LITR 4533 TRAGEDY
Final Exam Samples 2014
(final exam assignment)

Essay 1: Overall Learning Experience

Heidi Kreeger

Lessons on Tragedy

Everyone believes that they know the meaning of “tragedy”; a descriptive word, used when less severe adjectives will not suffice to describe the situation. This is the basic understanding I had prior to enrolling in a Tragedy Lit. class. The subtleties and nuances involved, however, are endless, and each facet more engrossing than the last. The following essay will describe some of these subtleties, included in the texts, but also others that were learned indirectly through the classroom environment, particularly from a future English teacher’s perspective.

I am not ashamed to admit that I had plenty of biases when I enrolled in this class. While I have always enjoyed literature and movies that weren’t romances, (or put another way I do not enjoy works that seem to tie everything up in a cute bow at the end) but I try to maintain a positive attitude and outlook on life and the idea of delving into the tragic did not immediately appeal to me. It all just seemed so depressing – so much like wallowing in life’s misfortunes. But I am also not ashamed to admit that I was wrong! I learned an incredible amount in this class by becoming more familiar with the tragedy genre and am now a huge fan. Aristotle has always been an inspiration to me and was a great contributor to my new found love of tragedy. I think Amy Barnett did a great job describing this experience in her final, “The Higher Importance of Tragedy” in which she says

“Another important element to the history of tragedy is Aristotle’s Poetics which gives well thought out descriptions of tragedy. Aristotle brings insight to how tragedy is an imitation of real life with the philosophy that humans are naturally imitative from the time of childhood; therefore, we imitate on instinct.”

She does a great job of summarizing what Aristotle says, and the things we learned in class that support imitation being the core of why tragedy is the greatest genre.

Of the many things I learned, the most important to me is the indirect learning that has happened over the course of the semester. Prominent in my mind because of its’ importance to any sort of learning, is the everyday study of my professor and how well he encourages class discussion when talking about literature. If we were in an environment that did not encourage us to participate no meaningful learning would be possible at all. He accomplishes this by looking and sounding very supportive and interested in whatever it is you as a student have to contribute. He also encourages discussion by the inclusion of modern day examples that his students can identify with. Wanting to be an English teacher myself one day, it is one of my highest priorities to discover ways to get your class communicating with you and each other. I find it infinitely fascinating, and plan to apply some of this indirect learning to my own future classroom.

With that said, I was able to learn a great deal more than I expected in such a short class. Another one of the difficulties in learning and thereby teaching Tragedy as a genre is that the classical examples we have to work with are written in a language that is hard for young students to understand, and contain subject matter that we find hard to relate to. Tragedy can be seen everywhere in modern culture, and in order to make classic tragedies worthwhile and attractive to young students, we as educators must make them relatable. This can be accomplished by allowing students to watch performances of the tragic play being studied, or by over-simplifying the story-line before it is read, so that students do not get lost within the language. Both a sixty-second overview of the entire storyline, as well as a simplified version of each line within the text are excellent ways of conveying meaning to younger students. It is also valuable as a teacher to be familiar with modern series, such as Harry Potter or Twilight, so that you may compare scenes or situations within them to the classical literature your class is studying.

One concept that is easily related to modern examples, and may even be familiar to a portion of students in a Tragedy class, is the “tragic flaw”. Conveniently, the tragic flaw is integral to Tragedy and while I myself was familiar with it prior to this class, I learned so much additional information about it the more we discussed different characters. This is one of the beauties of the tragedy genre; characters and concepts can be dissected, explored, and recreated infinitely. More specifically, a tragic flaw called “hamartia” and it is defined by the Collins English Dictionary as “the flaw in character which leads to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy” (2014). Classic examples include Oedipus not knowing his or his father’s true identity in Oedipus and the King, as well as his brother-in-law in Antigone, when Creon orders Antigone’s brother Polynices to be properly buried before Antigone is released. Modern day examples could include the ring in Lord of the Rings being Frodo’s hamartia, or Marty McFly’s fatal flaw in Back to the Future could be his hubris (excessive pride) when someone calls him a “chicken”.

These are just a few of the lessons I learned in the duration of this class. As I mentioned before, one of the things that makes tragedy great is the fact that you can explore the genre, the works, and the characters indefinitely. Even on a small scale, the characters prove to be dynamic and complex – packed full of meaning and emotion. If there is a “greatest lesson” to be learned from the class I would say I achieved it; a deep appreciation and love for the genre of Tragedy.

References

hamartia. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from Dictionary.com website:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hamartia