Brecht's development of epic theater challenged many aspects of the popular conventions of naturalism and expressionism that were prevalent during his rise to prominence in the 1990s 20. In the Life of Galileo, elements of epic theater such as the use of song and verse and, in particular, the presentation of arguments and reasoning as opposed to emotion and feeling, would have disconcerted an audience predominantly exposed to naturalistic concepts. This is due to the radically different way in which one must observe and react to drama. In this essay I will evaluate the profound differences between conventional naturalistic or "dramatic" theater and the new "epic" theater formulated by Brecht. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Brecht and his contemporaries were exposed to the naturalistic drama of playwrights such as Gerhardt Hauptmann, before the development of Brecht's practice of epic theatre. Audience expectations included the principle of suspension of disbelief, whereby the audience forgot that they were watching a play and became complicit in the action. The characters have been explored and developed in depth to connect with the audience on a sympathetic level; morals, sympathies and judgments were conveyed directly to the audience rather than suggested. This was also true of expressionist theater, which was also popular at that time. Esslin criticized this style of theater as, in his opinion, it seeks to create "the maximum impression of emotional intensity by indulging in hysterical explosions and paroxysms of uncontrolled roaring and inarticulate anguish" and included "orgies of vocal excess and apoplectic chest thumping". ' (Esslin 1970: 88). Indeed, Brecht believed that this dramatic theater lacked intellectual provocation, and therefore wanted to produce a style of theater that demanded more, mentally, from the audience. Rorrison notes that "from the beginning of his career Brecht had fought an ongoing battle against the conventional theater of his time which he dismissed as 'culinary', since, like expert cuisine, it delighted the senses without interfering with the mind" (Rorrison: xxxiv). Brecht, in fact, developed a type of theater that urged the audience to make informed and subjective judgments on the issues presented. He asked himself: 'how can theater be entertaining and educational at the same time? How can it be brought... from a place of illusion to a place of intuition?' (Brecht 1939). In The Life of Galileo, Brecht presents a scientific debate regarding the universe; The audience is not expected to identify with the characters, as in naturalistic theatre. Indeed, Galileo is a fundamentally unheroic protagonist, in the sense that we are not privy to his mental processes as we might be in a Shakespearean character's soliloquy, and Brecht invites the audience to make judgments about the scientific debate and not to feel catharsis or sympathy with the characters. This would be a radical challenge for those who are accustomed to applying their empathy rather than reason to the experience of drama. Unlike the "fourth wall" convention of naturalistic theatre, Brecht used the verfremdungseffekt or "alienation technique" to ensure that the audience was not influenced by their emotions and could draw subjective conclusions about the historical account. Of course, in The Life of Galileo, characters are rarely explored or presented in a way that suggests obvious sympathy on the part of the viewer, as the scenes consist almost entirely of academic speeches and demonstrations; the scenes are representative of historical events (presented for educational purposes), whichdiffers from naturalistic drama which portrays action happening in the present, right before the viewers' eyes (intended to produce an emotional response). Brecht's development of the principle of gesture also helps remind the audience that the actors are not the characters themselves and are simply giving an account of a past event. Unlike the approach expected by Brecht's contemporary audiences, in which the actor works to identify with his or her character, gesture is the concept of representing a basic social attitude in a stylized way, which helps to emphasize a point rather than exploit, on an emotional level, the actor-audience relationship. For example, the First Secretary responds “(mechanically)” (Brecht 1980: 61); the characterization is representative of a type of role, as opposed to a realistic imitation. In Brecht's productions, "no emotional falsification was tolerated" (Volker 1979: 72) and actors were asked to almost narrate the characters' gestures and movements rather than becoming the character. Smith observes that, "by means of gesture, epic theater distances the spectator from the well-made work, with its closed forms and its consumerist ideologies, breaking the conventions of the work open to view and leaving them open at the conclusion of the work ". Gestus attempts to stimulate the spectator to continue the text outside the theatre' (Smith: 493). Brecht's intentions are in fact to allow his audience to draw their own conclusions from the information presented to them; "naturalist" audiences would have been more familiar with being spoon-fed a final moral or sentiment. Brecht first developed a gesture to satirize fascists, but he also "probably sensed...that the dilemmas facing women, as estranged and disenfranchised members of society, would be articulated in his views" ( Smith: 491).In scene 3, Galileo dismisses Virginia's interest in the telescope, saying that it is "not a toy" (Brecht 1980: 31), when she asks to look at it. Then he "talks to Sagredo in front to his daughter" (Brecht 1980: 33). This demonstrates how Brecht undermines his characters to make us maintain a critical detachment; his inclusion of such blatant sexism (acknowledged in the stage directions) illustrates how Brecht's Marxist beliefs encourage the viewer to challenge the status quo. Here Brecht therefore demonstrates the injustices of the privileged towards those who have less power. Of course, "the success of the gesture depends on the sensitivity of the production to the context and the audience" (Smith: 494). reference, Brecht suggests the importance of social change through his epic principles. Although disturbing, such issues raised in this play were relevant to contemporary audiences. Indeed, through the satirical nature of the gesture, the audience is exposed more explicitly to the themes and purpose of the show than in conventional naturalistic theatre. In scene 6, the stage directions describe the atmosphere as "extremely exhilarating" (Brecht 1980: 50). . Pathos can be expected in this scene since, in naturalistic theatre, the tension as Galileo awaits the results of his case would be created so that the audience can sympathize with the character. However, giving it a "hilarious" atmosphere (with the monks comically mocking Galileo) avoids this so that the audience can make their own judgments about the action without feeling a certain emotion. This would have been a peculiar shift for viewers accustomed to building suspense and tension that articulate how the audience should feel. In this way, Brecht does not impose a specific emotion on observers, so that they can make judgmentsindependent on the action. In The Life of Galileo, Brecht uses images as rhetorical devices, which is further indicative of a narrative instead of a drama. plot, exploring less the character and more the problem of the plot. For example, in scene 7, Galileo gives the example of when he was young: "When I was so high... I was on a ship and I shouted: 'The shore is receding.'" Today I realize that the shore was still and the ship was drifting away' (Brecht 1980: 57) This simple, yet effective, image he uses to explain theThe making of new theories and discoveries in the world of science serves as a rhetorical device, aiding Brecht's argument, rather than the report of audience with the protagonist. It also helps to shift the audience's perspectives and challenge their fundamental assumptions. This is equally true of the example of the oyster and the pearl that Galileo uses to describe the importance of reason over faith (Brecht 1980: 66), which would seem, to the audience, to be more of a stylistic argument than a realistic dialogue. Brecht outlines the difference between dramatic and epic theater as it deals with reason rather than feeling. Indeed, these images are delivered in a fluid, rhetorical manner. and therefore less naturalistic, and more of an "argument" than a "suggestion"; 'epic theater consisted of telling a story in a way that invited the audience to consider the events involved and then make their own assessment of them' (Rorrison: xxxvi) In scene 7, Brecht uses Lorenzo di Medici's famous poem: 'this lovely the spring cannot last / So gather your roses before May is through” (Brecht 1980: 60). This reference to Galileo's limited time period in which to research his theories portrays the information the audience requires in a stylized manner, so that plot details are provided rather than learning more about the characters' thought processes, which would cause a increase in audience. sympathy and withdraw from a subjective evaluation of events. Additionally, scenes 10 and 15 include songs and puppet role-play. The songs are obviously more "gestic" than the dialogues (much like "epic" demonstrations of fundamental theories presented in comical and childish ways, such as the apple or chair demonstrations of the earth's rotation around the sun) which would have been more disturbing for an audience accustomed to seeing realistic action. It is, however, of particular importance to portray these 'epic' moments as the entire work is based on arguments for and against Galileo's theories, so it must be understood by the audience even if it seems less naturalistic; the emphasis, in Brecht's productions, was on the informed judgment of the audience and less on the representation of a realistic story. The Life of Galileo, in particular, is anti-emotional because the theme of the work asks the audience to use this independent judgment rather than empathy; Galileo's theories of reason over faith directly mirror Brecht's theories of the importance of personal reflection over dictated catharsis. Slide shows and music help the verfremdungseffekt by commenting on the action itself, so that "the audience can take pleasure in contesting the commentary". Slides and music, say, create a kind of meta-representation of events" (Stewart and Nicholls: 60) or "anti-illusionistic devices to eliminate suspense" (Rorrison: xxxviii) - for example, when, in scene 3, Galileo the letter appears on a curtain. Audiences accustomed to naturalist theater would find it disturbing because of the way it draws attention to the illusion presented. However, "to suggest that stage titles are devices that destroy suspense is to say that titles. of newspapers make reading stories superfluous" (Needle: 201). In fact, in 72