The impact of ‘The Persians’: Descriptive narratives vs. plot Amelie Maurice-Jones 12th Grade

Classical tragedy is renowned for the dynamics of its plot, and richly ordained language of its narratives, explaining Aeschylus use of both plot and descriptive narratives in tragedy ‘The Persians’ to create an impact on the audience. Descriptive narratives are clearly key to impacting an audience through describing in triumphant tones the Battle of Salamis in which male members of the audience would have likely fought in only years earlier, and yet it is the plotting of the play rather than its narrative that characterizes Xerxes as a failed and careless monarch, yet not utterly undeserving of sympathy. Furthermore, albeit it being a topic moulded into the fabric of the plot- it is the descriptive narratives of characters in which the theme of hubris creates the most significant impact.

Indeed, the emotional impact of an audience of key descriptions of the Battle of Salamis in ‘The Persians’ rely largely on descriptive narratives as opposed to a plot which remains fairly static and arguably redundant. Such impact reaches fruition in the extended narrative of the Messenger, who retells the full horrors of the Persian defeat at Salamis to a shocked and mournful chorus, marking out the disunity of the Persian fleet, unable to...