PART 1: Oedipus Rex

In the first part of the exam, you are asked to demonstrate your knowledge of the development and conventions of Greek drama and to exhibit your ability to analyze and interpret Greek drama by responding to a question about Oedipus Rex.

 1) Greek performances took place in an open-air auditorium, or _____________. The Greek stage, or the _______________, was typically an elevated podium, situated at the bottom of a sloping hill and in front of the only setting suitable for such surroundings, a permanently installed house. Originally used solely for the actors to change costumes, eventually the _________ was integrated into plays to represent a palace or a temple. Our modern term ________ is derived from the name for this house. During performances, the chorus would not be located on the stage, but in front of it, in the ________________, which was circular and located between the stage and the audience.

2)  Sophocles increased the numbers of actors in tragedies to ____, thereby reducing the ____________ to 12 singers/dancers. His play alternate between ___________ (performed by the actors) and odes (performed by the chorus); odes can be separated into _____________ and _______________, each one indicative of the chorus’s movement from one side of the ______________ to the other. Greek drama also contains an opening song, or a ________________, which is sung as the chorus enters the theater and a closing song, or _____________, which is sung as the chorus exists.

3) Greek drama developed alongside Greek culture and flourished between 600-200 BCE. The performance of plays constituted an integral part of the ____________, the celebration of the festival in honor of the god Dionysus. Annually, three ____________ and one _____________ were put on stage for the entertainment of the crowd. A set of three plays is customarily referred to as a _______________________, and the playwright with the best set of plays would be awarded first prize. Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, for example, was lauded by the judges for its horrific scene of anagnorisis, or ______________, and its brilliant reversal of fortune, or ___________________. Furthermore, Aristotle claimed it was the perfect example of a play’s ability and obligation to adhere to the ________________, the limitations of a play set by time, place, and plot line.

4) In Oedipus Rex, we encounter the young King Oedipus, ruler of Thebes, finding out by and by that he unwittingly fulfilled a prophecy he actively tried to avoid: He murdered his father and married his mother. Both Oedipus and Jocasta are horrified by the revelation, one gouging out his eyes and the other hanging herself in despair. Aristotle claims that all tragedy has a hero who is elevated in status and moral capacity, but who is inevitably marred by a fatal flaw (hamartia) which will eventually perpetuate his downfall. Discuss the idea of the tragic flaw in Oedipus Rex. Is Aristotle right when he claims that Oedipus brings about his own demise?


PART 2a: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

In the second part of the exam, you are asked to demonstrate your knowledge of the development and conventions of early modern drama and to exhibit your ability to analyze and Renaissance drama by responding to a question about Hamlet.

1) Renaissance drama developed out of Greek drama and flourished in the ________and ________centuries. Plays were typically performed in theater houses, i.e. commercial buildings that asked spectators to pay admission. Theaters were circular, and the area right in front of the stage was reserved for the lower class audience, or the _______________, which could not afford seats on the balcony. Shakespeare’s theater house was ______________, and it was located on the banks of the _________________, outside of the city proper. Both playhouses and theater companies thrived through the tutelage of a patron, whose name they assumed to show allegiance and to acknowledge their liege lord’s generous support; Shakespeare first company was thus called ____________________, while his second company, ___________________ , profited from direct patronage through James I.

2) Early modern drama typically consisted of ____ acts, each marking a specific development within the ______ of the play. Act 1 thus often coincided with the ____________ of the play, act 2 with its ______________, while act 3 contained the _____________, act 4 falling action, and act 5 a dramatic slowing down of events, or _______________, and finally the play’s conclusion, or _________________.

3) In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we can see many of the conventions of early modern drama employed to perfection. Sure, Shakespeare’s poetry is famous, his verse patterns unmatched, and his speeches undying, but the real beauty of Hamlet lies in the functionality of its stylistic and rhetorical devices. For example, we find Hamlet engaged in all three verse patterns: ____________, _______________, and ________________. In addition, Shakespeare has speeches, scenes, and acts culminate in two rhymed lines, or a ________________, which alert the reader to key moments in the play. By the same token, when Hamlet is alone on the stage and nobody is there to hear him, his _______________ truly reveal his character traits and deepest concerns. Laertes and Fortinbras, Hamlet’s dramatic _________ , likewise contribute to our understanding of Hamlet’s character.

4) Why is Hamlet’s tragedy more profound if we cease to look for his tragic flaw and view him instead as a superb example of the Renaissance man? How do his character, his conscience, and his hesitation to avenge his father’s death serve as a testament, a tribute, and a trial to the changes that occurred during the period marked by the Renaissance and the Reformation and which changed and shaped the early modern world?


PART 2b: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

In the second part of the exam, you are asked to demonstrate your knowledge of the development and conventions of early modern drama and to exhibit your ability to analyze and Renaissance drama by responding to a question about A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

1) Renaissance drama developed out of Greek drama and flourished in the ________and ________centuries. Plays were typically performed in theater houses, i.e. commercial buildings that asked spectators to pay admission. Theaters were circular, and the area right in front of the stage was reserved for the lower class audience, or the _______________, which could not afford seats on the balcony. Shakespeare’s theater house was ______________, and it was located on the banks of the _________________, outside of the city proper. Both playhouses and theater companies thrived through the tutelage of a patron, whose name they assumed to show allegiance and to acknowledge their liege lord’s generous support; Shakespeare first company was thus called ____________________, while his second company, ___________________ , profited from direct patronage through James I.

2) Early modern drama typically consisted of five _____, with each marking a specific development within the ______ of the play. Act 1 thus often coincided with the ____________ of the play, act 2 with its ______________, while act 3 contained the _____________, act 4 falling action, and act 5 a dramatic slowing down of events, or _______________, and finally the play’s conclusion, or _________________.

3) In Shakespeare’s romantic ______________, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we can see many of the conventions of early modern drama employed to perfection—but also with quite a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor. Sure, Shakespeare is aware of the conventions of drama; his poetry is famous, after all, his verse patterns unmatched, and his speeches undying. But the real achievement of A Midsummer Night’s Dream lies in the play’s conscious engagement with these dramatic conventions, his toying with stylistic and rhetorical devices. For example, we find at least three ____________________ running alongside the main action, which is, supposedly, the marriage of _____________ and Hippolyta.  The real mover of events, however, seems to be Puck a.k.a. ______________________________, as he is the one who executes the plans the fairy king, _________, conceives. By the same token, the play-within-the-play, The Tragedy of __________ & Pyramus, is reminiscent of Shakespeare’s greatest love story, The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, but differs from it significantly in its obvious failure to create an illusion of reality. 

4) Much of our discussion in class circled around Shakespeare’s crafting of the play’s dream world and the capriciousness of the fairies to which the characters in the play find themselves exposed once they enter this dream world. Examine how setting contributes to the creation of this dream and how the play’s atmosphere—communicated through the play’s imagery and symbolism—imbues A Midsummer Night’s Dream with its dreamlike quality. For your answer, consider at least two distinct settings in the play and explain how the development of each reflects the play’s narrative mode, affects its overall mood, and impacts or distorts the characters’ perception of events.