Tragedy and Comedy Practice Questions

Correct answer: Hamartia

Hamartia refers to the specific mistake or inherent character trait that causes a reversal of fortune. In English drama, this is famously seen in characters like Macbeth, whose ambition serves as his hamartia.

Correct answer: Proviso scene

A proviso scene is a hallmark of the Comedy of Manners, where the hero and heroine set conditions for their marriage. This highlights the genre's focus on wit, social contracts, and the battle of the sexes.

Correct answer: To purge the audience's emotions of pity and fear

Catharsis is the emotional release experienced by the audience at the end of a tragedy. By witnessing the hero's suffering, the audience undergoes a psychological cleansing.

Correct answer: An imbalance of four bodily fluids

Jonson’s characters are often driven by a single dominant trait or 'humour' (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, or black bile). This creates caricatures whose eccentricities drive the plot's comedic conflict.

Correct answer: A ghost urging the protagonist to seek vengeance

Revenge Tragedies like 'Hamlet' or Kyd’s 'The Spanish Tragedy' often feature a supernatural visitation. The ghost serves as the catalyst that forces the hero into a moral dilemma regarding justice and murder.

Correct answer: Improbable situations and exaggerated physical humor

Farce depends on absurd plot twists, mistaken identities, and fast-paced physical action rather than verbal wit. English examples range from Brandon Thomas's 'Charley's Aunt' to the twentieth-century Whitehall farces.

Correct answer: The protagonist's critical moment of realization

Anagnorisis is the change from ignorance to knowledge. In tragedy, this realization often comes too late to prevent the catastrophe, adding to the play's emotional weight.

Correct answer: Comedy of Manners

The Comedy of Manners, reaching its peak in the Restoration period with writers like Congreve, satirizes the sophisticated social codes of the elite. It prizes clever dialogue and social maneuvering above traditional morality.

Correct answer: The hero is a middle-class citizen rather than royalty

Domestic tragedies, such as 'Arden of Faversham' or George Lillo’s 'The London Merchant', brought tragedy to the common man. They focus on family life and private crimes rather than the fall of kings.

Correct answer: The braggart or impostor who is eventually humbled

The Alazon is a stock character who perceives himself as greater than he is. In English comedy, this is exemplified by figures like Shakespeare's Falstaff or Malvolio.

Correct answer: Measure for Measure

'Measure for Measure' is categorized as a problem play because it deals with complex moral issues like justice and mercy. Its 'happy ending' is often seen as ambiguous or forced, defying simple classification as comedy.

Correct answer: A sudden reversal of fortune or circumstances

Peripeteia is the turning point where the hero's path shifts toward destruction. It is the moment when an action intended to produce one effect results in the opposite, such as Oedipus's attempt to flee his fate.

Correct answer: Its belief in innate human goodness and the triumph of virtue

Sentimental Comedy (or 'le drame bourgeois') aimed to move the audience to tears of sympathy rather than laughter. It replaced the cynical wit of previous eras with moral lessons and emotional sincerity.

Correct answer: Understates their abilities to outwit a boastful rival

The eiron wins by pretending to be less capable than they really are, drawing out and then deflating the boastful alazon. The word 'irony' derives from this Greek character type, and the pairing drives much of the conflict in classical and English comedy.

Correct answer: Long rhetorical speeches, ghosts, and onstage bloodshed

Seneca's Roman tragedies provided the model for the 'bloody' Elizabethan stage. His influence can be seen in the use of the five-act structure and the preoccupation with tyranny and revenge.

Correct answer: A natural setting where social rules lapse and identities shift

In plays like 'As You Like It', characters flee the restrictive 'City' for the 'Green World' of the forest. This transition allows for the resolution of conflicts and the restoration of social order through marriage.

Correct answer: The final disaster that completes the hero's downfall

The catastrophe is the final stage of the plot in a tragedy, usually involving the death of the protagonist. It marks the total collapse of the hero's world following their tragic error.

Correct answer: Aside

The aside is a convention that allows for dramatic irony, as the audience knows things the other characters do not. It is frequently used in comedy to reveal a character's true, often devious, intentions.

Correct answer: The Neoclassical Period

Neoclassical critics, influenced by French drama, argued that a play should take place within 24 hours, in one location, and follow a single plot. While Shakespeare largely ignored them, later playwrights like Dryden engaged with these rules.

Correct answer: Excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence

Hubris is the specific type of hamartia where the hero attempts to overstep human limitations or defy the gods. Faustus’s pride in his intellectual mastery leads him to make a fatal pact with the devil.