Tragedy

Question 1

Classical (Epic) Tragedy - Focus?

Answer 1

• Terrible chaos and breakdown in society (outward focus)

Question 2

Classical (Epic) Tragedy - Features?

Answer 2

• Large scale
• Hero’s nobility or royalty and ambitions

Question 3

Modern (Domestic) Tragedy - Focus?

Answer 3

• Breakdown of family and the chaos lying beneath apparent domestic roles. ( Inwards focus)

Question 4

Modern (Domestic) Tragedy - Features?

Answer 4

• Ordinary people and their ambitions, problems, and aspirations.
• More realistic.

Question 5

Key Ideas in Tragedy

Answer 5

• Suffering = excessive/ beyond deserve
• Chaos/disorder - personal and/or social
  -Death - not necessary

Question 6

Aristotle’s Key Ideas

Answer 6

• Characters forced into tragic situations (inevitable)
• Tragic Hero: a noble or great potential who falls from grace
• Peripeteia - reversal of fortune set off an event or the characters hamartia. Hero -> zero

Question 7

Harmartia

Answer 7

• An error of judgement sets of a chain of events that cause the downfall of the hero. (Also known as ‘fatal flaw’)

Question 8

Hubris

Answer 8

• Excessive pride, ignore warnings -> downfall. Most common error in tragedy.

Question 9

Anagnorisis

Answer 9

• The moment of realisation (often too late). Leads to tragic hero gaining a new perspective.

Question 10

Catharsis

Answer 10

• A moment of emotional release for the audience when they feel pity and fear and then are cleansed of these emotions and feel exultation and relief.

Question 11

Tragic Hero - Common Man

Answer 11

• Also the help to be representative of a wider population.
• Emphasised the problem in society rather than a character flaw

Question 12

Anti-hero

Answer 12

• Questionable qualities ( i.e. Grey moral compass)
• Ambiguous, complex characters with a dark side guided by good intentions.

Question 13

Modern Tragic Hero - Miller

Answer 13

• Someone who refuses to accept a challenge to their dignity. Refuse to surrender would rather die than compromise their ideology.

Question 14

Psychological elements - Modern

Answer 14

• Psychology breakdowns symbolised societal breakdown

Question 15

Style - Modern

Answer 15

• Emphasis on stage set, costumes lighting sound.
• Subversion of ‘normal values’ in drama
• Non-naturalistic elements
• Emerging expresionstic techniques

Question 16

Modern (Domestic) - Expressionism

Answer 16

• Artistic and literary movement over different art forms as reaction against Naturalism
• Expresses the emotional experience rather than physical reality
• Used to show inner chaos and disturbed psychology of characters

Question 17

Modern (Domestic) - Structure

Answer 17

• More condensed
• Slow revelation of details to audience - they have to work it out
• Some are non-linear, fragmented and disordered using flashbacks and flash forwards.

Question 18

Modern - Catharsis (effect on audience)

Answer 18

• Question established systems, principles, and assumptions about life .