midterm

Question 1

pity and fear

Answer 1

what is invoked by a tragedy

Question 2

hamaratia

Answer 2

the tragic error the character commits that readers can relate to because they could do the same

Question 3

comedy

Answer 3

a regeneration of the social order, teaches

Question 4

the purpose of drama

Answer 4

to teach and delight

Question 5

regeneration of social order

Answer 5

the structure of comedy is set up so the end result is a wedding that symbolizes creating a new generation that will result in social order going back to the way it should be

Question 6

action v. character

Answer 6

Aristotle says that action is the most important aspect of a play because it is what drives the plot forward.

Question 7

Chorus

Answer 7

comment on the action and provide information to the audience, work as a unit, not considered individual characters

Question 8

Males portraying females

Answer 8

Greek and Roman theatre originated with only male actors and they wore costumes to be women. Women on the stage is relatively new.

Question 9

Asides

Answer 9

Something a character shares with another character or the audience without the rest of the characters hearing it.

Question 10

How has Willy Loman internalized a distorted version of “The American Dream”?

Answer 10

Willy thinks that success and wealth are the only things that will allow him to be happy. He also tries to convince everyone around him that he has obtained both of these things when he hasn’t. He also buys appliances that are out of his means so he can feel wealthy.

Question 11

What does Willy sell in Salesman and how is it ironic/significant?

Answer 11

Willy sells women pantyhose and lingerie which is ironic because he cannot afford to buy these things for his wife. It also is significant because he is having an affair with a woman and it shows that he is comfortable with promiscuity. He also gives his merchandise to the woman he is having an affair with.

Question 12

How are Biff and Happy adrift, in their own ways, and why

Answer 12

Happy and Biff are adrift because their father has raised them to uphold certain ideals that are actually immoral and it has caused them to have a certain sense of entitlement. Happy sleeps with his superiors girlfriends and fiancés out of spite because he doesn’t have a higher position in his job. Biff feels lost because he has never accomplished a single goal he had for himself. Biff had potential and could have gotten a scholarship for sports, but he walked in on his father having an affair and it destroyed his entire view of the world and his father and he completely rejected Willy.

Question 13

How does the play Oedipus conform to classical parameters of tragedy?

Answer 13

Oedipus perfectly conforms to Aristotle’s classic parameters of tragedy because it invoked both pity and fear in readers. The show does this because Oedipus commits a tragic error. His tragic error was making a decision with only his best interest at heart and not considering all the factors.

Question 14

How are Oedipus and Creon distinctly different characters?

Answer 14

Oedipus is brash and thoughtless and Creon is wise and prudent. Oedipus is quick to accuse Creon of betraying him and committing treason. However this is very out of character for Creon who is actually a very loyal character.

Question 15

How does the desire to know drive the action of the play Oedipus?

Answer 15

The desire to know drives the action of the play because Oedipus has the desire to fully understand his past. He constantly feels the need to know more and the information he learns leads to his own downfall because he kills himself when he learns the truth. Jocasta is the opposite. She does not have the desire to know the truth and frequently encourages Oedipus to stop trying to learn more.

Question 16

How is Oedipus in Oedipus el Rey constrained by his circumstances in the choices he makes?

Answer 16

Oedipus is constrained by his circumstances because he is an incarcerated member of a minority group. After he gets out of jail, he cannot obtain a job because there are laws preventing him from getting them. He thinks he is in control of his own fate but the government has created a cycle of unemployment and struggle in the prisoners and former convicts.

Question 17

What is the influence of faith/tradition in the barrio in Oedipus el Rey

Answer 17

Members of the barrio believe in god and divine intervention. They listen to shamans and prophecies and practice religion. Jocasta believes everyone is fated by god.

Question 18

How does the play Lysistrata conform to the classical parameters of comedy:

Answer 18

the play starts as disorder because of the Peloponnesian war. Society continues to be at odds because the women won’t have sex with the men, then everything resolves.

Question 19

How does the relationship between oikos (private) and polis (public) evolve in the course of the play? Lysistrata?

Answer 19

Women and children are deeply effected by the war because their fathers and husbands are out of the house and social norms are being disregarded because women give up sex. The households are being negatively effects by a war they didn’t even ask for.

Question 20

What is the analogy between weaving and diplomacy in Lysistrata?

Answer 20

Lysistrata compares an oikos activity (weaving) to a polis activity (war/diplomacy) Lysistrata compares winding up a ball of yarn the way the women will wind up the war. She compares the city of Athens to a clump of wool that needs to be cleaned before it can be woven.

Question 21

How is the play Everyman an “allegory?”:

Answer 21

This show is an allegory for salvation and everyman literally represent every man and how they find salvation.

Question 22

How does the play Everyman simulate the Roman Catholic penitential order?:

Answer 22

Everyman replicates the ideas of the Roman Catholic church because everyman learns that he cannot save himself and instead must rely on salvation from god. The catholic church teaches this principal and believes that humanity cannot save itself. Everyman’s salvation from the self-sacrificing character Good Deeds mirrors humanity’s salvation from Jesus’s sacrifice. Good Deeds embodies selflessness and teaches Everyman that he cannot save himself.

Question 23

How are the oikos and the polis intertwined in Hamlet? That is, how do the personal and the political intersect?

Answer 23

The main characters are all members of the royal family so they cannot act on their own volition because their decisions effect both the family and the people of Denmark

Question 24

Give a specific example of how Hamlet reflects self-consciousness on the part of the titular character

Answer 24

Hamlet is such a deep thinker and mellow dramatic character that in the final scene of the play, he literally says he feels like a character In a play. His self consciousness is displayed because he holds himself to a high morals influenced by rligion and his upbringing and he has to overcome this to fulfill his desire of killing king Claudius.

Question 25

How does the play Hamlet complicate Aristotle’s call for action to be the primary component of drama?

Answer 25

Shakespeare did not feel bound by Aristotle’s rules and action is one of the things that is conspicuously absent in this play until act five besides for Hamlet stabbing Polonius in act four.

Question 26

How does the play Tartuffe conform to the conventions of classical comedy

Answer 26

The play conforms to the conventions of classical comedy as it was understood at the time because the play begins with a societal issue and ends with two characters getting married. The issue in society is religious hypocrisy and the marriage at the end is between Mariane and Valere.

Question 27

Orgon’s devotion to Tartuffe is merely a symptom of a larger social problem; why, as “father” of “society” is he ineffective and even dangerous?

Answer 27

Tartuffe is dangerous because he is a member of a religious group in France that has designated themselves as the primary social group and began critiquing other Christians. Because he is a religious man that holds a powerful position in society, he abuses his power and presents himself as a trusting, Godly man when he is not.