Lamentations on the absence of tragic texts in the twentieth century center on the untenability of Aristotelian parameters of tragedy within a modern context. These parameters include the immediacy of the dramatic experience as a vehicle for identification with the audience and a hero fully capable of realizing the tragic truth of his existence. Curiously restrained by formal requirements postulated in antiquity, the majority of critics have neglected that modern tragedy may have shed structures no longer culturally relevant while maintaining the essence of the tragic vision. The novel has been largely ignored despite its being perfectly suited for a contemporary communication of the tragic vision. The skepticism shattering the belief that our respective destinies can be fully embodied by another is no obstacle for tragedy in the novel. Through a narrating choric figure acting as mediating consciousness, the novel provides a direct link between reader, hero, and the tragic experience. The very act of narration also sheds light on the creation of the tragic text, extending this link to the tragedian himself. The result is a three-pronged identification, (with the hero, choric figure, tragedian), through which the reader is confronted with the multifarious truths laid bare in the text. These revelations, along with a deliberate absence of closure, compel the reader into the same unending quest to complete the tragic cycle--an experience akin to the catharsis of old.

This thesis focuses on the religious aspects of William Shakespeare's Hamlet which, I argue, form the foundation of Hamlet's plot and are critical to understanding Hamlet's character and his dilemmas. Early modern culture was particularly saturated with religious allusions. The advent of the Reformation and emergence of printing resulted in an explosive growth in the publication of new Bible translations and other religious materials. While I note that most early modern writers of general literature made frequent use of biblical texts and themes, I add that Shakespeare's use of the Bible and Christian doctrine in Hamlet is especially subtle and substantial. Shakespeare achieves this by establishing Hamlet as a particularly devout Christian Prince who is a student at the University of Wittenberg. I argue that it is Hamlet's theological pedantry which makes him procrastinate throughout the play. Additionally, Hamlet's Christian characteristics exhibit syncretic - Catholic and Protestant - Christianity as represented by Elizabethan religious culture. Shakespeare incorporates contemporary religious beliefs in the play not for dogmatic purposes but rather for dramatic expedience. I compare Hamlet to other contemporary revenge tragedies and establish how the underlying Christian themes, as revealed in Hamlet's character through his soliloquies, set Hamlet apart from other revenge plays. Finally I argue that Hamlet exacts his revenge through a particular performance that operates exclusively within his Christian worldview. Ultimately, as I conclude in the third chapter, through the character of Hamlet, Shakespeare also makes the best dramatic use of contemporary religious beliefs and contentions to make his audience ponder the big question that concerned them: the eventual fate of the human soul.

Through four hundred years of accumulated disparaging comments from critics, revenge plays have lost much of the original luster they possessed in early modern England. Surprisingly, scholarship on revenge tragedy has invented an unfavorable lens for understanding this genre, and this lens has been relentlessly parroted for decades. The conventional generic approach that calls for revenge plays to exhibit a recurring set of concerns, including a revenge motive, a hesitation for the protagonist, and the revenger’s feigned or actual madness, imply that these plays lack philosophical depth, as the appellation of revenge tends to evoke the trite commonalities which we have created for the genre. This dissertation aims to rectify the provincial views concerning revenge tragedies by providing a more complex, multivalent critical model that makes contemporary the outmoded approaches to this genre. I argue that Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of carnival, and the ways in which it engages with new historical interpretations of early modern drama, functions as a discursive methodology to open up more creative interpretative possibilities for revenge tragedy. Carnival readings expose gaps in new historicism’s proposed systems of omnipresent power, which deny at every turn the chance for rebellion and individuality. Rather than relegating carnival to an occasional joke, quick aside, or subplot, revenge plays explore carnivalesque concerns, and revengers plot their vengeance with all the aspects of a carnival. In these plays, revengers define subjectivity in terms of the pleasure-seeking, self-serving urges of unofficial culture; negotiations for social change occur in which folk culture avoids a repressive, hierarchal order; and carnival play destabilizes courtly systems that track, classify, pigeonhole, and immobilize individuals.

This thesis analyses three modern plays that are identified as modern tragedies, Equus, A View From the Bridge and Long Day&amp / #8217 / s Journey Into the Night, to find out whether they share certain themes with classical Greek tragedies. These themes are namely values and conflict, hamartia and learning through suffering. Three Greek plays, Agamemnon, Oedipus Rex and Medea will be used as foils to conduct this comparative study. The study will aim to support the view that these major themes appear both in ancient Greek and modern tragedies.

The main idea of this thesis is to suggest a new type of reading on Aristotle&#039 / s Poetics. Commentators of Poetics tried to relate it to Aristotle&#039 / s ethical treatises. However, in this research, it will be argued that Poetics should be read under the light of Metaphysics. The interpretation proposed here is based on Aristotle&#039 / s understanding of ousia (substance). The ontological status of artifacts in Aristotle&#039 / s philosophy will be examined while inquiring the relationships between Poetics and Metaphysics. Consequently, I will argue that tragedy is an ousia and attemted to show that Aristotle&#039 / s ontological philosophy is applicable to Poetics. Becouse of the fact that Aristotle treats a tragedy as a partial independent being, I will argue in Aristotelian terms that a tragedy should be judged by its intrinsic values, rather than ethical or rhetorical merits.

William Shakespeare’s influence on the genre of tragedy is both powerful and undeniable, while contemporary notions about tragedy have shifted into a modern light through the influence of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. This study concentrates specifically on Hamlet and A Doll’s House in order to indicate the ways in which ideas of tragedy have evolved. By investigating the effect of religion in Hamlet and the absence of it in A Doll’s House, I will argue that the main shift in tragedy is the loss of God. This thesis examines the transformation of the two heroes throughout the course of their respective plays and, in doing so, identifies the formal features which mark their claims to tragedy. While their processes differ greatly—Hamlet’s transformation is through a super-textual and self-analytic process while Nora’s process is one that emphasizes action over thought—both of their journeys are tied to the crucial and utterly tragic truth that they must face: the breakdown of their family.

Inaug.-diss.--Berlin. / Vita.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université Paris X-Nanterre, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Inaug.-diss.--Berlin. / Vita.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton University, 1921.