Week 14
Preparation for Mon.
May 15
1. Mull over the Gustavus production of
Sophocles’ Electra. What struck you about this particular interpretation
of the play or about any aspect of its performance (set design, music, dance,
choreography)?
2. Read The Hunted, the second play in
Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra trilogy (i.e. pp. 319-373 of
our text). Be sure to read the scene-setting
as well as the script itself. As you
read, jot down your ideas about one of the following topics:
(a) In Friday’s class, we talked about how O’Neill brings to his play a
Freudian psycho-analytical reading of the Oresteia myth, developing both
the Oedipus complex (the son’s unnaturally strong attraction to his mother) and
the Electra complex (the daughter’s excessive attachment to her father). Chart
how this Freudian pattern unfolds in the second play.
(b) Pick two or three aspects of Greek
tragedy (and esp. the tragedians’ treatment of the house of Argos) that are at
the forefront of O’Neill’s second play (The Hunted) and track how they
unfold in the play.
Preparation for Wed.
May 17
1. Read The Haunted, the third play in
Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra trilogy (i.e. pp. 375-424 of
our text). Be sure to read the scene-setting
as well as the script itself. As you
read, jot down your ideas about the following question:
Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy ends the
cycle of revenge by going to Athens, where vengeance-killings are replaced by a
court of law, the Areopagus. In Sophocles’ Electra, attention is focused
on Electra, the female protagonist of the play, until the killings at the end
of the play, when we return to Orestes and his mission to regain his throne. Ezra
Mannon said to Christine in The Homecoming (pp. 302-3): “All
victory ends in the defeat of death. That’s sure. But does defeat end in the
victory of death? That’s what I wonder!” How does O’Neill’s trilogy end, and how
does Lavinia’s tragic choice affect your interpretation of the trilogy?
2. Put together your portfolio of written
responses for the semester and bring it to class today. You can either put the responses in a binder
or folder or can simply staple them together, adding a cover page with your
name on it. Please be sure to arrange them in the right order. If you have done a rewrite of the version
you turned in, please include both the original (graded) version and
the new version. You only need to turn in 9 of the 12.
1. (Fri. Feb. 10): analysis of a stanza of the first stasimon of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon
2. (Wed. Feb. 15):
staging of Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers and symbolic use of tomb
3. (Mon. Feb. 20):
written brief defending/prosecuting Orestes based on Aeschylus’ Eumenides
4. (Fri. Feb. 24):
workshop on scene of Sophocles’ Electra
5. (Fri. Mar. 3):
director’s note on modern relevance of Sophocles’ Philoctetes
6. (Fri. Mar. 10):
Euripides’ Trojan Women as a reflection of the experience of those
displaced by war
7. (Wed. Mar. 15):
Dionysus, theatricality and Euripides’ Bacchae
8. (Mon. Mar. 20):
worksheet on contest between Aeschylus and Euripides in Aristophanes’ Frogs
9. (Fri. Mar. 24):
group adaptation of a scene from Aristophanes’ Birds
10.(Fri. Apr. 7):
character and coincidence in Menander’s Old Cantankerous
11. (Mon. Apr.
10): women in antiquity (research using Diotima) and Menander’s The Girl
from Samos
12. (Mon. May 8): response to Prof. Morwood’s
lecture or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum