Tamara Al Ali Rola Jaber English 10 14th December 2016 Compare and Contrast Essay “If a group of people one day wills to live---fate (God) must answer its call---And the night must fade---And the chain must break” (Abou El-Kacem Al-Chabbi). Playwriting is one of the most famous way to break the chain and express the write’s feelings. Many famous writers used playwriting as a way of sending a message to people, and one of those writers is Sa’dallah Wannous. Wannous is an author who wrote many plays that discuss the issues and the conflicts of the middle east. He expressed his anger and his sadness by using many different dramatic techniques, themes and figurative language in his plays. The most prominent plays that he wrote are, The Glass Café …show more content…
The theme in the Glass Café is that the nation will collapse if its people didn’t pay attention to the dangers that threaten it. Even death doesn’t make people aware of what’s going on around them. While the people in the café’ were busy playing their games, a man died in the café, they all satisfied their conscience by saying, "God bless his soul”. Wannous described their reactions saying, “No one takes any notice. All costumers are immersed in their own activities.” (Sa’dallah, 10). This quotation shows that people are careless about important issues around them and that they got used to see people dying around them, so they didn’t react that much when the man died. This shows how Wannous is expressing the reality of the Arab world. Not paying attention to such important eventful situations doesn’t only mean that people are only running away from reality, but it also means that they are busy with useless things that are not productive and waste their time. In The King’s Elephant, the theme is based on betrayal. Zakarya is one of the intellectuals in the village, who encouraged a group of people in the village to go and protest about the king’s elephant that destroys people’s properties. Zakarya trained the group very well to talk to the king about their issues, but his betrayal and his people’s betrayal at a serious moment when they reached the castle forced him to give up his ringleader role. This made him one of the opportunists in the Arab world. “That this noble, courageous man shall be rewarded with the post of Resident Companion to the elephant.” (The king, 17). This quotation shows that Zakarya went from an intellectual into a servant of the king’s elephant, that will soon have a wife and have more elephants that will destroy the whole village in the future. All in all, both plays have different themes and messages to send to those people who read Wannous’s work or watch it as a performance on
When Mary Zimmerman adapts a play from an ancient text her directing process and the way she engages with text are woven together, both dependent on the other. She writes these adaptations from nondramatic text, writing each evening while working through the pre-production rehearsals and improvisations during the day with the cast. The rehearsal process influences the text, and the text enriches the rehearsal process, so that one cannot exist without the other. Every rehearsal is structured the same but each production is unique because as Zimmerman states in “The Archaeology of Performance”, she is always “open to the possibilities”. The piece is open to everything happening in the world and to the people involved, so the possibilities are honest and endless.
Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 6th ed. New York: Pearson-Prentice, 2010. 40-49. Print.
The playwright provides many aspects to create a play and to make it interesting. The actions and dialogue the characters make must be fluid and have a purpose. The playwright entices the audience with the different aspects to captivate their attention and keep it throughout the play. In The Illusion, Tony Kushner provides vivid details of the characters’ actions through dialogue. The actions characters perform absorbs the audience’s attention and leaves them wanting to see more of what will happen next to the characters. Although all aspects provided by the playwright are essential, action is the most riveting.
In The Glass Menagerie, the main characters are Laura, Amanda, Tom, Jim, and Father. Each character can be found with symbols that best represent them. Laura 's two symbols are Blue Roses and her glass menagerie, Unicorn. Amanda 's yellow dress and bathrobe can express her love she has of the past event. Tom 's symbols are the movies and merchant marine. Jim's symbolize itself as a gentlemen caller for Laura. The Father 's portrait portrays his abandonment of the Wingfield family.
...was taken away so suddenly. And pain, for moving on. When Al got to the river the projected image of water is repeated. This recurring image from when Ramanujan dies in the past is brought forward into the present storyline making the link between the past and present even stronger. Because this is a repeated image, the water becomes a metaphor for death, the death of Ramanujan and the death of Ruth and her baby. This scene is a peaceful scene even with this metaphor attached. The audience gets to empathise with Al as he lets go of the past and moves on. Imagery is key in this final scene. The sand that each of the characters pour out from various objects, Al pouring from the cremation box and Ramanujan pouring from his tablet, shows the passing of time. A final connection between the two parts to the performance, the past and the present, the key to the whole play.
...particular play acts as a vessel for this message of mocking self-indulgence and the tragedy of the lack of true love and suspicion of relationships that seems to define the present generation.
Another interesting writer is Henrick Ibsen. In his play "A Doll's House" he pulls off a work of modern tragedy. To most, tragedy is a play by Shakespeare, but not so. Ibsen, in the time period of this play, wrote a true tragedy. Going against the belief and ideas of the people, he denied them of their thoughts on modern plays. The play opened and was soon being acted, as well as read, all over
It is commonly believed that the only way to overcome difficult situations is by taking initiative in making a positive change, although this is not always the case. The theme of the memoir the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is that the changes made in children’s lives when living under desperate circumstances do not always yield positive results. In the book, Jeannette desperately tries to improve her life and her family’s life as a child, but she is unable to do so despite her best efforts. This theme is portrayed through three significant literary devices in the book: irony, symbolism and allusion.
Generally when some one writes a play they try to elude some deeper meaning or insight in it. Meaning about one's self or about life as a whole. Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" is no exception the insight Williams portrays is about himself. Being that this play establishes itself as a memory play Williams is giving the audience a look at his own life, but being that the play is memory some things are exaggerated and these exaggerations describe the extremity of how Williams felt during these moments (Kirszner and Mandell 1807). The play centers itself on three characters. These three characters are: Amanda Wingfield, the mother and a women of a great confusing nature; Laura Wingfield, one who is slightly crippled and lets that make her extremely self conscious; and Tom Wingfield, one who feels trapped and is looking for a way out (Kirszner and Mandell 1805-06). Williams' characters are all lost in a dreamy state of illusion or escape wishing for something that they don't have. As the play goes from start to finish, as the events take place and the play progresses each of the characters undergoes a process, a change, or better yet a transition. At the beginning of each characters role they are all in a state of mind which causes them to slightly confuse what is real with what is not, by failing to realize or refusing to see what is illusioned truth and what is whole truth. By the end of the play each character moves out of this state of dreamy not quite factual reality, and is better able to see and face facts as to the way things are, however not all the characters have completely emerged from illusion, but all have moved from the world of dreams to truth by a whole or lesser degree.
Hence, upon analyzing the story, one can conclude the certain themes that parallel through the pages. Firstly, a theme of unity and trust is present at the end of the play. This is supported by the image of the cathedral, which is a place of unity. Most importantly, the notion of equality among people is the main theme within this story. The narrator starts as a biased, idiot, who dislikes all people that are not like himself. He even at times is rude to his wife. Ironically, it takes a blind man to change the man that can literally see, to rule out the prejudices and to teach him that all men are created equal.
The classic play Romeo and Juliet by the famous playwright William Shakespeare is one of the most beautiful love stories of all time and has captured and inspired readers everywhere. Regardless of the fact that it was written in the 1500’s, it is still being performed and extolled today. There is a multitude of reasons for such continuance of the play. First of all, its everlasting themes of love and hate enable people to deeply relate to the story. Secondly, its memorable characters deeply imprint on the minds of readers. And lastly, above all, is its magnificent language which many writers today regard in awe. These three elements make the acclaimed play, Romeo and Juliet, one of the most timeless stories of our lives.
The three men in this novel represent the people who abandoned their homeland in search for a better life. This is what happens to people who abandon their homeland, their death is a shameful and undignified death not like the people who die defending their country where they are honored and looked up to. Abul Khaizuran represents the leader who betrays his people by promising them to fulfill their dreams but instead he led them to their death and he only cared to fulfill his personal needs. The road represents the struggle of life the characters go through to reach their dreams and the desert represents the obstacles that keep them for achieving the dreams. The three men had to knock to be saved but the never knocked, the Palestinians need to raise their voice in order to be heard just like knocking on the tank.
The drama of Wole Soyinka is the creative mixing of Yoruba rituals, dramatic techniques, music and dance with the foreign language, English. The rites, rituals, gestures, music and dance are some of the nonverbal techniques Soyinka employs in order to achieve his dramatic effect. The language is full of wit and graphic insult. Language is not the only thing Soyinka relies on for effective theatre but also on so many techniques. This is an attempt to discuss these techniques in some important plays of Wole Soyinka.
The big things are no doubt powerful and able to control small things yet small things are no less important. The overall personality of a person is the results of various small things jointed together. The novel also talks about rules (big thing) and transgression (by small things), love laws and love, decisions and destructions. The novel clearly expresses that the world of decision-making is not a plain world where results tally with one’s assumptions. The result is an outcome of a number of inter-related factors and is always influenced by the meta-narrative of the society. The main characters of the novel i.e. Ammu, Velutha, Estha, Rahel, Chacko, Margaret Kochamma, Baby Kochamma, Pappachi, Mammachi and Sophie Mol are left in the novel (a miniature of the world) to create an identity of their own by accepting or denying the big things of life. “Neither is they chosen from the common rung of the society nor are their problems related to food, clothing and shelter. They are rebels and their rebellion is not so much directed against society as against individuals. Their problems are neither physical nor social. They are psychical and emotional” (Kunhambu 277). Of course in a society, knit with power relations, their places promise different level of freedom and consequences. The novel is important in displaying that in a universe of big things an individual can hardly find oneself
Women in the Glass Menagerie were modeled after women of the Victorian age: "They all seem to reflect a Victorian culture in the South which required that a lady be charming but not a breadwinner. They lived in a world of their own imagination and are unable to cope with a highly competitive, commercial society. Their dreams center around men who were never there" (Falk 168). They are not raised to be simple housewives but to be prim and proper.