Transcript brutus tragic

Saturday, 09 April 2016
What is tragedy?
 Shakespeare was influenced by the 1st century writer
Seneca.
 He was a Roman, writing plays which were influenced
by the great Greek tragedies of 4 centuries earlier.
 Let’s look at the features of SENECAN tragedy:
Senecan tragedy:
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Obsessed with “crime”
Preoccupation with mutilation and torture
Witchcraft and the supernatural – think of Macbeth!
“vaulting ambition”
Ghosts calling for revenge
Use of “stichomythia” in dialogue – passages where
characters speak in alternate lines.
Is this BRUTUS?
 Can Brutus be said to be obsessed by crime? Consider
the evidence of 2.1
 Mutilation and torture?
 The Supernatural?
 Ambition?
 Revenge?
 Ghosts?
Doing well… now consider this:
 Classical tragedy, as explained by Aristotle, a 4th
Century BC Greek, is based around these elements:
 The fall from grace of a good person
 A tragic flaw leading to the fall
There’s more:
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These plays have a set structure:
1.
The “exposition” or the part where the protagonist
makes the mistake that will lead to his fall.
The “reversal” when the character realises his error.
The “catastrophe” - when the inevitable happens.
2.
3.
IS this Brutus?
 We are left in little doubt that Brutus is good
 Brutus acts out of a misguided idealism. Is this his
flaw?
 The outcome is inevitable once Caesar is dead, BUT
more than that, if Brutus is seen as contributing to his
own fate is he more tragic still?
SO…
 Brutus seems to fit into the tragic scheme.
 Shakespeare did not know the Greek dramas, so was
this intentional?
 Why is the play not called “Brutus” do you think?