House of Notes

               Section VIII:      Tragedy 1. Definition of "Tragedy"                                   2. Classical Tragedy 3.      Renaissance Tragedy 4.      Modern Tragedy 5.      Useful definitions for studying Tragedy Section VIII: Trag ed Trag edy "It is curious, although edifying, that the plays we revere, century after century, are the tragedies. In them, and in them alone, lies the belief-optimistic, if you will-in the perfectibility of man." Arthur Miller Tragedies are perhaps the most sublime form of drama that we have. Many great scholars analyze tragedy. Definition of "Tragedy" Aristotle of ancient Greece was the first to define tragedy, in his famous Poetics (500 BC): “Tragedy is a form of drama, characterized by seriousness and dignity, and involving a great person who experiences a reversal of fortune ( peripeteia ). This reversal of fortune must

Section VII: The Great Chain of Being 1.      What is the Great Chain of Being? 2.      Main Idea 3.      The Great Chain of Being 4.      What determines the order of the Chain? 5.      How are the links of the Chain connected? 6.      How do the links reflect each other? 7.      Disorder 8.       Politics and the Chain 9.      How does the Chain work? 10.       Shakespeare and the Great Chain of Being Section VII: The Great Chain of Being This image of the Great Chain of Being is from 1579. It shows a divinely inspired universal hierarchy, or ladder. All forms of life are ranked between heaven and hell. What is the Great Chain of Being ? It is a way of understanding the word that was current in Europe from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance and the Restoration and into the early 1700s. Main Idea The central concept of the chain of being is that everything imaginable fits into the chain somewhere, giving order and