introduction of drama

in this class, my lecturer gives me handout about overview of the history of theatre. In semester 2, i have taken a subject,"Introduction to Critical Appreciation". This subject gives me some input about drama thus before entering this class, i already have clues on what i am going to learn that day. my lecturer explains about history of english drama from Greek period until 20th century drama. i found out that there are a lot of changes happens to drama ever since. In Athen the plays mostly about Athenian ruler who is considered by his people as a great ruler. "Oedipus Rex" is one the the plays that portrays such situation. After that , drama moves to talk about religion , specifically Christian. Then, the plays is conquered by William Shakespeare and a few other playwrights. They talked about moral of the people. Next is the restoration of drama.The plays is being performed for high class people in the society. However, at 20th century, drama is being forgotten since new forms of literary works such as poetry emerged. I learnt in this class that there are two types of drama,tragedy and comedy. At first, i am quite confused with this two terms but after my lecturer gives example of tragedy and comedy, i can differentiate them well. Other than that, my lecturer teaches me on the conventions of theatre such as acts, scenes, space and also stage directions.

seven ages of man

Sphinx’s riddle in Oedipus Rex;

“What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at evening?”

William Shakespeare’s play, ‘As You Like It’;

JAQUES: All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arm;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into a lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning against toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.


Both Sphinx’s riddle in “Oedipus Rex” and William Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It” discuss about same message. The message is about the cycle we need to face in our life. “Four legs in the morning” means a baby need to use both hand and leg to crawl while in Shakespeare’s work, he describes the first stage of a man as “the infant”.

William Shakespeare divides stages in life into seven categories contrasted to the riddle which describes three stages only. Shakespeare gives readers hints that everybody that lives will dies when the time has come for them to leave this world that Shakespeare refers to as “a stage”. Personally, I am touched with Shakespeare’s work as I am begin to think when I will be buried six feet under. I also think about my dreams whether it will come true one day or I do not have enough time to achieve all of them. Right now, I think I am in the stage of “soldier” in Shakespeare’s poem. I have already being an infant, school-boy, and lover”. Now, I realized that I am halfway of the journey before I meet my death. It looks like I hardly believe I am already twenty one years old this year. Congratulations to both Sophocles and Shakespeare for their meaningful work.

What I will consider before I make a performance?

I feel that costumes really play important part in a play. It gives clue to us about the physical setting of the play. For example, if the setting is a battlefield, the actor will wear soldier’s uniform. From the costumes that both actors and actresses wear we can relate it to the time setting of the play. Those days, people dressed differently from us today. If the time setting is during Greek Period, we can see actresses wearing gowns that Greek people used to wear thus the director need to know what type of cloth that is popular during that era. More that that, cultural setting can be conveyed implicitly to us since we can guess what country the play takes place. It also enhances our knowledge about history and geography of the specific places.

first reading of "Oedipus Rex"

I have never read this play before so I have no idea what this play is all about. First thing that I do whenever my friend gives me the handout is looking at the picture of Sophocles at the front page. After that I realized that this paly is a very long play. I found difficulties when I read this play because I am not familiar with the setting. I also noticed there are prologue, parodos, scene 1, ode 1, scene 2, ode 2, scene 3, ode 3, scene 4, ode 4 and exodos in this play. I have never heard of the terms before thus it makes me really worried. I surf the internet to get analysis and summary of this play and I am grateful because after I read the analysis I managed to understand the overall ideas in the play.

The Four Ages by W.B Yeats

The Four Ages of Manby William Butler Yeats

He with body waged a fight,

But body won; it walks upright.Then he struggled with the heart;
Innocent and peace depart.

Then he struggled with the mind;

His proud heart he left behind.

Now his wars on God begin;

At stroke of midnight God shall win


Yeats writes about stages in a man's life. He divides the stages into four categories. I realized that the poem tells the reader that a man needs to conquer his feelings first before he could deal with his mind. Yeats describes a man who can handle his feelings can moved to the third stage which is matured in thinking. Whenever a man reached maturity,he is at the highest point in his life,maybe he is already married and have kids.The last and final stage is when he is dead. Yeats uses metaphor "midnight" to suggest that it is the end of his life. It is the time that he will meet his God. God created him and sent him to the world. Finally, God also will take him back.