Sad But True Trivia Quiz

Answer: He is killed by Volscian conspirators

As the play begins, Caius Martius is deputy of the Roman army under Cominius as they face the Volscian army. Martius leads a successful siege of the Volscian city of Corioles and then marches without resting to join Cominius as he fights the main Volscian army. For his heroism and bravery Martius is renamed Coriolanus. It was common in the Roman world to name generals after their most important victories.

Upon returning to Rome, Coriolanus attempts to turn his battlefield success into political success but is thwarted and banished by political intrigue. He seeks out the Volscians hoping to die to spite Rome but instead the Volscians welcome him with open arms. Coriolanus agrees to lead an assault on Rome but is stopped by the pleas of his mother as he reaches the city. He establishes peace between the two sides and returns to the Volscian capital where he is killed by Volscian conspirators who feel he betrayed them by making peace instead of sacking Rome. A sad but true end to a noble life cut short by the machinations of others.

At the time of the writing of the play, Coriolanus was considered to be a historical figure as he appeared in Plutarch's "Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans" as translated by Thomas North (1579). Plutarch was a first century Greek historian, biographer, and essayist of the Middle Platonist school of thought. Most modern scholars consider Coriolanus to be legend rather than an actual historical figure.

Answer: Paris' death at the hands of Mercutio

Paris died in a duel with Romeo at the crypt; he was not killed by Mercutio. Although many parts of the play can qualify for the sad but true label, the most relevant is that it takes all of these lamentable deaths to bring peace to the feuding families and end the violence. In the context of this quiz, let's take a look at several of the other sad but true events throughout the play:
1) No matter how well intentioned the characters are, destiny or fate cannot be denied. Friar Laurence is a prime example of this fact. His first intention is to bring peace through the marriage of Romeo and Juliet. When this goes awry, his second intent is to save Juliet from marrying Paris so she can be with Romeo but this too goes awry. These are but two examples of the many things that conspire to go wrong at each step in his plan that would certainly lead one to believe forces greater than the characters themselves are at work throughout the play.
2) In today's terms Juliet's age would be considered scandalous for all of these events to be taking place as she was only 13. Even her parents' request that Paris wait two years would be considered far too young by today's standards.
3) It takes all of these deaths to bring an end to the senseless violence of the feud. It can be characterized as senseless violence because Shakespeare did not feel it necessary to explain why the feud existed, merely that it did and that it was the driving force in the lives of the characters.

Answer: Octavia's betrayal of Antony by marrying Pompey

Octavia never married Pompey, all of the rest of the betrayals happened in the play. Although all of these outward betrayals are the most visible within the play, the real betrayal that is subtext for all that happens is Antony's betrayal of himself. He is a great military hero in Rome, a man of honor and discipline. Yet he sacrifices all of this for his love of Cleopatra.

Many see this as a battle between reason and emotion but I see it as more of Antony's own betrayal of the 'better angels of his nature', paraphrasing Lincoln.

In the play Antony clearly fails to live up to the heroic standards which we would expect of him and instead follows a path that leads to destruction. In some plays a character's true nature may be evil or appear to be so, but in Antony's case this never seems to be the case.

It is instead a failure to live up to who he truly is. True love never asks you to sacrifice who you genuinely are but temptation always requires you to go against your true nature. It is the essence of temptation. Will you be who you are meant to be or will you give in and become who you were never intended to be? This theme of man going against his true nature is a theme that Shakespeare explores time and again throughout his plays.

Answer: Desdemona

Desdemona is the only one of the three who does not have ulterior motives and who remains true to herself throughout the play. Each of these characters demonstrates the nature of the phrase 'sad but true'.

Desdemona allows herself to be charmed by a man who proves himself to be unworthy of the love and devotion she offers. She shows an independent streak in standing up to her father and declaring her love for Othello and yet this independence may be her undoing as Othello questions her loyalty. But who is the greater fool, she who gave her love to one unworthy or he who does not believe that love and loses it forever when it was probably the one thing he desired more than anything else?

Othello is tragic because although he is a man of great skill both in battle and in charm, he allows himself to be manipulated by Iago's scheming. He puts his trust in a man who does not deserve it and he fails to trust the woman, Desdemona, who has shown him nothing but devotion. This is perhaps his greatest character flaw, the inability to discern the true nature of those around him. Some attribute this to the fact that he was an outsider in the world in which he lived and others to gender bias in that he trusted the man Iago before he would trust the woman Desdemona. Either or both may very well be the case.

Roderigo is driven by his supposed love for Desdemona, but it is the selfish love of one who wishes to possess the other person and not a selfless love that seeks what is best for the other person. This blind lust leads him to be easily manipulated by Iago.

Iago is probably one of the most sadistic characters in all of Shakespeare's plays and the one with the least redeeming qualities. His perverse pleasure in his ability to manipulate others and in the suffering that it brings about shows truly psychopathic tendencies. Clearly, he is a bright man who could have done so much better things with his talents but he instead uses them for nothing short of pure evil.

Answer: Titus Andronicus

If any play deserves the sad but true label because of the violence involved it is "Titus Andronicus". According to one critic, "it has 14 killings, 9 of them on stage, 6 severed members, 1 rape (or 2 or 3 depending on how you count), 1 live burial, 1 case of insanity, and 1 of cannibalism - an average of 5.2 atrocities per act, or one for every 97 lines." [Source: Hulse, S. Clark. "Wresting the Alphabet: Oratory and Action in Titus Andronicus", "Criticism", 21:2 (Spring, 1979), p. 107]

The story revolves around the fictional Roman general Titus Andronicus, a hero of the wars against the Goths. Titus returns from a ten-year campaign against the Goths to find his brother has proclaimed the people have chosen Titus to be the new emperor. He refuses the throne and from there all kinds of chaos and bloodletting ensues.

Many critics contend that this is the worst play attributed to Shakespeare and have therefore sought to distance him from it to 'save' his reputation by either denying his involvement at all or by saying he had a co-author. Those who argue for a co-author believe the play was a collaboration between Shakespeare and George Peele. Others find the play to be quite enlightened, especially when seen in the context of the barbarity the 20th century has wrought on the world.

Answer: The spirituality of witches and witchcraft

"Hamlet" does not involve witches but it does involve a ghost who is a central figure in driving the action. The ghost's presence casts the play and much of the inner turmoil Hamlet wrestled with in a distinctly spiritual light. Much of his contemplation of death can be attributed to his interactions with the ghost.

Many see Hamlet's inaction or slowness to act as a sign of inner psychological turmoil. Freud held that Hamlet was a classic example of the Oedipus complex at work.

But the most profound aspects of the play belong to the philosophical realm. Many see in the play a reflection of the times in which Shakespeare wrote it. The Renaissance was in full swing and the play reflects the common ideas about man and his place in the world as seen in existentialism, relativism, and skepticism. In a world where humanism pervades, how is a man to know what is right and what is wrong because the moral absolutes imposed by God and the church no longer apply?

The tragedy of it all, the sad but true fact, is that through the act of staging the play that basically accuses Claudius of murder, Hamlet sets in motion events that he cannot or will not stop. He seeks revenge but cannot bring himself to an overt act to gain it because of his misgivings about what is right. But the events he has set in motion finally bring the truth out and Claudius is exposed for his plot to have Hamlet killed. This finally gives Hamlet the reason he needs to be able to kill Claudius in all good conscience. The truth has set Hamlet free but it has also cost him his life, the life of his mother, and Laertes's life.

Answer: Julius Caesar

"Julius Caesar" is one of the three plays that Shakespeare based on the history of the Roman Empire as recorded by Plutarch. The other two are "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus". Although Julius Caesar is the title character, the play revolves around Brutus and the other conspirators as they plot Caesar's assassination and the aftermath of this deed. Of all of the conspirators portrayed in the play, only Brutus is seen as being motivated not by self interest but by what would be good for Rome. Although warned by a soothsayer and his wife, Caesar goes to the Senate on the Ides of March (15th) and is struck down by the conspirators. Caesar saw Brutus' participation as the ultimate betrayal. Although the play generally sees Brutus as a noble man motivated by honor, his fate is still sealed and he dies along with the other conspirators for the crime they have committed. The play is sad but true when viewed both from Caesar's perspective and from Brutus' perspective.

John Wilkes Booth's father was actually named after Brutus, his name was Junius Brutus Booth, Sr. There is also a famous picture of John along with his brothers, Edwin and Junius, Jr., in costume during the performance of the play in New York in 1864. John expected that he would be portrayed sympathetically, as Brutus was in the play, for killing Lincoln and lamented the fact that he was hunted down as a common cutthroat in his diary after the assassination.

Answer: Hater of humankind

The protagonist, Timon, is overly generous at the beginning of the play, mindless that his riches are not infinite. He gives to all without deciding if they are deserving. A cynical philosopher mocks Timon's guests at a banquet because he sees they are only there for what they can get from Timon.

When Timon runs out of money and his debtors come to collect, none of his supposed friends with whom he was so generous come to his aid. Timon leaves the city to live in a cave, distraught over the betrayal he feels from those to whom he gave so freely.

He finds gold in the cave, which he uses to pay prostitutes to go into the city and spread disease and to pay a rebel to attack the city. He has gone from a generous benefactor to all to a man who hates all for what they have done to him.

He dies alone in the wilderness after setting his plan for revenge in motion, sad but true.

Answer: Scottish

The play is set in Scotland. The line "something wicked this way comes" is actually from the play and is one of the witches referring to Macbeth. The play revolves around three witches who prophesy that Macbeth would become king and what he does to make this come true. This leaves the audience wondering if the prophecy is then a self-fulfilling prophecy or if it was destined to happen no matter what. By murdering King Duncan, Macbeth is forced into a life of more murders in order to keep the first one from coming to light. In the end, Macbeth pays for his sins with his own life; another prophecy of the witches has come to pass.

In many ways "Macbeth" is the flip side of "Hamlet" and yet both can be classified as sad but true. Hamlet spends much time thinking about the ramifications of everything and very little time doing anything. Macbeth on the other hand, spends very little time thinking and much more time doing. Hamlet's inaction still brings about an unfortunate series of events while Macbeth's actions accomplish the same thing.

In both plays supernatural forces are at work. In "Hamlet" it is the ghost of his murdered father and in "Macbeth" it is the witches. Hamlet questions whether what the ghost of his father says is true or whether the ghost can even know the truth since he is dead. This makes Hamlet less willing to merely accept the ghost's words as the truth and more careful about acting upon them. The play, however, never gives any indication that the ghost is sinister or evil but only deals with Hamlet's uncertainty. Macbeth on the other hand never really questions the motivation of the witches but instead grasps tightly to their prophecy since it is what he wants. The play here makes it quite clear that at the very least the witches are interested in creating mischief and at the very worst evil. In the end though their motivation is of only secondary importance as it is Macbeth who decides what to do with the information they provide. If he had not acted upon it and instead turned away from it the motivation of the witches would not have mattered.

Many actors believe that saying the name "Macbeth" in a theater will bring about disaster. This has become known as the 'Scottish curse' and in response to the superstition many will refer to "Macbeth" as the 'Scottish Play' or the 'Bard's Play'. There are several methods for dispelling the curse that have been shown in movies, on TV or in literature. One of the most interesting involves the play "Hamlet". This ritual requires the offender to leave the room, knock three times, be invited back, and then quote a line from "Hamlet". Interesting that "Hamlet" would be involved in the cleansing ritual considering the comparisons I have drawn here.

Answer: Edmund

Edmund is the name shared by both. The most important aspect of "King Lear" as it relates to the topic of this quiz is the relationship of Lear to his three daughters. As is true in most of these tragedies, the protagonist at first trusts those who are not worthy of his trust and pays the price for it throughout the play. Goneril and Regan are the two selfish and scheming daughters of Lear and Cordelia is the only one who really loves him. Edmund uses Goneril and Regan's selfishness to promote his own agenda.

By the time Lear learns the true nature of Goneril and Regan, it is too late. Towards the end of the play he is reunited with Cordelia but by then it is again too late, the damage has been done. The play ends with the death of Lear's three daughters and he dies of a broken heart after Cordelia dies in his arms.

This play like all of the others is a perfect example of what the phrase 'sad but true' means.