Neoclassical Theatre and the Enlightenment
Neoclassical theatre and the Enlightenment test whether you can distinguish Aristotle's Poetics from the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century rule system built on it, and whether you can read a reform comedy as social argument. Expect questions on the unities, bienséance, vraisemblance, and the rise of bourgeois drama.
The classical doctrine
- Boileau's Art poétique (1674) codifies the three unities: action, time (a single day) and place (a single setting). Bienséance concerns what is decorous to show on stage; vraisemblance concerns what is plausible. Decorum matches style to character and genre.
- French tragedy uses alexandrines and five acts: Corneille's Le Cid (1637) and the querelle du Cid, Racine's Phèdre and Britannicus, Voltaire's tragedies. Molière's Tartuffe and Le Misanthrope are neoclassical comedies but do not always observe the unities strictly.
- Spanish reform: Luzán's Poética (1737) imports French rules; Moratín's El sí de las niñas (1806) is the key reform comedy, with El café and La comedia nueva as satires of bad theatre.
- Enlightenment drama: Diderot's drame bourgeois and Paradoxe sur le comédien, Lessing's Hamburgische Dramaturgie (1767-69) and Emilia Galotti, Beaumarchais's Le Barbier de Séville and Le Mariage de Figaro.
Worked example
El sí de las niñas observes unity of place (the posada at Alcalá), unity of time (night to dawn) and unity of action (the Paquita-Diego-Carlos triangle). The compression is not decorative: it forces the confrontation between Doña Irene's arranged marriage and Paquita's concealed love. Don Diego's final renunciation converts a social problem into a moral lesson, while Rita and Simón supply comic counterpoint. The play's argument depends on the rule system it uses.
Traps that cost marks
- Saying Aristotle legislated the twenty-four-hour and single-place unities.
- Confusing bienséance (decorum of presentation) with vraisemblance (plausibility).
- Treating Molière as a pure rule-follower.
- Calling El sí de las niñas Romantic because it criticizes arranged marriage; it is neoclassical reform comedy.