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ACT Reading 1.7 Humanities Passage 262 Views


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ACT Reading: Humanities Passage Drill 1, Problem 7. Which of the following characters is specifically mentioned as a personification of "horror and dismay" in Shakespeare's later tragedies?

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Transcript

00:04

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Lady Macbeth. Co-founder of Macbeths,

00:09

a restaurant chain that strives to violently dethrone McDonalds as the king of fast food.

00:42

Which of the following characters is specifically mentioned as a personification of "horror and dismay" in Shakespeare's later tragedies?

00:57

Unless we remember this one off the tops of our heads, we might have to go back to the passage to get it right.

01:02

All of these characters could be seen as horrible and dismaying, so we might want to be sure

01:06

we're in tune with Professor Bradley's opinion on the matter.

01:09

Let's take a look at (C).

01:11

Richard the third does all kinds of bad stuff to get the throne of England and doesn't

01:15

sit on it too long before he gets... skewered.

01:18

However, the passage mentions none of these details. Instead, it specifically mentions

01:23

the fact that Richard III was one of Shakespeare's earliest tragedies.

01:27

We're sure it doesn't fit the bill here, because we know from the question that we're

01:31

looking for one that came later.

01:33

Does (D) have it right?

01:35

Brutus does conspire with a bunch of other dudes to kill his pal Caesar, because he feels

01:39

it was the right thing to do.

01:41

Still, though, this is not the character Bradley is referring to.

01:44

Let's take a look at choice (B)

01:47

Claudius from Hamlet kills his brother by pouring poison in his ear, then takes his

01:52

brother's throne and marries his brother's wife.

01:55

Yet again, this apparently isn't horrible and dismaying enough for Professor Bradley.

02:01

In lines 86 through 88, the Professor specifically mentions Lady Macbeth as an example of Shakespeare's "super bad guys."

02:09

According to the Professor, she's so evil that we don't sympathize with her at all.

02:16

This makes choice (A) the correct answer.

02:18

Bradley should probably be careful saying this kind of stuff about Lady M.

02:21

She's really not someone you want on your bad side...

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