Literature Coursework

A2 English Literature Unit 4 (Coursework)
ONE broad STUDY
An exploration into the nature of tragedy; comparing and contrasting Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, shoemakers last of a Salesman, and The Seagull.

T
ragedy has existed in Western drama since the 5th century BC and regardless of background, people have always flocked to check out tragedies. Two millennia thence, the tragic mode is still cherished to a higher place most others.
Humans, their attitudes, and society have changed over the years and so, therefore, has the meat of tragedy. We will be studying, in the light of this statement, three unmixed tragedies spanning over a millennium (Sophocles Oedipus Rex, Shakespeares Macbeth, and Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman) and a tragicomedy (Anton Chekovs Seagull) to search the nature of tragedy, the tragic hero and their effect on the audience.
The Oxford lexicon defines tragedy as dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy finale. Much earlier, in 335 BC, tragedy was first formally dissected and defined by Aristotle in his Poetics as an imitation of events frightening and pitiful. The protagonist, the tragic hero, was always highly-born and possessed a grim tragic flaw (harmatia), often overweening pride (hubris) that incurred the irritation of the gods.



This led to a reversal of his fortunes (peripeteia) and effected pity and idolatry in an audience, leading to a profound moving and purging of evil emotions (catharsis).
Writing about 1800 years later, Shakespeare tweaks some of the wayfaring rules. His tragedies do without the divine element; the protagonist alone is answerable for his actions and their consequences. Tragedies in this day showed the fall of a king/ awful because of any deep spectacular flaw, not necessarily hubris (Macbeth is ambitious, Othello green-eyed and rash, Hamlet indecisive) and whose fate disrupted entire nations. AC Bradley, the Shakespearean scholar, sums it up in a tragedy... is the story of human actions producing exceptional...If you neediness to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com



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