Ancient Greek Play example essay topic

The Way of Greek Play Wrights The Greek Play Wright, Sophocles, wrote both the Antigone and Oedipus the King. Sophocles wrote Antigone around 441 B.C. and followed with the writings of Oedipus the King around 425 B.C. In Antigone King Creon decides that Polynices the traitor is to be buried, but his sister Antigone dislikes the order. She is caught, and sentenced by Creon to be buried alive-even though she is betrothed to his son Haemon. After the blind prophet Tiresias proves that the gods are on Antigone's side, Creon changes his mind but too late. He goes first to bury Polynices, but Antigone had already hanged herself. When Creon arrives at the tomb, Haemon attacks him and then kills himself.

When the news of their death is reported, Creon's wife Eurydice takes her own life. Creon is left all alone at the end of the play. In Oedipus the King it was said that the king and queen of Thebes would give birth to a child who would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. His parents feared this, so they nailed their son's feet together and left him stranded on a mountainside. He was founded by a wondering shepherd and taken to the town of Corinth. He was then adopted and raised as the prince in the royal household.

After he grew older he heard about the prophecy. He left Corinth to wander around Greece. Along the way he met a group of travelers, killed an old man, his real father. Later he arrived in Thebes and met the Sphinx, a monster who guarded the gates of the city.

He answered the riddle correctly and was named King of Thebes. He was then married to a woman named Jocasta, his real mother. Why did men play the role of women in early Greek playwrights? Once a woman was married her husband had complete control of her. He controlled all property that she may have inherited. She had no rights to wander about the town, without a sufficient reason.

Any respectable women would not be seen in public. They contained no political rights and were run by men at every stage of their lives. Since men spent so much time away, women dominated Greek households. The wife was in charge of raising the children and making the clothes for the family.

The only appropriate time for a woman to leave her house was to visit a female neighbor. These are a few reasons to show why males played the parts of females. With all these duties there was no time for them to participate in plays. At first in dithyramb ous, there were no actors. Thespis was the poet who imported the first hypocrite, Aeschylus the second and Sophocles the third one. At the beginning actors were chosen by the poets.

In the 5th century they were being chosen by the state. The hypocrites were always men, even if the were playing female roles. The male characters playing female roles were usually young boys, because they hadn't staged puberty. This allowed their voices to maintain a high pitch. In order to appear as a female, they would wear the prosternida before the chest and the progastrida before the belly.

In order to look taller and more impressive they wore cothornous (wooden shoes with big heels). They were dressed in long robes with vertical stripes. The most important part of their costume was the mask. Because the number of actors varied from one to three, they put on different masks, in order to play more roles. Usually they were made of linen, wood, or leather. A marble or stone face was used as the mould of the face.

They tried everything possible to maintain the female characteristics, while using a male. If plays were performed how they were in Ancient Greece during today's society it would be a disappointment to society. This sight of a male playing a females role, would humor our society. In the last century we have made a lot, if not everything equal to both sexes. One recent example is, there has to be a female athletic event for every male event in high school. This was never heard of in early years, but we are making progression as a society.

We don't believe in women having certain duties or on the other hand, males having certain duties. Many of the great films and plays today contain female actors. With a male playing their role, it wouldn't do justice to the importance of the play or film. One could say that we are very lucky today. We have the ability to do a lot more things and life appears to be a lot easier. Women are allowed out of the house, therefore given the freedom to do as much or as less as they desire.

An Ancient Greek play would not interest today's society if it were ran the same as Sophocles'. It may be considered more of a humor play, because of the all male cast of characters. People today are pleased with the way things are, causing change to be extremely difficult.