final exam assignment

LITR 4533 TRAGEDY  Final Exam Samples 2014 (final exam assignment) Essay 1: Overall Learning Experience

Hector Guzman

  Learning Tragedy

            I as a football coach have had other interests in life and have never had an inclination to gravitate toward classical literature.  However, this course has been expanding my horizons on classical literature by studying tragedy as the greatest and most complex literary genre.  Tragedy according to Aristotle’s Poetics is an imitation of life and confronts problems.  Consequently, making it probably the least popular since most people prefer to be entertained by escaping reality with romance and comedy.  Still, tragedy has withstood the test of time and it is the many aspects that are woven into its fibers that make it so complex but also the greatest of all literary genres.

            According to Aristotle’s Poetics, “A perfect tragedy should] imitate actions which excite pity and fear [catharsis], this being the distinctive mark of tragic imitation.” Therefore, producing the sublime which stating Edmund Burke, “is the strongest emotion that the mind is capable of feeling.”  Tragedy is filled with pain which leaves a more lasting impression than pleasure consequently contributing to the greatness of tragedy.  This class has made me aware of how the sublime in these literatures of tragedy has contributed in making them classical and timeless.  The scene in Oedipus the King where Oedipus is hugging his young daughters and wondering what will happen to them is very touching but at the same time repulsive because he is brother and father.  Therefore, creating this swelling of emotions that are both repellent and attractive which are normally seen in tragedy.  These emotional experiences stay ingrained in the audience’s mind making classical tragedy literature not easily forgotten. 

Some of the terms learned in this class also connect with the stories.  The term Oedipal complex refers to the attraction between young sons and their mothers and it is derived from Oedipus the King.  Many plays of tragedy have similar plots and spectacles involving older women trying to seduce their younger stepsons or their husband’s younger loyal servants/friends.  This is a variation of the Oedipal Conflict and it is given the term of the Hippolytus / Phaedra archetype.  Dr. White’s notes defines it as, “an expression of the Oedipal Conflict, the Hippolytus / Phaedra archetype shows a later, less infantile instance of different-sex, cross-generational attraction.”  The term is derived from Euripides’s Hippolytus and Racine’s Phaedra because of the main plot of those tragedies and it has become a standard or model.  Once I learned the term I recognized its repeated use in plays like O’Neil’s Mourning Becomes Electra, and Desire Under the Sun.        

The contrast and comparisons discussions in class have opened my eyes to more factors contributing the complexities of tragedy.  Other genres for example have distinctions between good or evil.  However, tragedy has no clear defining good guys or bad guys.  The same character can be both.  In The Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche mentions that these opposites have “artistic powers which spring from nature itself, without mediation of the human artist. Both are artistic imitators but the Apolline is a dream artist and the Dionysiac is an ecstatic artist, and some imitations are both.”  Kat Henderson applies some of her insight on this subject as well from a previous class by saying, “One main concept of tragedy that I am beginning to understand is that characters in tragedies are not good or bad, but a realistic combination of both.  As Aristotle points out, tragic heroes suffer from a fatal flaw. While Aristotle is referring to pride, arrogance, or a trait along those lines, I feel that what each tragic hero suffers from is humanity. To be human is to be torn between what is right and what is wrong and to not always know which is which.”

            With the guidance of Dr. White I have also learned in just a few short weeks that tragedy is not only a pure genre but can also be intertwined with other genres.  Euripides’s combined tragedy with sporadic comedy in Hippolytus.  In one scene for example, the nurse seems to be complaining in a comical way of how it is easier to be sick than to tend the sick as she struggles with love sick Phaedra.  He (Euripides) also displays periodic humor throughout the Bacchae by having men disguised as women, old men not acting their age, and even making Pentheus and his guards look like fools as Dionysius escapes.  We also see how romance plays a role in Racine’s Phaedra as Aricia is introduced as the willing recipient of Hippolytus’s affections consequently making it a romantic tragedy. 

            The suppression of spectacle in tragedy was beyond my understanding at the beginning of this course.  Now I not only understand it but have learned to appreciate the suppression of spectacle.  Tragedies like, Agamemnon, Antigone, and Samson Angonistes use the chorus or a messenger to report on the spectacle using very descriptive analogies which allows the audience to use their imagination without limits.    Thereby resulting with the audience connecting with the perceived suffering emotions of the victims by using their own interpretation of the spectacle.  Also, it would be difficult to provide a realistic spectacle on stage and if an inadequate representation were to take place it could lose the audience.  Susan Newman is also in agreement by stating in her essay, “The spectacle is described by the chorus or characters in such a spectacular way that it often exceeds realistic on-stage capabilities.”

            I have learned much in this course and to be honest I was not overly enthused about taking this course.  However, I look back and cannot help but think that it was the positive learning environment that Dr. White created that made learning about tragedy exciting and interesting.  There was a non-intimidating atmosphere in the class that made it comfortable to be amongst classmates who seemed to be classical Greek literature connoisseurs.  This course exceeded all my expectations and has expanded my narrow horizons in classical literature.  I also appreciate that unlike tragedy, this course provided wisdom and knowledge but not with great suffering.