1. Discuss the organization of medieval cycle plays - how were they staged, who staged them, the presentation of the whole cycles etc. Name four extant cycles.

Several English town had cycles of mystery plays in which pageant wagons stopping at different points in the town were used as stages for the various episodes. Each episode was presented by a trade guild- each guild taking responsibility for a particular piece of scriptural history and preparation for the play: decorations, costumes- everything. (E.g. at York the play of Noah was put on by the carpenter's guild, no doubt because they could build the ark most effectively)

They were amateur male actors and they did it for love of God, art and their city. If the actors didn't play well they had to pay fines. A full cycle would represent the entire scheme of Christian cosmology from the Creation to Doomsday. It could take up to twenty hours to perform and could be spread over a number of days.

4 extant cycles (named after the city they were staged in): York (the longest), Chester (the oldest), Wakefield (=Towneley), N-Town (unidentified location), and Coventry.

2. Why were mystery plays called `mystery'?

Initially plays were `staged' by the clergy (first in churches, then they went outside) but in 1210 the Pope forbade clergy to act in public so the organization of the dramas was taken over by town guilds. From the guild control originated the term mystery play or mysteries, from the Latin misterium meaning "occupation, craft, skill or trade” (i.e. that of the guilds).

3. Define the morality play

The morality was not a guild play and it did not take as its subject a story form Bible. Instead, it tried to teach a `moral' lesson through allegory. A fine example of the morality tradition is Everyman.

4. Explain the concept of prefiguration in medieval plays - why do some episodes from the Old Testament appear more often in mystery plays than others?

Episodes from the Old Testament are dramatized because they are seen to prefigure the central drama of Christ's life: the temptation and fall of Adam prefigures the temptation of Christ; the murder of Abel and the sacrifice of Isaac anticipate the Crucifixion; Noah's flood anticipates the Last Judgment; the Prophets look forward to the Annunciation and Nativity, declaring the genealogy of Christ, while Moses also anticipates aspects of Christ's life and ministry. The Mystery dramatists had a shrewd eye for seizing on the most visualizable Biblical episodes as the focus of their plays, but in this they could also exploit the ways in which their audiences were steeped in a visual culture that everywhere depicted those episodes,

5. What were the earliest origins of medieval theatre (tropes)?

While the Christian church did much to suppress the performance of plays, paradoxically it is in the church that medieval drama began. The first record of this beginning is the trope in the Easter service known as the `Quem quaeritis' (whom you seek). Tropes, originally musical elaborations of the church service, gradually evolved into drama; eventually the Latin lines telling of the Resurrection were spoken, rather than sung, by priests who represented the angels and the two Marys at the tomb of Jesus. Thus, simple interpolations developed into grandiose cycles of mystery plays, depicting biblical episodes from the Creation to Judgment Day. The most famous of these plays is the Second Shepherds' Play. Theatre was reborn as liturgical dramas performed by priests or church members. Then came vernacular drama spoken in the vulgar tongues (i.e the language of the people as opposed to Church Latin); this was a more elaborate series of one-act dramas enacted in town squares or other parts of the city. There were three types of vernacular dramas. Mystery or cycle plays, miracle plays and morality plays. Secular plays in this period existed, but medieval religious drama is most remembered today. Plays were set up in individual scenic units called mansions or in wagon stages which were platforms mounted on wheels used to move scenery. Often providing their own costumes, amateur performers in England were only men, but other countries had female performers. The platform stage allowed for abrupt changes in location which was an unidentified space and not a specific locale.

6. What was the role of the comical elements in medieval theatre?

Medieval plays served as both religious instruction and entertainment for a wide audience. Comic elements appeared in plays that were quite serious and had as their purpose to teach Biblical stories and principles to the people. They made the plays more interesting and appealing to the unlearned folk. In those plays devil was often a comic character similar to today's pantomime villain, whom the crowd loved to boo and hiss. Good always triumphed over evil and the devil would be put through trials, such as being suspended upside down, or hit with weapons by other actors, cheered on by an excited audience.

7. Everyman as a morality play.

Everyman (The Summoning of Everyman) is generally regarded as the finest of the morality plays. The emphasis put on morality, the presence of God and the difference between good and evil make Everyman an example of such a play. On the other hand however, most morality plays focus more on evil, while Everyman concentrates instead on good, showing sin in contrast. Morality plays feature a protagonist symbolising the whole mankind, which is the case in Everyman. Apart from this, other characters are personifications of virtues (or rather abstract ideas - Knowledge, Beauty, Strength and so on) and vices, which is supposed to provide the audience with moral guidance. Morality plays are the result of the dominant belief of that period (Everyman was written in the late 15^th century) - people have some control over their afterlife while they are on earth.

Everyman teaches a lesson about how Christians should live and what has to be done in order to find salvation (which makes it an acted-out sermon).

8. What did Elizabethan playhouse look like? What were the differences between it and the contemporary box-stage?

The Elizabethan Theatre emerged from strolling players to performing in the yards of Inns, or Inn-yards, to purpose built theaters based on the huge open air amphitheatres of Ancient Rome and Greece to the comfort of enclosed Playhouses. A Playhouse was a small, private, indoor hall. Playhouses were open to anyone who would pay but more expensive with more select audiences. The audience capacity of the playhouse was up to 500 people. The huge success of Elizabethan plays produced at the Inn-yards and theatres and with play going becoming the height of fashion it was not long before a vast amount of plays were being produced indoors to ensure that plays could also be produced during the cold winter months. The indoor theatres called playhouses were born ! The playhouses helped the acting troupes considerably as playhouses allowed for an all year round profession, not one restricted to the summer at the mercy of the English weather. Playhouses also allowed for luxury and comfort for courtiers and the nobility when watching a play thus encouraging wealthy and powerful clientele. Many plays were produced in buildings with Great Halls which were suitable for the purpose of staging plays. The Gray's Inn and Whitehall were two such theatres and were easily converted into playhouses. Purpose built playhouses were also specifically built such as the Salisbury Court playhouse.

The following interesting facts about the Elizabethan indoor playhouses provide an insight into the development of the modern theatre:

• Elizabethan playhouses provided indoor venues for the production of Elizabethan plays

• The venues were smaller and roofed

• Suitable for winter and evening productions

• Admittance to the Playhouses were more expensive than the other types of Elizabethan theatres

• Attending a public theater performance would cost between 1 to 3 pennies, but admission to a private, indoor, theatre cost between 2 to 26 pennies

• Indoor Playhouses were no so much private but exclusive - the cost prohibited the attendance of most common folk

• Everyone in the private theatre audience was given a seat - the higher the price of admission, the more comfortable the seat was

• The Audience capacity was up to 500 people

• The Playhouses were more comfortable and luxurious than other theatres

• The Great Halls in existing, prestigious, buildings were used as playhouses and venues for plays

• The indoor Playhouses were lighted by candles so performances could be staged in the evening

• The use of candles led to the introduction of intervals when burnt down candles were replaced

• Food and drink was served, or sold, during the intervals

• Music and songs was strongly featured - the acoustics of indoor theatres lended themselves to this

• Beautiful scenery were introduced - as this was not open to the open air elements this could be re-used over and over again

• Costumes tended to be quite sumptuous

• The plays were selected to suit the indoor venues - the emphasis was on the words of the play rather than noisy special effects

Some other descriptions:

Elizabethan Playhouse. Before James Burbage built the Theatre in London in 1576, English actors had played on temporary stages set up in the open air, in noblemen's houses, or in innyards, whose characteristic features of a large open unroofed space surrounded by galleries giving access to bed-chambers can be found not only in the Theatre but in the later Curtain, the Fortune, the famous Globe, the Hope, the Rose, and the Swan. These were all wooden structures, roughly circular or octagonal, with a large platform-stage, backing on to one wall and jutting out into the central space. Round this space, still called a `yard', ran two or perhaps three galleries with thatched roofs. The first probably continued behind the stage and so formed an upper room, reminiscent of the musicians' gallery in a nobleman's Great Hall. This could be used for instrumentalists, battlements, or first-storey windows. Underneath it may have been the `inner stage'. Other features were the tiring-house, or actors' dressing room, behind the stage wall. This permanent architectural façade was pierced by doors of entrance, over which projected a roof—the Heavens, supported by pillars. Above the balcony at the back of the stage was a hut to house the machinery used for raising or lowering actors or properties on to the stage, and above this a tower from which a trumpeter announced the start of a performance and a flag flew during it. Under the stage, hidden by boarding or drapery, a cellar held the machinery for projecting ghosts and devils through the trap doors, which also served for Ophelia's grave in Hamlet and the witches' cauldron in Macbeth. The stage itself was partly railed, and privileged spectators could pay to sit on it .The galleries were furnished with wooden stools or benches, and round three sides of the stage stood the groundings. In all parts of the house the audience, which entered through one main door, amused itself by cracking and eating nuts and munching apples, often throwing the cores at the actors. The so-called private theatres were roofed. They approximated more to the tennis-court theatres of Paris, and it was from them, rather than from the public theatres, that the Restoration playhouses developed after the Puritan Interregnum of 1642-60. 

9. What is “hubris”? Explain, using examples.
   Hubris may be defined as an excessive pride. It means extreme haughtiness or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of touch with reality and overestimating one's own competence or capabilities especially for people in positions of power. This excessive pride results in the protagonist's downfall.

Term comes from Greek tragedy.

Perhaps one of the most vivid examples of hubris in ancient Greek literature is demonstrated by Achilles and his treatment of Hector's corpse in Homer's Iliad. Achilles killed Hector in revenge. Not only did he kill him, but also he stripped Hector's corpse and dragged it around behind his chariot, threading leather thongs through Hector's ankles. Although the Greek forces were appalled by his treatment of this other hero's corpse, he was unrelenting. Priam, king of Troy, had to come and kneel at Achilles's feet and offer him Hector's weight in gold before he could convince him to give up the body. Once the body was gone, Achilles had time to ponder the fact that it was prophesied his own death would come soon after Hector's.

Similarly, Creon commits hubris in refusing to bury Polynices in Sophocles' Antigone.

Another example is in the tragedy Agamemnon, by Aeschylus. Agamemnon initially rejects the hubris of walking on the fine purple tapestry, an act which is suggested by Clytemnestra, in hopes of bringing his ruin. This act may be seen as a desecration of a divinely woven tapestry, as a general flouting of the strictures imposed by the gods, or simply as an act of extreme pride and lack of humility before the gods, tempting them to retribution.

One other example is that of Oedipus. In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, while on the road to Thebes, Oedipus meets King Laius of Thebes who is unknown to him as his biological father. Oedipus kills King Laius in a dispute over which of them has the right of way, thereby fulfilling the prophecy that Oedipus is destined to murder his own father. Icarus, flying too close to the sun despite warning, has been interpreted by ancient authors as hubris, leading to swift retribution.

Hubris in King Lear:

Lear is the protagonist, whose willingness to believe his older daughters' empty flattery leads to the deaths of many people. In relying on the test of his daughters' love, Lear demonstrates that he lacks common sense or the ability to detect his older daughters' falseness. Lear cannot recognize Cordelia's honesty amid the flattery, which he craves. The depth of Lear's anger toward Kent, his devoted follower, suggests excessive pride — Lear refuses to be wrong. Hubris leads Lear to make a serious mistake in judgment, while Lear's excessive anger toward Kent also suggests the fragility of his emotional state. Hubris is a Greek term referring to excessive and destructive pride. In the ancient Greek world, hubris often resulted in the death of the tragic, heroic figure. This is clearly the case with Lear, who allows his excessive pride to destroy his family

10. How do parallel plots in King Lear complement or offset each other?

Parallel plots or minor plots give the reader the opportunity of experiencing a secondary storyline going along with the main plot.

1. Parallelism between Lear and Gloucester. The two fathers have their own loyal legitimate child (who are with their fathers in need) and their own evil and disloyal child and both suffer because they are sightless to the truth.

In the early beginning of King Lear, Cordelia says that her love for her father is the love between father and daughter, no more, no less. In response, Lear flies into a rage, disowns Cordelia, and divides her share of the kingdom between her two unworthy sisters. Such folly and injustice is encountered by Gloucester in the secondary plot. Gloucester fooled by his wick bastard son, Edmund, attacks Edgar (his loyal son).

2. Parallelism between Cordelia and Edgar. The protagonists of this play, Cordelia and Edgar, hide in the beginning of the play and reveal themselves at the end to defeat Edmund's malicious plans.

Cordelia is safely sheltered in France (because of her sisters) and Edgar hides himself in order to escape Edmund's torment. When Lear was suffering from the bitter torture of the storm Cordelia helped her father to recover from the cruel abandonment from Regan and Goneril. This rescue coincides with Edgar's assistance to his father after his fall down the cliff at Dover. Edgar compliments God's grace for saving his father's life and thus comforts him afterwards.

Cordelia and Edgar, when in need from their parents, appears and rescues them from worst situations.

3. The parallel betrayal in King Lear. Both Lear and Gloucester are misled by their children.

When Lear divided his kingdom between two daughters, both Regan and Goneril intend to reduce their father's remaining authority so that Albion will be under their control (so they betrayed him). Edmund also decides to inherit all of Gloucester's power, and thus plots Edgar's forged letter with orders to kill his father. After Gloucester leaves and gives orders for Edmund to find Edgar, Edmund boasts of his trickery of Gloucester and Edgar.
4. Gloucester's death in the secondary plot is parallel to that of Lear's in the main plot, despite the fact that Gloucester does not have the tragic catastrophic death of Lear.

Lear's anguish led him to insanity while Gloucester is led to despair and attempted suicide. Before Gloucester's attempt at suicide, he realizes that he has wronged Edgar and condemns his blindness of Edmund's plan. This parallels Lear's death as he also condemns his insightfulness and wronging Cordelia (both Lear and Gloucester die as better and wiser men than they showed themselves at first).

11. How do the tragic and comic plot in Doctor Faustus complement or offset each other?

In DF exists a tragic and a comic plot. This plot division serves as a parallel - the actions and characters in the low plot coincide with the actions and characters in the high plot. Ex. The scene of Wagner and the clown provide a comic counterpoint to the Faustus-Mephastophilis scenes. The clown jokes that he would sell his soul to the devil for a well-seasoned shoulder of mutton, Like Faustus, these clownish characters, use magic to summon demons.

Moreover, the comedy plot adds to the tragedy of Faustus, showing comedy against Faustus as he is given great powers but uses them to perform petty tricks, therefore ridiculing his character and making the themes more complex.

Therefore these 2 plots complement each other in a way that the comic sub-plot is used to parody the main tragic plot.

12. What was the influence of the previous theatrical versions of Lear on the expectations of Shakespeare's audience?

Shakespeare's “King Lear” was based on story, which already existed. However in his version both Lear and his daughter Cordelia die. By the late 17th century Shakespeare made principal innovations to his story. Tragic ending (the death of Cordelia and Lear at the end) was much criticised, and alternative versions were written and performed, in which the leading characters survived .It's apparently because audiences preferred this more optimistic conclusion (similar to conclusion in previous version of Lear). The same thing happens to most of Shakespeare's major plays, though some of them are changed the other way, becoming more rather than less gruesome. But these changes weren't necessarily pitched as adaptations—they're what passed for Shakespeare at the time. What was performed on stage was what worked, based on commercial and entertainment value.

13. What is the role of the Fool in King Lear?

One type of fool that Shakespeare involves in King Lear is the immoral fool. Edmund for instance may be seen as a fool in the sense that he's morally weak. His foolishness lies in the fact that he has no sense of right or justice, which rewards him with an untimely, ironic death. By far the most influential medium used by Shakespeare in the illustration and thematic development of fools and foolishness is the Fool. This character is extremely dynamic throughout the play. He's seen by Lear and others as a simple-minded idiot in the court to entertain the king and his daughters. However, as the play progresses, the Fool proves to be the wisest character in the play. He says one should never judge wisdom by office. He speaks some of the most insightful words in the play and shows poignant insight into the position of the king, telling him that there was no justification or intelligence in Lear's giving his properties to his eldest daughters. The play seems to evolve around the wisdom of the Fool.  

1. Fool makes comments on events that take place during the play

2. He's allowed to say anything as Lear not always treats him seriously

3. Lear is called a fool as he divided his kingdom

4. Fool is not only Lear's servant but also his friend ( he calls Lear “nuncle”) 

14. In your opinion, is the overall moral message of King Lear Christian or nihilistic?

In my opinion the moral message of King Lear is more nihilistic than Christian. The term of nihilism comes from Latin (nihil - nothing ). It is a philosophical doctrine that negates one or more meaningful aspects of life. It is very often associated with existential nihilism, which states that our life lacks any objective meaning, purpose or value. Additionally, morality is not an inherent part of humans' existence. It is rather an abstract set of values that differ from individual to individual. In other words, universal morality does not exist. Every entity has his or her own perception of what is good or wrong. This mindset creates a sad image of meaningless world where nothing matters.

This image seems to be quite adequate in respect to King Lear. First of all, the main protagonist King Lear, is mislead by his own daughters' lies. Thus, evil Regan and Gonerill gain control of his kingdom. Not only evil prevails, but also positive, good characters (Cordelia, Kent) are harmed by the king's decision. Lear, who fallowed his intuition and most of all intended to proffer his realm to those daughters who love him most, suffers terrible consequences of his deeds. Here, he seems to be punished in spite of the best intentions.

Those who seem to control the faith of others in the play, namely: Regan and Gonerill are deprived of all sense of morality. Love, compassion and other human feelings do not apply to them. They are only motivated by the hunger of power and wealth and use their cleverness to satisfy their hunger. In addition, Shakespeare presents Edmund. Edmund who is capable of doing anything in order to achieve his goal. His Machiavellian and mischievous character allows him to create schemes that wreak destruction and havoc upon virtually every other character in the play.

The world that Shakespeare portraits in his drama is full of violence. What is more, it seems to be lacking any form of justice as the good characters die along with the villains. In this depressive vision, the only morality that can exist is the morality of evil and misdeeds and those who don't accept it will suffer the consequences. It is obvious that Christian morality is eclipsed and even cast away by the morality of Regan, Gonerill and Edmund. Even though some of the characters seem to repent and are aware of their faults, there seem to be no redemption

15. What medieval elements are present in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus?

1. I think it will be the best to depict the medieval elements appearing in Dr Faustus as the elements contrasting with Renaissance values; the medieval characteristics are marked in bold.

2. The Conflict Between Medieval and Renaissance Values

Scholar R.M. Dawkins famously remarked that Doctor Faustus tells “the story of a Renaissance man who had to pay the medieval price for being one.” While slightly simplistic, this quotation does get at the heart of one of the play's central themes: the clash between the medieval world and the world of the emerging Renaissance. The medieval world placed God at the center of existence and shunted aside man and the natural world. The Renaissance was a movement that began in Italy in the fifteenth century and soon spread throughout Europe, carrying with it a new emphasis on the individual, on classical learning, and on scientific inquiry into the nature of the world. In the medieval academy, theology was the queen of the sciences. In the Renaissance, though, secular matters took center stage.

Faustus, despite being a magician rather than a scientist (a blurred distinction in the sixteenth century), explicitly rejects the medieval model. In his opening speech in scene 1, he goes through every field of scholarship, beginning with logic and proceeding through medicine, law, and theology, quoting an ancient authority for each: Aristotle on logic, Galen on medicine, the Byzantine emperor Justinian on law, and the Bible on religion. In the medieval model, tradition and authority, not individual inquiry, were key. But in this soliloquy, Faustus considers and rejects this medieval way of thinking. He resolves, in full Renaissance spirit, to accept no limits, traditions, or authorities in his quest for knowledge, wealth, and power.

The play's attitude toward the clash between medieval and Renaissance values is ambiguous. Marlowe seems hostile toward the ambitions of Faustus, and, as Dawkins notes, he keeps his tragic hero squarely in the medieval world, where eternal damnation is the price of human pride. Yet Marlowe himself was no pious traditionalist, and it is tempting to see in Faustus—as many readers have—a hero of the new modern world, a world free of God, religion, and the limits that these imposed on humanity. Faustus may pay a medieval price, this reading suggests, but his successors will go further than he and suffer less, as we have in modern times. On the other hand, the disappointment and mediocrity that follow Faustus's pact with the devil, as he descends from grand ambitions to petty conjuring tricks, might suggest a contrasting interpretation. Marlowe may be suggesting that the new, modern spirit, though ambitious and glittering, will lead only to a Faustian dead end.

16. The use of blank verse/prose in Doctor Faustus?

Blank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme. In English, the meter most commonly used with blank verse has been iambic pentameter. Christopher Marlowe was the first English author to make full use of the potential of blank verse, and also established it as the dominant verse form for English drama in the age of Elizabeth I and James I. Blank verse in Dr Faustus is largely reserved for the main scenes. Marlow switches, changes style in order to show which elements of his play are more important - those are written in blank verse- and which are less- comic subplot.

(Shakespeare also switches styles in King Lear: love test- blank verse, daughters' plans- prose; Edgar's lies- blank verse and what he really thinks is written in prose.)

17. Psychomachia in Doctor Faustus.

Fight between Good an Bad. Human being is perceived as a field of that fight.

18. Overreacher in Marlowe's works - what are its characteristic features, and which of them can we find in Doctor Faustus?

Marlowe's major tragedies, Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and Dr Faustus, all portray heroes who passionately seek power - the power of rule, of money and knowledge, respectively. Each of them is an overreacher, who according to Marlowe, was a man of great eloquence and ambition, who desired to gain power over others. He is not satisfied with his situation and thus tries to reach for more, striving even beyond the bounds of human capacity.

Dr Faustus seeks the power that comes from knowledge, no matter at what cost. To get this power Faustus chooses to make a bargain with the devil. Faustus for his part desires the power that comes from black magic, but the devil on his side exacts a fearful price in exchange - the eternal damnation of Faustus soul. Faustus aspires to be more than a man - a demigod, a deity. His fall is caused by the same overwhelming pride and ambition (hubris) that caused the fall of the angels in heaven, and of humanity in the Garden of Eden.

The play, then, shows the tragic results of attempting to attain divinity through knowledge and the sinful nature of trying to achieve God-like powers. Faust is consumed by pride and arrogance which fuels him to become an overreacher who does not obey the forces of heaven but joins the demons and devils of hell and is damned for his actions and denouncement of god. Faustus is driven by intellectual curiosity but "it cannot finally be detached from the secondary motives that entrammels it, the will to power (and to conquer Europe)and the appetite for sensation".

The moral of the story is that ambition and dissatisfaction with what God had given is a wretched sin that could only lead to damnation. Faustus acquires the power he wanted, yet he couldn't use it at the end to save himself from hell. Marlowe tries to make his audience realize that disobeying God and craving more than what He endowed could only lead to ruin, damnation, and suffering. (Overreaching is not criticized for the ambition it shows in Faustus, but for the disrespect of God that it shows. Overreaching is seen as wanting more than God gives, when he alone knows how much we need.)

(Allusion to Icarus who attempted to escape from Crete with a pair of waxen wings, but flew too near the sun and plunged to his death when the sun melted the wax. He became the symbol of the `overreacher', of the man who tries to exceed his own limitations and comes to grief as a result. Like Icarus, in the Chorus's view, Faustus tried to `mount above his reach' and was punished for his presumption: `heavens conspired his overthrow' (l. 22). This is an intriguing twist on the Icarus myth; for whereas Icarus's pride seems to be self-destructive, Faustus's sparks the intervention of a deity who `conspires' to destroy him).

19. The conflict between the medieval and Renaissance values in Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus has frequently been interpreted as depicting a clash between the values of the medieval world and the emerging spirit of the sixteenth-century Renaissance. In medieval Europe, Christianity and God lay at the center of intellectual life: scientific inquiry languished, and theology was known as “the queen of the sciences.” In art and literature, the emphasis was on the lives of the saints and the mighty rather than on those of ordinary people. With the advent of the Renaissance, however, there was a new celebration of the free individual and the scientific exploration of nature.

With his rejection of God's authority and his thirst for knowledge and control over nature, Faustus embodies the more secular spirit of the dawning modern era. Marlowe symbolizes this spirit in the play's first scene, when Faustus explicitly rejects all the medieval authorities—Aristotle in logic, Galen in medicine, Justinian in law, and the Bible in religion—and decides to strike out on his own. In this speech, Faustus puts the medieval world to bed and steps firmly into the new era. Yet, as the quote says, he “pay[s] the medieval price” for taking this new direction, since he still exists firmly within a Christian framework, meaning that his transgressions ultimately condemn him to hell.

20. What attitudes toward women does Marlowe show in Doctor Faustus?

Scene 5

Quotation:

FAUSTUS. How! now in hell!

Nay, an this be hell, I'll willingly be damn'd here:

What! walking, disputing, &c.[94]

But, leaving off this, let me have a wife,[95]

The fairest maid in Germany;

For I am wanton and lascivious,

And cannot live without a wife.

MEPHIST. How! a wife!

I prithee, Faustus, talk not of a wife.

FAUSTUS. Nay, sweet Mephistophilis, fetch me one, for I will have

one.

MEPHIST. Well, thou wilt have one? Sit there till I come: I'll

fetch thee a wife in the devil's name.

[Exit.]

Re-enter MEPHISTOPHILIS with a DEVIL drest like a WOMAN,

with fire-works.

MEPHIST. Tell me,[96] Faustus, how dost thou like thy wife?

FAUSTUS. A plague on her for a hot whore!

MEPHIST. Tut, Faustus,

Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;

If thou lovest me, think no[97] more of it.

I'll cull thee out the fairest courtezans,

And bring them every morning to thy bed:

She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,

Be she as chaste as was Penelope,

As wise as Saba,[98] or as beautiful

As was bright Lucifer before his fall.

Hold, take this book, peruse it thoroughly:

[Gives book.]

The iterating[99] of these lines brings gold;

The framing of this circle on the ground

Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder, and lightning;

Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself,

And men in armour shall appear to thee,

Ready to execute what thou desir'st.

FAUSTUS. Thanks, Mephistophilis: yet fain would I have a book

wherein I might behold all spells and incantations, that I

might raise up spirits when I please.

Comment:

At Faustus's request for a wife, Mephastophilis offers Faustus a she-devil, but Faustus refuses. Mephastophilis then gives him a book of magic spells and tells him to read it carefully.

The scene in which the Devils present seven deadly sins

Quotation:

FAUSTUS. What are you, Mistress Minx, the seventh and last?

LECHERY. Who I, sir? I am one that loves an inch of raw mutton

better than an ell of fried stock-fish; and the first letter

of my name begins with L.

Scene 11

Quotation:

WAGNER. Sir, the Duke of Vanholt doth earnestly entreat your

company.

FAUSTUS. The Duke of Vanholt! an honourable gentleman, to whom

I must be no niggard of my cunning.[147]--Come, Mephistophilis,

let's away to him.

[Exeunt.]

Enter the DUKE OF VANHOLT, the DUCHESS, and FAUSTUS.[148]

DUKE. Believe me, Master Doctor, this merriment hath much pleased

me.

FAUSTUS. My gracious lord, I am glad it contents you so well.

--But it may be, madam, you take no delight in this. I have heard

that great-bellied women do long for some dainties or other: what

is it, madam? tell me, and you shall have it.

DUCHESS. Thanks, good Master Doctor: and, for I see your courteous

intent to pleasure me, I will not hide from you the thing my heart

desires; and, were it now summer, as it is January and the dead

time of the winter, I would desire no better meat than a dish

of ripe grapes.

FAUSTUS. Alas, madam, that's nothing!--Mephistophilis, be gone.

[Exit MEPHISTOPHILIS.] Were it a greater thing than this, so it

would content you, you should have it.

Re-enter MEPHISTOPHILIS with grapes.

Here they be, madam: wilt please you taste on them?

DUKE. Believe me, Master Doctor, this makes me wonder above the

rest, that being in the dead time of winter and in the month of

January, how you should come by these grapes.

FAUSTUS. If it like your grace, the year is divided into two

circles over the whole world, that, when it is here winter with

us, in the contrary circle it is summer with them, as in India,

Saba,[149] and farther countries in the east; and by means of a

swift spirit that I have, I had them brought hither, as you see.

--How do you like them, madam? be they good?

DUCHESS. Believe me, Master Doctor, they be the best grapes that

e'er I tasted in my life before.

FAUSTUS. I am glad they content you so, madam.

DUKE. Come, madam, let us in, where you must well reward this

learned man for the great kindness he hath shewed to you.

DUCHESS. And so I will, my lord; and, whilst I live, rest

beholding[150] for this courtesy.

FAUSTUS. I humbly thank your grace.

DUKE. Come, Master Doctor, follow us, and receive your reward.

[Exeunt.]

At the court of the Duke of Vanholt, Faustus's skill at conjuring up beautiful illusions wins the duke's favor. Faustus comments that the duchess has not seemed to enjoy the show and asks her what she would like. She tells him she would like a dish of ripe grapes, and Faustus has Mephastophilis bring her some grapes. At the court of the Duke of Vanholt, Faustus's skill at conjuring up beautiful illusions wins the duke's favor. Faustus comments that the duchess has not seemed to enjoy the show and asks her what she would like. She tells him she would like a dish of ripe grapes, and Faustus has Mephastophilis bring her some grapes.

Scene 12

Quotation:

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss:
Her lips sucks forth my soul, see where it flies!
Come Helen, come, give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for heaven be in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena!

The final scenes contain some of the most noteworthy speeches in the play, especially Faustus's speech to Helen and his final soliloquy. His address to Helen begins with the famous line “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,” referring to the Trojan War, which was fought over Helen, and goes on to list all the great things that Faustus would do to win her love (12.81). He compares himself to the heroes of Greek mythology, who went to war for her hand, and he ends with a lengthy praise of her beauty. In its flowery language and emotional power, the speech marks a return to the eloquence that marks Faustus's words in earlier scenes, before his language and behavior become mediocre and petty. Having squandered his powers in pranks and childish entertainments, Faustus regains his eloquence and tragic grandeur in the final scene, as his doom approaches. Still, asimpressive as this speech is, Faustus maintains the same blind spots that lead him down his dark road in the first place. Earlier, he seeks transcendence through magic instead of religion. Now, he seeks it through sex and female beauty, as he asks Helen to make him “immortal” by kissing him (12.83). Moreover, it is not even clear that Helen is real, since Faustus's earlier conjuring of historical figures evokes only illusions and not physical beings. If Helen too is just an illusion

21. Could Doctor Faustus be considered a morality play? Why or why not?

Dr. Faustus is a difficult play to classify into one single category, whether it be a tragedy or morality play, because it contains elements of both.  For one, it could be classified as a tragedy since one characteristic of a tragedy is that the protagonist does not triumph.  On the other hand, it conveys a warning to the reader of the dangers of pride and the quest for infinite knowledge.  Dr. Faustus is an extreme case of this in that he signs over his soul to the devil in return for 24 years of Mephastophilis' servitude.  Overall, Dr. Faustus should be classified as a morality play because of its characters, symbolism and circumstances that all serve as catalysts in driving the title character to his demise. 
The good angel and bad angel, as well as the old man that advises Faustus to seek repentance, play an important role in placing Dr. Faustus in the morality category. 
Even Mephastophilis shows concern for Faustus' possible actions when he tells him that the greatest pain is being unable to experience “everlasting bliss” that is found in Heaven (3.80-82).  In spite of all these warnings and pleadings for repentance, Faustus doubts that God will ever forgive him. 
The use of “Homo Fuge” as the inscription in Faustus' arm is one indication of the play's classification as a morality play (5.77).  The saying is Latin for “Fly, man,” which can be interpreted as a warning for Faustus to escape the evil he that is surrendering himself to before it is too late. 
Faustus is always able to choose between good and bad, which indicates that this is a morality play.  He is always met with the option of good or evil, within himself, with the good and bad angels, his friends in the black arts, and the scholars.  These choices acknowledge the free will that humans have, and the abuses that can become of it, whether they be questioned or downright ignored by Faustus. 
A prominent theme of this play is Faustus' battle within himself in which he must decide who to give his soul to.  There was the chance for redemption that he never accepted due to his desire for power and his fear of failing both God, who could cast him into Hell, and Satan, who would hold him to his contract or have him destroyed.  Even the Seven Deadly Sins play a part in influencing Faustus' desire to turn to the devil.  His final speech especially implies the possibility that he did not truly surrender his soul to the devil.  He cries, “O I'll leap up to my God!” and “ah, my Christ…”   Regrettably, he passed up the chances he was given before to repent, saying that his heart was hardened to the point that he could no longer do so (5.196).   
This internal conflict reflects his outward battle of good and evil.  He has his good angel and bad angel, as well as his friends Valdes and Cornelius encouraging his necromancy, the scholars who fear that nothing can reclaim his soul, and the old man who tells him it is not too late to redeem himself. 
In many tragedies, the protagonist does not have the foresight of the devastation that is about to consume them; in fact, so many catastrophic events ensue that not even the reader can foresee the end.  For example, King Lear's mistake of disowning Cordelia in Shakespeare's tragedy brings on a string of disastrous occurrences that take the reader far from where they started. On the other hand, in a morality play, there is typically a force that attempts to persuade the protagonist to follow a moral course of action, but on the other side lies temptation, which makes for the backbone of the story, balancing out the plot.  Dr. Faustus is a good example of a morality play, as he is constantly faced with the warnings of the consequences of his actions.  He is well aware from the beginning what he is getting himself into, and the reader can tell from the start the general direction that the story will take.

22. What was masque and why can A Midsummer Night's Dream be considered to have some of its features?

Masque - a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy. Masque involved music and dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a allegory flattering to the patron. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Often, the masquers who did not speak or sing were courtiers (dworzanie).

MND

“Pyramus and Thysbe” play, played at a wedding, performed much like in the manner masques were performed. Spectators were invited to join in the dancing. At the end, the players would take off their masks to reveal their identities. Exactly as in the masques, everything is an occurrence and a living picture rather than a plot. We feel throughout the play that like the masques it was originally intended for private entertainment. The resemblance with the masques is still heightened by the completely lyrical, not to say operatic (operowa) characteristic of the Midsummer Night's Dream.

23. In what role does Queen Elizabeth I appear in MND?

This was mentioned during the class:

A Midsummer Night's Dream was probably performed before Queen Elizabeth, and Shakespeare managed to make a flattering reference to his monarch in Act II, scene i. When Oberon introduces the idea of the love potion to Puck, he says that he once saw Cupid fire an arrow that missed its mark:

That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed.
A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal thronèd by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon,
And the imperial vot'ress passèd on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free
           (II.i.155-164).

Queen Elizabeth never married and was celebrated in her time as a woman of chastity, a virgin queen whose concerns were above the flesh. Here Shakespeare alludes to that reputation by describing Cupid firing an arrow “at a fair vestal thronèd by the west”—Queen Elizabeth—whom the heat of passion cannot affect because the arrow is cooled “in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon.” Shakespeare celebrates how Elizabeth put affairs of state before her personal life and lived “in maiden meditation, fancy-free.” He nestles a patriotic aside in an evocative description, couching praise for the ruler on whose good favor he depended in dexterous poetic language. (Audiences in Shakespeare's day would most likely have recognized this imaginative passage's reference to their monarch.)

And something extra:

It seems that Shakespeare is trying to point out in the situation between Egeus and Hermia that the extent of a Queen's power is comparative to the power of a father over his daughter.  A father may hold dominion over all of the laws governing his daughter's life in a social and political realm; however, he holds no dominion over the rights granted his daughter through natural law, just as a Queen holds no power over the natural, inherent rights of her people.

Shakespeare also incorporates a compliment and an example of encouragement to Queen Elizabeth in the dialogue.  When Theseus says, “But earthlier happy is the rose distilled, Than that which withering on the virgin thorn grows, lives, dies in single blessedness.” Hermia replies, “So I will grow, so live, so die, my lord.”  (Baker, et al. 257) Encoded in this text is a parallel to the way in which Elizabeth has established herself as the “Virgin Queen”.  Like Hippolyta, Elizabeth uses her personal relationship as a political game-piece.  And like Hermia, Elizabeth has strongly upheld her decision to abstain, and to hold sole dominion over her country, in light of the best interests of her people.  Shakespeare is complimenting the Queen for her strength and is urging her to stand fast to her decision. 

Overall, Shakespeare is stressing to the Queen through this play that with the great power she holds, comes a great responsibility.  He notes that, though it is honorable, noble, and necessary to give up some of her own rights and freedoms in observance of these powers, she should not expect her subjects to do the same.  Shakespeare is complimentary of the natural rights that she has forfeited but insists that she holds dominion over every aspect of her subjects, excluding these natural laws.  Just as a father to a daughter, a Queen must make the same sacrifices, provide the same guidance, and judge and rule the same political and social aspects of dominion.  Finally, a Queen, just as a father, must allow certain freedoms to create unrestrained natural laws by which to “grow, live and die.”   

24. Discuss moon imagery in MND.

With four separate plots and four sets of characters, A Midsummer Night's Dream risks fragmentation. Yet Shakespeare has managed to create a unified play through repetition of common themes — such as love — and through cohesive use of imagery. Shining throughout the play, the moon is one of the primary vehicles of unity. In her inconstancy, the moon is an apt figure of the ever-changing, varied modes of love represented in the drama. As an image, the moon lights the way for all four groups of characters.
The play opens with Theseus and Hippolyta planning their wedding festivities under a moon slowly changing into her new phase — too slowly for Theseus. Like a dowager preventing him from gaining his fortune, the old moon is a crone who keeps Theseus from the bounty of his wedding day. Theseus implicitly invokes Hecate, the moon in her dark phase, the ruler of the Underworld associated with magic, mysticism, even death. This dark aspect of the moon will guide the lovers as they venture outside of the safe boundaries of Athens and into the dangerous, unpredictable world of the forest.

In this same scene, Hippolyta invokes a very different phase of the moon. Rather than the dark moon mourned by Theseus, Hippolyta imagines the moon moving quickly into her new phase, like a silver bow, bent in heaven. From stepmother, the moon is transformed in the course of a few lines into the image of fruitful union contained in the "silver bow," an implicit reference also to Cupid's arrow, which draws lovers together. Utilizing the imagery of the silver bow, Hippolyta invokes Diana, the virgin huntress who is the guardian spirit of the adolescent moon. In this guise, the moon is the patroness of all young lovers, fresh and innocent, just beginning their journey through life. This new, slender moon, though, won't last; instead, like life itself, she will move into her full maturity, into a ripe, fertile state, just as the marriages of the young lovers will grow, eventually resulting in children.

Later in the same act, the moon alters once again, returning to her role as Diana, the chaste goddess of the hunt. Theseus declares that if Hermia does not marry Demetrius as her father wishes, she will live a barren life, "[c]hanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon" (73). Hermia has until the next new moon to make her decision, so the new moon becomes both a symbol of Theseus and Hippolyta's happy union and of Hermia's potential withered life as a nun (or even a corpse), if she does not comply with her father's whim. In a play that celebrates love, marriage, and fertility, the chaste moon is not a welcome image. Therefore, Theseus urges Hermia to marry Demetrius, her father's choice of a husband, rather than spending a barren life in a convent. By the end of the scene, the moon presents herself in another guise: as Phoebe, the queen of moonlit forests. In this role, her "silver visage" will both light and conceal the flight of Lysander and Hermia, as they seek a happy and productive life away from the severe authority of Athens. As the play progresses, the moon will continue her transformations, accompanying all of the characters through their magical sojourns.

Guiding Theseus and Hippolyta as they prepare for their wedding, the moon also shines over the quarreling Oberon and Titania, who seek a way to patch up their failing marriage. As Oberon says when he first sees Titania, they are "ill met by moonlight." Notice how the fairy world is directly connected with the cycles of the moon: As "governess of the floods" (103), the moon, which is pale in anger because of Titania and Oberon's argument, has indirectly caused numerous human illnesses. And Titania invokes a weaker, more passive and "watery" moon that weeps along with the flowers at any violated chastity.

On a more comical level, moonshine is also relevant to the players. As they prepare their performance of "Pyramus and Thisbe," which is also drenched in moonlight, they wonder how they will manage to represent the moon. Bottom has the brilliant idea of leaving a window open during the performance so that the moon can shine in. Quince doesn't like the potential dangers of this natural solution — what if it's an overcast night — and suggests, instead, that one of the actors personify Moonshine by wearing a bush of thorns and carrying a lantern. Thus, Robin Starveling appears in the final act of the play as the Man-in-the-Moon, showing Shakespeare's dexterity in playing with all of the cultural representations that coalesce around a single image: From slender, virgin huntress to full, ripe mother to dark, mysterious crone to comical man-in-the moon, Shakespeare represents the moon in its full complexity.
Most of Shakespeare's images have similarly multiple layers of significance: Their relevance changes with their context, so no image maps simplistically onto a single meaning. Despite the multivalent meanings of the moon in this play, it is still a vehicle for unity, shining on all four groups of characters as they transform themselves in the course of the drama. Drenched in moonlight, this drama is aligned with Hecate's mystical, underworld visions; with the chaste, huntress Diana; and with Phoebe's rich fertility. But it is also aligned with the more comical, folkloric image of the man-in-the-moon, who, in the guise of Robin Starveling the tailor, lights the action of "Pyramus and Thisbe." Part of Shakespeare's skill as a playwright was in skillfully representing all aspects of a potent cultural icon, without destroying the unity of his carefully wrought artistic creation.

And now in a few words:

• The Moon in the dark phase: (Theseus' association)

• It resembles HECATE(the ruler of the Underworld - associated with mysticism, death and magic)

• dark aspect of the moon will guide the lovers as they venture outside of the safe boundaries of Athens and into the dangerous, unpredictable world of the forest.

• The Moon as a Silver Bow[ the Chaste moon]: (Hippolita's association)

• Reference to Cupid's arrows that tie lovers.

• Invokes Diana, the virgin huntress who is the guardian spirit of the adolescent moon.

• This phase the moon is the patroness of all young lovers, fresh and innocent, just beginning their journey through life.

• This phase is short, just like adolescence. It will move quickly further to more mature phase(fertility state having children etc.)

• the new moon becomes both a symbol of Theseus and Hippolyta's happy union and of Hermia's potential withered life as a nun (or even a corpse).

• !!!! In a play that celebrates love, marriage, and fertility, the chaste moon is not a welcome image.!!!

• The Moon as Phoebe , the queen of moonlit forests.

• The moon will both light and conceal the flight of Lysander and Hermia, as they seek a happy and productive life away from the severe authority of Athens.

• The moon as The Man-on-the-Moon

• The Moon on comical lvl, important to the players.

• one of the actors personify Moonshine by wearing a bush of thorns and carrying a lantern.

• A folklore image

Shakespeare's presents all of the cultural representations that coalesce(łączyć się) around a single image: From slender, virgin huntress to full, ripe mother to dark, mysterious crone to comical man-in-the moon, Shakespeare represents the moon in its full complexity.

Despite the multivalent meanings of the moon in this play, it is still a vehicle for unity, shining on all four groups of characters as they transform themselves in the course of the drama.

Notice how the fairy world is directly connected with the cycles of the moon: As "governess of the floods" (103), the moon, which is pale in anger because of Titania and Oberon's argument, has indirectly caused numerous human illnesses. And Titania invokes a weaker, more passive and "watery" moon that weeps along with the flowers at any violated chastity.

25. MND takes place in two places - Athens and the forest. What do these two places represent? In particular, why does courtship take place in the forest, but marriages back in Athens?

As far as I'm concerned, all the events that are real and without any connection with magic take place in Athens. The forest is a place where strange things happen, people think it's a dream and everything seems to be so unreal, bizarre. It's like a division between reality and dream. Being in forest means being close to nature, where a human being can reveal his inside., while Athens should be perceived as the culture and its restrictions, what we can and what we can't do.

26. Explain the role of the play-within-the-play in MND, i.e. “Pyramus and Thysbe” - how is it relevant for the main plot, what does it say about the nature of theatre etc…

The story of Pyramus and Thisbe offers a very subtle return to a couple of the main elements of A Midsummer Night's Dream: lovers caught up in misunderstanding and sorrow enhanced by the darkness of night. Like the main story of the outer play, the inner play consists of a tragic premise made comical by the actors. The craftsmen's unintentionally goofy portrayal of the woe of Pyramus and Thisbe makes the melodramatic romantic entanglements of the young Athenian lovers seem even more comical.

However, it is important to recognize as well that the inherent structure of a play-within-a-play allows Shakespeare to show off his talent by inserting a gem of pure comedy. The conflicts have been resolved and a happy ending procured for all; the performance, thus, has no impact on the plot. Rather, the craftsmen's hilarious bungling of the heavy tragedy allows the audience, and the melodramatic Athenian lovers, to laugh and take delight in the spectacle of the play.

Sum-up: Play within a play :

• Represents main elements of a Midsummer Night's Dream in a rather comical way

• It is very comical, it allows Shakespeare to insert pure comedy into Midsummer Night's Dream

• Has no impact on the plot

27. Define “the comedy of manners”.

comedy of manners, a kind of comedy representing the complex and sophisticated code of behaviour current in fashionable circles of society, where appearances count for more than true moral character. Its plot usually revolves around intrigues of lust and greed, the self‐interested cynicism of the characters being masked by decorous pretence. Unlike satire, the comedy of manners tends to reward its cleverly unscrupulous characters rather than punish their immorality. Its humour relies chiefly upon elegant verbal wit and repartee. In England, the comedy of manners flourished as the dominant form of Restoration comedy in the works of Etheredge, Wycherley (notably The Country Wife, 1675), and Congreve; it was revived in a more subdued form in the 1770s by Goldsmith and Sheridan, and later by Oscar Wilde. Modern examples of the comedy of manners include Noël Coward's Design for Living (1932) and Joe Orton's Loot (1965).

In England, William Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing might be considered the first comedy of manners, but the genre really flourished during the Restoration period.

The tradition of elaborate, artificial plotting and epigrammatic dialogue was carried on by the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

28. Define “the well-made play”.

The technical formula of the well-made play (French: pièce bien faite), developed around 1825 by the French playwright Eugène Scribe, called for complex and highly artificial plotting, a build-up of suspense, a climactic scene in which all problems are resolved, and a happy ending. Conventional romantic conflicts were a staple subject of such plays (for example, the problem of a pretty girl who must choose between a wealthy, unscrupulous suitor and a poor but honest young man). Suspense was created by misunderstandings between characters, mistaken identities, secret information (the poor young man is really of noble birth), lost or stolen documents, and similar contrivances. The majority of well-made plays are comedies, often farce.

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest exaggerates many of the conventions of the well-made play, such as the missing papers conceit (the hero, as an infant, was confused with the manuscript of a novel) and a final revelation (which, in this play, occurs about thirty seconds before the final curtain).

29. Explain the pun in the title of The Importance of Being Earnest

The genius of this title depends on a pun between the adjective "earnest," meaning honest or sincere and the first name, "Ernest." So let's focus on the first definition. 
Not one character in the play seems to care about telling the truth - whether it's about their names, where they've been, or any other detail of his or her life.

The protagonist, Jack Worthing, isn't as innocent as he first seems. At the very beginning of the play, we learn that he has created a convenient younger brother named Ernest. We don't know why he comes up with that particular name, but we're guessing Jack had a laugh or two over it. Jack, a.k.a. Ernest, fools his lady friends, all of whom have an obsession with the name, "Ernest." Both Gwendolen and Cecily are in love with that name, based on an assumption that boys named Ernest will be as honest as the name suggest. 
Here's where the other definition of "earnest" becomes relevant. Ironically, there is no character named "Ernest," but everything depends on pretending to be Ernest. Trouble ensues when Algernon (Jack's friend), who has his own version of Ernest (a friend named Bunbury), catches on to the scheme and shows up at Jack's country manor impersonating Ernest, just as Jack decides to kill off his pesky younger brother. To summarize, we now have two different girls in love with Ernest; Ernest doesn't exist, but is being impersonated by two different guys. At one point he's supposed to be dead in Paris but is instead dining, alive and well, with Cecily. He's engaged to Gwendolen, but wait, he's engaged to Cecily too!
When Jack's identity is finally revealed, he still doesn't know what his name actually is. But then he finds out that his real first name is Ernest. And his middle name is Jack. So he really has been "earnest" the entire time. The ending, where Jack cheekily tells Lady Bracknell, "I've realised for the first time in my life the vital importance of being earnest" (III.181) is ambiguous. Is Jack saying that he's learned the importance of being honest, or the importance in being name Ernest?
Here's the beauty in the play. Gwendolen is just as smitten with him when he's lying Ernest as when he's honest Ernest. The much-anticipated truth reveals that Jack was right all along. So much for earnestness. On the other hand, the truth earned Jack a legitimate place in the aristocracy, a younger brother, and Lady Bracknell's acceptance of him as a son-in-law (more on this later). So there's an argument to be made for telling the truth.
Now what about being named Ernest? It's just as important to be named Ernest in the end as it was in the beginning, since Gwendolen still insists on loving an "Ernest." So you could read the play either way. Either Jack really does learn the value of honesty at the end, or he simply clings tighter to the importance of being named Ernest.

30. Discuss the theme of double life and “bunburyism” in TIOBE.

The double life is the central metaphor in the play, epitomized in the notion of “Bunbury” or “Bunburying.” As defined by Algernon, Bunburying is the practice of creating an elaborate deception that allows one to misbehave while seeming to uphold the very highest standards of duty and responsibility. Jack's imaginary, wayward brother Ernest is a device not only for escaping social and moral obligations but also one that allows Jack to appear far more moral and responsible than he actually is. Similarly, Algernon's imaginary invalid friend Bunbury allows Algernon to escape to the country, where he presumably imposes on people who don't know him in much the same way he imposes on Cecily in the play, all the while seeming to demonstrate Christian charity. The practice of visiting the poor and the sick was a staple activity among the Victorian upper and upper-middle classes and considered a public duty. The difference between what Jack does and what Algernon does, however, is that Jack not only pretends to be something he is not, that is, completely virtuous, but also routinely pretends to be someone he is not, which is very different. This sort of deception suggests a far more serious and profound degree of hypocrisy. Through these various enactments of double lives, Wilde suggests the general hypocrisy of the Victorian mindset.

31. The role of appearances, identity, gender roles in Shaw and Wilde.

PYGMALION - BERNARD SHAW

The Role of Women in Shaw's Pygmalion
In Shaw's days women were subordinate to men. They were regarded as property. Therefore, Eliza's father is a good example of this attitude "selling" Eliza to Higgins as if she was his property. This shows that inequality of the sexes is even greater than inequality between classes.
In "Pygmalion", we also find the aspect of natural selection. Yet Higgins succeeds in his experiment, and consequently, Charles Darwin's theory seems to be defeated. Eliza has been made a lady, regardless of her origins. During that time, the belief prevailed that only a man can turn a woman into a lady. This is illustrated in Eliza's helplessness and in the way Higgins treats her.
The conflict reaches its climax when Higgins suggests that Eliza should marry. As to Eliza's situation, she has to decide between marrying and going out to work. This reflects the contemporary beliefs that it was degrading for women to earn their own living. However, Eliza begins to rebel against Higgins by tossing the slippers at him. This can be seen as a way of release to the other ladies. Later on, Eliza marries Freddy, who is apparently superior to her, socially, not intellectually. Eliza, though, is eager to work and ignores conventions. Eliza's behavior stands for women who struggled for their rights in those days.
In conclusion, one can say that Shaw's criticism and opinion is expressed in Eliza. Whereas females of the period were marked by some kind of helplessness, Eliza is an independent, self-confident character. She even uses language training to show superiority over Higgins.

The role of gender

Sex and gender have a great deal to do with the dynamics between Liza and Higgins, including the sexual tension between them that many audience members would have liked to see fulfilled through a romantic union between them. In Liza's difficult case, what are defined as her options are clearly a limited subset of options available to a woman. As Mrs. Higgins observes, after the conclusion of the experiment Liza will have no income, only “the manners and habits that disqualify a fine lady from earning her own living.” To this problem Higgins can only awkwardly suggest marriage to a rich man as a solution. Liza makes an astute observation about Higgins's suggestion, focusing on the limited options available to a woman: “I sold flowers. I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of me I'm not fit to sell anything else.”

The role of appearances

Pygmalion examines this theme primarily through the character of Liza, and the issue of personal identity (as perceived by oneself or by others). Social roles in the Victorian era were viewed as natural and largely fixed: there was perceived to be something inherently, fundamentally unique about a noble versus an unskilled laborer and vice versa. Liza's ability to fool society about her “real” identity raises questions about appearances. The importance of appearance and reality to the theme of Pygmalion is suggested by Liza's famous observation: “You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated.” BEAUTY -> In Pygmalion, Shaw interrogates beauty as a subjective value. One's perception of beauty in another person is shown to be a highly complex matter, dependent on a large number of (not always aesthetic) factors. Liza, it could be argued, is the same person from the beginning of the play to the end, but while she is virtually invisible to Freddy as a Cockney-speaking flower merchant, he is totally captivated by what he perceives as her beauty and grace when she is presented to him as a lady of society.

The role of identity

The indeterminacy of appearance and reality in Pygmalion reveals the significant examination of identity in the play. Shaw investigates conflicts between differing perceptions of identity and depicts the end result of Higgins's experiment as a crisis of identity for Liza. Liza's transformation is glorious but painful, as it leaves her displaced between her former social identity and a new one, which she has no income or other resources to support. Not clearly belonging to a particular class, Liza no longer knows who she is.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST - OSCAR WILDE

The role of appearances

The role of gender

The independence and audacity of Wilde's female characters reflects the changing status of Victorian women, part of a public debate known as “The Women Question.” It was only with the passage of a series of Married Women's Property Acts (1870-1908) that women could hold property in their own names. The opinions of Queen Victoria herself, who opposed women's suffrage but advocated women's education, including college, exemplified
“TO MANY, WILDE'S THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST MAY SEEM A WORK OF `SURFACE' AND `STYLE,' BUT FURTHER EXAMINATION SHOWS IT TO HAVE DEPTH AND SUBSTANCE AS WELL AS HUMOR.” the ambiguous situation of women in England during this period.
Cecily and Gwendolen discuss changing gender roles in their conversation about male domesticity, indicating their belief that “home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man.” Marriage, however, remained most women's primary goal and occupation. Arranged marriages had been on the decline since the late-eighteenth century but were not unknown among the Victorian era's upper classes. This may have made economic sense, but it did not always create domestic harmony. Consider Algernon's lament about the low quality of champagne in the homes of married men and his belief in the necessity of adultery, “for in marriage, three is company and two is none.” Both comments highlight the lack of companionship resulting from marriage without compatibility and love, suggesting that the Victorian husband requires alcohol and a mistress to be happy.

The role of identity

32. Explain the title of Pygmalion.

The title alludes to mythology. The Pygmalion myth comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Pygmalion is a sculptor who creates a sculpture of a woman so perfectly formed that he falls in love with her. Aphrodite is moved by his love and touches the statue to life so that she becomes Galatea, and the sculptor can experience live bliss with his own creation.

In Shaw's play, Henry Higgins creates Eliza, whom he considers to be his great work. The girl is brought to life by two men in speech — the goal for their masterpiece is for her to marry and become a duchess. It has an interesting spin on the original story and has a subtle hint of feminism.

While Shaw maintains the skeletal structure of the fantasy in which a gifted male fashions a woman out of lifeless raw material into a worthy partner for himself, Shaw does not allow the male to fall in love with his creation. Right to the last act, Higgins is still quarrelsome and derisive in his interaction with Eliza, and does not even think of her as an object of romantic interest. Shaw goes on to undo the myth by injecting the play with other Pygmalion figures like Mrs. Pearce and Pickering, and to suggest that the primary Pygmalion himself is incomplete, and not ideal himself. In transforming the Pygmalion myth in such a way, Shaw calls into question the ideal status afforded to the artist, and further exposes the inadequacies of myths and romances that overlook the mundane, human aspects of life.

33. Explain the role of language in Pygmalion.

In this play and in British society at large, language is closely tied with class. From a person's accent, one can determine where the person comes from and usually what the person's socioeconomic background is. Because accents are not very malleable, poor people are marked as poor for life. Higgins's teachings are somewhat radical in that they disrupt this social marker, allowing for greater social mobility.

“Language is a powerful thing; it can make you a duchess or a flower girl, a bum or a high society gentleman...or at least appear to be.”

Pygmalion looks at the superficiality of upper class society, a society in which social status is determined by the language that one speaks, one's manners, and the clothes one wears. Language separated the elite from the lower class. In Pygmalion, Eliza's dialect inhibits her from procuring a job in a flower shop. So progresses her language skills but it doesn't really mean a real change of her personality. Eliza remains a cockney gutter girl even though her conversation becomes more sophisticated. A few months of language learning do not transform her character and identity profoundly.

34. Both Lisa Doolittle and her father are thrust into middle-class. Why is neither of them comfortable with it?

The indeterminacy of appearance and reality in Pygmalion reveals the significant examination of identity in the play. Shaw investigates conflicts between differing perceptions of identity and depicts the end result of Higgins's experiment as a crisis of identity for Liza. Liza's transformation is glorious but painful, as it leaves her displaced between her former social identity and a new one, which she has no income or other resources to support. Not clearly belonging to a particular class, Liza no longer knows who she is.

One of the many subjects under examination in Pygmalion is class consciousness, a concept first given name in 1887. Shaw's play, like so many of his writings, examines both the realities of class and its subjective markers. The linguistic signals of social identity, for example, are simultaneously an issue of class. Economic issues are central to Liza's crisis at the conclusion of Higgins's experiment, for she lacks the means to maintain the standard of living he and Pickering enjoy.

Pygmalion also looks at middle class morality through the characterization of Mr. Doolittle, Eliza's father. Doolittle's unforeseen rise into the middle class similarly allows Shaw to examine wealth and poverty. Though Doolittle fears the workhouse he's not happy with his new class identity, either; Shaw injects humor through Doolittle's surprising (according to traditional class values) distaste for his new status.

Mr. Doolittle is a common dustman, an indolent man who spends his time drinking alcohol at the local pub. He is not too proud to beg for money, even from Eliza. Moreover, he lives with a woman to whom he is not married. When Henry Higgins writes to a politician and refers to him as the best moralist speaker in London, Mr. Doolittle is forced into the middle class, and thus he must adhere to middle-class morality. This means he is expected go to church, marry his live-in girlfriend, give up alcohol, refrain from picking up women, and give money to his impoverished relatives.

Pygmalion looks at the superficiality of upper class society, a society in which social status is determined by the language that one speaks, one's manners, and the clothes one wears.

35. What makes Lisa's situation at the end of the play so difficult? Why did Shaw make the play open-ended?

At the end of the play, Higgins and Lisa proceed to quarrel. Higgins tells her that she should come back with him and he will adopt her as a daughter, or she could marry Pickering. She, however, responds that she won't even marry Higgins. She says that it's Freddy who she wants to marry, but Higgins dismisses him as a fool. Lisa's situation is difficult as it's hard to predict whether her decision to marry Freddy is really what she wants. We might suspect that it's only her womanly pride that forces her to do it. Most of the audience would rather like her to marry Higgins. Shaw made his play open-ended, as he believed we should be able to use our imagination in predicting what would happen next, instead of being provided with a expectable, ready-made ending. He didn't want his play to be unoriginal with a happy ending, similar to most other romances. 

36. What are similarities and differences between Shaw's and Wilde's play?

Similarities:

+ set in the same era - the Victorian Era

+ written more or less at the same time (PYGM 1913, IBE 1895)

+ titles: metaphorical, not straightforward (also, there is a pun in IBE title)

+ both are comedies (I don't know if we should elaborate on this?)

+ both are satires (elaborate on it? I've found some terms related to satire but I'm not sure about their appropriateness)

+ PYGM shows how society judges you on how you speak, how you act, how you look, taking people too literally. The themes that Pygmalion touches on are not hard to pick out; however, they are woven into the play in appropriate character development and dialogue. The theme of the importance of vanity in Victorian society is seen through the different characters and their reactions to Eliza. Shaw is demonstrating, like Victorian writer Oscar Wilde, how, when it comes to Victorian society, their ideals are completely backwards. High society is caught up in trivial notions such as getting wet and looking good that they miss the more romantic and serious notions that could have developed. In IBE Wilde satirizes Victorian society's preoccupation with surface manifestations of virtue and willingness to detect virtue in the most superficial displays of decent behavior (e.g. Gwendolen loves the name Ernest because it, as she thinks, indicates that the person having this name is earnest - very serious and sincere) Higher premium is put on social connections than on character or goodness; Wilde makes fun of the values of London society.

+ IBE reversal of Victorian assumptions about gender roles (in Victorian Society: woman: weak, helpless; man: authoritative, competent) because here Jack stammers during proposing to Gwendolen and Gwendolen takes the whole matter of the marriage proposal out of his hands. Wilde has some fun with the rigidity of Victorian convention. PYGM Eliza wants to change her life, wants to take lessons from Higgins so that she may sound gently enough to work in a flower shop. So a woman takes care of herself.

+ Furthermore, PYGM brings up a good point about art and women. Higgins uses the male gaze and actually considers Eliza a creature. Shaw is not only looking at the idea of women as objects, but also at the role that Victorian women play in society. They dress up and act like dolls simply to attract a mate. Shaw is shining a new light on the role of women in Victorian society and the problems that comes from this vain behavior.

IBE Attitude towards women:

Jack: My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!

Algernon: The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else, if she is plain.

Although a woman is not an object as it was in PYGM, but she is somehow subordinate to a man. She is treated as someone who doesn't have to know about many things, she can be misled and deceited by men.

+ PYGM is a story about men being in power/control of changing, in IBE it is also men who make but also stretch the rules in some way (if you know what I mean) It is them who have alter egos and make up stories.

Differences:

- PYGM as an exemplary well-made play, IBE exaggerates many of the conventions of the well-made play, such as the missing papers conceit (the hero, as an infant, was confused with the manuscript of a novel) and a final revelation (which, in this play, occurs about thirty seconds before the final curtain)

- IBE - vast separation between private and public life in the upper-middle-class Victorian England (alter egos etc.), PYGM no one tries to hide their true identity, pretend to be someone else, e.g. Eliza wants to change the way she speaks, not to hide (but: you can also perceive Eliza as someone who wants to hide her origins, so then it will be similar to IBE As you see, personal interpretation is the key in this task)

- PYGM Eliza learns how to behave as a duchess, but along the way realizes that she was happier poor. She only wants to feel respected, but her inner feelings get slightly trampled in the process. So, we observe a transformation and self-consciousness, self confident person wanting to improve her well being. She wants to achieve it mainly on her own with some help from Higgins. In IBE women (Gwendolen and Cecily) are shown as rather dull and easily influenced by the others, e.g. Lady Bracknell tells that Jack isn't a proper husband for Gwendolen, so she agrees indifferently.

- education:

IBE Lady Bracknell: I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.

Generally speaking, education of the commoners in not approved, it is even regarded as a threat for the upper class so it's good that they aren't educated.

PYGM Education of the lower class is doable, it can be successful.

37. Explain the term “comedy of menace” as applied to Pinter's plays

The term "comedy of menace" was first used to describe Pinter's works by drama critic Irving Wardle.

Comedy and menace may seem to be contradictory ideas, impossible to occur in the same play. However, this is precisely what Pinter does-by means of skillfully constructed dialogues and absurd situations, he mixes them together. Although Gus's and Ben's conversation appears to be funny (e.g. when they talk about lighting the kettle), there is a deeper meaning to it, which creates a menacing atmosphere and foreshadows the tragic end of the play.

38. Define the theatre of the absurd, explain its origins and links with existentialism.

DEFINITION & ORIGINS
The innovative dramatic movement known as the theater of the absurd, which developed in Paris during the 1950s, took its name from Albert Camus' existentialist description of the dilemma of modern humanity.
Considering humans to be strangers in a meaningless universe, he assessed their situation as absurd, or essentially pointless. Absurdist playwrights, led by Samuel Beckett, Eugčne Ionesco, and Jean Genet, embraced this vision and sought to portray the grim ridiculousness of human life using a dramatic style that subverted theatrical convention.
Characterized by fantasy sequences, disjointed dialogue, and illogical or nearly nonexistent plots, their plays are concerned primarily with presenting a situation that illustrates the fundamental helplessness of humanity. Absurdist drama is sometimes comic on the surface, but the humor is infused with an underlying pessimism about the human condition.
LINKS WITH EXISTENTIALISM

The Theatre of the Absurd is commonly associated with Existentialism. This philosophy was popular in Paris during the rise of Theatre of Absurd. Many of the Absurdists were contemporaries with Jean-Paul Sartre, a well-known existentialist, and many of the Absurdists had a complicated relationship with him. The absurdists' plays embody some aspects of that philosophy though the writers might not have been committed followers of it.

The Absurdists took a page from Existentialist philosophy, believing that life was absurd, beyond human rationality, meaningless, a sentiment to which, for example, Endgame subscribes, with its conception of circularity and non-meaning.

39. Existentialist philosophy in Pinter/Beckett

- Existential philosophy became prevalent in the twentieth century as a symbol of the destruction of culture and tradition following World War II, asserting the hopelessness of humanity and focusing on life in a more honest but pessimistic manner than other socialistic philosophies. The philosophy recognizes the fact that humankind is capable of great evil and has limitless possibilities, yet this is a curse rather than a blessing: we are condemned to be free and are thus held accountable for our actions. The ludicrousity, however, is found in the existentialist belief that life has no purpose, and while the choices that we make are irrelevant on grand scale, they ultimately influence our self-definition. Jean-Paul Sartre postulates that existence precedes essence: the individual has no pre-defined purpose. If God were to create us, he states, then he would have a purpose for our creation, but there is no God and thus we must exercise our free will in order to decide our nature.

- Life for an existentialist is arbitrary and meaningless; he is thrown into this world,

dethroned, disarmed, and helpless. One of the basic existentialist standpoints is that

existence precedes essence; has primacy over essence. That is why a sense of

thrownness captures man's thought. Therefore, there is a permanent experience of bewilderment, fear of unknown, and despair;

- The Birthday Party (Pinter) is example of the existential drama in which the

character's security is undermined. There is an absurd attempt to escape from one's own

limitations, one's past, and past failures, but they are always there to captivate the

individual. There is no exit, and the main point is that the individuals are not able to

perceive their limitations: it is the lack of self-perception that causes the tragedy.

- In The Dumb Waiter the metaphysical anguish occurs to the character who asks

many questions, inquiring for knowledge, attempting to step beyond one's limitations,

an attempt which is futile in existentialism.

- The Dumb Waiter, like many other Pinter plays, follows the same triangular human relationship by which the nature of the man-to-man connection is analyzed. It probes into the essence of man's position in the universe and his inquiry for knowledge,

following the same path towards metaphysical and existential anguish, seen in The Birthday Party. The two characters on the stage, though apparently limited and undeveloped, examine a deeper and wider scope of human existence in which man is a play-thing employed.

- Beckett explores the destructive effects of circumstances which include the loss of meaning, the feeling of isolation and alienation, the uncertainty of identity and existence.

- Beckett depicts the characters of his plays as they are in constant search for meaning in a meaningless universe, uncertain of their identities and existence, and feeling isolated and alienated in an insecure world.

- Beckett: The human condition with small, helpless, insecure man and unable ever to fathom the world in all its hopelessness, death, and absurdity, the theatre has to confront him with the bitter truth that most human endeavor is irrational and senseless, that communication between human beings is wel impossible, and that the world will forever remain an impenetrable mystery. At the same time, the recognition of all these bitter truths will have a liberating effect: if we realize the basic absurdity of most of our objectives we are freed from being obsessed with them and this release expresses itself in laughter.

40. The elements of comedy/farce in Pinter/Beckett

In Samuel Beckett's plays, the constant repetitiveness and infiniteness of everything, unending routine (Hamm's chair rides around the room, Clov's promises of departure in 'Endgame'; endless waiting in 'Waiting for Godot') create the atmosphere of farce. The events keep on repeating, even though the characters claim to be willing to finish with them. Comedy in Beckett's works is an illustration of his view on human nature; he believed comedy to be rooted into our pathetic nature. Beckett combined deep, philosophical thoughts with low comedy to picture that. Farce in Harold Pinter's plays is also based on repetitiveness (in 'The Dumb Waiter'), but it relies on silence and the way his characters talk to each other as well (both 'The Dumb Waiter' and 'The Birthday Party'). Ben and Gus in 'The Dumb Waiter' talk only to, never with each other, often with significant pauses. In 'The Birthday Party', the characters keep on contradicting each others' (and their own) words. Both 'The Dumb Waiter' and 'The Birthday Party' are comedies of menace. In 'The Dumb Waiter' comedy often derives from arguments between Ben and Gus, concerning semantic nit-picking (lighting the kettle and so on).

41. The characteristic features of Pinter's (Pinteresque) dialogue.

Pinter restored theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of each other and pretence crumbles. With a minimum of plot, drama emerges from the power struggle and hide-and-seek of interlocution. Pinter's drama was first perceived as a variation of absurd theatre, but has later more aptly been characterised as 'comedy of menace', a genre where the writer allows us to eavesdrop on the play of domination and submission hidden in the most mundane of conversations. In a typical Pinter play, we meet people defending themselves against intrusion or their own impulses by entrenching themselves in a reduced and controlled existence. Another principal theme is the volatility and elusiveness of the past.

"Pinter's dialogue is as tightly - perhaps more tightly - controlled than verse," Martin Esslin writes in The People Wound (1970). "Every syllable, every inflection, the succession of long and short sounds, words and sentences, is calculated to nicety. And precisely the repetitiousness, the discontinuity, the circularity of ordinary vernacular speech are here used as formal elements with which the poet can compose his linguistic ballet." Pinter refuses to provide rational justifications for action, but offers existential glimpses of bizarre or terrible moments in people's lives

Pinter's so-called "sub-textual" use of silence as "a classic 'Pinter' moment". Classic 'Pinter' moment, where everything is said in silence because the emotion behind what we really want to say is just too overwhelming. … silence is an acquired taste.

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