Answer each of the following questions as specifically as possible.
ANTIGONE -by Sophocles
1. Identify Creon’s hamartia. What is Antigone’s?
2. In Greek tragedy, what are the purposes of the Chorus? How accurately are these purposes fulfilled in Antigone?
3. What does it mean to call Tiresias a seer?
4. Identify the Aristotelian unities in Antigone.
5. According to Aristotle, what two emotions do we experience as a result or a catharsis? Why do these occur at the end of Antigone?
THE DOLL HOUSE-by Henrik Ibsen
What does it mean to say that the “fourth wall” has been removed? How does this fact help us to follow and understand the dramatic action on stage?
Playwrights often overturn or modify our expectations or character to surprise us, or to make a character a deeper, more interesting subject. Explain how Ibsen achieves this with Nora’s character by comparing what Nora seems to be early in the play to what she does become as the play draws to a close.
What does it mean to say that every production of The Doll House is an interpretation?
Explain the importance of Mrs. Linde’s complex past (and her involvement with Krogstad) to the play.
TRIFLES-Susan Glaspell
Look up the meaning and characteristics of the French origins of the well-made play (la pièce bien faite). Where in Trifles do you find evidence that the playwright was influenced by this European tradition?
If you were to have the opportunity to spend an hour with the author of Trifles, what questions might you like to ask her, and why?
OVERVIEW
Now reflect on our semester together and answer to the best of your ability the following questions you may pull from your discussion responses if relevant):
So what? That is, what does it matter that we have read and discussed a large quantity of poetry, many pieces of short fiction, and two pieces of drama?
From what we have learned and discussed, from what you have discovered over the past fifteen weeks, what recommendations could you make to your fellow students who might wish to carry their experience to another, higher level of understanding?
