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agon, debate or contest between two characters in Attic comedy, constituting one of several formal conventions in these highly structured plays. More generally, an agon is the contest of opposed wills in Classical tragedy or any subsequent drama. The Old Comedy of Greece, introduced into Dionysian festivals in 487 bc and surviving in the works ...
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The agon is the conflict between the two most central characters in a literary work. It could be a physical battle or a debate in regard to a specific ideology. Any kind of competition within literature, if it occurs between the antagonist and protagonist, can be referred to as an agon. The word is rarely used today, but it has an interesting histo...
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe
“The Cask of Amontillado” is one of Poe’s most famous short stories. It follows Fortunato and Montresor. The latter takes on the role of the antagonist, bringing the former, Fortunato, to his death. Fortunato has no idea what’s going on and willingly follows Montresor, someone he thinks is his friend, into the wine cellar. There, Fortunato is walled up and left for dead. The nature of the conflict is never clearly set out, but it’s clear that Montresor has some fundamental argument against Fo...
Misery by Stephen King
Misery is another interesting example of a story that initially contains a loosely defined protagonist and antagonist. It follows Paul Sheldon, a famous author, who gets into a car crash. He’s taken into the care of a woman named Annie Wilkes, who is his self-professed “number one fan.” Initially, it seems as though she’s a slightly obsessive, although caring woman who is willing to help the author recover while the roads are still unpassable. But, the agon between the two develops when it be...
Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle
In this famous series of detective stories, Doyle crafts one of the most famous examples of agon– between Holmes and Moriarty. The latter is a ruthless criminal mastermind who, despite featuring in only two stories, made an incredible impact on the literary world. He’s cast as Holmes’ greatest foe, and it takes all of the latter’s wit to try to defeat him. Here is a quote from The Valley of Fear in which Holmes is describing Moriarty: It’s clear that Holmes respects Moriarty’s brilliance. Wit...
Although the word “agon” is not commonly used today, its principles of conflict, contest, or struggle are an integral part of all literary works. Whether it’s a physical or more mental battle, there is an agon in every type of literary work. Below are a few of the various types of conflict, each of which can be defined by a specific type of struggl...
External conflict: a type of conflict, problem, or struggle that takes place in a novel, narrative poem, play, or other literary work.Watch: How to Write ConflictListen: Learn Types of ConflictListen: Conflict in Literature4 days ago · Quick Reference. Greek word meaning ‘contest’, used to define the conflict which lies at the heart of Greek tragedy, transmuted into a clash between two principal characters, sometimes with a hint of ... From: Agon in The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre ». Subjects: Performing arts — Theatre.
Jul 12, 2017 · Example of an agon. Memorizing your lines for the play, for instance, is an agon, a fight, between you and the play. Getting up in the morning when you are tired is an agon between your nomos and your physis (or an agon between your desire to do well in school and your desire to watch late-night television). What are nomos and physis?
The meaning of AGON is conflict; especially : the dramatic conflict between the chief characters in a literary work. Agon and Greek History
Episode: There are several episodes (typically 3-5) in which one or two actors interact with the chorus. They are, at least in part, sung or chanted. Speeches and dialogue are typically iambic hexameter: six iambs (short-long) per line, but rhythmic anapests are also common. In lyric passages the meters are treated flexibly.
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May 2, 2017 · The play is a comic response to contemporary events, using farce (the swapping of clothes is like something out of a nineteenth-century bedroom farce, or perhaps a sitcom), fantasy (the chorus of frogs, the gods), and artistic discussion and literary analysis (the argument between Aeschylus and Euripides) to explore the usefulness of art as a way of changing the world.
