Abstract

This paper examines two ways of managing the audience of Greek tragedies. The First is the concealment or suppression of the audience by interpreters. As emergency measure, Aristotle suggests that illogical events which may disjoint the causal connections in a play should be concealed from audience through narration . G.F. Else, however, went so far as to banish the audience's participation from tragedies. Hi s interpretation of Aristotle's Poetics is still influential, but his policy must be considered as a result of his introduction of the "autonomous structure" to Poetics, just as the New Criticism desired. The second way of managing the audience is through tragedian's allusions to well-known legends. The murder of Agamemnon was surely known to Aeschylus' contemporaries. Alluding to this ending, he kept the audience in suspense during the play, Agamemnon, although classicists have underestimated the audience's knowledge. The inharmonious lines themselves would not be comprehensible without the knowledge of the ending. Furthermore, Aescyulus took advantage of the knowledge of the performing system in which the number of actors was restricted. He made Cassandra, performed by the third actor, look like a taciturn role and sing her sanguinary vision unexpectedly.