Discuss the Fairies in a Midsummer Night's Dream

Max. Marks: 100
Programme: MEG
Assignment code: MEG-02/TMA/2010-2011

Question 1. Discuss Dr. Fautus as a tragedy relevant to all times.
Answer : There are several reasons for why Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is relevant to all times. Some have to do with its nature and stature as a work of art. Others have to do with its content. Yet another has to do with the nature of the central character, Doctor Faustus. From the perspective of great art, it is a drama that is still entertaining due to the great suspense that builds within it and is sustained right till the end. This suspense keeps the audience wondering if Faustus will repent and, if so, whether God will accept his repentance. Further, it was an innovative and definitive play even if not exemplary of perfect craftsmanship.
One way it was innovative is that it was the first play to successfully use blank verse, a form of verse that later became Shakespeare’s trademark. It was further innovative because it introduced the variation on Aristotelian tragic form that became identified as Elizabethan tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy. The most significant difference from Aristotelian tragedy is that the hero errs so severely that the only true Aristotelian catharsis (which was geared at a logical and reasonable conclusion to the tragedy) can be the hero’s death, whereas in Aristotelian theory, it is acceptable for the hero to be suitably punished and/or exiled. The play is considered to be less than exemplary because the middle segment doesn’t adequately develop Dr. Faustus’ character so the audience sees that he learns something and ultimately recognizes the error of his flawed ways.
From the perspective of moral lesson, people in the world today still uphold moral principles and religious precepts, two things that are primary thematic concerns of the play. In addition, these concerns comprise and drive the plot. In Marlowe's play the antagonist demon Mephistopheles orders the personifications of the seven deadly sins, such as Envy, Lechery, and--Faustus' favorite--Pride to occupy Faustus' time and attention. The end of the play shows the consequences of consorting with the deadly sins. Therefore the theme is as relevant to moral and religious people today and brings an Elizabethan catharsis to the audience through fear for their own potential fate. (Elizabethan catharsis as innovated by Marlowe differs from Aristotelian catharsis in that the innovative former is audience related while the classical latter is play related.)
From the perspective of character, the central character is relevant to all time because Dr. Faustus is guilty of hubris (i.e., extreme pride), and this tragical flaw leads him to commit the hamartia (i.e., fatal deed). It is well known that pride and fatal deeds are as rampant today as they were when Marlowe wrote in 1594 and when the original Dr. Johann Faustus lived and died in Germany from 1488 to 1541. So Doctor Faustus remains relevant to all ages in part because it remains entertaining; it remains the bedrock of Elizabethan tragedy; it remains a source of moral and religious instruction; and it remains an apt picture of those consumed with pride who commit deeds that lead to their undoing. One can’t help but think of the Enron catastrophe of 2006 and the banking failures of 2008. [Answer reflects information in eNotes Study Guides available at the attached links.]

Question 2. Discuss the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Answer :

Question 07. Do you think Murder in the Cathedral is a poetic drama different from the other plays of your course ?
Answer : Murder in the Cathedral is a drama written as verse. In T.S. Eliot's time, major dramas had not been written in verse for around 300 years. For example, in 1671 John Milton published Samson Agonistes. It was written as a verse drama but Milton specified in the preface that it was not to be performed. So one way in which Murder in the Cathedral is different from Hamlet, Dr. Faustus, The Alchemist, etc. is that, though they are all verse dramas, Eliot's is a revival of an unpopular and disused form while the others were the favored and popular modes of drama in their eras. They are similar, though, in that each drew on other sources, some drew on history, like Shakespeare's history dramas, and some on legend or tale like Dr. Faustus.
Though done in verse, Murder in the Cathedral and the others are different in that the verse in the early dramas is written using the vernacular of the era and Eliot's is written using the vernacular of his era. This sounds like a similarity, but it is a similarity that leads to a great difference in style, tone and musicality of the verse.
The thematic concerns are somewhat different in that while all discuss important weighty themes, Eliot turns his two themes of the spirit versus the flesh and obedience into vehicles that illustrate then contemporary issues such as privacy and religious intrusion into individuals' lives.
The tragic hero of Murder in the Cathedral, Thomas Becket, differs from Aristotelian and Elizabethan tragic heroes in that Eliot leaves him free of a "tragic flaw." He has no internal weakness or failure of character that blinds him or misleads him, he commits no tragic error in judgement; he has no ambitions that drive him into vain misdeeds, etc. In addition, Becket's death sets a new heroic style when his death is one that fills the audience with the idea of peace and hope instead of pity and agony. Eliot also divides the physical tragedy of Becket's murder from the spiritual reality of Becket's life, which is that his spiritual life supersedes his physical death.