Shakespeare's Tragedies (Final)

1. Shakespeare’s Tragedies King Lear Hamlet Romeo and Juliet

2. What is a Tragedy? An event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe. A play representing the disastrous downfall of a central character, the protagonist, and also has a tragic ending. Tend to begin with the singing of a choral lyric.

3. Tragic Hero: Tragic heroes have flaws, try to achieve a goal but are limited, does not have to die at the end but he / she must undergo a change in fortune. Examples: Othello, King Lear, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, death in a family, car accident, break-up , cell phone dies.

4. Characters in King Lear

5. King Lear → The Beast

6. Goneril & Regan → The Evil Step Sisters

7. Cordelia → Princesses/Heroines

8. Gloucester → The Sultan

9. Edmund → Villains

10. Edgar → Mufasa

11. Fool → Rafiki

12. Hamlet

13. Father/Daughter Relationship Act II.1.110-120 “That hath made him mad. I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I had not quoted him. I feared he did but trifle And meant to wreck thee. But beshrew my jealousy! By heaven, it is as proper to our age To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions As it is common for the younger sort To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king. This must be known, which, being kept close, might move More grief to hid than hate to utter love. Come.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA9rNLZX2G8&feature=related

14. Act II.II.110-11 “To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia”……

15. Madness/Death Ophelia represented the floral motif; beautiful but yet fragile Ophelia death was a suicide not an accident. "Queen: Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, and mermaid-like awhile they bore her up, which time she chanted snatches of old tune, as one incapable of her own distress, or like a creature native and indued unto that element." (IV, VII: 190-195) Ophelia, driven insane by Hamlet's cruelty and the murder of her beloved father, plunges from a tree branch and then into a river. "Gravedigger: Is she getting a Christian burial, even though she willfully took her own life?" (V, I: 1-2)

16. "Gravedigger: For here lies the point; if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three branches – it is to act, to do, to perform; argal , she drowned herself wittingly." (V, I: 9-11) "If she hadn't been a gentlewoman, she wouldn't get a Christian Burial," commented the gravedigger.

17. Tomorrow is Saint valentine’s day, All in the morning bedtime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine Then up he rose, and donned his clothes, And dupped the chamber door. Let in the maid that out a maid Never departed more. By Gis and by Saint Charity, Alack, and fie, for shame! Young men will do’t , if they come to’ t. By Cock, they are to blame. Quoth she, “Before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed.” He answeres , “So would I ha’ done, by younder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed.” - Ophelia. IV.V.47-65

18. Romeo and Juliet

19. Media/Entertainment The story is so well known that there are elements all around us. West Side Story Titanic The Notebook Gnomeo and Juliet

20. Works Cited Fallon, R. (2005). How to enjoy Shakespeare. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee . McAlindon , T. (1991). Shakespeare’s tragic cosmos. New York: Cambridge University Press. Mehl , D. (1986). Shakespeare’s tragedies an introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press .