Times Plays example essay topic

Essay - Analyse the ways theatre has evolved through time. Close analysis of three plays from three different time periods should be included to show evidence of these trends. Theatre is like a child. Just as a child grows and is shaped by its environment, so too the theatre has evolved due to the culture and influences of society. The 3 texts that I have chosen to illustrate this are: Oedipus the King, Pygmalion and The Crucible. These texts illustrate the reply of playwrights of the day responding to the changing social fabric of society.

We can see this in the following aspects: the reasons for production of the plays the culture that surrounds them (including Language, human nature and social structures, and the role of the texts and the way in which they reflected the time. The reasons for people going to the theatre and producing plays has changed considerably over time. We can see evidence of this in the three plays. Oedipus: Oedipus was written by Sophocles around 420 BC and performed soon after in Greece. In those times plays were written and attended as a celebration for the Gods. People would flock to the theatre each spring to honour the particular gods in which they worshiped.

People would also attend for entertainment but in the early days only men were allowed to attend. Pygmalion: Pygmalion was written by George Bernard Shaw in the 1890's and performed for the first time in 1913 in England. Theatre was a big part of the culture at that time because, England being a mainly cold and wet place, all the activities that people did would take place inside. The theatre was therefore very popular.

Sources of entertainment were vastly different and far more limited in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Television had not been invented, and entertainment radio was still in its infancy. It was mainly the Middle and upper class people that attended the theatre because it was fairly expensive and the lower class couldn't afford it. The theatre was also a fashionable meeting place and a social activity. The Crucible: Was first published in 1953 in America and at that time people would go to the theatre for entertainment, as TV was not invented for another few years. People would go for the social side to it, and to be enlightened by the plays that were provided.

Sophocles portrays the basics of the Ancient Greek culture, the culture which existed in his time. The play reflects a society that is trying to come to grips with democracy, when Athens was struggling as a city, but at the same time they were still dominated by religion and totally at the mercy of the gods. Sophocles portrays Athens struggles in the text through the use of the Sphinx that is terrorising their town. People at that time would put great emphasis on what the gods (through Oracles and Prophets) had said. Likewise this comes through in Oedipus as we see many of the very important decisions were made due to something that was prophesied by an Oracle. e.g. Laius and Jocasta (parents of Oedipus) received a message from the Oracle that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother.

The parents decided to act on the message and leave Oedipus out on the mountain to be killed by wild animals. Oedipus is a great tragedy that uses themes of culture, human nature, and fate to reflect the time in which it was written. Bernard Shaw produced Pygmalion because he wanted to make people see the way in which they lived. The social trends of the time are portrayed through the play. The Upper Class, who has proper pronunciation and elegant clothes were very much separated from the lower class, who depended on the Upper class for petty cash, e.g. selling flowers on the street. The lower class were put in that category because of the way that they spoke and looked.

Miller disapproved of the separating of people because of the way they talked or dressed. So in Pygmalion we see Eliza (a lower class flower girl) get taken in by Higgins (a professor) and she is taught how to speak and dress properly. She is later mistaken for a foreign princess because she has been taught how to speak like the upper class people and is dressed according to the Upper Class fashions. Also at the time the play was written, it was the beginning of a feminist revolt. Eliza also reflected some of these ideas, as she valued her independence, and did not marry Higgins to take a place in society (as the women did in those days) but she married Freddy for love. George Bernard Shaw is portraying through Eliza how silly it is that people let these sorts of things become such a division and that it is such a superficial way to separate people.

He is also developing how the role of women was changing. So in the case of Pygmalion, Shaw is trying to shape or change the culture that surrounds it through the play. Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' was a very controversial and brave play for its time. Miller wrote the Crucible to expose a significant happening of the time.

He did so by drawing a parallel between the events of the book (Salem witch trials) and the McCarthyism that gripped America in the 1950's. There are many similarities that we can see between the two events. For example, in Salem hysteria breaks out as the people believe witch craft is evident. In America mass hysteria spread among people who feared a communist take over. Also if we compare a speech that was given by Danforth in the court to a comment by Arthur Miller about the 'witch hunt' for communists: "But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between. This is a sharp time, now, a precise time - we live no longer in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world.

Now, by God's grace, the shining sun is up, and them that fear not that light will surely praise it. I hope you will be one of those". This is in comparison to a comment by Arthur Miller about the 'witch hunt' for communists; "Any man who is not a reactionary in his views is open to the charge of alliance with red hell. Political opposition, thereby, is given an inhuman overlay which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized intercourse. A political policy is equated with, moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence (evil)". We can see his obvious comparison of the witch trials and McCarthyism.

It was a very brave thing to do even Miller himself was accused of being a communist after writing the play and he was refused a passport to attend the opening of his play in 1954. Therefore his reasons for writing the play was to expose the events that were occurring at the time. Theatre has not only changed in the reasons that the plays were written, the style and people involved in the plays have changed as well. At the time Oedipus was written, there was 3 actors, all men, and they would have one main character and the other 2 would interchange for the rest by using masks and costumes.

They had a chorus which represented the voice of society and the span of the play was only allowed to cover one day. In the 2 later plays, there was no limit to the time span of the plays, women were allowed to attend and they had as many actors as they needed - male or female. The Language of the times that the plays were written also was reflected in the theatre. In Oedipus Like most Greek drama, it is a highly formal play that is written in verse and consists of scenes among characters alternating with choral songs or the chorus. In Pygmalion, the Language of the time has a huge impact on the play, The play reflected the way in which Language reflected Social class.

The crucible is the most modern play so the Language reflected was pretty close to the way in which we speak today, but there was still a slight hint of the classes being divided due to the elocution of words. e.g. The royalty of the time would speak their words very pronounced and correct. The theme of Human Nature is present in all 3 plays, Oedipus shows the ramifications of our Flawed Human Nature. Sophocles shows this in the play Oedipus in that - Us in our human nature are concerned for ourselves, therefore we make decisions that are going to benefit us in the long run. e.g. Laius and Jocasta giving Oedipus to be killed. If this had not happened then the course of the story may have changed. But the human Nature theme has changed somewhat over time due to the changing society. Pygmalion shows a different side of Human Nature.

Shaw portrays how we find external differences in each other as to make ourselves feel better about who we are, when really we are no different from one another. Likewise in The crucible, Paris was so concerned about his own reputation that if people were to die then he didn't mind. These plays that have helped to shape theatre as we know it today are not outdated and irrelevant, they all have very strong themes that we can relate to situations here and now. Sophocles' Oedipus is one of the greatest and most enduring tragedies ever written, portraying with increasing horror the spectacular down fall of a good man and political icon as he searches for the truth behind a devastating plague that is crippling his people. Pygmalion bravely challenged the structures of society and its problems, It made people think about the way that they were living and why. The crucible exposed a key political event in our history, it has been described as "the best American play of the century" - Financial Times.

These 3 plays show the way in which theatre has evolved over the course of time. From our point of view (the future) It is easy to see how theatre is a product of the society in which it was created. Weather it was plainly reflecting society, challenging an aspect of it or exposing areas of it, it is all connected to the time it was produced. So just like a child becomes mature yet still learns and grows for their whole life, so to the theatre will continue to be shaped by the changing society and culture.