1. Shakespeare’s Macbeth

2. I. Elements of Elizabethan Tragedy  Focus on a legendary or historic figure of social rank/importance.  Romeo and Juliet – children of prominent Verona citizens.  Hamlet – prince of Denmark  King Lear – duh – KING.  Othello – a general in the Ventetian army

3. I. Elements of Elizabethan Tragedy (2)  Revenge is a main component of the action.  R&J – Tybalt’s desire to avenge the insult of Romeo crashing the party.  Romeo avenging the death of Mercutio at the hands of Tybalt.  Hamlet must avenge the murder of his father.

4. I. Elements of Elizabethan Tragedy (3)  Central struggle between good and evil.  There is little moral ambiguity in these plays: characters are generally either good or bad, and the goal of the play is to have justice served for a clear wrong- doing.

5. I. Elements of Elizabethan Tragedy (4)  Presence of the supernatural  Elizabethans believed in a spirit world and that it interacted with the human world.  R&J – prophetic dreams  Julius Caesar/Hamlet – ghosts  Macbeth – witches & ghosts

6. I. Elements of Elizabethan Tragedy (5)  Hero experiences a fall from grace/favor due to what is called a “tragic flaw” in his/her personality.  Play ends in “catastrophe” – or, the death of the protagonist.  Romeo/Hamlet/King Lear/Othello = DEAD

7. II. Dramatic Terminology  Dialogue – conversation between two or more characters.  Lack of a narrator means that what characters say carries the majority of weight in terms of helping us understand key ideas and plot complications.

8. II. Dramatic Terminology (2)  Soliloquy – the speech of a character who is alone on stage.  Audience essentially “overhears” the character’s inner thoughts.  In soliloquy, characters always speak the truth. Any words said/actions taken by the character are to be considered in light of whatever is said in soliloquy.

9. II. Dramatic Terminology (3)  Aside – character speaks in a “stage whisper” to himself or someone else in particular while other characters are on stage.  It is understood that only the audience and the character sir.specified (if any) hear these words.  Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR  ABRAHAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON I do bite my thumb, sir. ABRAHAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON [Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I say ay? GREGORY No. SAMPSON No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb.

10. II. Dramatic Terminology (4)  Tragic Flaw – Shortcoming or flaw in the personality of the protagonist that causes him/her to fall from a positive condition into a negative one. Often the tragic flaw is a positive characteristic that has either been distorted or carried to an unreasonable extreme.  Romeo?  Impulsivity  Hamlet?  Excessive introspection and the need for 100% certainty  King Lear?  The love of flattery, denial about himself