ENG4U Lesson 5 Essay Outline

Introduction:
Topic: The importance of tragedy as a literary genre.

Thesis Statement:
Tragedy is a theme common to the works of: Aeschylus's Agamemnon, Shakespeare's Hamlet
and T.S. Elliot's The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. The struggles of: Agamemnon, Hamlet and J
Alfred Prufrock though not uplifting reveal much of their character, exemplifying relationships
gone awry. Viewing characters through tragedy thus exposes their true nature, providing the best
opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

Mapping Scheme (Main Points):

-

Happy stories don't grab our attention as much as tragedies. It is human nature for
struggles to be more interesting to an audience.

Characters expose their true nature when faced with situations outside their normal life or
behaviour.

Human beings learn more from mistakes than successes.

First Point:
We feel pity for all 3 characters because their stories are tragic. We are more drawn to tragic
stories as they capture our attention and thus allow closer examination of character.
Evidence :
1) Agamemnon
Agamemnon and Cassandra die in this story needlessly. We sympathize for Agamemnons
mistakes even more so for Cassandra as she is an innocent victim.
<Clytemnestra Acknowledging the Murder ILC Script Copy Page 129>
Clytemnestra Speaking:
Ye tempt me as a woman, weak, unschooled.
But what I say, ye know, or ought to know,
I say with fearless heart. Your praise or blame
Is one to me. Here Agamemnon lies,
My husband, dead, the work of this right hand
The hand of a true workman. Thus it stands.
<Cassandras last words after fatally wounded by Clytemnestra ILC Script Copy Page 126>
Cassandra Speaking:
But now the time is come. I go within
To wail for Agamemnon and myself.
Ive done with life. Farewell! My vouchers ye,
Not with vain screaming, like a uttering bird,
Above the bush I cry. Yourselves shall know it
Then when, for me a woman, a woman dies,
And for a man ill-wived a man shall fall
Trust me in this. Your honest faith is all
The Trojan guest, the dying woman, craves.

2) Hamlet

Hamlet also dies needlessly along with others in the play. His devolving mental state over time is
also tragic.
We feel pity for his situation; usurped by his Uncle who married his mother then later witnessing
her accidental death.
<Hamlets last words after fatal swordfight with Laertes - Act 5, Scene 2 Shakespeare
Online>
Hamlet Speaking:
O, I die, Horatio;
The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
I cannot live to hear the news from England;
But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited. The rest is silence.
<Gertrudes last words as she dies from mistakenly drinking the poisoned wine Act 5, Scene 2
Shakespeare Online>
Gertrude Speaking:
No, no, the drink, the drink,--O my dear
Hamlet,-The drink, the drink! I am poison'd.
<Excerpt from Hamlets Soliloquy Act 1, Scene 2 Shakespeare Online >
Hamlet Speaking:
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she-O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,
My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the ushing in her galled eyes,
She married.

3) Prufrock
Prufrock does not die but he is not living a happy existence. There is much emotional pain and
struggle is his life. Isolation and rejection are apparent. He appears unable to change his
situation. We pity his suffering.
<Passage describing being stuck in a state ILC Copy Lines 57-61>
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?
<Passage about thinning hair, poor Self Image ILC Copy Lines 40-44>
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair
(They will say: How his hair is growing thinl)
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin
(They will say: But how his arms and legs are thin!)

Significance:
Had all 3 characters stories been non tragedies, we would have been caught up in positive
feelings and not examining why. Instead as we see tragedy unfold, it becomes about the
characters and what they are experiencing. We can empathize with them and are drawn to
examine their character on a deeper level.

Second Point:
Characters in a Tragedy reveal their true nature when placed in situations which challenge their
normal reality.
Evidence:
1) Agamemnon
He is initially hesitant to walk across the purple cloth when returning home, displaying humility.
Clytemnestra manipulates him into it against his better judgement. He is then prideful,
boastful and blind to the fate is about to experience.
<Agamemnon Passage before entering Expressing Humility, ILC Copy Page 30>
Agamemnon Speaking:
Breeder of envy, spread my path. Such honors
Suit the immortal gods; me, being mortal,
To tread on rich-owered carpetings Wise fear
Prohibits. As a man, not as a god,
Let me be honored.
<Passage of Agamemnon/Clytemnestra exchange Manipulating Him ILC Copy Page 30>
Clytemnestra:
Had Priam conquered, what had Priam done?
Agamemnon:
His feet had trod the purple; doubt it not.
Clytemnestra:
What Priam would, thou mayst, unless the fear
Of popular blame make Agamemnon quail.
Agamemnon:
But popular babble strengthens Envys wing.
Clytemnestra:
Thou must be envied if thou wilt be great.
Agamemnon:
Is it a womans part to hatch contention?
Clytemnestra:
For once be conquered; they who conquer may Yield with a grace.

<Passage after exchange - Agamemnon enters the house on the robes ILC Copy Page 31>
Agamemnon Speaking:
The stranger kindly: the far-seeing gods
Look down with love on him who mildly sways.
For never yet was yoke of slavery home
By willing neck; of all the captive maids
The choicest ower she to my portion fell.
And now, since thou art victor oer my will,
I tread the purple to my fathers hall.

2) Hamlet
Hamlets true indecisive nature is revealed when pressed between avenging his Fathers death
and upholding his morals and nobility.
<Passage of Soliloquy where Hamlet vows to avenge his Fathers death - Act 1, Scene 5
Shakespeare Online>
Hamlet Speaking:
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!
<Passage of Soliloquy - "To Be or not to Be Contemplating Suicide as an out. Debating himself
on the morality of it,
Act 3, Scene 1 Shakespeare Online>
Hamlet Speaking:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That esh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.

<Passage showing him unable to follow through on killing Claudius in prayer Act 3, Scene 3
Shakespeare Online>
Hamlet Speaking:
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;
And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven

3) Prufrock
Prufrock feels trapped in his current life, finds it easier to live in a dream world than to address
his unhappy situation.
<Passage showing his preferred existence in a dream state ILC Copy - Lines 126-131>
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Significance:
We only see the decisions these characters make when faced with a situation that is unpleasant
or challenges their normal beliefs and behaviours.
Had these characters been allowed to exist in their default states ( Clytemnestra genuinely
welcoming Agamemnon Home, Hamlet becoming King and Prufrock living a happy life), we would
have no insight into how they deal with challenges. Tragedy provides the necessary context to
reveal their true nature.

Third Point:
Tragedies give warning to potential mistakes we may make in real life; we tend to learn more
from failures than successes.

Evidence:
1) Agamemnon
He allowed himself to be manipulated into an act of hubris (walking on the purple robes), was
murdered by his wife and now community now faces unrest.
<Aegisthus now imposing his illegitimate rule; threatening those who oppose him ILC Sript
Copy Page 138>
Aegisthus Speaking:
Twas wisely schemed with womans cunning wit
To snare him. I, from ancient date his foe,
Stood in most just suspicion. Now, tis done;
And I, succeeding to his wealth, shall know
To hold the reins full tightly. Who rebels
Shall not with corn be fatted for my traces,
But, stify haltered, he shall lodge secure
In darkness, with starvation for his mate.
2) Hamlet
Hamlets inaction in stopping his uncle through the play ultimately brought about his own death
(rigged swordfight and poisoned wine). Better to deal with a problem before losing control of the
situation.
<Claudius and Laertes discussing swordfight with poisoned blade Act 4, Scene 7
Shakespeare Online>
Laertes Speaking:
I will do't:
And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of a mountebank,
So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all simples that have virtue
Under the moon, can save the thing from death
That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point
With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,
It may be death.

<Claudius planning the poisoned wine for Hamlet to drink - Act 4, Scene 7 Shakespeare
Online>
Claudius Speaking:
We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings: I ha't.
When in your motion you are hot and dry-As make your bouts more violent to that end-And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepared him
A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,
Our purpose may hold there.
3) Prufrock
He wants to retreat from society, versus addressing why he feels isolated and rejected.
<Passage about wanting to be a crab on the sea oor ILC Copy, Lines 70-74>
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the oors of silent seas.
Significance:
We see relatable elements in the characters: naivety, gullibility, procrastination and self-delusion.
We dont experience the same situations as them but their stories illustrate our own potential for
these trappings.
A happy or uplifting story wouldn't emphasize why the characters found success or happiness.
Tragedy forces us to examine what governed the characters choices (their fatal aw) from which
we can learn.

Conclusion:
We have seen the tragic stories of Agamemnon, Hamlet and J Alfred Prufrock unfold. Through the
characters decisions in their situations we have gained insight to their nature and how they
relate to others. The literary genre of Tragedy has not only facilitated this but is a necessity to
these stories for the audiences learning potential.
We felt pity for all 3 characters and their struggles. We witnessed how their own character aws
inuenced the choices they made. Also we are left to ponder how experiences in our own lives
bear similarity to one or more of the characters struggles.

Tragedy is therefore an important literary genre as it can inuence the decisions we make in our
own lives for the better.