Analysis Of Picnic On The Battlefield

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Our group selected the scene starting from the beginning of the play to page 125 since it is an opening scene that captures an interesting event leading up to curiosity about what the characters will be undertaking.This scene also provides audiences a background information as well as introduces the main character .In the analysis, we focus on two elements which are characters and people’s belief shown in the play “Picnic on the Battlefield” by Fernando Arrabal. It can be a representative of the play of an absurd since it provides the themes of absurdity which are a topic of life is meaningless and the nonsense of reality.In the play, the war is shown as a meaningless thing as if it happens in normal life.Besides, the main characters that …show more content…

Firstly, Monsieur Tepan, father of Zapo, was born in the old days and had seen wars many times. He had experienced wars since soldiers fight on horseback, using a sword, so he got used to a war. One of the characteristics of Monsieur Tepan is ignorance. He does not care about what happened in a time of war. For example, when he happened to visit his son, he was not afraid of danger. It can be seen from the play that he kept repeating “you needn’t think that’ll frighten me, it won’t be the first fighting I’ve seen” when his son warned him about the Captain coming to the battlefield and get furious, he was still relaxed and said “Don’t worry, I’ll have a few words to say to your Captain.” Moreover, he is a superficial person. He always enjoys everything but does not take anything seriously. For example, he was talking nonsense about wars in the old days; he nominates himself to join the war, while he is too old and stuck in the old times of battle, with horses and swords. He comes up with impractical ideas. For instance, he gives advice to his son and Zepo to end that “It’s very simple. You just tell your pals that the enemy soldiers don’t want to fight a war, and you [to Zepo] say the same to

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