For Friday: Poole, Tragedy, Chs.2 & 3

For Friday's class, read Chapters 2 and 3 of Poole's Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction and answer any TWO of the questions below. Remember that it's better to read carefully and not completely finish rather than read both chapters superficially and not remember a thing! The questions are designed to help you do that, but don't feel bad if you're not 100% sure of your answer...these are designed to get you thinking, and not to be completely 'right.' 

Remember, answer any TWO:

Q1:  One scholar writes that traditionally, tragedy was defined "as a spectacle under the permanent observation of a deity" (23). How does this explain how tragedy (esp. the Greeks, Shakespeare) might have worked? Why might we be more skeptical of this definition today?

Q2: Why might poetry have been considered to be the ideal medium for tragedy (rather than prose, or in other words, normal speech)? What makes dramatic speech so suited for tragedy? Again, why might modern tragedies (in film) not entirely agree with this...or do they? 

Q3: Poole writes that ghosts are unnerving to audiences because they have "crossed a boundary that should be unpassable. It's almost as bad as incest" (34). Why might a ghost (or seeing a ghost) be like breaking a social taboo, so that tragedies would be compelled to deal with the 'living dead' as often as possible? What do the dead allow writers to talk about that they couldn't otherwise? (related note: does this explain our own culture's obsession with zombies and vampires?). 

Q4: Poole also notes that tragedy depicts the normal rites of society going wrong: marriages, funerals, courtship, elections, etc. Why might these very normal situations have the makings of universal tragedy? What is so tragic about the expected going unexpectedly?