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English Literature   >   Shakespearean Tragedy

Introduction

 
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Shakespearean Tragedy

In this course, Professor Rhodri Lewis (Princeton University) introduces a new model for understanding Shakespearean tragedy, one that centres on the idea that the world is not in fact comprehensible to human reason: tragedy happens not because a tragic protagonist makes a ‘fatal mistake’, as Aristotle would have it, but as the result of trivial accidents, while the question ‘Who am I?’ is unanswerable in any simple way. In the first lecture, we distinguish this new understanding of Shakespearean tragedy from the two most influential existing models: that of Aristotle and that of Hegel. After that, in the second lecture, we think about Romeo and Juliet as a radically new kind of tragedy, one in which starts off as a romantic comedy before turning tragic halfway through, in which tragedy occurs as a result of a misplaced latter, and in which the tragic protagonists come not from the aristocracy, but from the middle classes. In the third lecture, we consider (the play) Hamlet’s interest in ‘things’ and (the character) Hamlet’s (failed) attempts to understand and articulate who he is and why he does what he does, before turning in the fourth lecture to the question of how Othello’s idealised conception of himself leads to tragedy. Finally, in the fifth lecture, we consider the importance of the temporality of the self – and various characters’ attempts, and failures, to escape this temporality – in Macbeth.

Introduction

In this lecture, we introduce a brand new interpretative model for Shakespearean tragedy, focusing in particular on: (i) the two traditional interpretative models for tragedy: Aristotle and Hegel; (ii) Aristotle’s view of tragedy: the tragic protagonist and his tragic mistake, the evocation of pity and fear, the concept of catharsis; (iii) Hegel’s view of tragedy: the conflict between two equal and opposite moral imperatives (e.g. duty to one’s family vs. duty to the law), the extent to which the clash of equal and opposite forces relates to Hegel’s view of the progress of human history; (iv) the Hegelian view of Shakespeare’s great innovation in the tragic drama, i.e. the move from a conflict between two separate characters (e.g. Antigone and Creon in Sophocles’ Antigone) to a conflict within the mind of a single character (e.g. Hamlet); (v) a assumption shared by both the Aristotelian and Hegelian models of tragedy: that the world is comprehensible to human reason; (vi) the extent to which this assumption is justified by what actually happens in Shakespearean tragedy; and (vii) three examples from Shakespearean tragedy where the world is shown to be incomprehensible to human reason: the confused reactions to the play-within-a-play in Hamlet; the ending of Hamlet; the ending of King Lear; and (viii) the extent to which Shakespeare grestures towards an adherence to the Aristotelian model of tragedy, only to later subvert it.

Cite this Lecture

APA style

Lewis, R. (2025, January 21). Shakespearean Tragedy - Introduction [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/shakespearean-tragedy

MLA style

Lewis, R. "Shakespearean Tragedy – Introduction." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 21 Jan 2025, https://massolit.io/courses/shakespearean-tragedy

Lecturer

Prof. Rhodri Lewis

Prof. Rhodri Lewis

Princeton University