theatre Studies Portfolio.

597 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of women in Greek myth

Throughout the year the texts we have studied have provided us with inspiration on the topic and themes of our devised drama. The texts we have studied in Theatre Studies have been Anton Chekov’s “Three Sisters” and Sophocles’ “Antigone”, one of the three Theban plays. The link between these plays is the role of women and could be described as proto-feminist. “Antigone” shows us a woman who is prepared to go against the rule of the city and Creon, whom should be the dominant male in the play. “Three Sisters” portrays three women who cope with the death of their father, and live without men in their lives. We have used both of these ideas in our devised drama, as all our women are single and go against the stereotypical view of women allowing the audience to see a contrast of five women, all a foil to the traditional view of women in the catholic church.
We have also been influenced by a collection of poetry we have studies on our English Literature course. Carol Ann Duffy is well known as a feminist writer and her 1999 collection, “The World Wife” is an original collection in which she explores the view of the wives of historical, biblical and mythological men and gives the reader a chance to see the great tales concerning these men through the eyes of the woman, who is often shown to be much more strength in character than her husband or partner. After studying the poems, our group decided to base our five female characters on poems in the play, these poems being “Delilah”, “Mrs Faust”, “Mrs Midas”, “Salmone” and “Mrs Lazarus”. Using these as guidelines for our characters, the five girls in our group were able to elaborate on then, using the techniques of our practitioner, Stanisvlaski, to create a full character from the narrative in our selected poems.
Caryl Churchill’s play “Top Girls” was also an influence on us. The play “Top Girls” shows the audience famous women from the past having a dinner party together and discussing their experiences to one another. This is not unlike our devised drama and influenced us to choose the setting of a gathering.
The 1995 movie “How To Make An American Quilt” directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse inspired us for the idea of our women making a quilt together to commemorate the memory of a person from the village in which our play is set.

Show More
Related

  • Women's Roles in Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    Over the course of time, the roles of men and women have changed dramatically. As women have increasingly gained more social recognition, they have also earned more significant roles in society. This change is clearly reflected in many works of literature, one of the most representative of which is Plautus's 191 B.C. drama Pseudolus, in which we meet the prostitute Phoenicium. Although the motivation behind nearly every action in the play, she is glimpsed only briefly, never speaks directly, and earns little respect from the male characters surrounding her, a situation that roughly parallels a woman's role in Roman society of that period. Women of the time, in other words, were to be seen and not heard. Their sole purpose was to please or to benefit men. As time passed, though, women earned more responsibility, allowing them to become stronger and hold more influence. The women who inspired Lope de Vega's early seventeenth-century drama Fuente Ovejuna, for instance, rose up against not only the male officials of their tiny village, but the cruel (male) dictator busy oppressing so much of Spain as a whole. The roles women play in literature have evolved correspondingly, and, by comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue, we can see that fictional women have just as increasingly as their real-word counterparts used gender differences as weapons against men.

    Read More

  • Male Roles in the Plays Antigone and A Doll’s House

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Remember we are women, we’re not born to contend with men” (Sophocles, 18). The popular literary works, Antigone and A Doll’s House, written by Sophocles and Ibsen, are two famous tragedies that have been performed and read throughout the decades. Although countless audiences have been entertained by these well written plays, few would care to guess that many lessons and several unfortunate truths can be found with a less than tedious inspection of the characters and the reactions they give to their circumstances. The two main characters in these stories, Antigone and Nora, face adversities and problems that are amplified by their society’s views on the rights and abilities of women. The two main male characters in these plays, Creon and Helmer, cause the greater part of the struggle that the female protagonists face. The difficulties that Helmer and Creon create during the plot of these stories are the cause of three major characteristics of what one would consider typical to a headstrong man in a leadership position. The three features of Creon and Helmer that lead to the eventual downfall of Antigone and Nora, are pride, arrogance, and ignorance.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Sophocles' Antigone: A Greek Perspective

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Gender,” throughout the years has been defined and redefined by societies, and individuals. “Gender roles,” have, and still do contribute to these definitions. Literature contains prime examples of how gender roles were perceived in different time periods, showing readers the views of an author through the characters and their traits. Sophocles’ Antigone is a Greek tragedy, that heavily depicts the gender roles found in ancient Greek society, also providing insight into what would be seen as “normal” and “abnormal” behavior in relation to gender in Greece. In the play, Antigone, a daughter of the late King of Thebes, Oedipus, becomes distraught when she learns that her two brothers have killed each other, and furthermore, that her uncle and newfound king, Creon has forbidden the burial of one of her brothers.

    Read More

  • Obeyed Wifehood And Conceiving Womanhood In Othello And Oroonoko

    2129 Words  | 5 Pages

    Many readers feel the tendency to compare Aphra Behn's Oroonoko to William Shakespeare's Othello. Indeed they have many features in common, such as wives executed by husbands, conflicts between white and black characters, deceived heroes, the absolute vulnerability of women, etc. Both works stage male characters at both ends of their conflicts. In Othello, the tragic hero is Othello, and the villain is Iago. In Oroonoko, the hero is Oroonoko, the vice of the first part is the old king, and the second part white men in the colony. In contrast to their husbands, both heroines—Desdemona and Imoinda—seem more like "function characters" who are merely trapped in their husband's fates, occasionally becoming some motivation of their husbands (like Desdemona is Othello's motivation to rage, Imoinda's pregnancy drives Oroonoko restless to escape). While Shakespeare and Behn put much effort in moulding them, to many readers they are merely "perfect wives". This paper aims to argue that, Desdemona and Imoinda's perfect wifehood may be the product of compliance to male-dominated societies, where women are

    Read More

  • Othello and the Force of Love

    3014 Words  | 7 Pages

    Pitt, Angela. “Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.

    Read More

  • Drama Portfolio

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    Drama Portfolio How did the first drama exercise develop your ideas? We first tried a simple drama interview with some prejudice. We thought we could develop it by adding more drama strategies. We also thought that we could increase the prejudice of the interviewer and maybe, instead of him saying his own inner thoughts, he could have a conscience/alter-ego to say it for him. This lead on to the thought that we could make his alter-egos control him and his actions.

    Read More

  • Othello and the Virtue of Love

    2748 Words  | 6 Pages

    Pitt, Angela. “Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.

    Read More

  • Revenge and Vengeance - Revenge More Important than Oedipus Complex

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pitt, Angela. "Women in Shakespeare's Tragedies." Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare's Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.

    Read More

  • Othello

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare illustrates the injustices done to women by demonstrating the treatment Desdemona and Emilia received after having been framed of adultery. Because both women are though of cheating on their husbands, they no longer fit in society’s model of an exemplary wife. Despite having proved their affection for their husbands countless of times, not having a pure image led to Iago and Othello mistreating of the women they once loved. Once both women began to stand up for themselves and challenge the authority of their husbands, the repercussions of their bravery were both women’s death. Which shows, women’s only source of authority was their reputation as a wife. Once they lost that status, they no longer held any form or respect in society or with their husband’s.

    Read More

  • Feminism In Lysistrata

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    The play was considered comic by the ancient Athenians because of its rhyming lyricism, its song and dance, its bawdy puns, but most of all because the notion and methods of female empowerment conceived in the play were perfectly ridiculous. Yet, as is the case in a number of Aristophanes’ plays, he has presented an intricate vision of genuine human crisis. In true, comic form Aristophanes superficially resolves the play’s conflicts celebrating the absurdity of dramatic communication. It is these loose threads that are most rife with tragedy for modern reader. By exploring an ancient perspective on female domesticity, male political and military power, rape, and efforts to maintain the integrity of the female body, we can liberate our modern dialogue.

    Read More

  • Shakespeare's Hamlet - Horatio, Hamlet’s Dearest Friend

    2575 Words  | 6 Pages

    Pitt, Angela. “Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.

    Read More

  • Justification of Death in Hamlet

    2588 Words  | 6 Pages

    Pitt, Angela. "Women in Shakespeare's Tragedies." Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare's Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.

    Read More

  • Themes in Hamlet

    3032 Words  | 7 Pages

    Pitt, Angela. “Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Excerpted from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.

    Read More

  • How are women presented in Romeo and Juliet ,To his Coy Mistress and The Human Intrest ?

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    I shall endeavour to explore and analyse how women are presented in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and Duffy’s “Human Interest”.

    Read More

  • Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy

    1096 Words  | 3 Pages

    The World Wife anthology written by Carol Ann Duffy, challenges the established exemplification of prevailing characteristics found in both genders, in a patriarchal society. Duffy manipulates some of these characteristics in the poem through the mythological allusion of medusa. The innocence of womanhood is overshadowed by the protagonists’ related violent imageries; instead, she is seen to be redoubtable and menacing, attributes associated with men. Society’s categories for what is masculine and feminine are portrayed to be unrealistic, and undermining. The main character is, however, still capable of possessing more ‘females based’ strengths and weaknesses, such as her strong emotions, which show a juxtaposition of love and hatred. Women, therefore, possess the disposition of both femininity and masculinity, creating a superior appearance.

    Read More

More about theatre Studies Portfolio.

Open Document