DOAS: CONTEXT

Question 1

FEATURES OF DOMESTIC TRAGEDY

Answer 1

• Anti-heroes are depicted
• Characters are ordinary people
• Family life is central but presented as somehow inadequate and diseased
• World can be full of deceit, prizes or dreams that turn out to be illusory
• Often characters are manoeuvuring for control
• Often emphasis on psychological aspects- disorder of the world matches disorder of the mind
• Deaths often happen offstage
• Usually there is some element of the past impinging on the present

Question 2

FEATURES OF MODERN TRAGEDY

Answer 2

• Don’t have kings and queens as central figures/main characters- more likely to focus on common man
• Written in prose rather than poetry
• A modern audience is expected to relate to, rather than look up to, the protagonist
• Modern tragic hero often dies unrecognised as a hero
• More likely to focus on society rather than fate or fortune
• Modern tragedy retains a highly solemn tone and focuses on matters of grave and ultimare importance

Question 3

1940s AMERICA: POST WAR

Answer 3

• USA very affluent in places
• New materialism: ordinary americans seem far wealthier than British counterparts- fridges, radios, cars
• Communism vs Capitalism
• Pre civil rights- North liberal, South segregated
• No space race

Question 4

1940s AMERICA: THE AMERICAN DREAM

Answer 4

• Declaration of Independence- ‘all men are created equal’
• American dream is the dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller- opportunity for all
• Prompts us to have dreams and to have goals
• Ultimately, it is just a fantasy and preserves the existing social structure