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LITR 4370 Tragedy lecture notes Spring 2017 |
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midterm notes
part 3: instructional videos
#14
part 1
review genres, esp. narrative genres
preview next week's assignment / discussion
Tragedy Modernizes (in links at top of homepage)
limited examples, but can start on midterm with Oresteia & Mourning Becomes Electra: Homecoming, then extend on final to Hamlet, Phaedra, & Desire Under the Elms.
268 telegraph on Lee cf. fires re Trojan War in Agamemnon
269-70 Hazel & Peter not tragic but normal, x-hero
310 What must be, must be! [cf. prophecy?]
316 I had a horrible dream (cf. Clytaemnestra]
preview romance with Aristotle
romance as women's love story true enough as subject / audience genre
romance in this class mostly refers to narrative genre
plot 6c, 6e
x-romance 13b Aristotle
family 14c cf. Mel Gibson movies
271 romantic looking cuss, gambler or poet
272 his trade--being romantic
279 romantically: x-sin, transcendence
280 cheap romantic lies
294 [Brant to buy own ship] That's always been my dream
342, 363, 394 island theme [escape, transcendence, deliverance]
Contrast to romance: no escape in tragedy (in romance the hero wins, the villain is crushed, and the good guys move on, transcending normal human difficulties)
contrast to comedy: comedy no pain
tragedy: cause and effect > consequences
317 I'll make you pay for your crime! I'll find a way to punish you!
setting enters "palace" or house
315 the pellet and a glass of water
317 the box slips out
act 4, p. 312
53.30 video
> "The Hunted": chorus
11a reversal + Oedipus
matches exactly what he did himself.
Ag 695
CHORUS LEADER: What you say is true.
I was in the wrong—I won't deny that.
But the old can always learn from younger men,
[theme of tragedy as learning]
Electra Complex?
278 Electra conflict > common sense
272 bitter antagonism between them [mother and daughter]
286 your adultery! . . . you're shameful and evil! Even if you are my mother, I say it!
289 tried to become the wife of your father and the mother of Orin . . . schemed to steal my place
300 I'm not marrying anyone . . . my duty to Father.
301 So he's the beau you're waiting for in the spring moonlight
305 You're the only man I'll ever love! I'm going to stay with you!
305 remain my little girl--for a while longer, at least . . . I'll always take care of you
309 a daughter's not a wife
Oedipal conflict
281-2 Brant's love of mother, hatred of father [preview Desire under the Elms]
287 you were always my wedding night to me
Vinnie to Christine: you've loved Orin . . . Christine: my child, only mine
Stage directions > like a narrator in a novel
284 setting: Expressionism?
Strangely compelling writer
creation of larger-than-life characters
Kind of clunky and obvious, but courageous and powerful
usually readable, comprehensible
263 Grecian temple + mask
266 Christine + mask x 2
267 Vinnie + mask
277 Brant mask
313 example of O'Neill's intensification
269-70 Hazel & Peter not tragic but normal, x-hero
Essential backgrounds:
Both Agamemnon and The Homecoming are first parts of trilogies
Agamemnon in The Oresteia by Aeschylus
main characters: King Agamemnon, Queen Clytaemnestra, her lover Aegisthus,
+ Agamemnon's children: Electra and Orestes--neither shows up in Agamemnon, but they take revenge for what happens in later plays in trilogy
p. 1 review Oresteia
Sophocles & Euripides both have surviving plays titled Electra
Cassandra:
How shall I describe how all this ends?
Another man will come and
will avenge us,
a son who'll kill
his mother,
The Homecoming in O'Neill's trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra, which updates the Oresteia from the Trojan War to the American Civil War
Electra character (named Lavinia or Vinnie) shows up in Homecoming, has major "Electra Complex"
setting, background?
Trojan War > Civil War
Agamemnon
4 [The signal fire the Watchman has
been waiting for suddenly appears.
The Watchman springs to his feet]
What a welcome sight! Light of a new day—
11 CLYTAEMNESTRA:
It's a welcome message. As the proverb says,
"May Dawn be born from mother Night."
You'll hear great news, greater than all your hopes—
the Argives have captured Priam's city!
[Priam’s city = Troy]
Homecoming
268 telegraph on Lee cf. fires re Trojan War in Agamemnon
297 cannon at the fort keep booming at regular intervals
299 the president gittin' shot
308 Why are you talking of death? . . . the Mannons' way of thinking . . . a temple of death [cf. Palace at Argos]
Contrast to romance: no escape in tragedy (in romance the hero wins and transcends difficulties)
contrast to comedy: comedy no pain
cause and effect > consequences
Agamemnon: sins of House of Atreus lead to revenge and more sin, blood, murder
Agamemnon
38 how this all ends?
44 a son who'll kill his mother
317 I'll make you pay for your crime! I'll find a way to punish you!
Aristotle Poetics IX. [I]t is not the function of the poet to relate what has happened, but what may happen--what is possible according to the law of probability or necessity. Poetry . . . is a more philosophical and higher thing than history: for poetry tends to express the universal, history the particular. . . .
[T]he poet or maker should be the maker of plots rather than of verses; since he is a poet because he imitates, and what he imitates are actions. . . .
Of all plots and actions the episodic are the worst. I call a plot "episodic" in which the episodes or acts succeed one another without probably or necessary sequence. . . .
But again, tragedy is an imitation not only of a complete action, but of events inspiring fear of pity. Such an effect is best produced when the events come on us by surprise; and the effect is heightened when, at the same time, they follow as cause and effect. . . .
Act One
263 Grecian temple + mask
264 townsfolk as chorus
265 Mexican war
265 his wife. Folks all hates her, ain't the Mannon kind. French and Dutch descended . . . furrin lookin' and queer . . . no money
266 Christine + mask x 2
267 Vinnie + mask
268 telegraph on Lee cf. fires re Trojan War in Agamemnon
269-70 Hazel & Peter not tragic but normal, x-hero
271 romantic looking cuss, gambler or poet
272 his trade--being romantic
272 bitter antagonism between them [mother and daughter]
277 Brant mask
278 Electra conflict > common sense
279 romantically: x-sin, transcendence
280 cheap romantic lies
281-2 Brant's love of mother, hatred of father
Act Two
284 setting: Expressionism?
286 your adultery! . . . you're shameful and evil! Even if you are my mother, I say it!
I knew you hated me . . . but not as bitterly as that.
286 the wife of a man you hated? . . . talking to you as a woman now, not as mother to daughter . . . vile and shameless . . . giving my body to a man
Stop telling me such things
287 silent and mysterious and romantic
287 It's only right I should hate you!
287 you were always my wedding night to me
you've loved Orin . . . my child, only mine
287 army in Mexico
287 Adam vs. Orin
288 you wanted Adam Brant yourself
289 tried to become the wife of your father and the mother of Orin . . . schemed to steal my place
289 old woman > you devil!
289 I promise you I'll never see Adam again after he calls this evening
290 you'll be responsible if--
291 slip of paper, writes two words
292 queer if you fell in love with me b/c I recalled Ezra Mannon to you
293 C: I wanted every possible moment we could steal [romance?]
293 Do you know dueling is illegal?
294 [Brant to buy own ship] That's always been my dream
295 only a dream . . . You can have your dream--and I can have mine
295 slip of paper
295 you can make up some story
296 Poison! It's a coward's trick!
a weak coward like your father?
297 no more cowardly romantic scruples
297 cannon at the fort keep booming at regular intervals
Act Three
299 the president gittin' shot
299 Marie Brantome--cf. Cassandra
300 resemblance / dissimilarity
300 Puritan maidens
300 I'm not marrying anyone . . . my duty to Father.
300 you're plotting something . . . planning
301 play my part
301 So he's the beau you're waiting for in the spring moonlight
301 continually withholding emotion . . . never to cry
302 the course of events
302-3 All victory ends in the defeat of death . . . . But does defeat end in the victory of death?
303 wounded in the head . . . . Nerves . . . He gets that from you.
303 little boy . . . talking to "Mother" . . . baby him
304 I've had my fill of death
305 You're the only man I'll ever love! I'm going to stay with you!
305 remain my little girl--for a while longer, at least . . . I'll always take care of you
306 As if you were a judge and I were the prisoner
307 camps with thousands of men around me at night--a sense of protection
308 Why are you talking of death? . . . the Mannons' way of thinking . . . a temple of death
309 a daughter's not a wife
Act Four
313 example of O'Neill's intensification
314 You are waiting for something!
314 your wife--your property--not so long ago . . . Your body?
314 nigger slave, lustful beast, brother, more honor
315 the pellet and a glass of water
316 I had a horrible dream
317 your fault
317 the box slips out
317 I'll make you pay for your crime! I'll find a way to punish you!
resemblances (look ahead to Desire Under the Elms)
hair color
men resemble each other
263 Grecian temple + mask
264 townsfolk as chorus
265 Mexican war
265 his wife. Folks all hates her, ain't the Mannon kind. French and Dutch descended . . . furrin lookin' and queer . . . no money
266 Christine + mask x 2
267 Vinnie + mask
268 telegraph on Lee cf. fires re Trojan War in Agamemnon
269-70 Hazel & Peter not tragic but normal, x-hero
271 romantic looking cuss, gambler or poet
272 his trade--being romantic
272 bitter antagonism between them [mother and daughter]
277 Brant mask
278 Electra conflict > common sense
279 romantically: x-sin, transcendence
280 cheap romantic lies
281-2 Brant's love of mother, hatred of father
