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Intro to tragedy
quiz
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| two masks of a drama represent | tragedy and comedy |
| the character who says in HAMLET a visiting troupe of players can act many varieties of dramas | Polonius |
| List the 4 assumptions of dramas | 1. perfect definitions an an airtight system of classification are impossible 2. unnecessary to classify each play read/seen 3. familiarity w traditional notions of tragedy and comedy is important for our understanding and appreciation of plays |
| List the 4 assumptions of dramas cont. | 4. tragedy and comedy are the 2 principal terms for dramas and are useful points to begin discussion |
| the most important question to ask about a play | "Does this play furnish an enjoyable, valid, and significant experience?" |
| popular distinction btwn comedy and tragedy | comedy - happy (ending, ex: marriage) ; tragedy - sad (ending, ex: death) |
| happy ending for comedy | marriage |
| successful tragedies | though they involve suffering and sadness; do NOT leave the spectator depressed |
| a few plays usually classified as tragedies do not | have an unhappy endings but conclude with the protagonist's triumph |
| the first great theorist of dramatic art | Aristotle |
| def of tragedy (Aristotle) | the imitation in dramatic form of an action that is serious and complete |
| incidents MUST arouse | pity and fear |
| characteristics of a tragedy (Aristotle) | - effects a catharsis of emotions - the language is pleasurable & appropriate - incidents arouse pity and fear - the chief characters are noble personages ("better than us") - the actions they perform are noble |
| characteristics of a tragedy (Aristotle) pt. 2 | - the plot involves a change in protagonist's fortune -- falls from happiness to misery - the protagonist hardly a BAD person - his misfortunes result from hamartia |
| characteristics of a tragedy (Aristotle) pt. 3 | - has organic unity -- happen BECAUSE not after - involve a reversal or discovery |
| a change from one state of things within the play to its opposite | reversal |
| a change from ignorance to knowledge | discovery |
| describe tragedy as a | point of departure for further discussions |
| 1. central feature of archetypal notion of tragedy / tragic hero is noble | 1. tragic hero is noble ; in Greek/Shakespearean usually a king/prince, kingship is a symbol of his greatness; great bc of his possession of extraordinary powers, qualities of passion, or nobility of mind; kingship symbol of initial good fortune |
| hero's fall is to arouse pity and fear, it must be a ______________ | fall from a height |
| an act of injustice | hamartia |
| 2. central feature of archetypal notion of tragedy / tragic hero is good | 2. tragic hero is good; fall caused by hamartia thru ignorance or belief of some greater good -- still CRIMINAL and responsible, even if UNAWARE and is from best intentions |
| critics chose to blame the hero's fall on | a flaw in character or personality - bad bc implies person's personality alone can bring catastrophe |
| some fault of character such as inordinate ambition, quickness to anger, a tendency to jealousy, or overweening pride | tragic flaw |
| for all 3 reasons the protagonist is personally | responsible for his downfall |
| third reason for act of injustice | excess of virtue -- noble character unfits him from life among ordinary mortals |
| 3. central feature of archetypal notion of tragedy/ the hero's downfall | 3. the hero's downfall is the result of his own free choice (not someone else's accident) |
| the combination of the hero's greatness and his downfall is what entitles us to describe his downfall as | tragic rather than pathetic |
| 4. central feature of archetypal notion of tragedy/ the hero's punishment | 4. the hero's punishment not WHOLLY deserved and exceeds the crime |
| what impresses us most abt the tragic hero is not his weakness but | his greatness |
| the tragic hero reveals to us the | dimensions of human possibility |
| 5. central feature of archetypal notion of tragedy / the tragic fall is not pure loss | the tragic fall is not pure loss; through resulting in death -- increase in discovery accompanied by significant increase in insight and wisdom |
| the tragic hero exists not cursing his fate but | accepting it and acknowledging that it is to some degree just |
| 6. central feature of archetypal notion of traged/pity and fear | instead of pity and fear -- compassion and awe; audience not left in depression |
| common experience of those who witness great tragedies | catharsis -- some sort of emotional release at the end; a feeling of exhilaration |
| the laugh expresses recognition of | some absurdity in human behavior |
| the smile expresses pleasure in | someone's company or good nature |
| two chief kinds of comedy | scornful comedy and romantic comedy |
| laughing comedy | scornful |
| smiling comedy | romantic |
| the older and probably still the more dominant | scornful/satiric comedy |
| most essential diff btwn tragedy and comedy | depiction of human nature |
| tragedy emphasizes | human greatness |
| scornful comedy delineates | human weakness |
| tragedy celebrates | human freedom |
| scornful comedy points up | human limitations |
| scornful comedy's function is also to be | critical and corrective |
| romantic comedy puts its emphasis upon | sympathetic rather than ridiculous caracters |
| romantic comedy characters are | placed in various kinds of difficulties from which at the end they are restored |
| rc characters are NOT the | commanding or lofty protagonists that tragic dramas have |
| romantic comedy characters are: | - sensible and good - do NOT strike w/ awe - do NOT test the limits of human possibility |
| satiric comedy has more minor characters that are | sympathetic; whereas, romantic has minor characters that are ridiculed |
| the diff may be whether we | laugh at the primary or at the secondary characters |
| the norms of comedy are primarily social; whereas, | tragedies tend to isolate their protagonist to emphasize their uniqueness |
| comedies put their protagonist in a midst of grp to emphasize their | commonness |
| plays named after tragic protagonists | comic protagonists tend to be types of people, and the play is named for the type |
| we judge tragic protagonist by absolute moral standards | we judge comic protagonist by social standards -- how well they adjust to society and conform to expectation |
| comic plots are less likely than tragic plots to exhibit | high degree of organic unity |
| characteristics of comic unity | unlikely coincidences, improbable disguises, mistaken identity |
| a comedy ends happily because | comedies end happily |
| rescue by an act of divine intervention | deux ex mechina |
| comedy asks us to forget for the time being that in actuality life has no endings except | death |
| melodrama belongs w | tragedy |
| farce belongs w | comedy |
| attempts to arouse feelings of fear and pity, but it does so ordinarily thru cruder means | melodrama |
| characteristics of melodrama | - oversimplified conflict btwn good & evil depicted in absolute terms - plot emphasized at the expense of characters - sensational incidents - good triumphs over evil - ending is happy - moral issues oversimplified |
| melodrama does NOT provide the complex insight of | tragedy |
| aimed at rousing explosive laughter | farce |
| characteristics of farce | - means cruder - often VIOLENT @ physical lvl - plot emphasized by characterization, improbable situations, and coincidence - comic implausibility is raised to heights of absurd impossibility -coarse wit and physical action |
| 4 classifications | tragedy, comedy, melodrama, farce; no classification is RIGID |
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