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LITR 4370
TRAGEDY
Final Exam Samples 2015 (final exam assignment)
Model Answers to Part 3. |
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Part 3. Complete Research Report:
Write at least
8-10 substantial paragraphs with four sources
to complete
your Research Report on selected
special topic.
Sarah Robin Roelse
Tragedy: Why Are We Still Interested?
What I wanted to understand when starting this short
research project is why do we consider
tragedy to be the greatest genre? when it is a genre that
I, a
self-proclaimed person of reasonable taste, could hardly
stand to read in the beginning of the semester.
Throughout my research, I have come to understand
why people are so attracted to the idea of tragedy and, even more so, the act of
seeing it play out before them.
I have ransacked several people who are Theater
graduates in order to get their personal opinion on the subject and even taken
my search to the Internet to find some tasty bits of reasoning as to why the
human mind is so conditioned to be attracted to the genre of tragedy.
In a face-to-face interview with Centenary theater
graduate, David Fitzgibbons, he stated that, “People are so attracted to tragedy
because it is something that they can gawk at, be submerged in for a few hours,
and then quickly leave, all without it pertaining to their normal, everyday
lives” (Fitzgibbons).
As I thought more and more about this statement from
Fitzgibbons, I started to connect it to the thought of catharsis, which is a
term that we have discussed multiple times in class, which refers to the way a
piece of writing makes us feel on the inside
(White).
For instance:
When seeing Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, the watcher is drawn in to
the story because of its twisted plot and the way the characters act, but in
reality they would be mortified if people acted this way, especially in their
own lives (Shakespeare).
In a more simplistic sense, the reason people love
tragedy so much is because it transports them from their day-to-day lives into a
place where the unrealistic and unfathomable are touched upon, without it
personally affecting them.
As I thought more about this research project, I
realized that that couldn’t be the only
reason why people enjoy tragedy, that there must be something more to it than
just escaping one’s boring life for a few hours, only to be tossed right back
into it when the show is over.
I mean, there is definitely a perk to not having
constant drama or “mess” in one’s life, but is that the only reason why people
are so attracted to the aspect of
tragedy?
My hypothesis was: No, people
have to be interested in it for more
than just the dramatic appeal. Guess what I found?
There certainly was more to people’s interest in
tragedy:
the idea that an understanding and love for tragedy
insinuates an air of being cultured, sophisticated, and refined – much like a
person’s interest in Opera.
My research dredged up some interesting opinions on
people who are knowledgeable about tragedy and well-versed in the classics.
According to Italo Calvino, an Italian writer, those
people who are well-read in classical literature, especially tragedies, are more
attentive to their surroundings, more compassionate, and often times more
sophisticated and intelligent
(Calvino). Because tragedies give the audience so
much to think about, work with, and return to for future reference, they are
often seen as being fundamental to anyone studying the liberal arts, which is
what makes this class pretty important and more interesting.
I know that I have personally grown in this tragedy
course, not only because it has given me a new appreciation for the genre, but
because I feel like a more cultured person because I now possess a greater
understanding on a topic which extremely smart people still discuss, analyze,
and even mimic.
Tragedy, as a genre, is never going to go out of
style; it has a definitive place and has shown its capability to evolve over
time, which is what makes it immortal.
As Jennifer Hamilton explains in her essay,
A World of Tragedy, tragedy is
“constantly changing and cannot be concretely defined. However, what makes
tragedies unique is that they…can be discovered during the great periods of our
civilization” (Hamilton).
The reason behind this ever-evolving genre is that
people hold different values sacred during different periods of time, and when
those values or ideals are uprooted and force people to become something that
they wouldn’t necessarily be, it can be considered a great tragedy.
For instance, if we were to analyze Tennessee
Williams’s Suddenly, Last Summer, the
reader would see an older insinuation that being homosexual is a travesty, which
deserves the severest of punishments (death); however, in today’s time that type
of thinking is outdated and considered to be unjust and politically incorrect,
and now when we read the play it simply a story where we think about how much
the world has changed – for the better (and admire it for its bizarre content)
(Williams).
To be truthful, when I started writing this research
paper I thought that I had a pretty good grasp on what I was trying to say, but
I really didn’t.
I had no idea what concept or special topic that I
was trying to write about, but I did know that I wanted to learn
why? Why are people so in love with
tragedy?
Through my research, I have come to understand that tragedy
is appealing for a couple of reasons:
It takes a person to a place that they’d only
thought of in their nightmares and throws it in their face, forcing a reaction;
tragedy as a whole is canonical, meaning that it is basically essential for
people who want to say they are “cultured” or well-read.
Another thing that I have come to realize is that
tragedy surrounds us on a daily basis, not on as large or grandeur a scale as
ancient tragedies, but on a more personal level, like children in the 8th
grade being unable to read for themselves or grown adults who can’t connect with
one another without the use of a device between them because they are too afraid
of actual communication.
While these small issues pale in comparison to
Hamlet’s personal ordeal in life, they are growing on a day-to-day basis because
it shows the decline of our world as a whole, which could be the ultimate
tragedy.
As a future teacher, I want to take my new-found knowledge
on tragedy to my students and gift it to them so that maybe they won’t be so
one-dimensional once they hit the real world.
Bibliography
Calvino, Italo. "Why Read the Classics?" 09 October 1986.
www.nybooks.com.
08 May 2015.
Fitzgibbons, David P.
What Attracts You to Tragedy? Sarah Robin Roelse. 16
April 2015.
Hamilton, Jennifer. "Essays and Excerts for Part B: Special Topics." 2012.
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/.
Text/Essay. 08 May 2015. <http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4533/models/2012/f2012/f12BHamilton.htm>.
Shakespeare, William.
Hamlet. London, 1601. Play. 08 May 2015. <http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/texts/Tragedy/HamletSelect/HamletNDX.htm>.
White, Craig. Catharsis.
09 April 2015. webpage. 2015. <http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/C/catharsis.htm>.
Williams, Tennessee.
Suddenly, Last Summer. Dramatists Play Service,
Inc., 1990. Play.
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