Central Themes in Shakespearean Tragedies - Assignment Example

Shakespearean Tragedies Part I Speaking about Shakespeare’s tragedies it is worth defining the tragedy as a literature genre: tragedy is a big form of drama, drama genre which is opposite to comedy. Tragedy solves the dramatic struggle in a special way - unavoidable hero’s death and is marked by a special character of dramatic conflict. Tragedy is based of the deep ideological conflict and conflict of interests. The peculiarities of Shakespeare’s tragedies are : Mimetic Perspective — the sudden and catastrophic fall of a great person from fortune to misfortune. Affective (audience response) Perspective — arouses a catharsis of pity and terror. Causal relationship between character and fate — character contributes to destiny. Character not eminently good or noble, a mean between goodness and depravity. Possesses a hamartia, tragic flaw or simply a mistake in judgement. Universe is not perfectly ordered; achieves balance between order absurdity. Great people seem to die while the mediocrity rule. Tragic protagonist dies, or meets his/her fate, bravely. Tragic protagonist achieves a degree of anagnorisis or enlightenment; also an acceptance of his/her flaw. Tragic protagonist makes important choices. Her/his choices matter because they effect more than just his/her life. The elements/characteristics which constitute a Shakespearean tragic character. A hero today is seen as a person who is idolized. Nowadays, a hero does not have to have wealth or certain political beliefs, but instead can be regarded as a hero for his/her actions and inner strength. However, in the plays of Shakespeare, the tragic hero is always a noble man who enjoys some status and prosperity in society but possesses some moral weakness or flaw which leads to his downfall. External circumstances such as fate also play a part in the heros fall. Evil agents often act upon the hero and the forces of good, causing the hero to make wrong decisions. Innocent people always feel the fall in tragedies, as well. Shakespeares tragedies are, for the most part, stories of one person, the "hero," or at most two, to include the "heroine." Only the Love Tragedies (Romeo and Juliet; Antony and Cleopatra) are exceptions to this pattern. In these plays, the heroine is as much at the center of action as the hero. The rest of the tragedies, including Macbeth, have single stars, so the tragic story is concerned primarily with one person. The tragic heros nature is exceptional, and generally raises him in some respect much above the average level of humanity. Shakespeares tragic heroes are made of the stuff we find in ourselves and within the persons who surround him. But, by an intensification of the life which they share with others, they are raised above them; and the greatest are raised so far that, if we fully realize all that is implied in their words and actions, we become conscious that in real life we have scarcely known anyone resembling them. They have a fatal gift that carries with it a touch of greatness (fierce determination, fixed ideas); and when nobility of mind, or genius, or immense force are joined to it, we realize the full power and reach of the soul, and the conflict in which it engages acquires that magnitude which stirs not only sympathy and pity, but admiration, terror, and awe. What overall elements do you assess are essential toward making up a complete Shakespearean tragedy as a work of literature? Shakespeare wrote tragedies from the beginning of his career: one of his earliest plays was the Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, and he followed it a few years later with Romeo and Juliet. However, his most admired tragedies were written in a seven-year period between 1601 and 1608: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth (his four major tragedies),and Antony & Cleopatra, along with the lesser-known Timon of Athens and Troilus and Cressida. Macbeths story is obviously a tragedy in the formal sense. At the start of the play he is a very successful and highly esteemed member of a social group, loaded with honours and enjoying every prospect of further commendation. He has a loving wife and a secure home in his castle at Inverness. As the play opens, we learn of his heroic actions in defense of the kingdom. We see him interact with other nobles, and their friendship and esteem are evident, as is Duncans high regard, which expresses itself in terms of fertile growth, the beauty of natural processes, and spontaneous generosity (with promises of more to come). (Jan Johnson) Shakespeare forms a new tragedy as the reflection of new Renaissance view, which had released from the medieval norms and was searching for the motives of the historical development and personality destiny. Thanks to the gift of excellent writer Shakespeare sees the most important problems of his epoch – the collapse of feudal life and connections. The tragedies of Shakespeare take place on the historical background, what causes the great tragic plot. Shakespeare is a materialistic playwright and deeply analyses the psychology of his characters, showing their contradictory, multiple-interesting, developing in real life. The themes of the tragedies are historical and legendary and shows the current problems of the epoch: the problem of death of the medieval forms and a cruelty (“King Lear”), the problem of individuality and his/her conflict with the feudal principles (“Romeo and Juliet”) and others. The base for the Shakespeare’s tragedies is the complicated complex of ideas which reflects the difficulties of the social relationship. Shakespeare used the fall of a notable person as the main focus in his tragedies. Suspense and climax were an added attraction for the audience. His works were extraordinary in that it was not of the norm for the time. A reader with even little knowledge of his work would recognize one of the tragedies as a work of Shakespeare. Part II Macbeth is arguably William Shakespeare’s most popular work, as well as his shortest tragedy. It is frequently performed at professional and community theatres around the world. The play is seen as an Archetypal tale of the dangers of the lust for power and betrayal of friends. It is loosely based upon the historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland by the Scottish philosopher Hector Boece. Boeces account flattered the antecedents of his patron, King James VI of Scotland (also known as King James I of England), and greatly maligned the real-life Macbeth, the King of Scots. Macbeth incorporates the characteristic features of a marality play. Scholars think it is an archetypal Jacobean play with plenty of endorsements of James Is reign and place its composition around 1606. There is considerable evidence that the text of the play incorporates later revisions by Thomas Middleton, who inserted popular passages from his own play The Witch (1615), most notably an extra scene involving the witches and Hecate, because these scenes proved highly popular with audiences. These revisions, which include all of Act III, Scene v, and a portion of Act IV, Scene i, are generally indicated as such in modern texts. (Johnson) Thematically, Macbeth is seen as warning of the dangers of ambition, showing that ambition can be a morally corrupting agent. Ambition can be seen as Macbeths tragic flaw: it consumes him - ironically, by the end of the play, it consumes him in the other sense of the word. Betrayal goes hand-in-hand with ambition, and it is another theme: Macbeth betrays both his own king and his friend by killing Duncan and then Banquo, respectively. Interestingly, Macbeths murder of Duncan early in the play, an act of treason, (Act II, Scene 2) Then later, in the middle of the play (Act 3) the murder of Banquo emphasizes the thematic importance of the murder of Duncan. Betrayal is also shown when, after the prophecy, Macbeth becomes Thane of Cawdor after the previous Thane is executed for betrayal against the king, and as Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth betrays the King by murdering him. Other themes include illusion vs. reality, as evinced in Macbeths visions and the optical illusion of the moving forest and kingship, which deals with questions of who should be the rightful monarch (which is why the regicide of Duncan leads to aberrations in the natural world). Destiny vs. free will comes into play as a theme, with destiny ultimately winning out (no matter how hard Macbeth tries, he is not destined to beget kings). Shakespeares tragedy King Lear is a detailed description of the consequences of one mans decisions. This fictitious man is Lear, King of England, whose decisions greatly alter his life and the lives of those around him. As Lear bears the status of King he is, as one expects, a man of great power but sinfully he surrenders all of this power to his daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him. This untimely abdication of his throne results in a chain reaction of events that send him through a journey of hell. King Lear is a metaphorical description of one mans journey through hell in order to expiate his sin. (Johnson) King Lear is a tragedy because it meets all the requirements of a tragedy as defined by Andrew Cecil Bradley. Bradley states that a Shakespearean tragedy must have to be the story of the hero and that there is exceptional suffering and calamity slowly being worn in as well as it being contrasted to happier times. The play also depicts the troubled parts in his life and eventually his death that is instantaneous caused by the suffering and calamity. There is the feeling of fear in the play as well, that makes men see how blind they are not knowing when fortune or something else would be on them. (Bradley A.C.) The hero must be of a high status on the chain and the hero also possesses a tragic flaw that initiates the tragedy. The fall of the hero is not felt by him alone but creates a chain reaction which affects everything below him. There must also be the element of chance or accident that influences some point in the play. King Lear meets all of these requirements that has been laid out by Bradley which is the most logical for a definition of a tragedy as compared to the definition of a comedy by G. Wilson Knight. “It may here be worthy of notice, that Lear is the only serious performance of Shakspeare, the interest and situations of which are derived from the assumption of a gross improbability” (Taylor) The main character of the play is King Lear who in terms of Bradley would be the hero and hold the highest position is the social chain. Lear out of Pride and anger has banished Cordelia and split the kingdom in half to the two older sisters, Goneril and Regan. This is Lears tragic flaw which prevents him to see the true faces of people because his pride and anger overrides his judgement. The pain and suffering endured by Lear eventually tears down his strength and sanity. Lear is not as strong, arrogant, and prideful as he was in the beginning of the play instead he is weak, scared, and a confused old man. At the end of the play Lear has completely lost his sanity with the loss of his daughter Cordelia and this is the thing that breaks Lear and leads to his death. Lear dies with the knowledge that Cordelia is dead and dies as a man in pain. Lear has a tragic flaw which is his pride that prevents him to see the true faces of people. He also initiates the tragedy by the banishment of Cordelia and Kent as well as dividing the kingdom. Lear has also suffered and endured the pains of his error which leads to his death and which is contrasted to that of happier times. There is the feeling of fear in the play which is of a King losing his crown and becoming a peasant. Lear has also created a chain reaction that affects everything down the chain. The element of chance is also introduced in the play with Edgar and Oswald, Oswald possessing the letter to Edmund. And the final part is the death of King Lear dying in suffering of the death of his daughter Cordelia. Works cited Bradley A.C. Shakespearean tragedy, 1983 Johnson Jan. Introduction to Macbeth, University College, Nanaimo, July 1999. Taylor Samuel. King Lear Essay http://absoluteshakespeare.com/guides/king_lear/king_lear.htm Taylor Samuel. Macbeth Essay http://absoluteshakespeare.com/guides/macbeth/macbeth.htm Read More