NOTE: Read the next two chapters and answer TWO of the following questions. Remember that these questions are highlighting some of the big ideas (and small passages) that I want you to consider as you read. It can be overwhelming to read everything in these chapters and then walk away 'blind,' so hopefully this will give you something to chew on and think over.
Q1: In Chapter 2, Poole quotes Lucien Goldmann's statement that "Tragedy can be defined as a spectacle under the permanent observation of a deity" (23). Does this mean that in an increasingly secular world (or at least one without the idea of gods that take delight in our human dramas), tragedy is no longer possible? Does tragedy require belief? If you don't believe in divine justice or punishment, does tragedy too easily become comedy?
Q2: The playwright Ibsen switched to prose so he could portray people more realistically and without the "tongues of angels" (poetry). In his later plays, Shakespeare also increasingly uses prose instead of verse. But without the elevated language of poetry, how can we tell that someone is 'acting' tragic? In modern day movies and shows, how do actors make their language and performance seem 'serious'? What are the signs that we're supposed to cry rather than laugh?
Q3: According to Chapter 3, why do so many tragedies deal with ghosts? Like poetry, why are ghosts and the dead almost necessary to create the atmosphere and language of tragedy? As we’ll see in next week, the plot of Hamlet is set in motion by the appearance of Hamlet’s father’s ghost…but is the ghost itself the tragedy, or something more avoidable?
Q4: Tragedy literally means "goat-prize" as we learned in Chapter 1, but in Chapter 3 Poole imagines where tragic plays actually originated. What is the beginning of tragedy? Why were they first enacted, and what did they help the players and the audience understand or experience? What aspects changed or disappeared as the original performance eventually became a "play"?
