For Friday: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Acts 4-5

The ending, from Zeffirelli's famous 1968 film

NOTE: Don't forget to start thinking about/writing your Paper #1 due next week! Luckily, we don't have class on Monday, and no reading to worry about, so you can get a jump on it then, too. But don't let it sneak up on you! 

Finish the play for next class and think about whether the play follows the rules of tragedy that either Aristotle or Poole (or you!) have described. Question #4 deals with this more specifically if you want to answer it head-on. 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In a few of his plays, Shakespeare has a clergyman propose a very unorthodox solution to an ethical dilemma: in this case, drinking a potion that will give Juliet the semblance of death (a similar solution occurs in Much Ado About Nothing). How does Shakespeare characterize the friar’s motives and intentions in his language? Are we meant to trust him? Does Juliet?

Q2: How does Juliet’s family and her fiancée respond to Juliet’s death in 4.5? Obviously they’re all crushed, but look at their language: how does Shakespeare ‘stage’ their grief? Do you find it full of tragedy of melodrama? Pathetic (emotional) or bathetic (parody)?

Q3: Romeo had been kept away from the play in most of Act 4, but he comes to dominate it in Act 5. How has he ‘matured,’ if at all? Is his poetry more authentic and affecting? Or does he still rely on stock expression of grief and rage? Does he seem worthy of Juliet by the end of the play (you might look at some of his longer speeches)?

Q4: In the 19th century, the play often ended with Juliet’s death, while some versions had her and Romeo survive altogether (making a tragedy into a comedy). What do you make of the ending of the play, where the Prince re-emerges and acts as a Chorus to the play (which has been absent since Act Two)? Is this really the moral of the play—that “never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo”? Or might this conclusion be trying to create a katharsis that doesn’t exist?

For Wednesday: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Acts 2-3

From a 2021 Globe production of Romeo and Juliet: 

 Here are a few questions to consider as you read Acts 2 & 3 for Wednesday's class. And remember, don't worry about catching every joke and understanding every reference. Look for changes in language (prose to poetry--or the reverse, unrhymed language that starts rhyming, etc .), long speeches, and elements of comedy that change to tragedy. And as always, think about how a character's language characterizes who they are and how they come across to the audience.

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: Many theorists believe that men and women perceive the world differently, so it follows that their writing has fundamentally male and female characteristics. With this in mind, examine how Romeo and Juliet use poetry in Act 2, scene 2. What distinguishes Romeo’s language from Juliet’s, even though they’re both using love language? Is one more realistic than the other? Is one a better poet than the other? How does Shakespeare characterize them through their use of language in this scene?

Q2: Why does Act 2, scene 4 begin in verse and quickly descend into prose for the rest of the scene? Who starts the “prose-fest”? What does prose capture that iambic pentameter could not—and how might it sound very different in verse?

Q3: Mercutio is sort of the antidote for the poetry and idealism of this play; and yet, Shakespeare kills him relatively early on, in Act 3, scene 1. Are we supposed to read his death as tragic or comic? If you were the actor, how would you play it? What does his language suggest? Is he ultimately here for comic relief, or does his death truly begin the play’s descent into tragedy?

Q4: Note that Juliet dominates this play much more than Romeo, and in Act 3 is given numerous long speeches while Romeo has very few. Why does Juliet seem to interest Shakespeare more than Romeo? What does he say through her that might not make sense through Romeo? Also, why might a young, inexperienced girl see things clearer than a more worldly, love-infatuated teenage boy?

For Monday: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 1

Be sure to at least read Act 1 for Monday's class, though feel free to read more if you like. However, I want to go slowly at first so we can discuss how the language works in the play, and how best to 'listen' to it as you read. I'm giving you six questions this time (even though you only have to answer 2) to help you along and give you more to think about. 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Discuss a short passage (a few lines, or up to a page) that you didn't pick up on in the staged version, but seems to jump out at you when reading the play. Why do you think you missed it initially? Why do you feel the passage is significant? 

Q2: Much of the play is in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), though some characters exclusively speak prose (normal speech). Additionally, some characters lapse back and forth from verse to prose and back again. In general, who speaks verse and who speaks prose, and why might this be significant in Shakespeare's plays? Do you think we can 'hear' this in a performance? 

Q3: One of the more dated features of Shakespeare's plays is his (and his audience's) love of puns and witty wordplay. A good example of this is at the very beginning of the play between Sampson and Gregory, or more interestingly, between Romeo and Mercutio in Act 1, Scene 4 (around page 43). Why were these passages 'funny' for Shakespeare's audience, and why are they so hard to bring off today? For example, did you chuckle at them when watching Friday's performance?

Q4: One of the most famous speeches in the play is Mercutio's Queen Mab speech in Act 1, Scene 4, which starts out humorously, and then expands into a full-on epic monologue. Romeo thinks that Mercutio might be a little drunk, because he says, "Peace, peace...thou talk'st of nothing." So what do you feel IS the significance of this speech? Is he just filling up space, or is there something more going on here than Romeo or the audience realizes? 

Q5: Though Juliet is supposed to only be 13 and a half years old (!), her language is remarkably confident and mature. How does Shakespeare create her personality through her language? Discuss a brief scene that might hint at her star power even in Act 1. 

Q6: How does Romeo come across in Act 1? Remember that he enters the play sighing for Rosaline, a girl we never meet, and he never mentions again once he sees Juliet. Discuss a line or passage that helps us get a fix on who he is, or how others in the play see him. 

For Friday: Romeo and Juliet, Act 1--at the Globe!

There is no scheduled reading for Friday's class, but I will show you part of Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet from a taped Globe performance of the play circa 2009. If you want to read ahead, feel free to read Act 1, though we'll be reading Acts 1-2 for Monday's class. Hopefully seeing the play will help give you more of a sense of how the language sounds, and how the characters move within the play, since when you read it, you only see "words, words, words" (to quote Hamlet). 

The Paper #1 assignment is posted below for future reference. Let me know if you have any questions or need any help starting or developing it! 

Paper #1: Defining Tragedy--due Wed, September 7th

Spiegelman's graphic novel, Maus, one of the great modern 'tragedies' 

Paper #1: Defining Tragedy

For your first paper, I want you to take ONE of the provocative statements made by Poole in his Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction and use a modern work of art (a book, film, TV series, album, painting, etc.) to explain and examine it. In other words, I want you to discuss what you think the quote means (and feel free to use other parts of Poole’s book to explain it), and then apply it to a modern work which can help you illustrate your definition. Try to avoid being VAGUE: don’t just say “The Godfather does a lot of things in this quote, and makes me really understand it better.” Discuss a specific passage or two to help us see (a) what the quote is really getting at, and (b) how it helps us read and appreciate a modern work of tragedy.

THE QUOTES:

• “But there is a more political aspect to the living dead…they embody values, ideas, and ethics that challenge the present and obstruct the future. The living dead are by nature conservative, if not reactionary…they insist that the world remain as it was for them” (Chapter 3).
• “One of the distinctive features of modern tragedy is that it takes such an interest in private, even secret, mourning…This is a paradox embodied in many modern texts and works of art that seek to share griefs, bereavements, and traumas that would otherwise remain private, neglected, unnoticed” (Chapter 3).
• “Of course tragic characters are primitive, barbaric, monstrous. They represent all that we have had to overcome in the cause of culture and civilization…tragedy shows us what we are missing” (Chapter 4).
• “Tragedy represents the conflict not of right against wrong—which is melodrama or simply justice—but of right against right” (Chapter 5).
• “This is why we should attend closely to the way within tragedies that people witness each other’s pain. To us, the readers, spectators, and viewers, they are third persons, as we are to them, separated by the frame of fiction. Tragedies abound with bystanders, advisors, and counsellors” (Chapter 5).

NOTE: You can use a fuller quote than the one listed above, though it has to use some part of these quotes (don’t choose an unrelated quote, since I want you to grapple wit h these ‘big’ ones).

REQUIREMENTS: At least 2-3 pages double spaced, though you can do more. You MUST quote from Poole and try to quote or discuss specific passages/ideas from your work of art. Assume I’ve never seen it, so bring me through it with enough context to understand why it illustrates the quote and is relevant.

DUE IN-CLASS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7^th (after Labor Day): I plan to discuss some of our approaches in class, so bring your paper with you!

For Monday: Poole, Tragedy, Chapters 4 & 5

As before, read the next two chapters and answer TWO of the following questions in a "thinking out loud" manner. Remember that I'm not fishing for answers or looking for a specific response. I simply want to see how you respond to the readings and where your ideas will take you--and the class, when we discuss them.

Q1: On page 59, Poole writes that "Tragedy represents the conflict not of right against wrong--which is melodrama or simply justice--but of right against right." What do you think he means by this, and how might tragedy reconcile the "dangerous" aspects of philosophy with the more practical, particular aspects of theater? 

Q2: Aristotle championed the idea of a hero having a "fatal flaw" (hamartia) which caused them to create tragedy unknowingly, through a series of ignorant actions. Why might this ultimately be dramatically disappointing for an audience? Why do we want (or need) our tragedies to show people making decisions willfully, and with all the facts at hand (even if they misinterpret them)? Or in another sense, why is it simply more fun to have knowing heroes? 

Q3: Many writers and thinkers, such as Sigmund Freud, believed that tragedy is cathartic because it shows us who we used to be, and who we still are, beneath a cloak of civilization. Or as Poole writes, "tragedy shows us what we are missing" (51). What do they mean by this, and why might tragedy be more a kind of wish-fulfillment than a moral corrective?

Q4: On page 65, Poole suggests that "it is the relation between pain and our ideas about it that tragedy seeks to explore." Why is pain such an important subject for tragedy that has attracted writers such as the Greeks and Shakespeare? How might pain (like ghosts) be a taboo subject that only tragedy can properly deal with? And why is it always the pain of "other people" that interests tragedy? 

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? 

Welcome to the Course!

 Welcome to the official blog of Fall 2022's Shakespeare's Tragedies course! Here you'll find all the readings, questions, assignments, and other announcements you'll need to enjoy the course. You won't have to interact with the blog in any way, other than to find the assignments and bring your responses to class. 

Be sure to buy the books for the course as soon as you can, especially Poole's Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction, since we'll start reading it this week! You can get any version of the Shakespeare plays on the syllabus, though I personally find the Folger editions to be the most helpful for those still new to Shakespeare's language. You can find all the books in ECU's bookstore, but feel free to find them elsewhere, too, if you like. 

If you have any questions or concerns, e-mail me at jgrasso@ecok.edu, or come to my office after class (348--right next to our classroom). 

See you in class!