Final quiz:

2. Describe the role of Emilia and Bianca in Othello. In what way Emilia could be seen
as the beacon of virtue of the play?
Emilia and Bianca are important to the play because they act as foils for Desdemona and her
relationship with Othello. Shakespeare shows how fragile and complicated the ties are
between men and women by exploring the relationships between them. Emilia's fate is
parallel to Desdemona's as they were both betrayed by their husband. Emilia is the play's
conscience as she makes Othello finally feel remorse for his act, and undoes some of the
damage that Iago's allegations uncovered, which not even Desdemona was able to do. Emilia
knows how human nature works; She is the sole voice of reason in the play, the only person
besides Desdemona who is uncorrupted by Iago's manipulations.
4. At the first glance, Dr. Stockman of An Enemy of The People might be seen as a
typical protagonist, an exemplary hero character of modern drama. Squinting
further, in what way Ibsen provides a complex moral-flaws of Dr. Stockman?
Mr. Stockman is totally impractical. It never even occurs to him to take into account the
fact that his proposed renovations to the Baths will ruin the town's economy. It's easy to
admire him for sticking to his principles, but by doing so he places his family in a pretty
terrible position. His daughter, Petra, loses her job, and his sons are almost mobbed at
school. The Doctor also willingly sacrifices his own job at the Baths knowing that it will
cause his family to lose their major source of income. We do see him waver when his
father-in-law, Morten Kiil, threatens to take away his family's inheritance. In the end,
though, Dr. Stockmann refuses to give in, plunging his family into financial ruin.

7. Take a closer look at Katrin, Mother Courages daughter, and describe the way
Bertolt Brecht depicts her. Describe her final act before she dies. How does this
act fit in Brechts theory of epic theatre, especially as Brecht tried to work against
audiences sympathy?
Kattrin distinguishes herself as the character who most obviously suffers from the traumas of
war. The war robs her of her voice as a child and later leaves her disfigured. Before her death at
the end, The Peasant Woman suggests that they smash the wagon. The Young Peasant deal it a
few blows; Kattrin pauses in distress but continues. Suddenly he cheers her on and the soldier
beats him with his pike. The second soldier returns and shoots the weeping Kattrin.. She has
saved the town. However Kattrins muteness does not save her from involving herself in the war.
She intervenes in spite of her silence, acting where those around her will not. Unlike the hostile
peasants, she will sacrifice her material possessions and life to rescue the town. Kattrin again
appears as a good mother in this respect, saving the children while her mother is off once more
haggling for supplies. Ultimately Kattrin will speak sacrificing herself to save the children of
Halle, and it is appropriate that the play implicitly compares her to the martyr Saint Martin.

8. Memorable as a male duet piece, the song Johanna Reprise scene in Sweeney
Todd exemplifies the plays strategy of depicting violence. Explain the possible

reasoning and the effect of this strategy. Would you consider this a form of
normalization of violence? Explain your argument.
Johanna is the one piece of his past Sweeney cant quite put away, and the reprise encapsulates
the games Sondheim plays with resolution throughout the musical in miniature. Sweeneys
melody, which never quite resolves, plays against Anthonys, with the Beggar Woman coming in
every so often to offer up her own irresolution. Sweeney tries to put the past behind him. But he
cant any more than any of the rest of us can. The resolution only comes at the very end, as
Sweeney accepts his new situation and sings out to his now gone-to-him daughter, We learn,
Johanna, to say goodbye. Sweeneys melody reaches the resolution the ear craves, and all seems
well. Until the final chord of the piece, a quietly discordant sound, off-key, not right. The past is
never behind Sweeney, just as its never behind any of us. And by the end of the show, that past
will rise up and devour him whole. At this point in the show because he has been devoured by his
past that I would absolutely consider the normalization of violence is definitely at play here. That
is the new reality of Sweeney is this harsh cruel world. He feels no remorse and its definitely
evident in this song that violence has become the new normal for him.

9. In relation to question no. 5, Sarah Kanes Cleansed stands at the opposite pole in
its strategy to depict violence. Squinting at the play, analyze the possible
reasoning behind this extremity. What is the effect of pushing the depiction in
such extreme ways?

Kanes work has great passions and great themes dealt with in a radical way and delivered as
stark memorable theatrical images; tragic characters, who nevertheless gain insight through

suffering; the saviour/tormentor figures and the attempts to induce revelation or change in her
audiences through extreme or brutal actions. Kane is much more rooted in the tradition. She has
often been compared to postmodernist writers because of her light-handed eclecticism and
excessive use of violence which some interpreted as its glamorization. Sarah Kane used violence
in a way to get the attention of her audience, to draw them in and give them a viewpoint or some
shred of ability to relate to such a tragic character.