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Tragedy

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... of the Iliad from Achilles' refusal to participate in battle to Hector's death. ... A series of skirmishes conclude the play, during which Achilles kills Hector. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Tragedy


1
Tragedy
  • Aristotle's precept the protagonist must be
    admirable but flawed, the audience able to
    understand and sympathize.
  • All of Shakespeare's tragic protagonists are
    capable of both good and evil. The playwright
    always insists on the operation of the doctrine
    of free will the (anti)hero is always able to
    back out, to redeem himself. But, the author
    dictates, they must move unheedingly to their
    doom.

2
Love Tragedies
  • Differ from the others in that the lovers are not
    doomed through any fault of their own, but
    because of some barrier in the world around them.
    Death is almost a consummation of their love --
    as if love can not properly succeed in a tragic
    world.
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • Antony Cleopatra
  • Othello

3
Romeo and Juliet
  • Two Italian "star-cross'd teenagers whose
    "untimely deaths" ultimately unite their feuding
    households.
  • Use of subplots to embellish the story
  • Ascribes different poetic forms to different
    characters, sometimes changing as the character
    develops, i.e., Romeo grows more adept at the
    sonnet form over time.
  • Characters frequently compare love and death and
    allude to the role of fate.

4
Macbeth
  • About a talented, but overly ambitious Scottish
    lord who, with his wifes able assistance and
    moral support, murders his King and frames his
    servants on his way to the throne.
  • All foretold by the 3 witches.
  • Everyone dies.

5
King Lear
  • Legendary English King abdicates throne and
    divides kingdom among 3 daughters according to
    how each speak their love for him. Cordelia, the
    youngest and best, refuses to play. Lear divides
    up her share, banishes her, she marries King of
    France
  • Other two girls quarrel and are forced to deal
    with an army from France, led by Cordelia, sent
    to restore Lear to his throne. A cataclysmic war
    is fought.

6
Lear (Continued)
  • Lear goes mad.
  • Lear and Cordelia are briefly reunited and
    reconciled before the battle between Britain and
    France.
  • After the French lose, Lear is content at the
    thought of living in prison with Cordelia, but
    Edmund gives orders for them to be executed.
  • Everyone dies.

7
Hamlet
  • Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, takes revenge on his
    uncle (the current king) for killing his father
    (the former king).
  • One of most-quoted works in English, included on
    lists of the world's greatest literature.
  • Shakespeare's greatest, longest, most-performed
    play
  • Hamlet is the largest part in Shakespeares
    canon.
  • Starts with Hamlet's desire for revenge and ends,
    more than three hours later, with its
    fulfillment.
  • Why the delay? Some see it as a plot device to
    prolong the action others as an exploration of
    the complex philosophical and ethical issues that
    surround revenge, intrigue, incest and desire.

8
Othello
  • Othello, the Moor, has eloped and married the
    daughter of a wealthy Venetian, is sent to Cyprus
    to defend it from the Turks.
  • Iago, his unhappy, villainous subordinate, plots
    to alienate husband and wife.
  • Everyone dies.
  • No subplots.
  • About race, but mostly about jealousy.

9
Troilus and Cressida
  • Set during the latter years of Trojan War,
    following plot of the Iliad from Achilles'
    refusal to participate in battle to Hector's
    death.
  • 2 plots (1) Troilus, a Trojan prince woos
    Cressida. They have sex, profess undying love.
    Cressida is exchanged for a Trojan prisoner of
    war. As he attempts to visit her in the Greek
    camp, Troilus glimpses Diomedes flirting with
    her, and decides to avenge her perfidy. (2) the
    majority of the play revolves around leaders of
    the Greek and Trojan forces the former attempt
    to get Achilles to return to battle and face. A
    series of skirmishes conclude the play, during
    which Achilles kills Hector.

10
The Life of Timon of Athens
  • Opens at a fancy dinner. Timon is so irrationally
    generous that he blows all his . Timon's
    creditors demand immediate payment. Timon makes
    requests for help from those friends he considers
    closest. He is turned down, one by one.
  • Timon has a much smaller party, for those he
    feels betrayed by. The trays contain rocks and
    lukewarm water. Timon sprays them and flees.
  • Timon takes to a cave, eats roots, discovers an
    underground trove of gold. The knowledge of this
    spreads, Timon becomes a misanthrope.

11
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
  • Portrays the conspiracy against Julius Caesar.
    One of several Roman plays based on true events
    from Roman history, which also include Titus
    Andronicus, Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra.
  • Caesar is not the central character, appears in
    only three scenes and dies in the third act.
  • Protagonist is Marcus Brutus, central drama is
    his struggle between the conflicting demands of
    honour, patriotism, and friendship.
  • Reflected anxiety in England due to worries over
    succession of leadership.

12
Antony and Cleopatra
  • Follows Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the
    Parthian War to Cleopatra's suicide. The
    antagonist is Octavius Caesar, the future first
    emperor of Rome. The tragedy is a Roman play with
    swift, panoramic shifts in geographical locations
    and registers, alternating between sensual,
    imaginative Alexandria and the more pragmatic,
    austere Rome.
  • The role of Cleopatra is one of the most complex
    female roles in Shakespeare's work. She is
    frequently vain and histrionic, provoking an
    audience almost to scorn at the same time,
    Shakespeare's raises both she and Antony to
    tragic grandeur.

13
Titus Andronicus
  • Bloodiest and first tragedy
  • Titus returns from war, enters Rome with Tamora,
    Queen of the Goths, her sons, and Aaron the Moor.
    The emperor has died, Titus refuses the throne in
    favor of eldest son Saturninus who will marry
    Titus' daughter Lavinia (who is in love with
    another). The new emperor, Saturninus, marries
    Tamora instead.

14
Titus (Continued)
  • Lavinia is raped by Tamoras sons who cut out her
    tongue and cut off her hands.
  • Aaron frames Titus' sons Martius and Quintus for
    a murder
  • Aaron tells Titus the emperor will spare his sons
    if he sacrifices a hand. Sons killed anyway.
  • Titus finds a way to cook and kill everyone. The
    end.

15
Coriolanus
  • Opens in Rome. There are riots in progress, after
    stores of grain were withheld from ordinary
    citizens. Then war.
  • Coriolanus is a hero in that war, on return, runs
    for consul.
  • Villains scheme to undo Coriolanus, and end up
    getting him banished.
  • Coriolanus seeks out the Volscians and tells them
    that he will lead them to victory against Rome.
  • Rome tries to persuade Coriolanus to halt his
    crusade for vengeance. Mom succeeds in dissuading
    son from destroying Rome. Conspirators organized
    kill him for betrayal.
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