Other examples of socio-historical contextual information being used in a more effective way

Example 1

Essay question: 'Dr. Faustus is a morality play without a moral.' Discuss.

In this extract from their essay, the student is considering views of Faustus as a sympathetic or antipathetic character, as part of determining whether or not Faustus is a morality play or a tragedy.

'A final example of Faustus' sympathetic appeal to the audience is when he satirises the corrupt Pope for his supercilious pride and frees the rival Pope, Bruno.

... this proud Pope may Faustus’ cunning see! (III.i.77)

This would increase Marlowe’s hold over an Elizabethan audience and their identity with Faustus since the recent Papal Bull of excommunication against Elizabeth I had resulted in a lot of Catholic antipathy. It is as though Faustus is once again realising the fantasies of the audience, under a thin disguise of good Protestant sentiment.'

Q. Why is this effective?

TUTOR'S REPLY

The essayist suggests that the apparent anti-Catholic sentiment in Dr Faustus (e.g. comic scenes involving the Pope) was reflecting and tapping into hostility towards Catholicism and Rome which was widespread in England at that time, heightened by a particular recent event. The student’s knowledge about the Papal Bull of excommunication enables them to make an interpretative point about the significance of a particular scene in the play. It provides evidence of the student’s awareness of how a text can be informed by and relate to the circumstances in which it was produced.

Example 2

Essay question: 'Tragedies portray societies caught between conflicting value systems.' Discuss with reference to one or more plays.

This is an extract from a student essay answering the above question:

'This crisis of identity, and of what to truly believe in is as much a social/religious issue in Hamlet, as it is a personal one; outside of the play, for example, there was a rising tide of religious/spiritual confusion, unease and anti-clerical feeling, the population unsure of which religion they should believe in, for the sake of their souls (and their heads!).'

Q. Why is this effective?

TUTOR'S REPLY

In writing on tragedy and conflicting value systems, the student usefully refers to the religious context of Hamlet’s production but does not force this too far as a means of explaining why crises of identity and belief exist within the play.

Example 3

Essay question: 'Tragedies portray societies caught between conflicting value systems.' Discuss with reference to one or more plays.

The following extract is from an undergraduate essay on the question quoted above:

'On this theme, therefore, the Ghost could be seen as either the Old King in Purgatory, following the Catholic ideology,

doomed for a certain time to walk the night ...
Till the foul crimes are done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. (I.v.10-13)

or the Protestant representation of an evil presence, sent from Hell to disrupt order on earth. This is an interesting and important argument, as if the Ghost of old Hamlet is indeed Catholic, this conflicts with Hamlet’s Protestant affiliation with Wittenberg, yet if Protestant, he can be nothing more than a disruptive demon - whatever religious bias he has, it conflicts utterly with his doctrine of revenge, as it is hardly a Christian ideal to be upheld by the once spiritual leader of the state.'


Q. Why is this effective?

TUTOR'S REPLY

Knowledge of certain differences between Catholic and Protestant theologies enables the essayist to draw out the significance of the ghost within Hamlet, suggesting alternative interpretations which affect our understanding of certain aspects of the play.

Example 4

Essay question: Discuss the tension in Richardson’s work between the promised happy ending and the dangers that the heroine must encounter.

This is an extract from a student essay answering the above question:

'This tension is what creates the story, as both the 'happy ending' and the 'dangers' are by-products of the struggle between them. Pamela, the novel is derived from the new Puritan ethos that arose out of the English Revolution, whereby good comes through struggle against evil, or order is attained through fighting amongst chaos. Thus, as Pamela's parents put it: 'What blessed things are trials and temptations' (p.126), as without them, how would the central character prove herself, or indeed, how would there be a story!

Q. Why is this effective?

TUTOR'S REPLY

The essayist tries to set the novel in some kind of historical context and refers to the history which has possibly informed its moral outlook, so displaying that they have some awareness of the cultural milieu in which Richardson wrote Pamela. The essay then turns to analysis of the text itself in order to explore the 'tension' in Richardson’s work between peril and a happy resolution, rather than carrying on looking at the context as a means of 'explaining' this aspect of the novel.

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