ENG 211 Final, Spring 1998

ENGLISH 211 FINAL EXAM SPRING 1997 — 1998 I. Select two of the topics below and write an essay on each making specific reference to the plays encountered this semester.(30 points each) According to a French critic, Ferdinand Bruntiere, the essence of drama is conflict, be it between a person and another person, a person and an institution, or between two impuises within that person. “In drama or farce what we ask of the theater is the spectacle of a will striving towards a goal, and conscious of the means which it employs.” Write an essay supporting or negating this concept, focusing on the three types of conflict highlighted above. Tragedy must contain three essential tragic elements, namely a hero of some stature, a necessary and probable outcome, and a shared belief in the audience that there is a moral law in the universe which will translate senseless evil and misery to significant experience. Write an essay discussing these three components of tragedy in light of some of the plays read this semester. Eventhough Heywood is considered a product of his times in that his writing shows a constant reaffirmation of order and degree of traditional moral values, he stands apart from the dramatists of his age. Discuss how Heywood differs from his contemporaries as a dramatist. . Elizabethan and Jacobean drama focus on the moral corruption and evil predominant at the court. However, there are several methods of escaping the court’s corruption presented in the dramas of the days. Discuss these methods making specific references to some of the plays encountered this semester and to whether these methods differ in Elizabethan drama as opposed to Jacobean drama. Briefly discuss four of the issues below with regard to Elizabethan and Jacobean drama (10 points each): madmen religious anxieties dumb scenes debasement of man style cause of man’s pain salvation vs. predestination subplots and their purpose Christian moralizing insignificance of man