ENGL 102 drama

Part I

Choose two of the listed quotations and expound on them as in the paragraph below.

Who said it? What is that character’s significance? How does the quotation relate to the play as a whole? Use no more than six sentences in addition to the quotation.

Example: “Laertes, was your father dear to you?/Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,/

A face without a heart?” These words are spoken by King Claudius, the power-

hungry stepfather of Prince Hamlet. He is trying to coerce Laertes (son of

Polonius, whom Hamlet killed), and brother of Ophelia (who committed

suicide over the death of her father and Hamlet’s seeming rejection of her).

King Claudius is trying emotionally to blackmail Laertes to avenge his father’s

death: if Laertes isn’t faking his grief(“the painting of a sorrow”) and love of his

father (“a face without a heart”), then he will kill Prince Hamlet, eliminating

Prince Hamlet as a threat to Denmark’s throne and also carrying out another

example of revenge tragedy (one of three) in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Children, young sons and daughters of old Cadmus,

why do you sit here with your suppliant crowns?

The town is heavy with a mingled burden

of sounds and smells, of groans and hymns and incense;

I did not think it fit that I should hear

of this from messengers but came myself, —

I Oedius whom all men call the Great. (lines 1-7)

You have your eyes but see not where you are

in sin, nor where you live, or whom you live with.

Do you know who your parents are? Unknowing

you are an enemy to kith and kin

in death, beneath the earth, and in this life. (lines 457-461)

O Oedipus, God help you!

God keep you from the knowledge of who you are! (lines 1138-1139)

Count no mortal happy till (lines 1597-1598)

he has passed the final limit of his life secure from pain.

Part II

Define hamartia and use an example from Oedipus to explain. Include at least one quotation in your discussion. (6-10 sentences)

Define hubris and use an example from Oedipus to explain. Include at least one quotation in your discussion. (6-10 sentences)

Define the Oedipal complex and elaborate. Include at least one quotation from Oedipus in your discussion. (6 – 10 sentences)