Those Examples of Poetic Justice that Occur in Medieval

Reading Passage Question

Those examples of poetic justice that occur in medieval and Elizabethan literature, and that seems so satisfying, have encouraged a whole school of twentieth-century scholars to "find" further examples. In fact, these scholars have merely forced victimized characters into a moral framework by which the injustices inflicted on them are, somehow or other, justified. Such scholars deny that the sufferers in a tragedy are innocent; they blame the victims themselves for their tragic fates. Any misdoing is enough to subject a character to critical whips. Thus, there are long essays about the misdemeanors of Webster's Duchess of Malfi, who defied her brothers, and the behavior of Shakespeare's Desdemona, who disobeyed her father.

Yet it should be remembered that the Renaissance writer Matteo Bandello strongly protests the injustice of the severe penalties issued to women for acts of disobedience that men could, and did, commit with virtual impunity. And Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Webster often enlist their readers on the side of their tragic heroines by describing injustices so cruel that readers cannot but join in protest. By portraying Griselda, in The Clerk's Tale, as a meek, gentle victim who does not criticize, much less rebel against the persecutor, her husband Walter, Chaucer incites readers to espouse Griselda's cause against Walter's oppression. Thus, efforts to supply historical and theological rationalizations for Walter's persecutions tend to turn Chaucer's fable upside down, to deny its most obvious effect on readers' sympathies. Similarly, to assert that Webster's Duchess deserved torture and death because she chose to marry the man she loved and to bear their children is, in effect, to join forces with her tyrannical brothers, and so to confound the operation of poetic justice, of which readers should approve, with precisely those examples of social injustice that Webster does everything in his power to make readers condemn. Indeed, Webster has his heroine so heroically lead the resistance to tyranny that she may well inspire members of the audience to imaginatively join forces with her against the cruelty and hypocritical morality of her brothers.

Thus Chaucer and Webster, in their different ways, attack injustice, argue on behalf of the victims, and prosecute the persecutors. Their readers serve them as a court of appeal that remains free to rule, as the evidence requires, and as common humanity requires, in favor of the innocent and injured parties. For—to paraphrase the noted eighteenth-century scholar, Samuel Johnson—despite all the refinements of subtlety and the dogmatism of learning, it is by the common sense and compassion of readers who are uncorrupted by the prejudices of some opinionated scholars that the characters and situations in medieval and Elizabethan literature, as in any other literature, can best be judged.

“Those examples of poetic justice that occur in medieval” - is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.
This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 8 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. According to the passage, some twentieth-century scholars have written at length about

(A) Walter's persecution of his wife in Chaucer's The Clerk's Tale
(B) the Duchess of Malfi's love for her husband
(C) the tyrannical behavior of the Duchess of Malfi's brothers
(D) the actions taken by Shakespeare's Desdemona
(E) the injustices suffered by Chaucer's Griselda

2. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) describe the role of the tragic heroine in medieval and Elizabethan literature
(B) resolve a controversy over the meaning of "poetic justice" as it is discussed in certain medieval and Elizabethan literary treatises
(C) present evidence to support the view that characters in medieval and Elizabethan tragedies are to blame for their fates
(D) assert that it is impossible for twentieth- century readers to fully comprehend the characters and situations in medieval and Elizabethan literary works
(E) argue that some twentieth-century scholars have misapplied the concept of "poetic justice" in analyzing certain medieval and Elizabethan literary works

3. It can be inferred from the passage that the author considers Chaucer's Griselda to be

(A) an innocent victim
(B) a sympathetic judge
(C) an imprudent person
(D) a strong individual
(E) a rebellious daughter

4. The author's tone in her discussion of the conclusions reached by the "school of twentieth-century scholars" in the highlighted text is best described as

(A) plaintive
(B) philosophical
(C) disparaging
(D) apologetic
(E) enthusiastic

5. It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes that most people respond to intended instances of poetic justice in medieval and Elizabethan literature with

(A) annoyance
(B) disapproval
(C) indifference
(D) amusement
(E) gratification

6. As described in the passage, the process by which some twentieth-century scholars have reached their conclusions about the blameworthiness of victims in medieval and Elizabethan literary works is most similar to which of the following?

(A) Derivation of logically sound conclusions from well-founded premises
(B) Accurate observation of data, inaccurate calculation of statistics, and drawing of incorrect conclusions from the faulty statistics
(C) Establishment of a theory, application of the theory to ill-fitting data, and drawing of unwarranted conclusions from the data
(D) Development of two schools of thought about a factual situation, debate between the two schools, and rendering of a balanced judgment by an objective observer
(E) Consideration of a factual situation by a group, discussion of various possible explanatory hypotheses, and agreement by consensus on the most plausible explanation

7. The author's paraphrase of a statement by Samuel Johnson (in the highlighted text) serves which of the following functions in the passage?

(A) It furnishes a specific example.
(B) It articulates a general conclusion.
(C) It introduces a new topic.
(D) It provides a contrasting perspective.
(E) It clarifies an ambiguous assertion.

8. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with

(A) reconciling opposing viewpoints
(B) encouraging innovative approaches
(C) defending an accepted explanation
(D) advocating an alternative interpretation
(E) analyzing an unresolved question

Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Questions

• Most Farmers Attempting to Control Slugs and Snails Turn to Baited Slug Poison, or Molluscicide.
• In a New Book About the Antiparty Feeling of the Early Political Leaders of the United States
• Colonial Historian David Allen's Intensive Study of Five Communities in Seventeenth-Century
• In the 1980's, Astronomer Bohdan Paczynski Proposed a Way of Determining Whether the Enormous Dark Halo Constituting the Outermost Part of the Milky Way Galaxy
• The General Density Dependence Model can be Applied to Explain the Founding of Specialist Firms
• Many People Believe that Wages are Lower in Developing Countries than in Developed Countries
• More Selective than Most Chemical Pesticides in that they Ordinarily Destroy only Unwanted Species
• Citing the Fact that the Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was Higher in 1997
• Historians have Identified Two Dominant Currents in the Russian Women's Movement of the Late Tsarist Period.
• Some Historians Contend that Conditions in the United States During the Second World War
• Comparable Worth, as a Standard Applied to Eliminate Inequities in Pay
• The United States Government has a Long-Standing Policy of Using Federal Funds to Keep Small Business Viable.
• A Recent Study has Provided Clues to Predator-Prey Dynamics in the Late Pleistocene Era.
• Even More Than Mountainside Slides of Mud or Snow, Naturally Occurring Forest Fires Promote the Survival of Aspen Trees.
• The Black Death, a Severe Epidemic that Ravaged Fourteenth Century Europe
• The System of Patent-Granting, Which Confers Temporary Monopolies for the Exploitation of New Technologies
• Ethnohistoric Documents from Sixteenth-Century Mexico Suggesting that Weaving and Cooking were the Most Common Productive Activities for Aztec Women
• Solar Ponds are Bodies of Water in Which Circulation is Incomplete and There is a Very High Salt Concentration that Increases with Depth
• Traditional Social Science Models of Class Groups in the United States are Based on Economic Status
• Conventional Wisdom has it that Large Deficits in the United States Budget Cause Interest Rates to Rise.