Student sample exam essays
Terminology for studying Shakespeare
fatal flaw: a hero is undone by a tragic flaw (Aristotle's term) in his character. The hero suffers either moral weakness, error or ignorance or even virtue.
He then has an awareness, and his recognition minimises the pain, enlarges our pity or fear, and brings catharsis (purgation, a cleansing of the emotions through their expression and resolution) of the emotions of the spectators in the audience; it drains pent-up emotions, thus drama and tragedy is socially useful.
tragedy: the spectacle of a man not absolutely or eminently good or wise who is brought to disaster not by sheer depravity but by some error or frailty. It needs to be a highly renowned or prosperous personage. He must engage our sympathy - be a man like us.
"The tragedy must be irreversible. The tragic personage is broken by forces which can neither be fully understood nor overcome by rational prudence. This is crucial. Where the causes of disaster are temporary, where the conflict can be resolved through technical or social means, we may have serious drama but not tragedy. "George Steiner The Death of Tragedy London: Faber 1961 p. 8.
When the bad bleed, the tragedy is good.
Aristotle: The best tragedy concerns a man who does a deed of horror in ignorance: Macbeth knowingly kills Duncan his king but Oedipus unknowingly kills his father, Othello kills Desdemona, Lear banishes his only loving daughter Cordelia.
comic relief : humorous episodes designed to alleviate, lighten up or relieve the tragic effect, e.g., the entrance of the drunken porter to urinate in Macbeth. Comic scenes enlarge the canvas of tragedy. Sometimes in fact, the comic scenes deepen the tragic effect.
soliloquy: a speech most often in drama when a character speaks his thoughts aloud while alone. An aside is a sharing with the audience but supposedly not to be heard by the other characters on stage. These are two important conventions in Elizabethan drama revived in the 20th century.
dramatic irony: refers to a state of affairs which is the tragic reverse of what the participants think, e.g., Eve eats the fruit of happiness but it leads to sorrow, Macbeth kills Duncan and so loses all that makes life worth living. This device contrasts what the character says and thinks and the true circumstances known only to the audience; it is not an irony between what he says and means. Adapted from Barnet, Berman and Burto A Dictionary of Literary Terms pp. 82-3.
drama is literature (read privately) or theatre (performed openly). It involves a theme (conflict and its outcome) in a plot with conflict, climax and resolution. Dramatic plots are economical so they 'flow'. Characters shown in dialogue, action and appearance. Settings and atmosphere are presented in sound, costume and decor. Staging crafts what the audience sees and understands. Stage dialogue must bear much of the above and differs from everyday speech in its length, depth and significance. From Graham Little Approach to Literature Sydney: Science Press 1978.
Some references for further reading:
Remember when writing essays on set plays, you must (a) use as much material (including quotations) from the play as possible, and (b) ensure that you answer the set question.
Question 1: Briefly outline the subplot in King Lear and show how it is related to the main plot of the play.
PLAN:
ESSAY
"Why bastard wherefore base?" asks Edmund. The bitter illegitimate son resents his father and brother. He is determined to "prosper" and "grow." Ruthlessly, he plays on old Gloucester's weakness and persuades him that Edgar seeks his death to obtain his inheritance. Edgar, being told that Gloucester seeks his life for some reason, flees. With Edgar thus removed, Edmund now seeks to destroy his father and reports his alleged "treason" to Cornwall who removes the old man's eyes. The bastard has travelled far and is now Earl of Gloucester. Sought in love by both Goneril and Regan, victorious in battle over Cordelia's forces, Edmund's future seems assured. Alas, the discovery of Goneril's letter urging Edmund to kill her husband Albany leads to his arrest. Edgar in disguise fights Edmund, who is defending his honour and is mortally wounded - "the wheel has come full circle". Gloucester, realising the wrong he has done to Edgar, yet joyful he is alive, dies. Edgar joins Albany in ruling the country.
So skillfully has Shakespeare intertwined the two plots, beginning in Act II at Gloucester's castle and ending in the alliance of Edgar and Albany, that is is difficult to separate them. Gloucester, like Lear, suffers from filial ingratitude. It is in his castle that Lear is humiliated by his daughters and flees into the storm. Gloucester's sympathy helps Lear to Dover to meet Cordelia, yet leads to his own blindness and his going to Dover for suicide.
Edgar becomes embroiled in the main plot when, disguised as a madman, he meets Lear on the heath. His destruction of Oswald, Goneril's steward and his defeat of Edmund in the duel leading to Edmund admitting he has given secret orders for the execution of Lear and Cordelia, together with his alliance with Albany, all relate him to the main plot.
However, it is - appropriately enough - the corrupt Edmund who becomes most entangled with the main plot. Ambition drives him into Cornwall's hands, and to his double involvement with Goneril and Regan. His cruelty to his father rivals that of the sisters as does his hate for his brother and theirs of Cordelia. Most significant of all, it is Edmund who has Cordelia killed and who, indirectly, causes Lear's death. It is Edmund who causes the deaths of Goneril and Regan, and indirectly, his own father. He is the evil link between the two plots, a prime mover in the subplot and a catalyst in the main.
Note for the student: In Act I the two plots are kept separate (except that Gloucester is present when Lear dispossesses Cordelia. Not until Act II and particularly in Scene iv do the two plots become thoroughly entangled.
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Written by G. Smith Brisbane Australia 21/3/99.