Essay Questions
The point of this assignment, due Saturday at 8 p.m., is to provide fodder for what will ultimately become your research paper. You can write about one or all of the revenge tragedies we will study: Medea, Sweeney Todd and Hamlet.
I propose one of TWO possibilities.
1. The first is to write about each work through the lens of Aristotle's Poetics. For this choice you will analyze how each work fulfills Aristotle's ideas about tragedy, namely, that the audience should experience pity and fear, and that the protagonist is brought down by his/her own weakness. For the assignment due Saturday, you would write two paragraphs about Medea.
2. The second option is to read about the difference between vengeance and justice and to apply what you read to any or all of the three tragedies. The paragraphs you submit on Saturday will of course focus on only Medea. Below are three articles that discuss the difference.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Case-for-Revenge/138155/
https://www.npr.org/2013/04/08/176583581/op-ed-the-nonexistent-line-between-justice-and-revenge
Of course, you can also choose to focus on a topic of your own choosing, but the two paragraphs due Saturday should focus on one of the above.
Or From britannica.com:
Aristotle defends the purgative power of tragedy and...makes moral ambiguity the essence of tragedy. The tragic hero must be neither a villain nor a virtuous man but a “character between these two extremes,…a man who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty [hamartia].” The effect on the audience will be similarly ambiguous. A perfect tragedy, he says, should imitate actions that excite “pity and fear” and the word he uses for the purifying action is a form of the word catharsis. “Tragedy,” says Aristotle, “is an imitation [mimēsis] of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude…through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation [catharsis] of these emotions.” Ambiguous means may be employed, Aristotle maintains in contrast to Plato, to a virtuous and purifying end.
Answer in minimum of two paragraphs: How does Medea exemplify Aristotle's about tragedy? (Please consider that a Greek audience, with different ideas about the role of women, would have viewed Medea through a different lens than a modern audience.)
Greek Theory of Tragedy: Aristotle's Poetics The classic discussion of Greek tragedy is Aristotle's Poetics. He defines tragedy as "the imitation of an action that is serious and also as having magnitude, complete in itself." He continues, "Tragedy is a form of drama exciting the emotions of pity and fear. Its action should be single and complete, presenting a reversal of fortune, involving persons renowned and of superior attainments, and it should be written in poetry embellished with every kind of artistic expression." The writer presents "incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to interpret its catharsis of such of such emotions" (by catharsis, Aristotle means a purging or sweeping away of the pity and fear aroused by the tragic action). The basic difference Aristotle draws between tragedy and other genres, such as comedy and the epic, is the "tragic pleasure of pity and fear" the audience feel watching a tragedy. In order for the tragic hero to arouse these feelings in the audience, he cannot be either all good or all evil but must be someone the audience can identify with; however, if he is superior in some way(s), the tragic pleasure is intensified. His disastrous end results from a mistaken action, which in turn arises from a tragic flaw or from a tragic error in judgment. Often the tragic flaw is hubris, an excessive pride that causes the hero to ignore a divine warning or to break a moral law. It has been suggested that because the tragic hero's suffering is greater than his offense, the audience feels pity; because the audience members perceive that they could behave similarly, they feel pity.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Case-for-Revenge/138155/
https://www.npr.org/2013/04/08/176583581/op-ed-the-nonexistent-line-between-justice-and-revenge
To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster: Either condemn or crown your hatred.
PIERRE CORNEILLE, Rodogune
Always stay gracious, best revenge is your paper.
BEYONCÉ, Formation
The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.
KEN KESEY, Sometimes a Great Notion
In revenge and in love woman is more barbaric than man is.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, Beyond Good and Evil
Choose ONE of the essay topics below and write a FIVE paragraph essay. The first paragraph should introduce the topic of discussion and end with a thesis and a road map, with three elements. Each of the body paragraphs should address one of those elements. The last paragraph should restate your conclusions.
The chorus at one point remarks that the most profound hate emerges out of the loss of the deepest love (lines 521-522). How does the play explore the ambivalence of violent emotions? Does it ultimately make the case for succumbing to those emotions or resisting them?
The theme of exile is recurrent in Medea. How does exile serve as a useful metaphor for Medea's emotional states in the play? How are life and death figured as extensions of exile?
How does the play reflect timeless aspects of a woman's experience? How is it specific to the period in which it is set? Use textual evidence.
Directors often set Greek tragedies in a place and time other than Ancient Greece. If you were directing, where and when would you choose? How does the text support your choices?
"Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes avenged."
Samuel Johnson. Discuss the meaning of this quote in the context of Eurpides' Medea.