Traditions And Innovations

There is no doubt that Byron is a prominent poet in English literature who mainlygains his fame due to his well-known Romantic poetry. With the reassessment of theRomantic drama, Byron’s dramatic writings come into the center of increasing number ofscholars’ attention in this field since the1980s. Although Byron claims his play to bewritten in accordance with the system of Neo-classicism, and particularly, his playadheres to principles of “three unities”, which mainly derives from Greek dramatictraditions, his play exhibits some innovations that belong to Romanticism at the sametime.This thesis intends to explore the traditions that Byron inherits from the Greekclassism and the innovations he makes in Sardanapalus through a comprehensiveanalysis of its plot, characterization, settings based on the dramatic theory proposed byAristotle.All in all, the thesis consists of three parts in all. The first part is the introductionwhich introduces Byron’s dramatic career and his dramatic writing principles. Besides, itsummarizes the current studies on Sardanapalus together with the studies of Romanticdrama as a whole. Lastly in this part, the argument, research method and significance ofthe thesis are illustrated.The second part of the thesis is the main body which is organized into four chaptersas follows:The first chapter summarizes the classical traditions before Byron in which thetragic principles in Greek Classicism, British Renaissance and the Neo-classicism arediscussed. The second chapter analyzes the traditions and innovations in Sardanapalus’plot. It is noted that Byron adheres to the unity of action by offering a simple plot.However, conflicts that form the plot are complicated and reflect a Romantic tendency.The third chapter focuses on the traditions and innovations in Sardanapalus’characterization. Byron’s choice of the king Sardanapalus with a tragic flaw as the heroobviously follows Aristotle’s advice in choosing a hero of high-rank and a good purpose.However, Byron’s characterization differs from the previous playwright in that theeffeminate hero and the masculine heroine do not follow the tradition of the classics inproperty. The fourth chapter discusses the traditions and innovations in the setting of Sardanapalus. Byron tries to adhere to the unity of the place by arranging the incidentswithin a palace. Whereas, a strong Romantic tendency is reflected in the imaginarysetting and the spectacular scenes in Sardanapalus.Through the analysis of the traditions and innovations in the aspect of plot,characterization, and setting, I draw a conclusion that the play Sardanapalus adheres tosome Aristotle’s classical traditions in drama writing and it also exhibits someinnovations that break away from Aristotle’s classicism and are characteristic ofRomanticism. Besides, starting from the plot, characterization and setting of the play, thestudy of Sardanapalus will present a systematic study of the play itself and inspirescholars to study Byron’s drama as a whole. At last, the discovery of traditions andinnovations can further illustrate the significance of the play Sardanapalus in Britishliterature.