Embassy of Death

I wrote the exam for Shakespeare class today, and what a dreadful performance did I give. I finished half an hour early, fed up with what I had written for my second and final essay portion on the "theme of kingship and usurpation" in tragedy and history plays. I looked at Hamlet and Titus Andronicus for tragedy, and Richard 3 and Henry IV Pt.1 for history. For the first section I wrote on the Romance genre, discussing how every ending in a Romance play seemingly undercuts the three virtues of "forgiveness, redemption, and justice." I examined Cymbeline and The Tempest.

In case you're interested the questions I answered were as follows:

Part 1 #3 - Romance present comic human experience in a beautiful world, a place that embraces forgiveness, redemption, and justice. And yet, comic endings seem always to be undercut by the suggestion that all of these characteristics are undercut and challenged. Discuss.

Part 2 #3 - Consider the theme of kingship and usurpation and compare and contrast how it is treated in any two of the following genres: history, tragedy, comedy, romance.

I think I did well on the first part, but bombed the second part. Hence afterwards I went straight to The Absinthe and had a pint for pint's sake. After getting back my essay, gawd did I need it. I got a B+ (76) on my final paper, which I think is a fair mark. However, one of the comments my TA made was blatantly wrong--saying I didn't mention the critics whatsoever after page 3, when in fact I mention these two "absent" critics on page 5 and 6.....GEEEZE. Would it be worth protesting? Probably not. Here's the paper. Check for yourself. Apparently I don't make mention of the critics West and Edwards after each summary of their argument, which is not true. Likewise my TA didn't like the polemic against Greenblatt in my paper--said I should avoid "polemical language". Oh well. Good riddance. Cheers, indeed. Cheers.