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Quiz McEvoy (Understanding Tragedy)

Tragedy and History

  1. Define and give an example of hamartia.
  2. Is it likely that Shakespeare was trying to use classical (Aristotelian) tragic models? Why or why not?
  3. Early modern playwrights like Shakespeare did not know terms like hamartia and conventions associated with it; their tragedies responded to many aspects of human life. What aspects in particular?
  4. Although Hegel lived after Shakespeare, why might the Hegelian definition of tragedy be more appropriate than classical definitions to help us understand Shakespearean tragedy?

Tragedy and Historical Conflict

  1. According to McEvoy, Shakespeare's tragedies are all characterized by a "historical moment of transition" between medieval and modern. How do the historical figures Essex and Cecil illustrate that transitional moment?
  2. What two characters in Hamlet illustrate the transitonal moment between medieval and modern? Why/ how?
  3. In Hamlet, what is the problem with the old system of justice (private feuds, trial by combat)? What is the problem with the new system (public state-dispensed justice)?
  4. McEvoy says "the tragic protagonist always goes through a process of losing his identity." Illustrate by discussing either Hamlet or Othello.
  5. McEvoy says that Macbeth exposes a contradiction in absolutism, which was a doctrine defended by King James I and attacked by theorist James Buchanan. How?
  6. McEvoy says Macbeth exposes a conflict between the play's two ideological systems of "steadfast loyalty" and "masculine miltary prowess." How?

Tragedy in History: Othello

  1. Some argue that Othello's tragedy is that Iago gets him to think in a racist way about himself; others argue that racism is inherent in the way Shakespeare and his age think and write about race. However, B.J. Sokol disagrees. Why?
  2. Othello might also be a product of anti-foreign sentiment in Shakespeare's time. How many foreign and black people lived in Shakespeare's London?
  3. What was the "geohumoral theory"?
  4. Who was William Johnstoune, and what does he tell us about contemporary attitudes toward race?
  5. Iago, according to McEvoy, could be regarded as a "figure from the future." What does McEvoy mean by that?

Tragedy, Theater, and Ethics

  1. McEvoy quotes Stephen Greenblatt as saying that "everything that follows [the witches] in the play transpires on the border between fantasy and reality." In that way, the world of Macbeth is alot like the world of theater itself. Give an example from Macbeth or another play.
 
Dr. Mary Adams, instructor
last updated 15-aug-18