AP Lit Vocab 3

tragedy

The representation of serious and important actions that lead to a disatrous end for the protagonist. The final purpose of ____, in Aristotle’s formulation, is to evoke “catharsis” by means of events involving pity and fear. A unified ____ action, from beginning to end, brings a morally good but not perfect ____ hero from happiness to unhappiness because of a mistaken act, to which he or she is led by “hamartia,” an error in judgment or a “____ flaw.” ____ heroes move us to pity because their misfortunes and punishments are greater than they deserve. They move us to fear because we recognize in ourselves similar possibilities of error.

tragic hero

In Aristotle’s formulation, the ____ is a person of noble stature, both high-born and morally upright. He or she is not, however, perfect. The hero suffers from a “tragic flaw” that results in his undoing.

tragic flaw

A fatal weakness or moral flaw in the protagonist of a tragedy that brings him or her to a fall. Sometimes offered as an alternative translation of hamartia, in contrast to the idea that the tragic hero’s catastrophe is caused by an error in judgement, the idea of a protagonist ruined by a ____ makes more sense in relation to the Greek idea of hubris, commonly translated as “excessive pride.”

hamartia

Greek for “error.” An offense committed in ignorance of some material fact (without deliberate criminal intent) and, therefore, free of blameworthiness. The ____ of Oedipus, for example, is based on his ignorance of his true parentage.

peripeteia

Greek for “sudden change.” (Anglicized as peripety) In a tragic plot, ____ refers to the moment in which the story’s action undergoes a lasting reversal or change in direction. This reversal of fortune changes the protagonist’s life forever. Aristotle notes in the Poetics that the best reversals are those that transpire organically according to the logic of the action. Although Aristotle believed that ____ worked best in tragedies, the sudden change of fortune occurs in other forms as well. In comedies, for example, ____ restores a character’s good fortunes, often when things look darkest.

recognition / anagnorisis

(from the Greek Anagnorisis) In tragic plotting, the moment of ____ occurs when ignorance gives way to knowledge, illusion to clarity, and the hero makes a critical discovery. In his Poetics, as part of his discussion of peripeteia, Aristotle defined anagnorisis as “a change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined by the poet for good or bad fortune.” In the Aristotelian defintion of tragedy, it was the discovery of one’s own identity or true character or of someone else’s identity or true nature by the tragic hero. Although Shakespeare did not base his works on Aristotelian theory of tragedy, including use or hamartia, many of his tragic characters still commonly undergo anagnorisis as a result of their struggles.

catharsis (Katharsis)

Often translated as purgation or purification. ____ refers to the emotional release or sense of relief a spectator may feel at the end of a tragedy. In the Poetics, Aristotle posits that the proper aim of tragedy is to arouse feelings of pity and fear and effectively rid the body of these feelings. ____ is the term he uses to describe this purging of emotions. Through ____, the tragedy has taught the audience compassion for the vulnerabilities of others and schooled it in justice, morality, and other civic virtues.

comedy

A genre of drama aimed at amusing the audience

high comedy

A comic genre evoking so-called intellectual or thoughtful laughter from an audience that remains emotionally detached from the play’s depiction of the folly, pretense, and incongruity of human behavior.

satiric comedy

A genre using derisive humor to ridicule human weakness and folly or attack political injustices and incompetence.

romantic comedy

A genre of comedy in which the plot focuses on one or more pairs of young lovers who overcome difficulties to achieve a happy ending (usually marriage).

comedy of manners

A form of comedy that satirizes the foibles of the upper class and aristocracy by means of witty dialogue and the ridicule of social decorum. It deals with the social relations and sexual intrigues of sophisticated, intelligent, upper-class men and women, whose verbal fencing and witty repartee produce the principal comic effects. The form originated in the seventeenth century in the works by Moliere and arrived in England during the Restoration in the works of William Wycherley, William Congreve, and others. In the late nineteenth century the form once again gained popularity in such comedies as Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.

low comedy

A comic style arousing laughter through jokes, slapstick humor, sight gags, and boisterous clowning.

farce

A type of comedy featuring exaggerated character types in ludicrous and improbable situations, provoking belly laughs, with sexual mix-ups, crude verbal jokes, pratfalls, and knockabout horseplay. ____ is fast-paced and characterized by rapid stage action.

burlesque

A dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. For example, the Victorian operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan ____ed grand opera.

slapstick comedy

A kind of farce, featuring pratfalls, pie throwing, and other forms of humorous violence.

tragicomedy

A type of drama that combines elements of both tragedy and comedy. Plays written in this mode often featured tragic conflicts that resolve happily through unexpected - sometimes improbable - plot twists. The term tragicomedy has also been applied to modern and contemporary plays that do not fit the traditional categories of tragedy and comedy. Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot, for example, is subtitled “A ____ in Two Acts.”

comic relief

The appearance of a comic situation or character in the midst of a serious action that introduces a sharp shift or contrast in mood.