CYA), a study abroad program for foreign students in Athens, Greece.

Reviews

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best of ancient Greek tragedies sweep you away, they are larger than life, shocking, emotionally draining ...and mystifying. It is like being on a ship being carried away in a sea-storm, you feel the stinging rain and watch the waves crashing over the bow, without much idea of where you are being swept away to or what the sailors are desperately shouting and gesticulating about or why on earth you decided to come aboard in the first place.

The Oresteia is the only complete trilogy which survives from antiquity, well almost complete, there are missing bits and there are corrupted bits and it is not always clear where exactly they are. Many generations of fine scholars have pored over ancient Greek plays,trying to understand them and wrestling to translate them. Sometimes it seems that the closer you read them, the more questions arise. While the first two plays in the Oresteia, Agamemnon and The Libation Bearers, have at their centre morally hair-rising murders and the second play ends with Orestes exiting pursued by Furies, what on earth is the third play about? And what is the role of the gods?

Kitto raises a number of important questions that are crucial to understanding the trilogy. He analyzes the questions and reviews possible answers, honing in on much richer and deeper layers of meaning than what the lay reader can possibly glean by himself from the emotional majestic and awe-inspiring maelstrom.

You also get a good idea of what serious scholarship is about as Kitto sifts and mines the play itself for clues you missed. The questions are truly excellent, for example why did Aeschylus make the chorus so elaborately impotent when Agamemnon is being murdered? Why in the two last plays are Agamemnon's sins entirely forgotten? Why does Cassandra keep silent for so long, even when she is being accosted by Clytemnestra? What is the moral crux at the heart of the trilogy? Why is the Apollo in the second play so different from the Apollo in the third play? In what way is Orestes' murder morally different from Clytemnestra's? What are the Eumenides Why does Athena have to cast the deciding ballot on Orestes' hung jury?

Professor Kitto looks for most of his answers in the play itself, especially in its form. As he reminds us several times:

...Aeschylus knew what he was doing, and that everyting he does in the trilogy is a logical part of a coherent plan.

Specifically:

The presumption with Aeschylus, Sophocles and Shakespeare when he wrote Hamlet, is that the dramatist was competent. If the dramatist had something to say, and if he was a competent artist, the presumption is that he has said it, and that we, by looking at the form which he created, can find out what it is.

After looking at the Oresteia, Kito wrestles with three of Sophocles' plays, starting with Philoctetes, applying the same basic idea: apparent inconsistencies in these works is part of Sophocles' design. In Philoctetes there are two glaring troubling questions -well, glaring, once they are pointed out- why are there three different versions of the key prophecy about the role Philoctetes, his bow and Neoptolemus, Achilles' son, are to play in the fall of Troy and why does Sophocles need to introduce Heracles as "the god in the machine" to end the play. Kitto's key contribution to understanding the play is, in my opinion:

...let us say that the {play's] unifying idea is not that of the two worlds of gods and men, nor that the play is a delicate study of character with the spiritual experiences of Neoptolemus as its center piece, nor a study in morbid psychology, nor an attempt at Euripedean realism, but a profound study of political morality set against a universisal backdrop of divine justice.

Interpreting the play as a study of political morality in which Neoptolemus has to confront the dilemma between political expediency and honor, goes a long way to understanding and appreciating Sophocles' craft, but falls short of explaining Heracles' last minute appearance. It is in plays like Philoctetes, that one feels the otherness of ancient Greek culture -in spite of Kitto's ingenious arguments, I, for one, have to admit I still don't get it.

(To be continued...)

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered a copy of Aldine Transaction's 2007 printing of Kitto's "The Greeks" as my Pelican copy from 1968 needed replacing and the Aldine seemed to be the latest edition available . When it arrived it turned out to have the correct cover but the book bound inside was something completely different (something called "Equality"). My question to the Canadian Chapters Indigo help desk about whether they had correctly bound copies went unanswered and all I got back was a form letter suggesting I bring the book in for exchange. As I did not have the original receipt that did not help me. There is likely a complete Aldine Transaction press run with the faulty copies so this review is a warning to avoid this edition unless you can examine it in the store. The low 1/2 star rating is only for the 2007 edition from Aldine Transaction. Kitto's The Greeks is a classic and is a 5 star book. I recommend that you get the Penguin UK edition as I ended up doing.

[Grace Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm calling this done even though I just read the Hamlet lectures. I'm going to have to dig out my Greek plays before I can go on, I have other stuff in queue.

But this was post it flag worthy. Amazing read. It's just a shame this was published in 1956, because NONE of my college lit courses had books THIS informative.

[David Withun · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Sannie Hald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting study.