#13- Global Reference, Must Be True, Subject Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[avengingangel]

In answer choice C, what does "classical" definition of tragedy mean?? Or, is that the point / the reason it's wrong? Because it's not addressed in the passage / irrelevant? I was choosing between E and C and ultimately chose C for some reason...

Also, I am wondering, as a general question, since the question stem says "most modern critics assume which one of..." does that make it an assumption question?? Like where you can do the assumption negation technique and everything? And does that also mean that it has to be an unstated assumption? Like, if an answer choice was something that HAD to/MUST be true, and worked with the assumption negation technique, but was STATED, would that disqualify it ?? I'm asking because, let's say the Elizabethan drama / morality play is somehow the classical definition of tragedy, would it still be wrong just because that's stated within the passage (lines 44-46). Thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

Short answers here for you, Angel!

1) You are correct that C is wrong because we have no information about what the "classical definition of tragedy" is.

2) This is absolutely an Assumption question and can be tested with the Assumption Negation Technique. If Webster was not influenced by the same sources as his contemporaries than the arguments of those critics would be weakened. It's okay that this was actually mentioned in the passage by our author, because the argument that we are weakening is that of the modern critics, and they don't mention it in their argument. For them it is still just an assumption. Our author is telling us that the critics are mistaken in that assumption.

I think it would take a lot more work to "fix" answer C, because C posits a causal relationship. It's about why Webster's works are so unlike his contemporaries. The critics don't have to assume that he's ignorant of the classical definition, because he could instead be fully cognizant of that definition and still willfully ignore it and choose to write in a different style.

[avengingangel]

Cool, that all makes sense. Thanks!!!

[andriana.caban]

If Webster was not influenced by the same sources as his contemporaries than the arguments of those critics would be weakened.

Hi!

I'm confused as to why this would weaken the modern critics position. I've read lines 30 - 45 again, I'm still failing to see what the assumption is. Why do modern critics have to assume that Webster was influenced by the same sources as his contemporaries? And, to this effect, what sources were Webster and his contemporaries influenced by? I thought that Webster was influenced more by Italian dramas than to his English contemporaries.

Can someone please parse out the ideas in this paragraph / tell me where I'm going wrong?

Thanks!

[andriana.caban]

If Webster was not influenced by the same sources as his contemporaries than the arguments of those critics would be weakened.

Hi!

I'm confused as to why this would weaken the modern critics position. I've read lines 30 - 45 again, I'm still failing to see what the assumption is. Why do modern critics have to assume that Webster was influenced by the same sources as his contemporaries? And, to this effect, what sources were Webster and his contemporaries influenced by? I thought that Webster was influenced more by Italian dramas than to his English contemporaries.

Can someone please parse out the ideas in this paragraph / tell me where I'm going wrong?

Thanks!

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Andriana!

You are correct that are author tells us that Webster was influenced more by Italian dramas than his English contemporaries. But that's why the author tells us that "as an Elizabethan playwright, Webster has become a prisoner of our critical presuppositions (lines 17-19). Because Webster was actually influenced more by Italian dramas than by his English contemporaries (who were heavily influenced by the morality play model of reality, as in lines 31-33), the author tells us that "his characters cannot be evaluated according to reductive formulas of good and evil, which is precisely what modern critics have tried to do" (lines 36-38). The author is telling us that modern critics are trying to fit Webster's plays into the morality play formula of his Elizabethan contemporaries, rather than recognizing that his plays are more in line with the morally complicated Italian dramas. In this way, the modern critics are assuming that Webster was influenced by the same morality play ideas as his contemporaries.

The critics criticize Webster for not fitting the morality play formula. If they did not assume that Webster was influenced by the same morality play ideas as his contemporaries, that would weaken their arguments (because why should he fit the morality play formula if he is not trying to write a morality play?).

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[lawschoolhopefulzt]

I'm trying to understand why D is incorrect. I chose this answer because of this part of the passage: "They choose what seem to be the most promising...artistic incompetence on Webster's part."

Could someone explain to me why D is incorrect but E is? Thank you so much!

[Paul Marsh]

Hi lawschoolhopefulzt! Kelsey did a great job above of explaining why answer choice (E) is correct. If there's anything else regarding (E) or her explanation that you have a question about, please follow up below.

Now, what about (D)? (D) says that modern critics assume that Webster's tragedies provide no relevant basis for analyzing the moral development of their characters. Let's look at the sentence from the passage that begins on line 38: "They [i.e. the critics] choose what seem to be the most promising of the contradictory values that are dramatized in the play, and treat those values as if they were the only basis for analyzing the moral development of the play's major characters, attributing the inconsistencies in a character's behavior to artistic incompetence on Webster's part." This seems to support that the critics did find some basis in Webster's tragedies for analyzing the moral development of their characters (specifically, they found the strongest contradictory value to be the basis for analyzing moral development). So while the author of the passage argues that the critics should have looked for more bases in Webster's tragedies for analyzing the moral development of the characters, that sentence suggests that those critics had at least one basis for doing so. So (D) is too strong when it says "no relevant basis".

Hope that helps!

[lawschoolhopefulzt]

It does help! Thank you so much!