ENG 212 Final, Fall 2003

— ERICAN UNIY EBSTE & LIBRARY ferro Mark Bayer English 212-2003 FINAL EXAMINATION You will not be permitted any books or notes during the actual exam. Do not substantially duplicate material in this section in your other responses (i.e. you will want to discuss at least four plays in detail during the exam. GOOD LUCK! PART I (20 marks) How did Shakespeare's interests and emphases change during his playwriting career as he moved 1) from the early plays to the plays of his middle period, and 2) from these middle plays to the late works. Choose ONE play from EACH of the three periods, and write and essay discussing what you consider the most significant changes, in themes and techniques, that distinguish the middle plays from the early ones and the late plays from the middle ones. Noticing, for instance, that the middle period seems to contain a preponderance of English history plays is not a suitable focal point for comparison since we didn’t look at ALL the plays in any particular grouping. Choose plays that you will enjoy writing about, but be specific and analytical in your focus. Early Middle Late Midsummer Night’s Dream _—_ Henry IV, Part I Measure for Measure Romeo and Juliet Henry V Othello The Winter’s Tale PART HU - IDENTIFICATION (Do four of five) Identify the name of the work, who speaks the lines and to whom (if appropriate), and, briefly. where the particular passage appears in the context of the work as a whole, as well as its significance to the work. (2.5 marks each for a total of ten) 1. Think you I can a resolution fetch From flowery tenderness? If must die, { will encounter darkness as a bride, And hug it in mine arms. nN Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts: Into a thousand parts divide one man, And make imaginary puissance. Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them, Printing their proud hoofs i’th’ receiving earth. 3. Ihave had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this dream. Methought I was—there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had~but man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was 4, Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul. Even now, now, very now, an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise! Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, ERICAN UNTWERSTF Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you. LIBRARY OF BEIRUT 5. Yet nature is made better by no mean But nature makes that mean; so, over that art, Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. . . This is an art Which does mend nature-change it rather—but The art itself is nature. Part [II - Do one of two (10 marks) 1) Throughout the course we have discussed a number of critical paradigms (Northrop Frye’s greenworld, A.C. Barber's festive comedy, Aristotle and A.C. Bradley's conception of tragedy, Rene Girard’s notions of mimetic desire, Bakhtin’s carnivalesque and lenten butchery). Write an essay in which you explain the tenets of the theory in question and then apply it to one of the plays we've looked at. NOTE: [f you choose to discuss the greenworld DO NOT apply it to As You Like It; if you choose carnivalesque DO NOT apply it to 1 Henry IV. 2) “Nine lives are taken off for his father’s one, Our Father who art in purgatory. Khaki Hamlets don’t hesitate to shoot back. The bloodboltered shambles in act five is a forecast of the concentration camp. ..” James Joyce, Ulysses (1946) As Stephen Dedalus’ bleak remarks indicate, Shakespeare's plays and their positioning in contemporary culture, as well as over the Jongue duree of history since their original production, are far from neutral. Discuss this quotation in relation to any specific play, or the plays in general. What does Stephen’s quotation portend for those who teach, study, read, perform, or witness Shakespeare? How can meaning BY Shakespeare have potentially disastrous consequences? This question is open ended, but offers a lot to think about and requires a reasoned, analytically focused response that requires not only your interpretation of the plays, but also their imbrication in cultural and political conflict.