Its a Tragedy Tragedy A play or novel

It’s a Tragedy

Tragedy • A play or novel in which the main character struggles, loses control, and usually dies. • There is always an unhappy ending.

Elements of a Tragedy • An extraordinary hero or heroine • The hero is destroyed or killed because of fate, character flaws, or both. • The hero’s death must serve some purpose.

Characteristics of the Tragic Hero: • He should be worthy of our interest, concern, or sympathy. • He will not be perfect but will be a good man of noble instincts possessing faults that make him human.

Characteristics of the Tragic Hero: • He will always possess a great deal of pride. • He will be old and wise enough to understand what is happening to him.

Characteristics of the Tragic Hero: • He will encounter inevitable disaster. • He will not take his destruction meekly, but will assert his force and dignity as a man.

Characteristics of the Tragic Hero: • He may be a victim, but he will not bow and become a martyr. • His cause must be a noble one with a measure of good in it.

Characteristics of the Tragic Hero: • He usually makes a decision that is an error in judgment caused by his tragic flaw. • He evokes both our pity and our fear.

Terms to Know • Tragedy- a dramatic work that presents the downfall of a dignified character who is involved in historically or socially significant events

Terms to Know • Tragic hero- main character with a quality that leads to his/her destruction. This quality is called a tragic flaw.

Terms to Know • Act: divisions of the play • Scene: usually involves a change of setting Written together as follows: Act II. iii. 200 -210

Terms to Know • Soliloquy- a speech a character makes alone on stage to reveal his or her thoughts to the audience.

Terms to Know • Aside- a remark that a character makes in an undertone to the audience or another character but others on stage are not supposed to hear.

Terms to Know • Iambic pentameter- each line contains ten syllables, with one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable

Terms to Know • Blank verse- unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter • Heroic couplet- two consecutive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter

Terms to Know • Dramatic irony: when the audience and/or other characters know something another character does not • Verbal irony: when a character says one thing and means another

Macbeth Terms to Know • Motif- a recurring word, phrase, object, idea or action in a work of literature • Paradox- a statement that seems to contradict itself, but, in fact reveals some element of truth

Terms to Know • Equivocation: the use of ambiguous language for the purpose of confusion. • Euphemism: an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh. • Antithesis: opposites; two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect.

Terms to Know • Character types: – Tragic hero – Foil – Women – Supernatural

Terms to Know • More character types: – Generic- reliable, provide information (ex. Old Man) – Normative- reliable, restore order, survive.

Terms to Know • Foil character- provides a striking contrast to another character; used to call attention to certain traits possessed by a main character or to contrast

Terms to Know • Comic relief- a humorous scene, or incident, or speech that is included in a serious drama to provide respite from emotional intensity