In the Blood and Greek Tragedy
In the Blood (1999), by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, tells the sad tale of protagonist
Hester La Negrita, a homeless, black single mother to five fatherless children. At its core, the play is a powerful allegorical treatise, social commentary and criticism of America’s welfare system and its treatment of the poor. It exposes the double standards, brutality, prejudice, and sexual persecution of those whom are branded morally bereft and, therefore, most vulnerable to victimization and subjugation.
Although Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter informs the plays leitmotif,
In the Blood’s roots are firmly planted in Aristotelian tenets. Hester La Negrita, the tragic heroine, is struggling to “get her leg up” and start life anew for herself and her children, Jabber, Bully, Trouble, Beauty and Baby. Adhering to the principals of Tragedy recorded in Poetics, In the Blood utilizes a classical Greek Chorus, in the form of “Confessions”, which provide exposition, commentary and the foreshadowing of events. As in all Greek Tragedy, Hester’s Fate is pre...
In Harriet E. Wilson’s only known work, Our Nig; Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, I read about a young black girl who grows up as an indentured servant to a large Bellmont family. In the readings I read, the young girl has three names: Alfrado, Frado and Nig. In this essay, I’ll refer to her as Frado. Although Our Nig is an actual fictitious novel, our literature book only gives us three chapters. Each of these small chapters tells us a great story.
Georgia Douglas Johnson was a playwright of the Harlem Renaissance whose social commentary delved into the hardships of African Americans in the early 20th century. As an African American woman of the time, Johnson often brought to light the difficulties of her race and gender. In Johnson’s play Plumes she invites her audience into an everyday kitchen, with two hardworking early 20th century African American women trying navigate their way through a racially oppressive and patriarchal society. Johnson uses the characters’ desires to provide for those that they love, as an illustration to the adversity of everyday life of the African American in her time, particularly the African American woman. In this paper, I will explore the complications
Characters in the play show a great difficult finding who they are due to the fact that they have never been given an opportunity to be anything more than just slaves; because of this we the audience sees how different characters relate to this problem: " Each Character has their own way of dealing with their self-identity issue..some look for lost love o...
Slave narratives are not meant to be uplifting but this story brings depressive reading to a whole new level. Frado’s story is one of unrelenting abuse and pain. Through Wilson’s style the reader understands every point of view and especially the views of prejudice and racism. The title “Our Nig” relates one of the most insulting realities of Frado’s existence. She was property in a sense. Her labor and her efforts were equated to those of a horse that could be broken when necessary. Frado’s encounters and relationships further distinguish this novel from other slave narratives. This story shows what society and what the human spirit is capable of. People can cause the immense suffering of others but People can also rise up from the depths of despair and overcome great obstacles.
The influential roles of women in the story also have important effects on the whole poem. It is them that press the senses of love, family care, devotion, and other ethical attitudes on the progression of the story. In this poem the Poet has created a sort of “catalogue of women” in which he accurately creates and disting...
The reader is introduced to an insight of Titus Andronicus’ cruel nature, after he ignores Tamora’s cry to have her first-born son saved from his sacrifice to revenge the lives of his sons that her Goth people took. This new interpretation of Titus as a ruthless murderer heavily contradicts the reader’s first impression of Titus that Marcus gave the reader. Marcus initially leads the reader to except that Titus is good and honorable man. Titus’ sudden act of violence makes the reader realizes that he has two sides to his character: the relentless warrior and the beloved hero. However as the play unfolds, an individual can realize that everything that occurs throughout the play is connected to the initial sacrifice. It is evident that Titus’ character goes through many changes, the not one but many sides of his personality are revealed.
Alexandros Papadiamantis’ tale, The Murderess, is a riveting probe unto the juxtaposition of gender roles and a woman’s place as the matriarch of the family. Set in the Greek island of Skiathos during the 1900s, the community has manipulated typical societal standards in order to create a very androcentric ideal. Frankojannou, the decrepit soul that heads her family, is a woman bound by religion and her own suffering as a woman of society. Papadiamantis exposes the rigidity of gender roles through Frankojannou, or Hadoula, by allowing the reader the insight into her thoughts. Though Hadoula is bound by the same gender roles as any other woman in her society, her actions contradiction that of which are set by the community she resides in.
In Federico Garcia Lorca's surrealist play, Blood Wedding, the characters remain extremely influenced by their culture. The setting occurs in a small region of Southern Spain- Andalusia. This part of Spain is very rural and poverty-stricken. Though this region has been poor for decades, during the 1930s, when the Spanish Civil War began, the entire country began suffering financially. In times of desperation, the Andalusian people took pride in non-tangible objects. Their culture was based off of pride, like their last name, the women's purity, and the fruitfulness of their land. Characters in the play, the Bridegroom, his Mother, and the Bride's Servant all followed their cultural values strictly. They passionately conveyed the importance of their culture throughout the play. In the play, Federico Garcia Lorca reveals the remote yet traditional culture of his Andalusian characters in Blood Wedding through showing how the Bridegroom, his Mother and the Bride’s Servant react when put in situations that include the issue of the ideology of men being dominant, while the suppressed women are characterized to be feeble and directed, and how these characters react when they are faced with rebellious others.
From the beginning, one can only imagine the outcome of Apollo’s seduction of Creusa. To make matters worse she has a child. There is an uncanny feeling of darkness and silence as she is made to keep her lips sealed. It appears that she gave up her son from fear of her parents. Like many young girls today she made a drastic decision in order to conceal her pregnancy. Apollo in this play is given human attributes. He is depicted as a barbarian who truly lacks the goodness of a god. Indeed a critical problem has developed with Apollo’s seduction of Creusa.
Few plot elements inspire such an emotional reaction in readers as does hypocrisy. Not only do readers feel genuine anger at the actions of the hypocritical character, but they also feel deep sympathy for the Hester Prynnes of the stories they read. This tandem of anger and sympathy is a powerful tool for an author to use to draw readers into his or her tale, because creating an emotional response in one’s audience is the best way to make them identify with the story. The response of the readers to these situations is a fascinating one. Perhaps the reader remembers a time when s/he was the victim of a two-faced action. Perhaps stories about hypocrisy evoke a sense of moral outrage or awaken a sense of justice in the reader. Perhaps the reader is simply fascinated with having a secret that s/he is unable to tell. For whatever reason, authors have carefully woven threads of hypocrisy into the fabric of their stories since the very dawn of literature. Some of the best examples of this skill (as indeed of many others) come from the writings of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s astute observations of human nature coupled with his amazing word craftsmanship have created some of the most memorable hypocrite characters in all of literature. From the twisted, jealous, hatred of Iago in Othello to the lusty self-righteousness of Angelo in Measure for Measure, we can glean a sense of Shakespeare’s masterful manipulation of hypocrisy to create a tempting tale. Iago and Angelo are true hypocrites.
One of the most significant differences between Andromache and Hernani occur in their subject matters (1). Racine’s play is based on ancient Greek mythology that was part of the classical education of the seventeenth century; hence the audience was familiar with the characters and story line. In addition, the focus on duty in the play was meant to encourage the aristocratic audience to make compromises and follow what duty dictates in life, just like Andromache did, who, at the end of the play, is the only victor. On the other hand, Hernani is not based on classical mythology and would not have been known to the audience when it was first presented. Unlike Andromache, it takes place in the recent past in the sixteenth century, presenting a fictitious depiction of the Spanish court with the only real character as ...
In Lorca's "Blood Wedding", the play is adapted from true events, The Níjar murder case. The play was written in 1932 and first performed in Madrid in March 1933. The play deals with the Spanish culture, and how all women and men have specific roles for each in this culture and it has an effective image about traditions, manners and how they were taken seriously in that period of time. In addition to these topics, this play also consists of a strong and a coarse love story.
In this fragment, Iago uses resources like the animalización and the use of erotic language to put of relevance the savagery and the monstrous thing in Othello. These words provoked
Two key characters that drove the plot of tragic plays were those of female gender. Past actions of Iocasta in “Oedipus Rex” and Gertrude in “Hamlet” were some of the main ingredients that initiated the tragic nature of the play. This all led to the unfortunate demise of themselves and many important characters. It is interesting to note the importance of both these woman during the play, though the periods in which they were written saw minimum to no use of the female form. Both these women are mothers of the main characters, which allows for the past decisions and sections to hold sever consequences. Their numerous deeds of selfish acts in their past set forth the theme guilt which consumes and devours them both.
The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd is a founder play of the tragedy during the Elizabethan period since it raises important issues of this time, such as the cruel and unfair death, revenge, social status as well as allegiance to the sovereign. These topics reached the population and it is probably due to this that The Spanish Tragedy was successful at the time. This paper will focus its analysis on the scene 2 of the first act, which is a short but meaningful passage of the play. This passage, which takes place at the beginning of the play, gives an idea of the initial situation. It allows the reader to become familiar with the characters, to know their role in the play and their intentions. This essay will be divided into four parts falling into line with the speaking turns of characters in this scene. The first part will focus on the General’s speech to the King of Spain. The second part will be concerned about the three times when Hieronimo pleads his son's cause to the King. The third part will look at the discussion between Balthazar, Prince of Portugal and the King of Spain. The fourth and final part will address on the quarrel between Lorenzo, the Spanish King’s nephew and Horatio, Hieronimo’s son and on how the King solves the quarrel by rewarding them for their acts.