Inspired Pen — A Literary Life

 ~Drama in Literature~

 We know that drama is a form of literature. However, do we know that it is pretty much tied to religion? In ancient times, it was a sort of ritual activities to ask the favour of the gods. Primitive drama was made up of choreographed movements. Therefore, it was like a dance, so different from the sophisticated drama that we know today.

The Western drama history has its significant conception at the time of the ancient Greeks. They were the ones who evolved a highly sophisticated literary form from drama’s ceremonial origins. They were usually performed as major events of national importance like annual festivals, in which the dramas or plays of such prominent writers as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides provided the foundation for much subsequent development.

It was at during the 5^th century B.C. that drama was divided into tragedy and comedy, a further development to the more religious-themed origins.  

Another remarkable period of the drama was in England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and Kind James I. In the last few decades of the 16^th and 17^th century, such brilliant writers as Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and John Webster joined William Shakespeare in creating plays that we are enjoying now.