THEA 101F Chapter 8

Which of the following are examples of the suspension of natural law in comedy?

- A bank president slipping on a banana peel. - A cartoon character getting hit on the head with a sledgehammer.

Which of the following describes heroic drama?

- It is written in verse - It is serious but optimistic - It includes characters of high rank

Which of the following are examples of a tragic character accepting responsibility?

- King Lear's suffering on the heath - Antigone's acceptance of her own death - Oedipus putting out his own eyes

Which of the following are traits that many Asian plays share with heroic drama?

- The hero or heroine undergoes a series of dangerous adventures - The plays ultimately end happily - The ultimate effect of the play is not considered tragic

Which of the following statements are true of the genre known as tragedy?

- Tragedy asks universal questions - Tragedy forces us to confront evil and goodness - Tragedy usually has an unhappy ending

Which of the following are examples of an absurdist plot?

- Two men wait for another who never shows up. - A woman is buried deeper in a pile of sand as the play progresses.

Which of the following are characteristics of Modern tragedy?

- Written in prose - characters are everyday people - Written after the late 1800's.

The main character in a traditional tragedy should be classified as:

- a person of stature - high-born - in a position of leadership

Which of the following are characteristics of farce?

- accelerated pace - broad physical humor - mock violence

Which of the following are examples of verbal humor?

- epigrams - puns - malapropisms

Aristotle suggested that watching tragedy arouses and purges what emotions from us in the audience?

- fear - pity

Which of the following are the two contradictory effects of traditional tragedy?

- pessimism - affirmation

Which would be considered a tragic circumstance for traditional tragedy?

-A king unknowingly murders his father and marries his mother -A queen falls hopelessly in love with her stepson -A noblewoman must decide between her own death and dishonoring her dead brother

Which of the following are usually included in a melodrama?

-Musical underscoring -Villains and heroes -Action and spectacle

Which questions might a tragedy explore?

-Why is the world unjust? -To what heights of courage, strength, generosity, and integrity can human beings rise? -what are the limits of human suffering and endurance?

Which of the following characters could be found as the hero or heroine in a traditional tragedy?

-king -noblewoman -general

Which of the following are examples of different genres of plays?

-tragedy -tragicomedy -comedy

When a tragic character does this, they teach us about life through their abundant capacity for suffering

Accept responsibility

What is the genre of a play that deals with lower or middle class people in a serious domestic crisis?

Bourgeois drama

which of the following is not a characteristic of comedy of manners?

Broad physical humor

the techniques of comedy come from a premise of which of the following?

Exaggeration Incongruity Contradiction

Which of the following is true of satire?

Exposes evil and foolishness Uses wit and irony Can focus on specific figures or instances

Melodramas primarily strive for what emotional response from their audiences?

Fear

What is the name of the genre when the characters are nobles and heroes, it is written using verse and it has a happy or hopeful ending?

Heroic drama

What is it called when actions, logic, and cause and effect are ignored in a play to make people laugh?

Suspension of natural law

Why is the comic premise set in motion?

The audience can enjoy the incongruity.

Which of the following are true of domestic comedy?

The equivalent of domestic drama but in comic form. Similar to a situation comedy on TV. Deals with domestic or family situations.

What does the mood and the tone of the play indicate to the audience?

The point of view of the production

Which of the following types of theatre highlights the futility, the injustice and the ridiculousness of life through its dramatic techniques?

Theatre of the absurd

Which of the following are examples of an absurdist plot?

Two men wait for another who never shows up. A woman is buried deeper in a pile of sand as the play progresses

Traditional tragedy is written in this form in order to scale the heights of the ideas and the emotions

Verse

Which of the following are examples of modern film melodramas?

Westerns Science fiction Superhero films

Traditional tragedy causes us to both reflect on the bleakness of the world and to:

appreciate our resilience

When does an audience first encounter the point of view of the production?

at the very beginning

Which of the following are considered plot complications?

coincidence mistaken identity

The two main genres of drama are tragedy and ___?

comedy

When characters see themselves far differently than we view them and when their misguided belief about themselves results in outrageous situations this is called:

comedy of character

In comedy, when what you expect or know to be true is "turned upside down," this is called:

comic premise

In a traditional tragedy the characters are caught up in a web of tragic ___ in which they are trapped

events

Unlike traditional tragedy modern tragedy was written for and about ___

everyday people

The characters in absurdist theatre are often called ___ in their point of view.

existential

The French word for category we use to describe different types of plays is:

genre

In comedy of ideas this becomes most important:

important arguments

Which of the following are characteristics of comedy of ideas?

intellectual humor moral or social point of view witty and amusing

When a character in a traditional tragedy understands that there is no turning back and must continue on despite the circumstances this is called tragic:

irretrievability

Tragedy that was written between the 1800's and the present day is called:

modern tragedy

It is possible to produce the same play from very different points of view depending on our ___

perspective

When contradiction, ludicrous coincidences, and mistaken identity combine in comedy this is called:

plot complication

Which of the following are characteristic of Theatre of the Absurd?

plots without logic nonsense language characters without logical purpose

Which theorists in the twentieth century began to question the validity of categorizing dramas by genre?

postmodernists

The plays written by Shakespeare that do not clearly fit into either the tragedy or comedy categories are sometimes referred to as ___ plays

problem

A type of comedy that derived from burlesque but includes higher comedy, wit, irony, poking fun of serious subjects, and often political content is called:

satire

Spectators of traditional tragedy fear that if characters of noble stature could fall then

they could fall as well.

Tragedy from the distant past is called:

traditional tragedy

When the tragic character in traditional tragedy is on a course from which there is no turning back, this is called:

tragic irretrievably

Traditional tragedy is written in verse or poetry because the content cannot be expressed in everyday language or prose and the tragic character's language needs to reflect their higher stature.

true

Which of the following are characteristics of American burlesque?

variety show low comedy skits attractive women

A play's ___ how it looks at people or events from a particular perspective - is a conscious act on the part of the creator of the text, and it is helps the audience decide how to categorize the play

viewpoint