A.C. Bradley’s
The Substance of Shakespearean Tragedy
Study Questions
1. What is the purpose of Bradley’s lecture? (What is his argument?)
2. How does Bradley approach the idea of Shakespeare’s personal points
of view and their involvement in his writing?
3. What does Bradley argue makes tragedy “in the full Shakespearean
sense”?
4. What appeals to “common humanity and pity”?
5. Why is the fate of the tragic hero so significant?
6. Bradley suggests that Shakespeare includes three (3) additional
factors that drive the tragic hero’s fate. What are they? Explain.
7. Further in the lecture Bradley restates his first statement. How is it
restated?
8. What is meant when Bradley states: “For though Hamlet and the King
are mortal foes, yet that which engrosses our interest and dwells in
our memory at least as much as the conflict between them, is the
conflict within one of them”?
9. Tragedy always concerns itself with a particular figure. Who is that
figure and what qualities define him/her? Use specific ideas from the
entire text.
10. How does the tragic hero “err”? What is the result?
11. What is meant by the statement: “Our thoughts are ours, their ends
none of our own”? Explain using textual references.
12. What is moral order? How is it restored according to Bradley?
13. Where does Bradley argue the true tragedy lies in Shakespearean
tragedy?