Characters Unlike The Play example essay topic

In the Greek century most drama plays were tragic, as was the play 'The Love of the Nightgale,' written by Timberlake Wertembakers. Without reading the play first, we were given the chance to watch the play on campus. After reading the book I found there to be many similar and different perspectives between the both of them. When the audience views the play, the production depends on how well the actors portray their character.

On the opening night there wasn't as many audience members so the character roles weren't effective, as it should have been compared to the literature written. The play slowly reached its climax when her brother-in-law Tereus, who was the King of Greece, had raped Philomele after her sister Pronce was pronounced dead. Later on it was revealed that Tereus had lied to Philomele in order to love her too, but when she didn't have the same intention he raped her. Philomele had threatened to tell everybody that he raped her including Pronce who wasn't dead. In order to keep Philomele quiet, Tereus had cut out her tongue instead of killing her and told her that he could still love her, which was a tragic scene.

The production of the play had the audience sympathize with Philomele and then Pronce once she found out the uncovering truth when she was also told that Philomele was dead, and her husband had raped her. Philomel's fate depended on the Gods, and therefore became a tragic myth with no end. In the last scene, when Philomele had become a Nightgale, Pronce a swallow and Tereus a hoopoe was hard comprehend without reading the text, which leaves you with questions what happened? When reading the literature, there is much better detail into each conversation with the characters than watching the play when we just have an overall view of the play.

Although there is better detail then reading the play, you don't sympathize as much with the characters as you do when you watch the play. Viewing the play, you see the actions and reactions of each character for example; when you read the beginning of the text you don't see the humor in the text when you watch Philomele and Pronce conversation about 'what men are like, even naked. ' You don't visualize the soldiers fighting in Athens, or the drum beat in the background when an event is about to occur, or more important the light setting on the stage. In the beginning of the play, there was a pure white light contrast and then Philomele had been raped it was dark on stage along with the intense music in the background and as the play went on the intensity of the light and music had vary. It is hard to visualize the background music and light setting when reading the text. The reader of the text isn't as encouraged to sympathize with any of the characters unlike the play.

It is a given to sympathize with Philomele and her sister Pronce but to watch there actions and reactions on stage is different then reading the text. Watching each sister's emotions run across their face evokes sympathy. I would encourage everybody to read the text first, to have a better understanding of the play and the conversations with each character then watch the play. The characters and setting has a big effect on the audience of how well they perform the literature. I believe reading the text will help the reader grasp what is going on in the play. To get the full emotional experience one should definitely view the play because so many different aspects are involved when you are able to see and feel the emotions and tragedies of each character.