Tragic Flaw Resources

Below, you'll find a collection of internet resources that we believe you'll find useful on this project. Also, you'll want to check out the collection of books reserved for your class. They're on a cart at the front of the library, marked 'Reserved for Tragic Flaw project'.

Death of a Salesman

• Revision notes is a study page for students in the UK who were working on this very topic as it pertains to Death of a Salesman. The advantage here is that clear, concise notes are already at your fingertips!

• Answers.com provides more of a plot synopsis than a character study, but this may serve as a good jumping off point nevertheless.

• This is a very brief essay by Joyce Carol Oates regarding Death of a Salesman and its significance on the American literary landscape.

• The Literary Link provides an essay by Miller himself about his reasons for writing tragedies about the common man (whereas before tragedies focused primarily on royalty). The essay is aimed at an academic audience, so it can be a bit pedantic, but it provides an excellent insight nevertheless.

Oedipus Rex

• This is the transcript of a very informative lecture given by Ian Johnston at Malaspina University on the subject of Oedipus. Very informative, but beware the size of the type (it’s printed very small, so you mat wish to copy and save the info into word so that you can make it a little easier to read.).

• This is an online essay called 'Enjoying Oedipus the King' by an academic named Ed Friedlander. He takes a reader friendly approach to his essay and to the subject and makes a compelling (if controversial) case for the argument that Oedipus Rex is an “amoral” morality play. This essay is definitely worth reading.

• This site takes an irreverent, but informative, approach to Oedipus, and provides an excellent introduction and background to the play.

Hamlet

• Cracked Mirror serves up an excellent examination of Hamlet, by comparing Hamlet against the minor characters of the play. It’s worth reading, if only for the insight it provides.

• This site consists of a single, exceptionally thorough essay entitled Tragic Balance in 'Hamlet'. This essay is extremely informative.

• Another article by Ed Friedlander. I would advise that you skip past the scene by scene analysis (unless you’d like a refresher), and go straight to the wealth of information he’s stashed midway down the page. He’s very opinionated, and must therefore be taken with a grain of salt, but he’s also got a writing style which is informative and very fun to read.

General Reources

• EBSCO is an online database that provides access to thousands of periodicals online. Check out the EBSCO tutorial in the Library Resource Tutorials page.

• Shaftesbury has a subscription to World Book Online, which is the online version of the encyclopedia. The information found here is very in depth, ranging from occurrence to isotopes and compounds. World Book online is often a great place to start any search.

• Wikipedia is another (and slightly more controversial) online encyclopedia. It’s controversial because anyone can submit information to Wikipedia, so you can’t always be sure of the information you’re getting. However, there are a lot of fail safes on the site, not the least of which being the thousands of people who typically rush in to fix any mistake they see. Another great feature is the extensive links from each subject to external websites and to related files on Wikipedia’s site.

• Works Cited is a free bibliography composer which takes the information you provide, and turns it into a properly formatted MLA style bibliography. The bibliography is free, and it creates a file that can be imported over into MSWord. The only catch is that it’s connected to a proofreading service which you have to pay for, but you are under no obligation to use that service (but it strongly recommends that you do). This program is easy to use, and a great resource!

• Citation Machine is a site that will put together a works cited page for you, in MLA and APA format.