ENG212 - Part 2 : Plays

Question 1

Drama

Answer 1

The basic meaning of the Greek origin of the word is a thing done, or action.

According to Aristotle (384–322 B.C.), who analyzed the works of the Greek tragedians in the Poetics, drama is a REPRESENTATION OF MEN DOING THINGS.

Contemporary critic Keir Elam specifies that “the drama consists first and foremost precisely in this, an I addressing a you here and now” (139). Drama presupposes the existence of an audience.

As Eric
Bentley succinctly points out in The Life of the Drama, “the theatrical situation, reduced to a minimum, is that A impersonates B while C looks on” (150).

Question 2

Dramatic playing

What is your concept of playing? What is its value?

Answer 2

1for interacting with the ENVIRONMENT
2of expressing and understanding EMOTION
3of working through and TESTING thoughts and ideas
4of relaxing and ENTERTAINING

Question 3

What do you think are the defining characteristics of drama?

Answer 3

1Dramatic Form. Plays are not written in paragraphs like a novel or short story. …
2Setting and Staging. In addition to the dialogue, a script will also include stage directions. …
3Characters and Actors. …
4Plot.

Question 4

Must drama be necessarily performed in a theatre?

Answer 4

“the drama consists first and foremost precisely in this, an I addressing a you here and now” (139). Drama presupposes the existence of an AUDIENCE.

Question 5

To what extent is drama a community event?

Answer 5

According to Martin Esslin, drama is also a manifestation of humanity’s need for RITUAL AND SPECTACLE (10). Ritual is a collective experience through which a group identity is established or reinforced to promote a heightened level of social or religious consciousness. Ritual reminds the group of “its codes of conduct, its rules of social coexistence. All drama is therefore a political event: it either reasserts or undermines the code of conduct of a given society” (Esslin 29).

Question 6

Is drama an important tool in education? How can it be used for educative purposes?

Answer 6

Drama is an important tool for preparing students to live and work in a world that is increasingly TEAM-ORIENTED rather than hierarchical. Drama also helps students develop TOLERANCE and EMPATHY. In order to play a role competently, an actor must be able to fully inhabit another’s soul.

Question 7

Why do you go to see plays in the theatre?

Answer 7

we are made most uncomfortably aware of the personalities people present to each other through words and actions. Only in the silences between the words and in the disconnections in the action do we begin to perceive the reality that underlies the behaviour.

Playwright Bertolt Brecht believed that the function of the theatre should be to DISTURB members of the audience, to bring them to question their assumptions, and to engage their intellect, but not to provide satisfying answers. It is, of course, debatable that any of the great tragedians, from Aeschylus to Shakespeare and Racine, reassure audience members against anxiety and solitude, except in the sense that they SHARE AND PARTICIPATE in the injustices graphically dramatized on the stage.

Question 8

Should drama be disturbing or entertaining?

Answer 8

It satisfies our need for justice. Safely distanced from us on the stage are the cruelties, complexities, and illogicalities of life, which are redressed or contextualized by the play. Wickedness may be punished, virtue rewarded, conflicts resolved, and a sense of life’s purpose and order can prevail

Question 9

Do you consider drama a “shared experience”? With whom are you sharing this experience? What is the effect?

Answer 9

This communal function of drama is another important “use”: it provides a shared experience and in this way, it differs significantly from film, which operates in one direction only and is not affected by audience reaction. Because the actors on the stage are actually present and the audience is aware of their physical vulnerability, an emotional sharing can be established, not only between actors and audience, but also amongst the members of the audience, like a kind of complicity in the events.

The theatre also serves a wider community function. By presenting a microcosm of society, it helps the individual in the audience to see his or her own place in that society and to understand its stratification or homogeneity. This characteristic was especially true of Elizabethan theatre, which represented society at every level, both in the structure of the theatre itself and through the form and style of the play

Question 10

Is the movie theatre or television an appropriate or effective medium for drama?

Answer 10

This communal function of drama is another important “use”: it provides a shared experience and in this way, it differs significantly from film, which operates in one direction only and is not affected by audience reaction. Because the actors on the stage are actually present and the audience is aware of their physical vulnerability, an emotional sharing can be established, not only between actors and audience, but also amongst the members of the audience, like a kind of complicity in the events.

Question 11

dithyramb

Answer 11

a wild choral hymn of ancient Greece, especially one dedicated to Dionysus(God of wine and fertility).
a passionate or inflated speech, poem, or other writing.

Question 12

tragedy

Answer 12

Tragedy, branch of drama that treats in a SERIOUS and dignified style the sorrowful or TERRIBLE events encountered or caused by a heroic individual

In The Life of the Drama, Eric Bentley makes several important points about the nature of tragedy:

Tragedy is a confrontation of reality, not an evasion. It is the “transcendence of disturbance.”
Tragedy is concerned with justice even while showing life’s fundamental injustices. Bentley sees this preoccupation as a desire to be justified; we all attempt to allay our anxieties and sense of guilt by proving to ourselves and others that we are innocent. But what tragedy shows is that the tragic hero is guilty, and we identify ourselves with this guilt.
A pervasive conflict in tragedy is the conflict between ethics and self-interest, which is often manifested as love versus honour.
The characters of tragedy are complex and ambiguous; their greatest strengths, rather than their weaknesses, may be their undoing.
Tragedy is concerned with extremes, with obsessive and monstrous passions.
Tragedy confronts death and by doing so, affirms life. It brings us to the extremity of human suffering and endurance; in Garcia Lorca’s words, it brings us to “the dark root of the scream.”
Tragedy does not try to rationalize the universe, but it acknowledges the limits of reason and dramatizes the mystery, the unknowable.
Tragedy gives rise to a feeling of awe, the result of the acceptance of fear, and to the feeling of compassion, a wider, more generous and selfless kind of pity.
Courage is manifested in the transcendence of suffering through the acceptance of the mystery of life, and wisdom is gained in the process; however, any degree of self-knowledge is usually won at a terrible price.

Question 13

catharsis

Answer 13

emptying of emotions

Question 14

Comedy

Answer 14

Comedy is the imitation of the actions of characters of a lower type who exhibit a defect or rigidness which is not painful or destructive. The defect tends to be generalized; that is, it represents a prevalent WEAKNESS IN MAN as a social creature, rather than a flaw peculiar to the individual.
Comedy has a broader view of humanity than does tragedy. It assumes a social norm for human conduct and measures the character against that norm. Comedy values custom, social harmony, and a balancing of individual freedom with community order. If the individual DEPARTS FROM SOCIAL NORMS, he becomes the target for laughter. Comedy, then, is critical and reformative, more than it is derisive, and it is usually characterized by a degree of sympathy and tolerance. Although there may be a threat of disaster, it is always averted by fortunate chance. Comedy is about SURVIVING, but at the same time, it dramatizes the inherent problems of living.
The structure of comedy hinges on REVERSAL AND SURPRISE, whereas in tragedy there is a remorselessly inevitable working out of events until the final catastrophe.
Finally, comedy shows us ourselves by DEFLATING PRETENSION, the false posturing which is an evasion of self-awareness. There are many instances of role-playing, mistaken and assumed identities, and gender switching in comedy, but in the end, each actor is unmasked.

Question 15

Tragi-Comedy

Answer 15

Tragi-comedy, then, is a peculiarly modern form, which achieves its effects more from the way in which it is played than from structure:

1The ending may be either comic or tragic, but the issues of the play are left essentially UNRESOLVED.
2The comedy tends to intensify the tragedy and vice-versa.
3The tone is pervasively IRONIC, which means it can be serious and absurd at the same time.
4The characters are neither heroes nor villains, but they display a MIXTURE of human frailties and strengths.
5The audience’s expectations are rarely confirmed: tragi-comedy questions conventional assumptions and attitudes.

Question 16

archetype

Answer 16

a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology.

“mythological archetypes of good and evil”

When a character assumes only one or a few human idiosyncrasies, then it is typical, a stock character

Question 17

What do you consider the most important element of drama?

Answer 17

1) Plot - Most important - the soul and story
2) Character
3) Diction Speech
4) Thought - Moral purpose
5) Music
6) Spectacle - what makes it memorable

Question 18

How important is the element of spectacle? Can a play be effective on a bare stage?

Answer 18

Make sure your content is memorable.

Question 19

Why does Desdemona fall in love with Othello?

Answer 19

She says she fell in love with him because of the stories he told her about his adventures as a military man. She loves him for his “qualities,” such as courage and honor.

Question 20

Is the destruction of their love presented as inevitable in the play?

Answer 20

Two significant moments point toward the inevitability of Desdemona’s death.

1) The first comes in Act III, scene iii, after Othello has evaded Desdemona’s attempts to designate a time to dine with Cassio. Once Desdemona exits, Othello utters to himself: “Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul / But I do love thee! And when I love thee not, / Chaos is come again” (III.iii.). Here, Othello indicates the nature of his affection: either he loves her intensely and feels protective, or else he feels scorned and succumbs to an emotional “chaos.”
2) Another moment that foreshadows Desdemona’s death comes in Act IV, scene iii, when she sings for Emilia a song called “Willow” about a lover who becomes mad, foreshadowing Othello’s madness. Desdemona says her mother’s maid died while singing the song, further foreshadowing that Desdemona will soon die as well. She misremembers one line, singing “Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve.” This misremembered line foreshadows Desdemona’s dying words, in which she attempts to take the blame for her own murder. Following her mistress’s death, Emilia recalls the song and asks, with the clarity of hindsight, “What did thy song bode, lady?” (V.ii.).

Question 21

What motivates Iago in respect to his determination to destroy their relationship?

Answer 21

he explains it at the end of Act I, when he’s alone on stage:

… I hate the Moor:

And it is thought abroad, that ‘twixt my sheets

He has done my office …

Iago believes Othello slept with his wife. That’s an extremely common reason for one man to hate another–maybe the most common reason.

And it makes sense that a man who believes he’s been cuckolded might, as revenge, try to make the man who cuckolded him believe his wife was unfaithful.

In an earlier speech, Iago says that Othello, his commanding officer, passed him over for promotion, in favor of another man, Cassio.

One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,

… That never set a squadron in the field,

Nor the division of a battle knows

More than a spinster … had the election:

And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof

At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other grounds

Christian and heathen, must be be-lee’d and calm’d

By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster,

He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,

And I–God bless the mark!–his Moorship’s ancient.

So, as far as Iago is concerned, Othello passed him over for promotion (in favor of a much less worthy man) and cuckolded him.

Question 22

Morality Play

Answer 22

The morality play is a genre that evolved in the late Medieval period to teach Christian morals through an allegorical story of a sinner’s journey to repentance and redemption.

In some respects, Othello is a form of Morality Play, with a personification of vice or the devil (Iago) contending with virtue or a good angel (Desdemona) for Othello’s heart and soul. Essentially Iago wants to bring Othello to a point of self-damnation

Question 23

What atmosphere is immediately established in the play? Othello

Answer 23

The atmosphere of conflict is quickly heightened in the first scene, as Iago prods Roderigo to make public the “matter” that so galls him: the clandestine meeting of Othello and Desdemona at a local inn, the “Sagittary” (the astrological sign for Sagittarius, is, not coincidently, that of the centaur, a mythological creature with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a horse, another symbol of lust). Iago compares this travesty of social order to a fire that rages unchecked through a city: the private deed will have public consequences as, indeed, the rest of the play bears out.

Question 24

Morality Play

Answer 24

The morality play is a genre that evolved in the late Medieval period to teach CHRISTIAN MORALS through an allegorical story of a sinner’s journey to repentance and redemption.

In some respects, Othello is a form of Morality Play, with a personification of vice or the devil (Iago) contending with virtue or a good angel (Desdemona) for Othello’s heart and soul. Essentially Iago wants to bring Othello to a point of self-damnation

Question 25

What is the significance of Cyprus as an island midway between the Christian and Turkish forces?

Answer 25

Desdemona abandons the relative stability of her home in Venice to follow Othello to a very unstable environment: the island of Cyprus, which is threatened by the Turks. Although there remain vestiges of Venetian order, these are precarious and threatened by their “opposite”: the anarchy and violence supposedly embodied in the Turks. Shakespeare constructs the Turks as the antithesis of social and political harmony. They are infidels or unbelievers because they are not Christian. They personify the worst in human nature.

Question 26

What is the significance of Cyprus as an island midway between the Christian and Turkish forces?

Answer 26

Desdemona abandons the relative stability of her home in Venice to follow Othello to a very unstable environment: the island of Cyprus, which is threatened by the Turks. Although there remain vestiges of Venetian order, these are precarious and threatened by their “opposite”: the anarchy and violence supposedly embodied in the Turks. Shakespeare constructs the Turks as the antithesis of social and political harmony. They are infidels or unbelievers because they are not Christian. They personify the worst in human nature.

Question 27

How does the first scene of Act 2 foreshadow the disasters to follow?

Answer 27

There are many instances of such tragic foreshadowing early in the play: Brabantio’s exclamation that his daughter is “dead” to him (1.3.59); Desdemona calling Iago a “profane and liberal counselor” (2.1.161–62); Othello rejoicing in their extreme happiness:

O my soul’s joy!

If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have wakened death. (2.1.182–84)

Question 28

How does Iago’s opinion of women help to determine his plot against Othello?

Answer 28

Since he has an entirely cynical view of human nature, as is reflected in the riddles he tells to Desdemona and Emilia, he is convinced that a loving, trusting marriage is impossible and that any marriage can be corrupted. In other words, he can only see in others his own corrupt nature.

Question 29

How does Othello characterize himself in his speech to the Senate?

Answer 29

Othello is a trusting, honest person who expects that his own good character, if embodied clearly and earnestly, will save him from others’ prejudice.

Question 30

How credible is his protestation that he is “rude in speech,” i.e., that he cannot speak eloquently? Why would he make such a claim?

Answer 30

This is the speech of a man who, despite what he says even in this speech, is not “rude in speech.” He knows his audience, knows their status and education, and crafts his message accordingly.

Question 31

What is the effect of Othello’s stories on Desdemona? On the Senate? On Brabantio? What might the effect be on an audience?

Answer 31

The duke is persuaded by Othello’s tale, dismissing Brabanzio’s claim by remarking that the story probably would win his own daughter.

Question 32

Is Iago a personification of evil?

Answer 32

He is the spirit of negation in the play: he turns good into bad, hope into despair, trust into suspicion, bravery into cowardice, and honour into ignominy. Although a plausible motivation is provided for his activities, it cannot account for his obsession to destroy Othello. In contemporary psychological terms, he could be considered a psychopath, a human incarnation of evil

Question 33

What does he mean by “I am not what I am”?

Answer 33

I am not what I am. ( I.i.57–65) In this early speech, Iago explains his tactics to Roderigo. He follows Othello not out of “love” or “duty,” but because he feels he can exploit and dupe his master, thereby revenging himself upon the man he suspects of having slept with his wife

Question 34

“I am not what I am”?

Answer 34

I am not what I am. ( I.i.57–65) In this early speech, Iago explains his tactics to Roderigo. He follows Othello not out of “love” or “duty,” but because he feels he can exploit and dupe his master, thereby revenging himself upon the man he suspects of having slept with his wife

Question 35

In what respects is Desdemona a personification of virtue?

Answer 35

• innocence of infidelity
• insistence on justice - “call cassio to testify to her innocence”
• unconditional love

Question 36

Is she wholly a victim in the play?

Answer 36

The play, then, depicts Desdemona contradictorily as a self-effacing, faithful wife and as a bold, independent personality. This contradiction may be intentional, meant to portray the way Desdemona herself feels after defending her choice of marriage to her father

Question 37

Why does she deny that Othello has murdered her before she dies?

Answer 37

to show her unconditional love for othello and forgiveness

Question 38

In what ways are Emilia and Bianca foils for Desdemona?

Answer 38

A foil is a principle of goodness, purity, and love in the play, a “life-force” that may (or may not) be extinguished by the destructive forces of evil.

The flip side of Desdemona in the play is Bianca, the prostitute, although she denies her vocation and believes that Cassio is in love with her as she is with him.

The character of Emilia also contrasts with that of Desdemona because of her more pragmatic view of love and men. To some extent, her cynicism corresponds to Iago’s, and she is even co-opted into stealing Desdemona’s handkerchief for him, despite her devotion to her mistress. She has in some respects also been corrupted, although she redeems herself by finally revealing Iago’s treachery. She functions as an “ordinary” woman who cannot comprehend the selfless devotion of Desdemona, but who finally realizes that she must expose her husband, regardless of what this action might cost her.

Question 39

Roderigo

Answer 39

Roderigo, on the other hand, is entirely self-serving; he is easy prey for Iago, who uses him to effect his plans. His ignominious death is a kind of poetic justice.

Question 40

How do you describe Desdemona’s and Othello’s marriage before Iago’s intervention?

Answer 40

The love of Desdemona and Othello is mutual, and at its inception, it is a healthy combination of mental and physical attraction. They were initially attracted to each other by their qualities of mind (ways of thinking), but after their marriage, it is clear that Othello is very much aware of Desdemona’s physical beauty—the way she smells, looks, feels. Their relationship is initially conceived in terms of a perfect harmony, which is reflected in the society and the universe: the storm abates when Desdemona arrives at Cyprus

Question 41

What does reputation mean to Othello? To Roderigo? To Cassio? To Iago?

Answer 41

Othello perceives his “honour” to be an all-or-nothing condition. He cannot compromise and murders Desdemona in the name of justice and honour.

Cassio also considers his reputation to be paramount, but he makes the mistake of seeking to redeem it with the help of Desdemona instead of through his own agency.

Roderigo similarly laments the loss of his reputation, but

Iago, like Falstaff in Shakespeare’s history play Henry IV, Parts I and II, dismisses it as a self-conceit.

For Desdemona, honour is synonymous with chastity. She considers herself compromised in every respect if she has been an unfaithful wife.

Question 42

Why does Othello believe he must kill Desdemona?

Answer 42

Othello perceives his “honour” to be an all-or-nothing condition. He cannot compromise and murders Desdemona in the name of justice and honour.

Question 43

Is Othello “one not easily jealous”?

Answer 43

In fact, Othello has shown himself extremely susceptible to jealousy. And it is difficult to accept that his foolish credulousness is compatible with loving his wife too well—he never gave her the benefit of the doubt or any real chance to defend herself.

Question 44

In what ways is the significance of the imagery of angels/devils, white/black reversed or inverted?

Answer 44

The patterns of imagery in Othello are similarly presented in terms of contrasts:

angel/devil
heaven/hell
black/white
darkness/light
harmony/discord
However, what is at first perceived to be an outward sign of goodness may be its opposite, and an outward sign of evil may also be entirely misleading, as Emilia points out to Othello when she learns that he has murdered Desdemona:

Othello. She’s like a liar gone to burning hell!
’Twas I that killed her.
Emilia. O, the more angel she,
And you the blacker devil! (5.2.128–30)
Characters and actions may play against stereotypes or may conform to them. Othello is initially characterized as evil by his opponents, and his blackness is an indicator of his immoral character according to Brabantio. Blackness is also associated with lechery. But it is the white Iago who is, in fact, black at heart.

Question 45

What are the implications of Iago’s repeated references to animals?

Answer 45

The animals to which Iago frequently refers (goats, monkeys, horses) are associated with lust.

Question 46

How does the image of the sea suggest strong human emotions? With which character is it usually associated?

Answer 46

Storms at sea are indicators of mounting or uncontrollable feelings, usually anger or grief

The image of the sea is most often associated with Othello, initially in a positive way, as an indicator of his power and resolve, and then negatively, when his passions begin to subsume his reason

Question 47

What is the function of the handkerchief?

Answer 47

Othello’s love for her is symbolized by the handkerchief embroidered with strawberries, also symbols of love, which he believes she has given to another man.

The handkerchief may also symbolize Desdemona’s chastity, supposedly lost to another man

Question 48

What is the nature of Othello’s speech? Does it change at any point in the play?

Answer 48

Othello’s poetry is typically highly rhetorical and characterized by a sonorous and majestic sound

Othello’s language begins to change, however, once he falls under the destructive influence of Iago; it takes on Iago’s negativity and cynicism, and the images descend to the bestial.

Compare two of Othello’s speeches, one from near the beginning of the play and one from Act 4:

It gives me wonder great as my content
To see you here before me. O my soul’s joy!
If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have wakened death.
And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas
Olympus-high, and duck again as low
As hell’s from heaven. If it were now to die,
’Twere now to be most happy; for I fear
My soul hath her content so absolute
That not another comfort like to this
Succeeds in unknown fate. (2.1.181–91)

Ay! You did wish that I would make her turn.
Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on
And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;
And she’s obedient; as you say, obedient.
Very obedient. Proceed you in your tears.
Concerning this, sir—O well-painted passion! (4.1.252–57)

Notice the regular rhythm in the first passage, the balanced phrases, the evocative images, and the specific diction, which suggest a sense of wonder. There is, of course, also a strong element of tragic foreshadowing in this speech, contained in the paradoxical allusions to heaven and hell, life and death, and joy and pain. The second speech is disjointed: sentences break down or are interrupted. Repeated words convey Othello’s obsession with Desdemona’s perceived disobedience as a wife and her obedience as a whore.

Question 49

At what points does Shakespeare use prose in the play?

Answer 49

Prose is the form of speech used by common, and often comic, people in Shakespearean drama. There is no rhythm or meter in the line. It is everyday language.

Normally, when a character in a play speaks in prose, you know that he is a lower class member of society. These are characters such as criminals, servants, and pages.

In Othello Iago makes remarkable use of prose and verse as he manipulates those around him. Whether wishing to be seen as a respectable advisor, humble servant, or a common solider Iago is a master chameleon of speech. His snakelike sliding in and out of speech patterns mirrors his ability to camouflage his nature to best suit his purpose.

Question 50

Is there an element of sacrificial ritual and atonement at the end of Othello?

Answer 50

Desdemona is sacrificed in her own bed to Othello’s sense of honour, but there seems to be no final redemption.

Question 51

To what extent is justice restored at the end of the play?

Answer 51

On a social/political level, justice is restored: Iago is taken away for punishment, and Othello avenges the murder on himself.

Question 52

Is there an affirmation of life in the final confrontation with death?

Answer 52

there is “destruction without catharsis, release without resolution”

Question 53

melodrama

Answer 53

a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions.

Question 54

naturalism

Answer 54

the objective representation of characters whose emotions and actions are determined by natural and social forces

Question 55

Why does Ibsen provide such detail in the set description that opens Hedda Gabler?

Answer 55

The furnishings in the Tesmans’ home offer clues about their social position: the furnishings are solidly middle class; the portrait of the general, who we later learn is Hedda’s father, suggests ties to the aristocracy; and the abundance of flowers implies a celebration.

Question 56

Why does Hedda address her husband by his surname?

Answer 56

“My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as a personality is to be regarded rather as her father’s daughter than as her husband’s wife,”

Question 57

How does Thea’s appearance compare with Hedda’s?

Answer 57

Thea “strikingly fair, almost whitish-yellow, and unusually thick and wavy”HAIR

Hedda
“aristocratic and elegant”
The Tesmans describe Hedda as “lovely” (171) and “most wonderful” (175)
“her eyes are steel grey, and cold, clear, and dispassionate”

Question 58

How does Ibsen insert elements of humour into Acts 1 and 2?

Answer 58

Hedda and Brack’s flirtatious banter that opens Act 2 also provides humour; their banter is witty and quick, and Tesman is the brunt of their jokes.

Underlying this humour is the reality that Lövborg and Tesman are actual rivals: directly for the job on which Tesman has staked his marriage and indirectly for Hedda.

Question 59

How is Lövborg described on page 211?

Answer 59

“dressed in an elegant, black, and quite new suit. Dark gloves and a top hat in his hands

Question 60

How and why does Hedda urge Lövborg to kill himself?

Answer 60

Hedda is left alone with Lovborg, who reveals the truth to her - that he’s lost the manuscript. Lovborg implies that now he must kill himself, and Hedda encourages him to “make it beautiful.” She tells him never to return again, and gives him one of her pistols “as a memento.” He says that he recognizes the pistol - it was the same one she pointed at him years before - and says that she should have used it on him then, but she replies that he can use it now. Lovborg leaves, fully intending to commit suicide. Upon his exit, Hedda sits down by the fire and burns Lovborg’s manuscript.

Hedda believes that the only natural option is death when scandal subsumes one’s character.

Question 61

How is the pattern of fire imagery established?

Answer 61

Hedda is repeatedly associated with fire, the stove, and burning objects. All the hints of fire in the first three acts lead up to the climax at the end of Act III, when Hedda burns Eilert’s manuscript and rants about “burning” Thea’s child. Hedda is constantly positioned by the stove: in Act I, she retreats to the stove when George wants her to look at his old slippers; again when she converses with Thea; again when bantering with Brack; once more in Act IV shortly before she commits suicide. She’s also obsessed with her pistols, which fire a bullet. When George discovers she’s destroyed the manuscript, George calls her feelings for him “a burning love”.

A picture of burning discontent inside Hedda, despite her cool exterior, begins to appear. Hedda harbors intense passion that rises to the surface occasionally. It is she who feeds the fire after the night of Brack’s stag party – right before the scene in which she convinces Eilert to kill himself. Hedda’s games and intrigues are essentially feeding the fire she feels inside – the burning desire to escape the confines of her very stifled life.

Question 62

What is the effect of the style of speech in Hedda Gabler?

Answer 62

Ibsen outlined the general principles of his naturalistic plays as “the stress on modernity, the individualization of even minor characters, and the use of EVERYDAY LANGUAGE”
“the spectator feel as if he were actually sitting, listening, and looking at events happening in real life”
NATURALISTIC and a SYMBOLIC play.

Question 63

Hedda Gabler a tragedy

Answer 63

yes
RESPONSIBLE for her destruction because of her desires.
HAMARATIA (the act, which is conscious and intentional but not pre-planed). It may be an act which is committed in anger. Nevertheless, to be concise, a hero must suffer because of hamartia.
PERIPETIA piety and fear. she cannot truly be free in this man’s world

Her inability to perceive the difference between MELODRAMA and tragedy accounts for the disparity between Hedda’s presumptive view of her own suicide and our evaluation of its significance.

Hedda must make an independent decision about her life. Women, however, in all but the most progressive societies, are barred from participating in the world outside their households and are not equipped for independence outside their families. Thus, Hedda Gabler, despite a profound craving for independence, has no personal resources with which to realize self-responsibility.

Question 64

Hedda jealous of Thea

Answer 64

Hedda is jealous of Mrs. Elvsted, not only because of her “strikingly fair, almost whitish-yellow, and unusually thick and wavy” (181) HAIR and because of her past relationship with TESMAN, but because she and LOVBORG are “companions” (190) and because she has had the COURAGE to leave her own husband:

Question 65

Hedda jealous of Thea

Answer 65

Hedda is jealous of Mrs. Elvsted, not only because of her “strikingly fair, almost whitish-yellow, and unusually thick and wavy” (181) HAIR and because of her past relationship with TESMAN, but because she and LOVBORG are “companions” (190) and because she has had the COURAGE to leave her own husband:

Question 66

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 66

Dumb show has 3 situations:

1) Othello murders Desdemona
2) Juliet kills herself
3) Constance Ledbelly throws a pen and manuscript in wastebasket

By presenting all these scenes at the same time, the play draws a PARALLE between them conveying WOMEN’S SUFFERING and their INABILITY to turn their lives around

Question 67

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 67

he Prologue is written in BLANK VERSE and appears to fit the style of Shakespeare’s plays, with its formal language. It INTRODUCES the central metaphors of
1) alchemy, the science of turning base metal into gold or of finding a recipe for immortality—an elixir of life;
2)light and darkness; and of the mirror. All of these metaphors are the means by which the true nature of the protagonist will be revealed.
The ALLUSION to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 (“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”) takes on a Jungian significance, in respect to the union of the minds of Desdemona, Juliet, and Constance into one mind.

The Prologue provides a series of CLUES that the remainder of the play will explore.

Question 68

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 68

Assistant Professor Constance Ledbelly, an untenured academic on the low end of the professional scale, is a parodic portrait of the absent-minded professor, a woman who lives inside of her own head and pays little or no attention to details such as dress and food.

Question 69

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 69

Professor Night is not the knight in shining armour who will rescue Constance from personal and professional oblivion, but the dark night of her soul. He betrays her loyalty and leaves Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario (itself a very traditional institution founded by Presbyterian Scots), for a more prestigious position at Oxford University. He condemns her to a job in Regina, which is even further removed from the centres of culture (in his mind at least). Moreover, he is dishonest and exploitative in obliging her to write essays and reviews for which he takes the credit.

Question 70

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 70

It is also a comment on the colonial mentality: the perception that Canada in relation to England is a cultural backwater, undeveloped and unsophisticated in the state of its arts and grateful to receive any cultural leavings from the cultural “centre,” including artistic directors for the Stratford Festival in southwest Ontario

MacDonald’s reference to the extravagant Shakespeare productions at Stratford implicitly suggests that the CULTURE of the former mother country is VALUED more highly than that of Canada: small theatres like Nightwood, which develop new Canadian works, are notoriously underfunded.

Question 71

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 71

The actor who plays Professor Night also plays Othello and Tybalt; these characters both embody patriarchy in being aggressive and authoritative toward women. As Jerry Wasserman has pointed out, “the device of multiple casting is simultaneously THEATRICAL and THEMATIC. Watching these quick changes destabilizes the notion of a single ‘true’ identity and brings the optimistic idea that anyone can be anything to the foreground”

Question 72

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 72

JOURNEY OF SELF DISCOVERY

In effect, she embodies all three personas, Desdemona, Juliet, and Constance, and in sum total, she is the Wise Fool, who has learned wisdom through folly and in folly.

Despite the absence of any final resolutions, the protagonist realizes that she has more wisdom than she had assumed, and she is transformed, in the end, through her understanding of the full significance of her own thesis. This is the alchemy that has turned her lead into gold.

Question 73

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 73

It’s like the men such as Iago think that they can do whatever they want and he believes the woman should not be trusted. In the play Iago thinks his wife, Emilia, is a hideous woman and a filthy whore and even though she was aware of all these insults she still loved him to the end.

Othello’s need to establish and maintain hegemony over his wife makes his behaviour no different from that of other men operating in the framework of patriarchy.

Question 74

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 74

Gender and sexuality are not just personal identities; they are social identities. They arise from our relationships to other people, and they depend upon social interaction and social recognition. As such, they influence how we understand ourselves in relation to others.

Question 75

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 75

The patterns of light and dark and night and day alluded to in the title underscore the EMOTIONAL CONFLICTS of hope and despair and the mental states of insight and ignorance. Night also suggests death, and morning new life, a REBIRTH which appropriately takes place on Constance’s birthday.

Question 76

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 76

Her thesis subverts the traditional pattern of the woman as victim; it is thus an empowering thesis for women.

Question 77

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 77

It is a version of the traditional conclusion to a comedy, a “comus” or communal celebration in the form of dancing, eating, and drinking, which is an indication of the restoration of social and individual harmony. But the ending is far from conclusive, since Constance’s journey as a newly liberated woman has just begun: the morning of a new life has dawned after a night of confusion and despair under the power of the patriarchy.

Question 78

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 78

The highly rhetorical style of Shakespeare’s poetry is juxtaposed with the colloquial rhythms and vocabulary of Constance’s speeches, which serve effectively to deflate them.

MacDonald also incorporates colloquialisms in the dialogue of Shakespeare’s characters, which is another deflating device. The colloquialisms and anachronisms suggest correspondences between the past and the present. They also remind us that these characters are, after all, creations of Constance’s imagination: they are in the present.

Question 79

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 79

It is a version of the traditional conclusion to a comedy, a “comus” or communal celebration in the form of dancing, eating, and drinking, which is an indication of the restoration of social and individual harmony. But the ending is far from conclusive, since Constance’s journey as a newly liberated woman has just begun: the morning of a new life has dawned after a night of confusion and despair under the power of the patriarchy.

Question 80

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Answer 80

It is a version of the traditional conclusion to a comedy, a “comus” or communal celebration in the form of dancing, eating, and drinking, which is an indication of the restoration of social and individual harmony. But the ending is far from conclusive, since Constance’s journey as a newly liberated woman has just begun: the morning of a new life has dawned after a night of confusion and despair under the power of the patriarchy.