“Life of Galileo” As an Epic Drama.

The literary term ‘Epic Theatre’ is customarily applied to a form of opus in which the author recounts a
story, using as many episodes and characters as a comprehensive account of his subject cries out for.
“Life of Galileo” by Berchet is a play pregnant with all the stipulations of an epic drama. The play is a
beauteous addition in the world of Epic Theatre with narrative idiosyncrasies, storyline ins and outs,
high-principled theme and panoramic characters.

The term “Epic Theatre” which was first manipulated in Germany in the 1920’s and has become
implicitly associated with the name of Brechet. From the beginning of his career, Brechet had to be
skirmish in the face of battle against the prevalent theatre of his day which he dismissed as ‘culinary’
since like connoisseur, it delighted the sense of taste without encroaching on the mind.

For Brechet, the traditional or dramatic theatre was a place where the audience were absorbed into a
comforting fallacy which played on their emotions and left them haggard, but with a sense of
satisfaction which biased them to accept the world as they found if what he himself was looking for, was
a theatre that would help to metamorphose the world.

So, life of Galileo is an interpretation of Brechet’s Thespian thought. Narration has been given before
starting any scene that is a major characteristic of an epic drama. In this play, the author relates an
account in a way that invites the on lookers to consider the events involved and then to make their own
evaluation of them.

The epic drama has been fabricated as a montage of independent incidents, which shows a process
taking place. It moves from scene to scene by curves and jumps which keeps the audience on the ball to
the way in which things are happening. So that, they may, at length, be capable to judge whether that is
in right way. For an instance, in the first scene, Galileo succinctly hints at telescope but in fourth and
fifth scene, it is described point by point. Moreover, role of monks proceed scene to scene. Change for
the amelioration lies at the centre of Brechet’s thinking. It shows his ripened sagacity. This propounds
that the hero of the play should not be a fixed character. Galileo in the play has been presented as a
round character. He, in the first version of the play, appears to be an ardent satirist and a supercilious
scientist who is fully assertive of his new theories that will change the entire world, but in due course, he
himself declares his scientific verdicts to be null and void under the menace of torture.

Another characteristic of “Life of Galileo” as an epic drama is that man’s thinking is inured by his social
situation and will change if that changes. When Sagredo puts Galileo on the alert that his discovery is
theological dynamite, Galileo insists jubilantly, “Humanity will accept rational proof.” But in the end of
the play, the state of affairs and situations changes his outlook. It makes us feel that hero is forced to be
decisive.

As an epic play, “Life of Galileo” is ample with arguments. Galileo as well as men of the cloth make
arguments on their behalf to substantiate their ideas right. Galileo gives arguments to a mathematician,
“Gentleman to believe in the authority of Aristotle is one thing, tangible facts are another. You are
saying that according to Aristotle, there are crystal spheres up there, so certain motion just cannot take
place because the stars would penetrate them. But suppose, these motions could be established? Might
not that suggest to you that those crystal spheres do not exist? Gentleman, in all humility, I ask you to
go by the evidence of your eyes.”
Unlike traditional drama, in his play, arguments have been given with ratiocination in lieu of experiences
and feelings. In this play, Brechet portrays a world that is tangible, limitless and in the strength of reality
that is adaptable and able to alter. It turns the spectator into an observer and instigates him for actions.

At the end of the play, the discrepancy between the scientific and other developments of Galileo’s time
and the straight local social structures that prevented them from being taken for a ride, for the general
benefit would have left the audience with unequivocal questions about the nature of society.

Like a master-piece epic drama language in “Life of Galileo” varies with character. Galileo strikes a
scientific ad logical tone. He uses aphoristic and figurative language; it is intentionally made striking to
lend force to his damnation. By contrast, the procurator’s language is occasionally flairy while that of the
Florentine Mathematician and philosopher is in fun chichi and double-edged. Galileo’s change with
Andrea and Mrs. Sarti are direct and laconic as well as taciturn. Vanni introduces the vocabulary of
manufacturing industry into the play. The Life of Galileo is replete with a number of literary, Biblical
allusions and quotations from Dante, V Roe and Einstein. This stylistic choosing of the references also
lend colours to its recognition as an epic drama.

In epic theatre the stage setting of the play was always a general, traditional and historical. Props
(including doors) and furniture were to be purely realistic and above all of social and historical interest,
costumes were to be individualised and to look threadbare. The props and pieces of scenery for “Life of
Galileo” were portable and easy to assemble and remove. The bareness of the stage brings the action to
light in a cool, unatmospheric space which was intended to counter-balance the relative lack of Epic
form in the writing.

Lastly, “Life of Galileo” is an above board effort of Brechet in writing an Epic in which he goes through
with flying colours. Epic theatre cuts across the traditional divisions completely and brings the people to
the point of recognition.