http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hamartia
Thursday 24 November 2011
Macbeth Assignment #3 - It's Tragic! - Hamartia
Hamartia is defined as the “fatal flaw” of a tragedy’s hero, which leads to the character’s downfall. The word is of Greek origin, coming from the word “hamartanein”, whose original and literal definition is “to miss the mark”, but now is more commonly translated as “to fail one’s purpose” or “to error or sin”. If we look at the character of Macbeth superficially and on the surface, it is quite easy to come to the conclusion that his hamartia is his ambition for power. However, this is quite a myopic point of view. If we look deeper and consider other factors and influences such as the three Witches’ prophecy and Lady Macbeth’s constant domineer, Macbeth’s hamartia seems to be that he is easily corrupted by the prospect of power. If the Witches did not deliver their prophecy with the promise of him becoming king of Scotland and Lady Macbeth did not convince him to kill Duncan, our group highly doubts that Macbeth would have gone through with the deed himself and that his entire downfall would have occurred. Because Macbeth’s hamartia is in fact, how he is easily corrupted by the promise of power, he is unable to listen to his conscience (which is present when he has his inner conflicts), he is dragged into Lady Macbeth’s plan to kill Duncan. The first two parts of the prophecy were fulfilled without Macbeth acting out of the ordinary; it was because he was influenced by his wife that he decided to take the shortcut by killing Duncan himself. Thus, this proves that his hamartia, or fatal flaw, is not ambition, but rather being easily corrupted by the promise of power.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hamartia
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hamartia
Wednesday 16 November 2011
Etext Versions of Macbeth: University of Virginia Library
As a group, we were assigned to assess the similiarities and differences between the Oxford Next and University of Virginia adaptations of Shakespeare's Macbeth, and analyze how these distinctions can alter a reader's understanding of the story.
This Etext version of William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Macbeth, is a part of the Electronic Text Center (“Etext” for short) of the University of Virginia Library. At its present state, it has not needed to have been edited since 1998 (more than 10 years!).
There are a few recognizable differences between this and our Oxford Next version. Regarding punctuation, certain commas are omitted, some question marks are added in, and various apostrophes are filled in with letters. Several lines are also altered in the sense that where the Oxford Next version would complete the line, the University of Virginia version inserts a period, then adds the first few words from the next line as a continuation. These details would not make a significant difference in the way that we would understand the story, but possibly would impact how the play is spoken on stage.
In Scene 2, Ross and Angus enter after King Duncan’s line, “Who comes here?”, as opposed to preceding it. This simply creates a small difference in the acting of the play. Other than this instance, stage directions are really not very different.
In terms of the format, there are 3 main distinctions. There is no line count, a double space is inserted between the lines of different characters and the major and minor characters are distinguished in the text by capitalization. Although the double spacing between lines does not make a significant difference in the reading, the absence of the line count would make it much more difficult to follow the text, especially during a discussion, and the different capitalization of the major vs. minor character names helps the reader develop a sense of importance right at the beginning of the play.
The setting of the play is also altered, with the Three Witches introduced in “A desert place” rather than on the battlefield, and “The king’s headquarters” being changed to “A camp near Forres”. A largely noticeable change would be a bleeding Sergeant replacing the bleeding Captain, but only in name. The word “Norwegian” has been reverted back to the more Victorian-era “Norweyan”. The only place where line spacing is an issue is when the Sergeant describes the battle: “Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion […]”.
This Etext version of William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Macbeth, is a part of the Electronic Text Center (“Etext” for short) of the University of Virginia Library. At its present state, it has not needed to have been edited since 1998 (more than 10 years!).
There are a few recognizable differences between this and our Oxford Next version. Regarding punctuation, certain commas are omitted, some question marks are added in, and various apostrophes are filled in with letters. Several lines are also altered in the sense that where the Oxford Next version would complete the line, the University of Virginia version inserts a period, then adds the first few words from the next line as a continuation. These details would not make a significant difference in the way that we would understand the story, but possibly would impact how the play is spoken on stage.
In Scene 2, Ross and Angus enter after King Duncan’s line, “Who comes here?”, as opposed to preceding it. This simply creates a small difference in the acting of the play. Other than this instance, stage directions are really not very different.
In terms of the format, there are 3 main distinctions. There is no line count, a double space is inserted between the lines of different characters and the major and minor characters are distinguished in the text by capitalization. Although the double spacing between lines does not make a significant difference in the reading, the absence of the line count would make it much more difficult to follow the text, especially during a discussion, and the different capitalization of the major vs. minor character names helps the reader develop a sense of importance right at the beginning of the play.
The setting of the play is also altered, with the Three Witches introduced in “A desert place” rather than on the battlefield, and “The king’s headquarters” being changed to “A camp near Forres”. A largely noticeable change would be a bleeding Sergeant replacing the bleeding Captain, but only in name. The word “Norwegian” has been reverted back to the more Victorian-era “Norweyan”. The only place where line spacing is an issue is when the Sergeant describes the battle: “Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion […]”.
The distinctions would not significantly affect a reader’s understanding of the play itself, but some of these changes would impact how the play is to be performed. Because it has been used for over 10 years without any major editing, our group considers this resource to be reliable, relevant and lasting. Therefore, we find it to be a good resource for Grade 9 students studying Macbeth.
Thursday 3 November 2011
Shakesperean Histories vs. Tragedies
Purpose
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl339/tragedy.html
http://shakespeare.about.com/od/thehistories/a/Shakespeare_Histories.htm
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/playanalysis/tragedyvscomedy.html
http://school.eb.com/eb/article-232323
http://school.eb.com/eb/article-232319
http://school.eb.com/eb/article-23232
- 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
Introduction
Welcome to our blog on Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth. Over the next few weeks, we will be posting on a number of topics related to The Scottish Play for our M3 English assignment.
As always,
Paddock Calls.
As always,
Paddock Calls.
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