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.