- Tragedy: To draw pity from the audience for the protagonist, who often suffers an unfortunate fate (Shannon)
- History: Contrary to popular belief, purpose is not to reccount historic events or accurately depict historical characters, but to analyze the organization of England's social classes at different eras of history (Shannon)
- Tragedy: Fictional characters, generally of high estate and possessing many ideal characteristics, but with a fatal flaw which is the basis for the tragedy. (Shannon)
- History: characters based on historical figures, but not created to tell their story/decpict them accurately. (Shannon)
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl339/tragedy.html
http://shakespeare.about.com/od/thehistories/a/Shakespeare_Histories.htm
- · Tragedy must end in some tremendous catastrophe involving in Elizabethan practice the death of the principal character. (Vincent)· The catastrophe must not be the result of mere accident, but must be brought about by some essential trait in the character of the hero acting either directly or through its effect on other persons. (Vincent)· History plays are more based on history of patriotism in England (Vincent)
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/playanalysis/tragedyvscomedy.html
Historical Plays
- "Factual" stories (Derek)
- Similar to ancient historians
- Altered facts as they wished
- Dates
- Facts
- Emphases
- Purpose (Derek)
- To provide a "history" of the rise of England
- Therefore extra glorification is present
- Tendency to point out "heroes" and "villains"
- Tone (Derek)
- At times, much more serious than tragedies
- Richard II
- has only one scene which is still grimly amusing
http://school.eb.com/eb/article-232323
http://school.eb.com/eb/article-232319
http://school.eb.com/eb/article-23232
Relating our post to another post: Histories vs. Tragedies (Olivia)
ReplyDelete-Shakespeare used current events (i.e. gunpowder plot to kill king) as inspiration to his stories. He adapted the event in history to create a tragic play about someone who does manage to kill the king.
-Modelled characters accordingly to the social pyramid: king, nobles, etc. These fictional characters, particularly Macbeth, are given ideal characteristics as well as a fatal flaw.
This relates to our post (Raphael Holinshed's Chronicle of Scotland)
ReplyDelete-Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles were originally partially a history: the intention was a (fictional?) cosmography of the British Isles.
-Specifically, the Scotland section with Macbeth was similar to ancient historians' writings as it showed the rise and fall of Scotland's kings, and it also showed the rise of Scotland
-Holinshed's Chronicles were also a Tragedy, as the Macbeth section ended with Macbeth's fatal flaw (death) and followed almost all of the aspects of a Tragedy as described in this post.
A.H.
^By Chris.
ReplyDeleteRelating our post to another post: Histories vs. Tragedies (GT)
ReplyDeleteIn 1604, Robert Catesby and Thomas Wintour planned to execute the "Gun Powder Plot" where they would bury barrels of gunpowder under the British Parliament (1605). Over the course of history, the media (literature, plays, etc) proved to be capable of both manipulating the course of events (i.e. planting ideas in peoples minds)and being susceptible to events [i.e . reflection upon them]. Coincidentally, Macbeth has been estimated to be written between 1603 and 1607. This could mean that Macbeth was either influenced or the influence for the event.