Chapter 1: Theatre Language

Drama: a particular kind of literature written to be performed; a pattern of words and actions with the potential for becoming living words and actions

Theatre as an Art Form is different from other art forms It has unique properties not present in other forms: Live event The most important element of the theatre is the live interaction between performer and audience. For theatre to happen there must be an audience and performer.

Transitory Art --It cannot be fixed or held in time --This is the ephemeral nature of theatre. It is a temporary event that lasts only for a finite amount of time, ie. the length of the actual performance. --It is not possible to exactly reproduce the same event every time. --Each production is unique; each performance in that production is unique. --A film or television show is static--it never changes because it is recorded. --Each production and performance of Master Harold and the Boys will be different from others. --This is different from the written play script, which remains static. --Plot, dialogue, basic stage directions, etc. always remain the same in the written script.

Interpretive art --The production team interprets the script and finds ways to translate the meaning of the written words into a live production for a live audience.

Collaborative Art --The creation of the stage production is a collaborative art. --The production team works together (collaborates) to translate the meaning of the written text into a staged performance.

The Production Team --Includes the playwright, director, designers, and actors. --Together they will interpret the playwright’s work by filling in details of character, action, scenery, costumes, lighting and sound. --They communicate meaning to the audience using visual, verbal and emotional cues.

The Playwright --The playwright is the theatre artist who authors the script that is frequently the starting point for theatrical creation. --uses language to express dramatic action. --responsible for determining the subject matter of the play. --decides where the action will take place and over how long a period of time.

1 --decides how the events of the drama will unfold. --For a play to make sense, it must have a beginning, middle and end.

The Playwright’s Vision --The playwright creates a text that is the starting point or “jumping off” place for the creation of a production. --The production team collaborates to interpret the meaning of the script and realize the playwrights’ vision through scenery, costumes, lights, sound, etc. --The ensemble works to bring this interpretation to life through characterization, actor behavior, blocking, etc. --Together these people create a production for a live audience.

Script or Playtext --The dialogue, stage directions, and character descriptions that together constitute the printed text of a play.

Performance Text --The interpretive production of the playtext; what the audience sees and hears. -- The specific choices by the principal decision makers that create the fictive world through the use of Theatre languages. Contrast with Play text.

Theatrical Conventions: devices of dramatic construction and performance that facilitate the presentation of stories on stage

Theatre Languages--the verbal and nonverbal tools of communication used by theatre artists to organize the audience’s perceptions and to create the fictive world of the play. --Scenery, Lighting, Costume, Makeup, Actorly behavior --Actorly Behavior—all the actor does, through his/her own person to create a character living through fictive circumstances. Includes physical stance, movement, vocal quality, volume, timing, intellectual focus and interaction with other characters, props, and scenery.

Fictive World: the world of the play; an alternate reality designed to be perceived by spectators. Fictive because it’s an illusion created out of imagination; a world because it is a complete image. --It is in the fictive world that characters exist and pursue their goals. Actors are not characters, they—with other theatre makers—simulate characters. The fictive world is the imaginative envisioning of many theatre workers made accessible to a spectator. It is a complex idea-driven form made palpable to the senses. --The spectator witnesses the work of the theatre workers and imagines the fictive world. “The willing suspension of disbelief” allows the fictive world to exist for and be responded to by the spectator. --The fictive world is the imagined universe where a play’s action takes place. Because it is imagined, it operates according to the laws devised by its makers. The creative artists,

2 esp. the principal decision makers, shape the performance text to make it correspond to the imagined fictive world. They create it out of their own private fund of impressions, drawing upon the real world only when they want to and only to the extent that seems appropriate. Audiences imagine the fictive world but do so by allowing the stimuli of the performance text to shape their thinking.

Action --The term “action” refers to the movement of the actors and the unfolding of a play’s events. Action may be physical or psychological.

Plot --The term “plot” refers to the sequence of actions that determine what happens in a play; the events that make up the play’s story.

Exposition --Exposition is a strategy used by playwrights to give information or explain events not seen in the action of the play. This is information the audience needs to know in order to understand the plot and characters of a play; “describing.”

Enactment --literally, to act out. The events presented on stage that the audience sees; “doing.”

Emergent Meaning --The unfolding of events at enactment speed; a movement of consciousness or understanding. --The significance seen in each succeeding moment of the event alters with the observer’s shifting awareness.

Conflict --Conflict is the “problem” or “problems” faced by the characters of the play that must be resolved. It can also be defined as the collision of two opposing forces. The way conflict is resolved is what makes a play interesting and compelling.

Crisis --A unit of the dramatic action that brings about a significant change or climax. It is a situation in which opposing forces are clearly arrayed against each other, thereby forcing a decisive moment when things will go in either one direction or another. A crisis precipitates a climax. In a crisis, a major dramatic question is vividly set forth and an answer to that question is actively pursued. --There can be, and usually are, many crises in a play. Each crisis promotes a climax which moves the action forward. A major crisis is one which resolves the dramatic action as a whole. Often it is a scene in which the protagonist and antagonist meet in a way in which there can be no backing off or avoidance.

3 Climax -- Any point in a dramatic story when a crisis, either major or subsidiary, reaches a point of resolution. It is a moment at which opposing forces are so engaged that they create a high point of tension. It is the point at which the conflicts between those opposing forces resolve the immediate action. It is the culmination of the crisis, it grows from it.

Resolution --end the conflict, wrap up the action, and/or bring the events to a conclusion. Chaos and disruption are smoothed away and loose ends are tidied up.

Protagonist and Antagonist --The protagonist is the leading character of a play. S/he is the character the play is about and the one who changes the most over the course of the play. --The antagonist is the person or force opposing the protagonist.

Ensemble --The ensemble is the group of actors who work closely together and share the responsibility for the performance of the play.

Blocking --All the movement of the actors on the stage during a play.

Dialogue --Dialogue is spoken language. The playwright writes the dialogue for the actors to speak out loud. --Sometimes, the playwright will indicate in the script that the actors are to improvise spoken language. The actors speak as their characters would.

Dénouement --A device used by playwrights to bring all the events to a conclusion.

Polar Conditions--a comparison between the circumstances in place early in the script/performance with those in place late in the script/performance; useful for analyzing the psychological changes in a character.

4 Master Harold…and the boys by Athol Fugard

Athol Fugard is a prominent playwright, novelist, director, and actor whose work is mostly based on and around the South African apartheid. He has won multiple awards and has received numerous honorary degrees.

Harold Athol Lannigan Fugard was born June 11th, 1932 in Middleburg, Cape Province, South Africa. His father was Polish/Irish and his mother was an Afrikaner. Because Fugard's father was disabled, his mother ran the family businesses: The Jubilee Residential Hotel and the St. George’s Park Tea Room. Fugard and his father had a tense relationship, which is why the writer decided to go by Athol (his grandfather's name) instead of Harold, his father's name.

Fugard attended the University of Cape Town until he dropped out to travel around Africa, and later, he served on a merchant ship. He then worked as a journalist in Port Elizabeth. He married Sheila Meiring, an actress, and the two formed the Cape Town Circe Players, a theater workshop. His first play, Klaas and the Devil, premiered in 1957.

Fugard first became aware of the harsh realities resulting from apartheid when he took a job as a clerk in the Native Commissioner’s Court in Fordsburg. There, he dealt with cases of black South Africans violating the “pass laws” (passports laws making it difficult for black South Africans to travel and/or migrate). The experience had a deep impact on Fugard.

In order to have more opportunities in the theater, Fugard and his wife moved to London. By this time, he had written the play The Blood Knot about two African brothers, one with lighter skin and one with darker skin, as they navigate their familial relationship and their racially segregated society. He had tried to show it in South Africa but it was banned because it depicted interracial relationships. Fugard could finally stage the play in London.

The Blood Knot premiered as a television broadcast in 1967, which led to the British government revoking Fugard’s passport for four years and keeping him under state surveillance. While he was detained, he wrote and staged Boesman and Lena, which won an Obie award. Most of Fugard’s writing focuses on anti-apartheid themes. His body of work can be separated into the Port Elizabeth plays, the Township plays, the Exile plays, Statements, the My Africa plays, and the Sorrows. The Port Elizabeth plays are deeply personal and deal with apartheid’s effects on South African families. One of Fugard's most renowned plays, “Master Harold”… and the boys”, is part of this series.

As apartheid came to a bloody and chaotic end in the 1980s and 1990s, Fugard’s work began to address the post-apartheid struggle. Plays like My Children! My Africa! and Valley Song deal with the resulting familial and political turmoil. He published his memoir, Cousins, in 1994.

5 Most of Fugard's work was banned in South Africa until 1994. The majority of his plays premiered in London or America. He first staged several of his plays at the Yale Repertory Theater, and a handful had Broadway openings. In 2005, South Africa granted Athol Fugard the Order of Ikhamanga for “his excellent contribution and achievements in the theater.” His debut as a film director was The Road to Mecca (1992). In 2006, the film adaptation of Fugard's novel Tsotsi won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Athol Fugard currently teaches acting, directing, and playwriting at the University of California, San Diego. His most recent play was Coming Home (2009).

“Master Harold”…and the boys is a multifaceted, stirring testament to the cruelty of apartheid in South Africa. It is Athol Fugard’s most frequently performed and most popular play. Based on events from Fugard’s life, Master Harold is renowned for its evocation of painful memories from South Africa's troubled history. He strikingly portrays the pervasive racism and patriarchy of the time while working to exorcise his own personal demons.

When Athol Fugard was a child, his mother managed the Jubilee Residential House and the St. George Tea Room in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Meanwhile, Fugard's father was disabled, which kept him from working. He was also an alcoholic, going in and out of hospitals, and he held extremely racist opinions. The younger Fugard went by “Hally” as a young man and was very close to two of his family's older black servants, Sam and Willie. When he was ten, Fugard had an argument with Sam and spat on him. He wrote in his journal that he immediately felt regret and shame. This journal entry served as the inspiration for “Master Harold”.

In a 1982 interview, Athol Fugard explained that he wrote the play “at one level, in an attempt to understand how and why I am the man that I am.” In the same interview, Fugard accused his father of being “full of pointless, unthoughtout prejudices,” but that his mother’s “outrage over the injustice of [South African] society” helped him to develop his progressive moral perspective.

Fugard was forbidden from staging his plays in South Africa because white and black actors could not be onstage together. As a result, Fugard directed the world premiere of "Master Harold"... and the boys at the Yale Repertory Theater in March 1982. Zakes Mokae played Sam, Danny Glover played Willie, and Zeljko Ivanek was Hally. A few months later, the play moved to the Lyceum Theater on Broadway. It received excellent reviews. The New York Times critic wrote that the play “forced [the audience] to confront our own capacity for cruelty – and to see all too clearly just who it is we really hurt when we give in to it.”

By March of 1983, the South African ban on the play was lifted, and Master Harold... and the boys premiered at a theater in Johannesburg. The Times reviewer for the South African show observed that audience members were “visibly stunned… many, blacks and whites, were crying.”

6 The New Yorker proclaimed that the play works on two levels: “as the story of a loving but lacerating relationship between a black man and a white boy; and…as a powerful political statement about apartheid.” In 1989, Time Magazine called Fugard “the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world.”

In 1985, "Master Harold"...and the boys was adapted into a television movie starring Matthew Broderick and Mokae. A film version starring Freddy Highmore and Ving Rhames was released in 2010. The play has gone through numerous revivals at playhouses, theaters, and colleges throughout the world.

Summary The play is set in the St. George Tea Room in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Sam and Willie, two middle-aged black servants, are cleaning up the room on a rainy day. They banter while they do their work, and Sam helps Willie learn ballroom dancing. Willie is going to participate in an upcoming competition but is struggling with the steps. He is also irritated with his girlfriend and partner, Hilda, for supposedly being unfaithful. Sam gently rebukes Willie for slapping her around. Sam and Willie are interrupted when Hally enters. Hally is the young teenage son of the Tea Room's proprietors. He has just finished his school day and sits down to have lunch. He is clearly very familiar and friendly with Sam and Willie. Today, however, Hally is distressed to learn that his father might be coming home from the hospital. It soon becomes apparent that his father an alcoholic and disabled. The news about his father makes Hally weary, prickly, and apathetic about his schoolwork. Sam encourages him to do his homework, though. Hally and Sam discuss who might be considered a "man of magnitude." Sam first names Napoleon, but Hally disagrees. They discuss Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Darwin, Jesus, and others. Hally, an atheist, evinces disgust when Sam mentions religious figures. Following this discussion, Hally starts to reminisce about his childhood - which contained both his happiest and unhappiest days. He used to wander down to the servants' quarters and hang out with Sam and Willie. He arranges Sam and Willie in a fictional scene and imagines himself coming down to play games with them. Hally's fondest memory was when Sam made him a kite. At first, Hally was embarrassed about the rudimentary toy, thinking it might not fly. However, once they got to the park and the kite flew, Hally felt exhilarated. Recalling that day, Hally wonders why Sam could not sit down on the bench with him to watch Willie run around with the kite. Hally muses how strange it was that he, a white boy, could be so close to Sam and Willie, two black men. However, Hally's good mood vanishes when his mom calls. He argues with her on the phone and insists that his father should not be coming home because he is not ready. When Hally gets off the phone, he vents his frustration about his mom's weakness to Sam and Willie. He concludes that life is worthless and messy. Morose, he returns to his studies. Sam and Willie talk about the upcoming ballroom dance competition and continue to joke around. Willie throws a rag that hits Hally, who explodes with anger. Hally insists that there can be no more of the ballroom dancing nonsense. Sam counters by saying that

7 Hally ought to try dancing, but Hally scoffs that it is not intellectual enough. They discuss the merits of ballroom dance for a bit, and Sam conjures up the scene at the dance competition, describing the judge, the dancers, and the trophy. Sam's passion starts to pique Hally's interest. He is inspired to write about the dance competition for his school essay about an important cultural event. Sam waxes poetic about how ballroom dancing is a world of beauty and grace because professional dancers do not collide with each other like people do in the real world. Hally is touched and affected by Sam's words. Unfortunately, Hally's mom calls again. The second conversation between them is more strained than the last. Hally is frustrated that he will have to take care of his dad. However, when his dad comes on the phone, Hally changes his tone and pretends to be upbeat. After he gets off the phone, Hally is bitter and angry and starts to lash out against his dad. Sam warns him not speak ill of his own father, so Hally starts to shout at Sam and Willie instead. He becomes increasingly belligerent, and starts commanding the men to get back to work. He reminds Sam and Willie that they have to listen to him, his dad, and any other white man in South Africa. Hally then informs Sam he must call him "Master Harold." Sam remains quiet for a beat and tells Hally that if he really wants that, Sam will never call him anything else. Hally is offended by the threat. He sneers at Sam and repeats a cruel, racist joke that he and his father both find funny. Sam pulls down his trousers and shows the boy his rear end to demonstrate the absurdity of Hally's behavior. Hally is shocked and spits in Sam's face. Willie groans in despair. Sam wipes the spit off and wonders aloud if he should hit the boy but accedes to Willie's request that he should not. Then he tells Hally that he is sorry to see that Hally is this ashamed of his father and himself. He is sad to see that after all this time, his efforts to teach Hally how to be a better man than his father have failed. He then tells Hally that the reason he could not sit beside him while Willie flew the kite all those years ago was because the bench was for "Whites Only." Hally is clearly morose after the conflict and starts to silently gather up his things. Sam softly asks Hally if they should make a new kite, but Hally responds hopelessly that it is raining, and leaves. Left alone, Willie and Sam continue to close up the Tea Room. Willie sacrifices the money for his ride home to play a song on the jukebox. The two men practice dancing and Willie tells his friend that he won't beat Hilda anymore.

Characters Hally-A seventeen-year old white boy living in South Africa during apartheid. Hally is the son of the proprietors of St. George's Park Tea Room. Hally is smart but apathetic, prone to laziness and bouts of anger. He is also stubborn and cynical. He struggles with the shame of his father's alcoholism, racism, and physical disability, and finds his mother's weakness to be annoying. He has always found comfort with Sam and Willie but the pervasive racism of apartheid-era society creates a barrier between them by the end of the play. Sam--Sam is a middle-aged black man who works at St. George's Park. He has worked for Hally's family for years, and is educated, smart, and patient. He has a deep friendship

8 with Willie and is like a father figure to Hally. He is understanding but he also has a breaking point. Race complicates Sam's relationship with Hally, and by the end of the play, he experiences profound disillusionment with the petulant teenager. Willie--Willie is a middle-aged black man who works at St. George's with Sam. Willie is friendly and not as well-read as Sam. He is sweet most of the time but has a quick temper. He has a tempestuous relationship with Hilda, his lover and the mother of his children. Hilda and Willie are practicing to dance in the ballroom competition together, which Willie is very dedicated to although he has difficulty with the steps. Hilda--Never seen onstage. Willie's lover and the mother of his children; they have a tempestuous relationship. She is supposed to be doing the ballroom competition with him, but is mad at him for beating her. Hally's mom--Hally's mother is the proprietor of St. George's Park Tea Room but never appears onstage. She is weak-willed and does not stand up to her alcoholic, violent husband. She is also racist, instructing Hally not to spend too much time with the servants. Hally's dad--Hally's father is disabled and in the hospital throughout the duration of the play. He is an alcoholic, a bully, and is deeply racist. Hally does not respect his father and they do not have a good relationship. Hally's father comes is an example of white patriarchy at its worst. Fugard has openly said that Hally's father in "Master Harold"... and the boys is based on his own father.

Themes Apartheid--The events of "Master Harold" ... and the boys take place within the historical context of South African apartheid. Even though there is no discussion of the actual laws or conditions of this forced segregation, apartheid permeates the characters’ behavior, beliefs, and status in society. Hally is deeply fond of Sam, who is more of a father figure than Hally's biological dad. However, from the beginning of the play, Hally makes some insensitive toss-away comments about race. Later, though, he lets out his anger about his father by spitting in Sam’s face. Hally has proven unable to exercise control over the situation with his father. However, he knows that because Sam is black, he cannot retaliate against Hally, his white master. In this way, Hally selfishly abuses the structure of apartheid and creates an irreparable rift in his relationship with Sam. Friendship--Inside St. George's Tea Room, there is clearly real affection and sense of camaraderie between Hally, Sam, and Willie. Hally has always found solace in the presence of these older men. He enjoys spirited intellectual debates with Sam and gently teases Willie. However, outside the cafe, this friendship is at odds with the institutional racial divide of South Africa. The politics of apartheid slowly encroach on the bond between Willie, Sam, and Hally over the course of the play. Sam and Willie also share a meaningful friendship that is not complicated by race. Willie’s respect for Sam leads him to take his friend's advice and apologize to Hilda at the end of the play. Sam and Willie's friendship thus helps to ameliorate Sam's disappointment in Hally after he reveals himself to possess the same racism that his family propagates.

9 Father/Son Relationships--Hally’s father never appears on stage but his imminent return catalyzes the main arc of the play, just as he exercises power over his son in his absence. Hally's father is an alcoholic bully who wields power disproportionate to his physical and mental condition simply because he is white and middle class. Hally is profoundly ashamed of his father’s behavior but refuses to admit his feelings. Regardless, Hally’s father has impacted his son's perspective in many ways without him realizing it. Hally is arrogant, prickly, and depressed. He has a tendency to lash out when he feels powerless. In addition, Hally has internalized his father’s racism which manifests itself in his treatment of Sam and Willie. Hally cringes and subordinates himself before his father, even after he mocks his mother for doing so. In fact, Sam has been more of a father figure to Hally, but the apartheid mindset prevents Hally from understanding the importance of Sam in his life. Coming of Age--As a seventeen-year old boy, Hally is at an important stage in his life. He is growing up and trying to decide where he belongs in the world and what he believes in. In some ways, Hally demonstrates potential to overcome the apartheid mindset that his parents embrace. He possesses intellectual curiosity, holds a sincere commitment to atheism, and celebrates Sam's vision of hope. Like many teenagers, though, Hally is prone to fits of anger, depression, apathy, and stubbornness. He lashes out at some of the only people who care for him and revels in his power over the black servants. He lacks self-awareness. Fugard leaves Hally in a vague position at the end of the play - it is unclear whether he will learn from his mistakes or if he will further burrow himself in his bitterness and despair. Ballroom Dancing--From the very first scene to the very last scene, ballroom dancing is one of the most prevalent symbols in the play. At first, dancing is source of amusement and entertainment for Sam and Willie. It is a hobby for them, something to aspire to outside the humdrum tedium of work. Over the course of the play, dance emerges as an important cultural mainstay for the black community. Sam evokes the dance competition as a symbol of an ideal world in which people can live together in harmony without colliding with each other. Dance provides a safe space for Sam and Willie, away from the struggles of apartheid-era South Africa. Nonviolence--Fugard subtly threads the message of nonviolence throughout the play. After Hally spits on Sam, the normally patient Sam badly wants to hit the boy. He checks himself, however, and asks for Willie's advice. Willie, who has the tendency to beat his girlfriend, realizes that Sam should desist. Willie prevents a "collision" between Sam and Hally, effectively diffusing their spat. Earlier in the play, Sam evokes Mahatma Gandhi as an example of someone trying to teach India's British colonizers how to "dance" without colliding, and Hally agrees. However, all the intellectualizing in the world cannot suppress Hally's misdirected anger, which leads him to spit in Sam's face. While Hally seems determined to bump into Sam, though, Sam eventually steps back. He and Willie end the play dancing alone together. Teaching--Teaching permeates the text and the plot of "Master Harold" ... and the boys. Sam teaches Willie to dance, patiently explaining the steps to him. Hally teaches Sam what he learns in school, giving the older man access to an education that his race prevents him from obtaining. Sam tries to teach Hally how to become a decent man and

10 avoid turning out like his father. However, Hally revolts against Sam's advice, refusing to learn the lessons Sam is trying to teach him. Hally's outburst does not mitigate the importance of Sam's actions, but it does illustrate the difficulty in combating apartheid's cruel influence.

History of Apartheid Apartheid was the South African race policy that separated black and white citizens and remains a terrible stain on the country's history. It began in 1948 and ended in 1994 resulting in terrible violence, persecution, and suffering. The roots of apartheid run deep. In the 1650s, Dutch settlers arrived in South Africa and formed the Cape of Good Hope. Then, the Dutch East India Company brought in slaves from all over the world. The Dutch, later known as the Afrikaners, struggled to hold onto power as more English- speaking settlers arrived. The Anglo-Boer war resulted in a loss of sovereignty for the Dutch Boers, and the British established slavery officially in the wake of their victory. In the early 1900s, the British began implementing race separation laws for blacks and whites in South Africa. One of these laws forced the country's black population (which formed the racial majority) to live on a restricted territory. Meanwhile, the white National Party used black South Africans as cheap labor. This arrangement lasted throughout the WWII era. However, Afrikaner farmers started to lament the migration of cheap black laborers to urban areas. In 1948, Daniel Malan was elected Prime Minister of South Africa and outlined policies for complete segregation. Any non-white South Africans, including black, Asian, and mixed-race citizens, were forced out of cities and into "homelands." In addition, they were no longer considered citizens in the "white" parts of South Africa. Malan introduced four major laws intended to keep tabs on South Africa's non-white population, including the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages and the Prohibition Registration Act. The following Prime Minister, Hendrick Verwoerd, is known as the most prominent architect of apartheid. After his election in 1958, he tried to make apartheid more palatable to the public, referring to the oppressive policies as "separate development." Within their homelands, black South Africans now had economic, social and political freedom. Despite the positive rhetoric, non-white South Africans could still not vote, own land, move to another country, or choose their own jobs. They had to carry passbooks at all times containing their personal documents, like birth certificates and marriage licenses. If a non-white South African was caught without his or her passbook, it could lead to imprisonment and torture. Resistance against apartheid began in the 1950s with the formation of the African National Congress, which boasted Nelson Mandela as a member. The group staged the peaceful Defiance Campaign of Unjust Laws and called for equal civil rights for all South Africans. Many of the ANC activists were arrested, but were put on trial in 1961 and subsequently acquitted. The Pan Africanist Congress focused on an Anti-Pass Laws campaign. Their movement resulted in the infamous Sharpsville Massacre that took place in March of 1960. A few years later, the ANC formed a military wing, resulting in the imprisonment and exile of

11 Nelson Mandela and many others. Soon thereafter, Verwoerd's government deemed resistance to apartheid to be illegal. The world began to focus on the trouble in South Africa, and in response, the country withdrew from the United Nations and the British Commonwealth. Verwoerd was assassinated in 1966 by a mixed-race parliamentary messenger. His successor, Baltazar Johannes Vorster, relaxed some of more petty laws of the apartheid era, but in theory, he remained committed to white supremacy. In 1983, six hundred South African organizations came together to form the United Democratic Front. It called for the elimination of homelands and the government's endorsement of the Freedom Charter. In response, the government claimed a state of emergency, and federal soldiers began to mercilessly arrest, beat, and torture non-white South Africans. Other countries stopped business transactions with South Africa as a result of the violent oppression, and the country plunged into an economic depression. In 1989, National Party leader Frederik Willem de Klerk released all of South Africa's black political prisoners and announced to Parliament that apartheid was a failure. Racial violence continued even though the South African government legally allowed all political parties. Nelson Mandela was freed in 1993. The next year, apartheid officially ended. Mandela became the first freely elected President of South Africa and instituted full equality for all South Africans. He quickly implemented democratic elections, abolished the homelands, and implemented a new constitution. Osborne, Kristen. Boghani, A. ed. "Master Harold... And the Boys Study Guide". GradeSaver, 31 March 2014 Web. 30 June 2014.

“Fugard has traced his sense of guilt and remorse over what happens to black people to a specific incident in his Port Elizabeth childhood: ‘I spat in the face of a black man. I cannot talk about it to this day. I bear the guilt.’ He calls himself the ‘classic’ example of the impotent white liberal.’ Yet such feelings provide the impetus for his plays. And that painful childhood incident has finally found a place in Master Harold…and the boys. The black man involved was Sam Semela, a Basuto waiter in the Fugard boarding-house who went on to work for the family for some fifteen years. Fugard remembers him as the ‘most significant—the only—friend’ of his boyhood years. When he was about thirteen, and helping behind the counter in the St. George’s Park tearoom while Semela waited at table, he and the man had ‘a rare quarrel’, the subject of which is now forgotten. In a truculent silence we closed the cafe, Sam set off home to New Brighton on foot and I followed a few minutes later on my bike. . I saw him walking ahead of me and, coming out of a spasm of acute loneliness, as I rode behind him I called his name, he turned in mid-stride to look back , and as I cycled past, I spat in his face. Don’t suppose I will ever deal with the shame that overwhelmed me the second after I had done that.” (Athol Fugard and Barney Simon: bare stage, a few props, great theatre. Mary Benson, 1997, pg 22-23.)

12 Chapter 2: Dramatic Structure/Spectatorship

The Six Elements of Drama From Aristotle’s Poetics (Poetics--335-323 B.C.E.)

Plot: Aristotle states the Plot is the most important of the Drama. Some would argue that Character is more important than plot.

Plot is the spine of the play and is made up of all the essential character actions or incidents. The significant events, the sequence and pace of character entrances, the confrontations between characters, the changes in the situations, and the outcome of the various actions contribute to the development of the plot. Plots can be simple, complex or arbitrary.

Thought (Theme/Ideas): What the play means as opposed to what happens (the plot). Sometimes the theme is clearly stated in the title. It may be stated through dialogue by a character acting as the playwright’s voice. Or it may be the theme is less obvious and emerges only after some study or thought. The abstract issues and feelings that grow out of the dramatic action.

Character(s): the fictive beings in a play; the inhabitants of the fictive world. Characters are defined by: – Actions

– Motives

– Moral traits

– Histories

– Words that make up their vocabularies

– Responses/reactions

We learn about characters through: – What they say about themselves

– What others say about them

– What they do

13 – The physical descriptions given by the playwright

Language: Although language is not present in all forms of drama and many twentieth- century theatre practitioners have looked to modify the centrality of words in the theatre, language is one of the great sources of vitality in the theatre.

Music: When Aristotle included music as one of the structural elements of the drama, he was referring to the musical accompaniment for the choruses and to the chorus members themselves chanting parts of their test in Greek tragedies. Almost all forms use music in one way or another.

Spectacle: Spectacle comes at the end of Aristotle’s discussion of dramatic structure and he calls it the least important and least artistic element of the drama. Spectacle may include everything from acting style and the blocking and movement of the play to structural elements, lights, and special effects.

Antonin Artaud--Theatre and it’s Double-- "The stage is a concrete physical place which asks to be filled, and to be given its own concrete language to speak.

Additional Important Elements in Dramatic Structure:

Given Circumstances The five W's: Who, What, Where, When & Why. Each of these elements exists in every drama.

Freytag’s Pyramid: According to Gustav Freytag, a drama is divided into five parts, or acts: exposition; rising action; climax (or turning point); falling action; and (depending upon whether the drama is a comedy or a tragedy) either a denouement or a catastrophe. (A comedy is a drama in which the protagonist, or main character, is better off at the end of the story than he or she was at the beginning; a tragedy is the opposite.)

Freytag’s Pyramid

14 Exposition (including inciting moment) In the exposition, the background information that is needed to understand the story proper is provided. Such information includes the protagonist, the antagonist, the basic conflict, the setting, and so forth.

The exposition ends with the inciting moment, which is the single incident in the story's action without which there would be no story. The inciting moment sets the remainder of the story in motion, beginning with the second act, the rising action.

Because plays often begin in a state of chaos or crisis (i.e. before the play opens several events have been taking place. Most of them will involve conflict. The play begins at the convergence of all of these conflicts). Because of the complexity of the previous action before the beginning of a play, the audience needs information. They need to know some, if not all of the five W's and what the past action is. This information is usually disseminated in the first act. Rising action During the rising action, the basic conflict is complicated by the introduction of related secondary conflicts, including various obstacles that frustrate the protagonist's attempt to reach his or her goal. Secondary conflicts can include adversaries of lesser importance than the story's antagonist, who may work with the antagonist or separately, by and for themselves.

Climax (turning point) The third act is that of the climax, or turning point, which marks a change, for the better or the worse, in the protagonist’s affairs. If the story is a comedy, things will have gone badly for the protagonist up to this point; now, the tide, so to speak, will turn, and things will begin to go well for him or her. If the story is a tragedy, the opposite state of affairs will transpire, with things going from good to bad for the protagonist.

Falling action During the falling action, the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist unravels, with the protagonist winning or losing against the antagonist. The falling action may contain a moment of final suspense, during which the final outcome of the conflict is in doubt.

Denouement or catastrophe The comedy ends with a denouement in which the protagonist is better off than he or she was at the story's outset. The tragedy ends with a catastrophe in which the protagonist is worse off than he or she was at the beginning of the narrative

Structures of Spectator Response

Paradigm (mental template)—a model or pattern of thinking that we use to make sense of the world; a belief system; worldview.

15 As we encounter new experiences and thoughts, our paradigms are continually challenged. --Most of our day-to-day experiences fit (or fit pretty closely) our existing templates. Such experiences support what we already know, or gently help us to modify our worldview slightly and take our understanding just a step further. The programming we receive through the structured educational system and the general cultural environment augments this process. --However, we also encounter situations and ideas that seem strongly contrary to our belief systems or completely at odds with them. We have three choices: 1) alter our templates to accommodate the new experience or information; 2) rationalize and/or distort what we experience to make it fit our existing model or 3) ignore the experience or information by pretending it is meaningless, did not happen, or does not exist. --These mental behaviors help us and hinder us as we try to make sense of theatre

Paradigm/Template/Perceptual Grid --our ways of seeing the world; frames of reference --living in society conditions us to think/value/believe certain things --we bring these models of thought/value/belief to the theatre --theatre targets these structures: plays aim to reinforce or subvert common structures of thought/value/belief Spectatorship structures --spectatorship: cluster of mental and physical behaviors a person engages in when witnessing theatre

Dissonance (clash): --occurs when the spectator’s perception of the world and the image of the world being shown on stage don’t match • 3 reactions to dissonance

1. alter our paradigm to accommodate new information

2. distort the information to fit the existing paradigm

3. ignore the new information

Closure --the psychological urge to have our observations come to a point where they all fit together --this drive motivates the spectator to resolve things so that any nagging inconsistencies are muted --an urge to eliminate dissonance / to have our template fit the information presented by the performance text --the spectator’s ally: when it stimulates the spectator to keep thinking about difficult material --the spectator’s enemy: when it compels the spectator to ignore data in order to reach a speedy conclusion

16 OUR GOAL IS TO RESIST CLOSURE!

Ways of thinking: building a more sophisticated spectator • Convergent thinking

– Convergent refers to things that move toward a central point

– Mode of thought that tends to reduce diversity and complexity in order to arrive at single answer

– The closure junkie’s favorite way of thinking

• Divergent thinking

– Divergent refers to things which move away from a central point

– Thinking characterized by the willingness to imagine multiple possibilities

– Playful responses are likely

– Closure likely to be postponed

• Disjunctive thinking

– Either/or thinking

– Establishes a relationship of contrast or opposition

– Separates or divides information into discrete categories

– Advantages: closure facilitated quickly and cleanly

– Disadvantages: false dichotomies established, range of possibilities discounted

• Continuum thinking

– Takes in consideration a range between two extremes; constructs a scale of possibilities

– An alternative to disjunctive thinking

17 – Advantages: facilitates sophisticated consideration of subtle distinctions

• Non-valuative consideration

– Another form of thinking that contrasts with disjunctive thinking

– Rather than calling a performance good or bad and stopping there, a spectator attempts to open him or herself to the array of stimuli being offered and then describe the experience in nuanced, rather than simply judgmental, terms

– Requires effort, but it’s worth it!

Greek Theater Greek Theater was very different from what we call theater today. It was, first of all, part of a religious festival. To attend a performance of one of these plays was an act of worship, not entertainment or intellectual pastime. But it is difficult for us to even begin to understand this aspect of the Greek theater, because the religion in question was very different from modern religions. The god celebrated by the performances of these plays was Dionysus, a deity who lived in the wild and was known for his subversive revelry. The worship of Dionysus was associated with an ecstasy that bordered on madness. Dionysus, whose cult was that of drunkenness and sexuality, little resembles modern images of God A second way in which Greek theater was different from modern theater is in its cultural centrality: every citizen attended these plays. Greek plays were put on at annual festivals (at the beginning of spring, the season of Dionysus), often for as many as 15,000 spectators at once. They dazzled viewers with their special effects, singing, and dancing, as well as with their beautiful language. At the end of each year’s festivals, judges would vote to decide which playwright’s play was the best. In these competitions, Sophocles was king. It is thought that he won the first prize at the Athenian festival eighteen times. Far from being a tortured artist working at the fringes of society, Sophocles was among the most popular and well-respected men of his day. Like most good Athenians, Sophocles was involved with the political and military affairs of Athenian democracy. He did stints as a city treasurer and as a naval officer, and throughout his life he was a close friend of the foremost statesman of the day, Pericles. At the same time, Sophocles wrote prolifically. He is believed to have authored 123 plays, only seven of which have survived. Sophocles lived a long life, but not long enough to witness the downfall of his Athens. Toward the end of his life, Athens became entangled in a war with other city-states jealous of its prosperity and power, a war that would end the glorious century during which Sophocles lived. This political fall also marked an artistic fall, for the unique art of Greek theater began to fade and eventually died. Since then, we have had nothing like it. Nonetheless, we still try to read it, and we often misunderstand it by thinking of it in terms of the categories and assumptions of our own arts. Greek theater still needs to be

18 read, but we must not forget that, because it is so alien to us, reading these plays calls not only for analysis, but also for imagination.

Antigone Antigone was probably the first of the three Theban plays that Sophocles wrote, although the events dramatized in it happen last. Antigone is one of the first heroines in literature, a woman who fights against a male power structure, exhibiting greater bravery than any of the men who scorn her. Antigone is not only a feminist play but a radical one as well, making rebellion against authority appear splendid and noble. If we think of Antigone as something merely ancient, we make the same error as the Nazi censors who allowed Jean Anouilh’s adaptation of Antigone to be performed, mistaking one of the most powerful texts of the French Resistance for something harmlessly academic.

Oedipus the King (aka Oedipus Rex) The story of Oedipus was well known to Sophocles’ audience. Oedipus arrives at Thebes a stranger and finds the town under the curse of the Sphinx, who will not free the city unless her riddle is answered. Oedipus solves the riddle and, since the king has recently been murdered, becomes the king and marries the queen. In time, he comes to learn that he is actually a Theban, the king’s son, cast out of Thebes as a baby. He has killed his father and married his mother. Horrified, he blinds himself and leaves Thebes forever. The story was not invented by Sophocles. Quite the opposite: the play’s most powerful effects often depend on the fact that the audience already knows the story. Since the first performance of Oedipus Rex, the story has fascinated critics just as it fascinated Sophocles. Aristotle used this play and its plot as the supreme example of tragedy. Sigmund Freud famously based his theory of the “Oedipal Complex” on this story, claiming that every boy has a latent desire to kill his father and sleep with his mother. The story of Oedipus has given birth to innumerable fascinating variations, but we should not forget that this play is one of the variations.

Oedipus at Colonus Beginning with the arrival of Oedipus in Colonus after years of wandering, Oedipus at Colonus ends with Antigone setting off toward her own fate in Thebes. In and of itself, Oedipus at Colonus is not a tragedy; it hardly even has a plot in the normal sense of the word. Thought to have been written toward the end of Sophocles’ life and the conclusion of the Golden Age of Athens, Oedipus at Colonus, the last of the Oedipus plays, is a quiet and religious play, one that does not attempt the dramatic fireworks of the others. Written after Antigone, the play for which it might be seen as a kind of prequel, Oedipus at Colonus seems not to look forward to the suffering that envelops that play but back upon it, as though it has already been surmounted.

Characters Oedipus - The protagonist of Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus becomes king of Thebes before the action of Oedipus the King begins. He is renowned for his intelligence and his ability to solve riddles—he saved the city of Thebes and was made its king by solving the riddle of the Sphinx, the supernatural being that had held the

19 city captive. Yet Oedipus is stubbornly blind to the truth about himself. His name’s literal meaning (“swollen foot”) is the clue to his identity—he was taken from the house of Laius as a baby and left in the mountains with his feet bound together. On his way to Thebes, he killed his biological father, not knowing who he was, and proceeded to marry Jocasta, his biological mother.

Jocasta - Oedipus’s wife and mother, and Creon’s sister. Jocasta appears only in the final scenes of Oedipus the King. In her first words, she attempts to make peace between Oedipus and Creon, pleading with Oedipus not to banish Creon. She is comforting to her husband and calmly tries to urge him to reject Tiresias’s terrifying prophecies as false. Jocasta solves the riddle of Oedipus’s identity before Oedipus does, and she expresses her love for her son and husband in her desire to protect him from this knowledge.

Antigone - Child of Oedipus and Jocasta, and therefore both Oedipus’s daughter and his sister. Antigone appears briefly at the end of Oedipus the King, when she says goodbye to her father as Creon prepares to banish Oedipus. She appears at greater length in Oedipus at Colonus, leading and caring for her old, blind father in his exile. But Antigone comes into her own in Antigone. As that play’s protagonist, she demonstrates a courage and clarity of sight unparalleled by any other character in the three Theban plays. Whereas other characters—Oedipus, Creon, Polynices—are reluctant to acknowledge the consequences of their actions, Antigone is unabashed in her conviction that she has done right.

Creon - Oedipus’s brother-in-law, Creon appears more than any other character in the three plays combined. In him more than anyone else we see the gradual rise and fall of one man’s power. Early in Oedipus the King, Creon claims to have no desire for kingship. Yet, when he has the opportunity to grasp power at the end of that play, Creon seems quite eager. We learn in Oedipus at Colonus that he is willing to fight with his nephews for this power, and in Antigone Creon rules Thebes with a stubborn blindness that is similar to Oedipus’s rule. But Creon never has our sympathy in the way Oedipus does, because he is bossy and bureaucratic, intent on asserting his own authority.

Polynices - Son of Oedipus, and thus also his brother. Polynices appears only very briefly in Oedipus at Colonus. He arrives at Colonus seeking his father’s blessing in his battle with his brother, Eteocles, for power in Thebes. Polynices tries to point out the similarity between his own situation and that of Oedipus, but his words seem opportunistic rather than filial, a fact that Oedipus points out.

Tiresias - Tiresias, the blind soothsayer of Thebes, appears in both Oedipus the King and Antigone. In Oedipus the King, Tiresias tells Oedipus that he is the murderer he hunts, and Oedipus does not believe him. In Antigone, Tiresias tells Creon that Creon himself is bringing disaster upon Thebes, and Creon does not believe him. Yet, both Oedipus and Creon claim to trust Tiresias deeply. The literal blindness of the soothsayer points to the metaphorical blindness of those who refuse to believe the truth about themselves when they hear it spoken.

20 Haemon - Creon’s son, who appears only in Antigone. Haemon is engaged to marry Antigone. Motivated by his love for her, he argues with Creon about the latter’s decision to punish her.

Ismene - Oedipus’s daughter Ismene appears at the end of Oedipus the King and to a limited extent in Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. Ismene’s minor part underscores her sister’s grandeur and courage. Ismene fears helping Antigone bury Polynices but offers to die beside Antigone when Creon sentences her to die. Antigone, however, refuses to allow her sister to be martyred for something she did not have the courage to stand up for.

Theseus - The king of Athens in Oedipus at Colonus. A renowned and powerful warrior, Theseus takes pity on Oedipus and defends him against Creon. Theseus is the only one who knows the spot at which Oedipus descended to the underworld—a secret he promises Oedipus he will hold forever.

Chorus - Sometimes comically obtuse or fickle, sometimes perceptive, sometimes melodramatic, the Chorus reacts to the events onstage. The Chorus’s reactions can be lessons in how the audience should interpret what it is seeing, or how it should not interpret what it is seeing.

Eurydice - Creon’s wife.

Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Power of Unwritten Law When Oedipus and Jocasta begin to get close to the truth about Laius’s murder, in Oedipus the King, Oedipus fastens onto a detail in the hope of exonerating himself. Jocasta says that she was told that Laius was killed by “strangers,” whereas Oedipus knows that he acted alone when he killed a man in similar circumstances. This is an extraordinary moment because it calls into question the entire truth-seeking process Oedipus believes himself to be undertaking. Both Oedipus and Jocasta act as though the servant’s story, once spoken, is irrefutable history. Neither can face the possibility of what it would mean if the servant were wrong. This is perhaps why Jocasta feels she can tell Oedipus of the prophecy that her son would kill his father, and Oedipus can tell her about the similar prophecy given him by an oracle (867–875), and neither feels compelled to remark on the coincidence; or why Oedipus can hear the story of Jocasta binding her child’s ankles (780–781) and not think of his own swollen feet. While the information in these speeches is largely intended to make the audience painfully aware of the tragic irony, it also emphasizes just how desperately Oedipus and Jocasta do not want to speak the obvious truth: they look at the circumstances and details of everyday life and pretend not to see them.

The Limits of Free Will

21 Prophecy is a central part of Oedipus the King. The play begins with Creon’s return from the oracle at Delphi, where he has learned that the plague will be lifted if Thebes banishes the man who killed Laius. Tiresias prophesies the capture of one who is both father and brother to his own children. Oedipus tells Jocasta of a prophecy he heard as a youth, that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, and Jocasta tells Oedipus of a similar prophecy given to Laius, that her son would grow up to kill his father. Oedipus and Jocasta debate the extent to which prophecies should be trusted at all, and when all of the prophecies come true, it appears that one of Sophocles’ aims is to justify the powers of the gods and prophets, which had recently come under attack in fifth-century B.C.E. Athens. Sophocles’ audience would, of course, have known the story of Oedipus, which only increases the sense of complete inevitability about how the play would end. It is difficult to say how justly one can accuse Oedipus of being “blind” or foolish when he seems to have no choice about fulfilling the prophecy: he is sent away from Thebes as a baby and by a remarkable coincidence saved and raised as a prince in Corinth. Hearing that he is fated to kill his father, he flees Corinth and, by a still more remarkable coincidence, ends up back in Thebes, now king and husband in his actual father’s place. Oedipus seems only to desire to flee his fate, but his fate continually catches up with him. Many people have tried to argue that Oedipus brings about his catastrophe because of a “tragic flaw,” but nobody has managed to create a consensus about what Oedipus’s flaw actually is. Perhaps his story is meant to show that error and disaster can happen to anyone, that human beings are relatively powerless before fate or the gods, and that a cautious humility is the best attitude toward life.

Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Sight and Blindness References to eyesight and vision, both literal and metaphorical, are very frequent in all three of the Theban plays. Quite often, the image of clear vision is used as a metaphor for knowledge and insight. In fact, this metaphor is so much a part of the Greek way of thinking that it is almost not a metaphor at all, just as in modern English: to say “I see the truth” or “I see the way things are” is a perfectly ordinary use of language. However, the references to eyesight and insight in these plays form a meaningful pattern in combination with the references to literal and metaphorical blindness. Oedipus is famed for his clear-sightedness and quick comprehension, but he discovers that he has been blind to the truth for many years, and then he blinds himself so as not to have to look on his own children/siblings. Creon is prone to a similar blindness to the truth in Antigone. Though blind, the aging Oedipus finally acquires a limited prophetic vision. Tiresias is blind, yet he sees farther than others. Overall, the plays seem to say that human beings can demonstrate remarkable powers of intellectual penetration and insight, and that they have a great capacity for knowledge, but that even the smartest human being is liable to error, that the human capability for knowledge is ultimately quite limited and unreliable.

22 Symbols Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Oedipus’s Swollen Foot Oedipus gets his name, as the Corinthian messenger tells us in Oedipus the King, from the fact that he was left in the mountains with his ankles pinned together. Jocasta explains that Laius abandoned him in this state on a barren mountain shortly after he was born. The injury leaves Oedipus with a vivid scar for the rest of his life. Oedipus’s injury symbolizes the way in which fate has marked him and set him apart. It also symbolizes the way his movements have been confined and constrained since birth, by Apollo’s prophecy to Laius.

The Three-way Crossroads In Oedipus the King, Jocasta says that Laius was slain at a place where three roads meet. This crossroads is referred to a number of times during the play, and it symbolizes the crucial moment, long before the events of the play, when Oedipus began to fulfill the dreadful prophecy that he would murder his father and marry his mother. A crossroads is a place where a choice has to be made, so crossroads usually symbolize moments where decisions will have important consequences but where different choices are still possible. In Oedipus the King, the crossroads is part of the distant past, dimly remembered, and Oedipus was not aware at the time that he was making a fateful decision. In this play, the crossroads symbolizes fate and the awesome power of prophecy rather than freedom and choice.

Plot Overview Oedipus the King A plague has stricken Thebes. The citizens gather outside the palace of their king, Oedipus, asking him to take action. Oedipus replies that he already sent his brother-in- law, Creon, to the Oracle at Delphi to learn how to help the city. Creon returns with a message from the Oracle: the plague will end when the murderer of Laius, former king of Thebes, is caught and expelled; the murderer is within the city. Oedipus questions Creon about the murder of Laius, who was killed by thieves on his way to consult an oracle. Only one of his fellow travelers escaped alive. Oedipus promises to solve the mystery of Laius’s death, vowing to curse and drive out the murderer. Oedipus sends for Tiresias, the blind prophet, and asks him what he knows about the murder. Tiresias responds cryptically, lamenting his ability to see the truth when the truth brings nothing but pain. At first he refuses to tell Oedipus what he knows. Oedipus curses and insults the old man, going so far as to accuse him of the murder. These taunts provoke Tiresias into revealing that Oedipus himself is the murderer. Oedipus naturally refuses to believe Tiresias’s accusation. He accuses Creon and Tiresias of conspiring against his life, and charges Tiresias with insanity. He asks why Tiresias did nothing when Thebes suffered under a plague once before. At that time, a Sphinx held the city captive and refused to leave until someone answered her riddle. Oedipus brags that he alone was able to solve the puzzle. Tiresias defends his skills as a prophet, noting that

23 Oedipus’s parents found him trustworthy. At this mention of his parents, Oedipus, who grew up in the distant city of Corinth, asks how Tiresias knew his parents. But Tiresias answers enigmatically. Then, before leaving the stage, Tiresias puts forth one last riddle, saying that the murderer of Laius will turn out to be both father and brother to his own children, and the son of his own wife. After Tiresias leaves, Oedipus threatens Creon with death or exile for conspiring with the prophet. Oedipus’s wife, Jocasta (also the widow of King Laius), enters and asks why the men shout at one another. Oedipus explains to Jocasta that the prophet has charged him with Laius’s murder, and Jocasta replies that all prophecies are false. As proof, she notes that the Delphic oracle once told Laius he would be murdered by his son, when in fact his son was cast out of Thebes as a baby, and Laius was murdered by a band of thieves. Her description of Laius’s murder, however, sounds familiar to Oedipus, and he asks further questions. Jocasta tells him that Laius was killed at a three-way crossroads, just before Oedipus arrived in Thebes. Oedipus, stunned, tells his wife that he may be the one who murdered Laius. He tells Jocasta that, long ago, when he was the prince of Corinth, he overheard someone mention at a banquet that he was not really the son of the king and queen. He therefore traveled to the Oracle of Delphi, who did not answer him but did tell him he would murder his father and sleep with his mother. Hearing this, Oedipus fled his home, never to return. It was then, on the journey that would take him to Thebes that Oedipus was confronted and harassed by a group of travelers, whom he killed in self-defense. This skirmish occurred at the very crossroads where Laius was killed. Oedipus sends for the man who survived the attack, a shepherd, in the hope that he will not be identified as the murderer. Outside the palace, a messenger approaches Jocasta and tells her that he has come from Corinth to inform Oedipus that his father, Polybus, is dead, and that Corinth has asked Oedipus to come and rule there in his place. Jocasta rejoices, convinced that Polybus’s death from natural causes has disproved the prophecy that Oedipus would murder his father. At Jocasta’s summons, Oedipus comes outside, hears the news, and rejoices with her. He now feels much more inclined to agree with the queen in deeming prophecies worthless and viewing chance as the principle governing the world. But while Oedipus finds great comfort in the fact that one-half of the prophecy has been disproved, he still fears the other half—the half that claimed he would sleep with his mother. The messenger remarks that Oedipus need not worry, because Polybus and his wife, Merope, are not Oedipus’s biological parents. The messenger, a shepherd by profession, knows firsthand that Oedipus came to Corinth as an orphan. One day long ago, he was tending his sheep when another shepherd approached him carrying a baby, its ankles pinned together. The messenger took the baby to the royal family of Corinth, and they raised him as their own. That baby was Oedipus. Oedipus asks who the other shepherd was, and the messenger answers that he was a servant of Laius. Oedipus asks that this shepherd be brought forth to testify, but Jocasta, beginning to suspect the truth, begs her husband not to seek more information. She runs back into the palace. The shepherd then enters. Oedipus interrogates him, asking who gave him the baby. The shepherd refuses to disclose anything, and Oedipus threatens him with torture. Finally, he answers that the child came from the house of Laius. Questioned further, he answers that the baby was in fact the child of Laius himself, and that it was Jocasta who

24 gave him the infant, ordering him to kill it, as it had been prophesied that the child would kill his parents. But the shepherd pitied the child, and decided that the prophecy could be avoided just as well if the child were to grow up in a foreign city, far from his true parents. The shepherd therefore passed the boy on to the shepherd in Corinth. Realizing who he is and who his parents are, Oedipus screams that he sees the truth and flees back into the palace. The shepherd and the messenger slowly exit the stage. A second messenger enters and describes scenes of suffering. Jocasta has hanged herself, and Oedipus, finding her dead, has pulled the pins from her robe and stabbed out his own eyes. Oedipus now emerges from the palace, bleeding and begging to be exiled. He asks Creon to send him away from Thebes and to look after his daughters, Antigone and Ismene. Creon, covetous of royal power, is all too happy to oblige.

SparkNotes Staff. SparkNote on The Oedipus Plays. 17 Aug. 2005 .

Oedipus Rex Character List

Oedipus: the king of Thebes, married to Jocasta. His name means “swollen foot.”

Jocasta: wife of Oedipus and queen of Thebes. Before Oedipus, she was married to Laius.

Creon: Jocasta's brother, he shares one third of Thebes's riches with Oedipus and Jocasta.

Teiresias: a blind prophet who knows the truth about Oedipus's parentage.

Messenger from Corinth: he arrives to tell Oedipus that his father (the man Oedipus believes to be his father) Polybus is dead, and that the people of Corinth would like Oedipus to be their king. He also reveals to Oedipus that Polybus and Meropé are not his real parents. He says that long ago a stranger from Thebes gave him a baby, and that he gave the baby to the king and queen of Corinth. This baby was, of course, Oedipus.

Shepherd: the man who gave the baby to the messenger and witness to Laius's death.

Priest: his followers are making sacrifices to the gods at the beginning of the play, hoping that the gods will lift the blight that has struck the city.

Attendant: a servant of Oedipus and Jocasta who reveals what happened in the palace after Oedipus discovered his parentage.

Ismene and Antigone: Oedipus's young daughters who are led out at the end of the play. Oedipus laments the fact that they will never find husbands with such a cursed lineage and begs Creon to take care of them.

Chorus of Theban Elders: a group of men who serve as an emotional sounding board and exposition device in the play, reflecting on the happenings and asking questions. The

25 Chorus speaks as one person, although sometimes single Chorus members will deliver lines.

26 Chapter 3: Theatre and Society: Historical Theatre Languages

I. Why study historical theatres? A. The theatre that a community produces reflects its values and concerns--studying theatre, therefore, is studying a culture’s value system

B. Understanding how our theatre differs from a historical model tells us something about our concerns and values

II. Theatre Language A. definition: the verbal and nonverbal tools of communication used by theatre artists to organize the audience’s perceptions and to create the fictive world of the play.

B. compare to Arnold’s term theatrical conventions: devices of dramatic construction and performance that facilitate the presentation of stories on stage

III. Greek Theatre (5th century B.C.E.) A. Social functions

1. Religious observance: theatre had sacred roots a. worship of Dionysus (the god of nature, wine, and fertility) b. City Dionysia=a festival held each spring to celebrate and enact the renewal associated with Dionysus c. actors transformation into character during plays presented at festival paralleled the transformation nature undergoes in the spring to sustain human life

2. Political practice: theatre and politics were interrelated institutions in 5th century BCE Athens a. City Dionysia was lavishly funded by the government b. all public and private business shut down during the festival c. the average citizen could serve the city either by military service or by theatrical service--as member of a chorus d. the Theoric Fund, established by Pericles in 440, made it so that citizens received payment for all civic duties: jury service, attending council meetings, and attending the theatre

B. Thematic interests 1. Humanity’s relationship to the divine 2. The ideal social order 3. Concern with death and violence, but these acts almost always take place out of view of the audience

C. Major playwrights 1. Aeschylus 2. Sophocles

27 3. Euripides IV. Greek theatre language A. Physical structure 1. Open-air 2. Located on a hill side for the natural angle of audience seating (15,000 capacity) 3. Seating formed crescent around a circular dancing area 60-70 ft. wide called the orchestra 4. In the middle of the orchestra was an altar at which offerings to Dionysus were made 5. To the rear of the orchestra was a scene house 50-60 ft wide

B. Scenery 1. Minimal 2. The scene house was probably used as background 3. Some painted panels may have helped localize action 4. Probably playwright’s words were the primary tool for designating place

C. Costume 1. Basic garment was a simple tunic pinned at the shoulder falling to the knee or ankle 2. May have derived from robes worn by Dionysian priests 3. A cloak, either long or short, was usually worn over it 4. Lace-up boots that may have had thick platform soles 5. Some characters wore ornate headdresses

D. Mask 1. Probably the most significant costume element 2. Identified the character’s age, gender, and personality 3. Enlarged facial features making them more visible 4. Enabled actor to play more than one part 5. Aided audibility of actor’s voice

E. Actorly behavior 1. All roles played by men 2. Actors played multiple roles 3. Simple, broad gestures that could be seen in large space 4. Facial expression not a factor due to masks 5. Emphasis on aural elements of performance--beauty and skill in vocal delivery

28 F. The chorus 1. Varied in size: 12-50 actors 2. Can act as a character: expressing opinions, asking questions, etc. 3. Spectator’s stand-in on the stage 4. Sets mood 5. Adds movement, spectacle, song, dance

V. Choices for period style A. Emulate theatre languages of the period in which the play was written and first performed B. “Contemporize” it: use theatre languages of the audience’s period C. Place play in a period different from the one in which the author wrote and from which the audience is viewing it D. Period collage: using elements of disparate periods

VI. Why emulate period style? A. Allow a contemporary audience to hear and see the play the way the original audience heard it B. Immerse the audience in the feeling of another time and place C. Preserve older performance traditions

Characteristics of Tragedy --deals with serious subjects --characters have to confront their own mortality --characters come from aristocratic or noble families and usually exhibit admirable behavior --characters often have personality traits or make decisions that cause their downfall --characters act alone and take responsibility for their actions --plots frequently involve a crisis over succession to a throne, representing a rupture in the bonds that tie families and society together --murder and death frequently occur at the end of tragedies as a result of the transgression of sacred principles --the audience often empathizes with tragic characters, identifies with their suffering, and experiences catharsis

29 Antigone by Sophocles

Plot Overview Antigone and Ismene, the daughters of Oedipus, discuss the disaster that has just befallen them. Their brothers Polynices and Eteocles have killed one another in a battle for control over Thebes. Creon now rules the city, and he has ordered that Polynices, who brought a foreign army against Thebes, not be allowed proper burial rites. Creon threatens to kill anyone who tries to bury Polynices and stations sentries over his body. Antigone, in spite of Creon’s edict and without the help of her sister Ismene, resolves to give their brother a proper burial. Soon, a nervous sentry arrives at the palace to tell Creon that, while the sentries slept, someone gave Polynices burial rites. Creon says that he thinks some of the dissidents of the city bribed the sentry to perform the rites, and he vows to execute the sentry if no other suspect is found. The sentry soon exonerates himself by catching Antigone in the act of attempting to rebury her brother, the sentries having disinterred him. Antigone freely confesses her act to Creon and says that he himself defies the will of the gods by refusing Polynices burial. Creon condemns both Antigone and Ismene to death. Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s betrothed, enters the stage. Creon asks him his opinion on the issue. Haemon seems at first to side with his father, but gradually admits his opposition to Creon’s stubbornness and petty vindictiveness. Creon curses him and threatens to slay Antigone before his very eyes. Haemon storms out. Creon decides to pardon Ismene, but vows to kill Antigone by walling her up alive in a tomb. The blind prophet Tiresias arrives, and Creon promises to take whatever advice he gives. Tiresias advises that Creon allow Polynices to be buried, but Creon refuses. Tiresias predicts that the gods will bring down curses upon the city. The words of Tiresias strike fear into the hearts of Creon and the people of Thebes, and Creon reluctantly goes to free Antigone from the tomb where she has been imprisoned. But his change of heart comes too late. A messenger enters and recounts the tragic events: Creon and his entourage first gave proper burial to Polynices, and then heard what sounded like Haemon’s voice wailing from Antigone’s tomb. They went in and saw Antigone hanging from a noose, and Haemon raving. Creon’s son then took a sword and thrust it at his father. Missing, he turned the sword against himself and died embracing Antigone’s body. Creon’s wife, Eurydice, hears this terrible news and rushes away into the palace. Creon enters, carrying Haemon’s body and wailing against his own tyranny, which he knows has caused his son’s death. The messenger tells Creon that he has another reason to grieve: Eurydice has stabbed herself, and, as she died, she called down curses on her husband for the misery his pride had caused. Creon kneels and prays that he, too, might die. His guards lead him back into the palace.

Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Power of Unwritten Law--After defeating Polynices and taking the throne of Thebes, Creon commands that Polynices be left to rot unburied, his flesh eaten by dogs and birds, creating an “obscenity” for everyone to see (Antigone, 231). Creon thinks that he is

30 justified in his treatment of Polynices because the latter was a traitor, an enemy of the state, and the security of the state makes all of human life—including family life and religion—possible. Therefore, to Creon’s way of thinking, the good of the state comes before all other duties and values. However, the subsequent events of the play demonstrate that some duties are more fundamental than the state and its laws. The duty to bury the dead is part of what it means to be human, not part of what it means to be a citizen. That is why Polynices’ rotting body is an “obscenity” rather than a crime. Moral duties—such as the duties owed to the dead—make up the body of unwritten law and tradition, the law to which Antigone appeals.

Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Suicide--Almost every character that dies in the three Theban plays does so at his or her own hand (or own will, as is the case in Oedipus at Colonus). Jocasta hangs herself in Oedipus the King and Antigone hangs herself in Antigone. Eurydice and Haemon stab themselves at the end of Antigone. Oedipus inflicts horrible violence on himself at the end of his first play, and willingly goes to his own mysterious death at the end of his second. Polynices and Eteocles die in battle with one another, and it could be argued that Polynices’ death at least is self-inflicted in that he has heard his father’s curse and knows that his cause is doomed. Incest motivates or indirectly brings about all of the deaths in these plays.

Graves and Tombs--The plots of Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus both revolve around burials and beliefs about burial are important in Oedipus the King as well. Polynices is kept above ground after his death, denied a grave, and his rotting body offends the gods, his relatives, and ancient traditions. Antigone is entombed alive, to the horror of everyone who watches. At the end of Oedipus the King, Oedipus cannot remain in Thebes or be buried within its territory, because his very person is polluted and offensive to the sight of gods and men. Nevertheless, his choice, in Oedipus at Colonus, to be buried at Colonus confers a great and mystical gift on all of Athens, promising that nation victory over future attackers. In Ancient Greece, traitors and people who murder their own relatives could not be buried within their city’s territory, but their relatives still had an obligation to bury them. As one of the basic, inescapable duties that people owe their relatives, burials represent the obligations that come from kinship, as well as the conflicts that can arise between one’s duty to family and to the city-state.

Symbols Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Antigone’s Entombment--Creon condemns Antigone to a horrifying fate: being walled alive inside a tomb. He intends to leave her with just enough food so that neither he nor the citizens of Thebes will have her blood on their hands when she finally dies. Her imprisonment in a tomb symbolizes the fact that her loyalties and feelings lie with the

31 dead—her brothers and her father—rather than with the living, such as Haemon or Ismene. But her imprisonment is also a symbol of Creon’s lack of judgment and his affronts to the gods. Tiresias points out that Creon commits a horrible sin by lodging a living human being inside a grave, as he keeps a rotting body in daylight. Creon’s actions against Antigone and against Polynices’ body show him attempting to invert the order of nature, defying the gods by asserting his own control over their territories. SparkNotes Staff. SparkNote on The Oedipus Plays. 17 Aug. 2005 .

Characters

Antigone - The play's tragic heroine. In the first moments of the play, Antigone is opposed to her radiant sister Ismene. Unlike her beautiful and docile sister, Antigone is scrawny, sallow, withdrawn, and recalcitrant brat.

Creon - Antigone’s uncle. Creon is powerfully built, but a weary and wrinkled man suffering the burdens of rule. A practical man, he firmly distances himself from the tragic aspirations of Oedipus and his line. As he tells Antigone, his only interest is in political and social order. Creon is bound to ideas of good sense, simplicity, and the banal happiness of everyday life.

Ismene - Blonde, full-figured, and radiantly beautiful, the laughing, talkative Ismene is the good girl of the family. She is reasonable and understands her place, bowing to Creon's edict and attempting to dissuade Antigone from her act of rebellion. As in Sophocles' play, she is Antigone's foil. Ultimately she will recant and beg Antigone to allow her to join her in death. Though Antigone refuses, Ismene's conversion indicates how her resistance is contagious.

Haemon - Antigone’s young fiancé and son to Creon. Haemon appears twice in the play. In the first, he is rejected by Antigone; in the second, he begs his father for Antigone's life. Creon's refusal ruins his exalted view of his father. He too refuses the happiness that Creon offers him and follows Antigone to a tragic demise.

Nurse - A traditional figure in Greek drama, the Nurse is an addition to the Antigone legend. She introduces an everyday, maternal element into the play that heightens the strangeness of the tragic world. Fussy, affectionate, and reassuring, she suffers no drama or tragedy but exists in the day-to-day tasks of caring for the two sisters. Her comforting presence returns Antigone to her girlhood. In her arms, Antigone superstitiously invests the Nurse with the power to ward off evil and keep her safe.

Chorus - Anouilh reduces the Chorus, who appears as narrator and commentator. The Chorus frames the play with a prologue and epilogue, introducing the action and characters under the sign of fatality. In presenting the tragedy, the Chorus instructs the audience on proper spectatorship, reappearing at the tragedy's pivotal moments to comment on the action or the nature of tragedy itself. Along with playing narrator, the

32 Chorus also attempts to intercede throughout the play, whether on the behalf of the Theban people or the horrified spectators.

Jonas - The three Guardsmen are interpolations into the Antigone legend, doubles for the rank-and-file fascist collaborators or collabos of Anouilh's day. The card-playing trio, made all the more mindless and indistinguishable in being grouped in three, emerges from a long stage tradition of the dull-witted police officer. They are eternally indifferent, innocent, and ready to serve.

Second Guard - Largely indistinguishable from his cohorts, the Second Guard jeeringly compares Antigone to an exhibitionist upon her arrest.

Third Guard - The last of the indifferent Guardsmen, he is also largely indistinguishable from his cohorts.

Messenger - Another typical figure of Greek drama who also appears in Sophocles' Antigone, the Messenger is a pale and solitary boy who bears the news of death. In the prologue, he casts a menacing shadow: as the Chorus notes, he remains apart from the others in his premonition of Haemon's death.

Page - Creon's attendant. The Page is a figure of young innocence. He sees all, understands nothing, and is no help to anyone but one day may become either a Creon or an Antigone in his own right. Eurydice - Creon’s kind, knitting wife whose only function, as the Chorus declares, is to knit in her room until it is her time to die. Her suicide is Creon's last punishment, leaving him entirely alone. Tan, Michael.

SparkNote on Antigone. 17 Aug. 2005 .

Chapter 4: Theatre and Society: Historical Theatre Languages (Part 2)

I. Elizabethan theatre (1570-1603) A. Social function 1. A secular theatre Elizabeth forbade performance of religious dramas in an effort to invest her government with more authority 2. A professional theatre Actors weren’t performing a civic duty; they were making a living 3. Theatre operated year-round, not just at a special season: more regularly integrated into social fabric

B. Thematic Interests

33 1. Exploration of human possibility 2. Reflects desire of audience for moments of heightened experience: tumult of war, myth, passionate love stories 3. Developing sense of nationalism and patriotism leads to interest in history plays bloodshed, mutilation, murder graphically depicted on stage

C. Major playwrights 1. William Shakespeare 2. Christopher Marlowe 3. Ben Jonson

II. Elizabethan theatre language A. Physical structure of The Globe 1. Open air 2. 20 sided (circular in appearance) 3. Stage jutted well into “the yard” and was visible from three sides (THRUST) 4. Stage was raised 4-6 ft off the ground 5. 3 tiers of roofed galleries surrounded the yard containing benches and boxes 6. Capacity: approximately 3000

B. Scenery 1. Main acting area=platea, or place 2. Minimal use of set pieces to alter platea 3. Places were depicted largely through the playwright’s words

C. Costume 1. Probably the most elaborate visual element 2. Most actors wore contemporary dress regardless of the period depicted in the play 3. As costly and elegant as the player/company could afford--often cast-offs from nobility

D. Actorly behavior 1. Men play all roles 2. Proximity of audience made broad gestures and exaggerated speech unnecessary

The Tempest by William Shakespeare The Tempest probably was written in 1610–1611, and was first performed at Court by the King’s Men in the fall of 1611. It was performed again in the winter of 1612–1613 during the festivities in celebration of the marriage of King James’s daughter Elizabeth. The Tempest is most likely the last play written entirely by Shakespeare, and it is remarkable for being one of only two plays by Shakespeare (the other being Love’s Labor’s Lost) whose plot is entirely original. The play does, however, draw on travel literature of its time—most notably the accounts of a tempest off the Bermudas that separated and nearly wrecked a fleet of colonial ships sailing from Plymouth to Virginia. The English colonial project seems to be on Shakespeare’s mind throughout The Tempest, as almost every

34 character, from the lord Gonzalo to the drunk Stephano, ponders how he would rule the island on which the play is set if he were its king. Shakespeare seems also to have drawn on Montaigne’s essay “Of the Cannibals,” which was translated into English in 1603. The name of Prospero’s servant-monster, Caliban, seems to be an anagram or derivative of “Cannibal.” The extraordinary flexibility of Shakespeare’s stage is given particular prominence in The Tempest. Stages of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period were for the most part bare and simple. There was little on-stage scenery, and the possibilities for artificial lighting were limited. The King’s Men in 1612 were performing both at the outdoor Globe Theatre and the indoor Blackfriars Theatre and their plays would have had to work in either venue. Therefore, much dramatic effect was left up to the minds of the audience. We see a particularly good example of this in The Tempest, Act II, scene i when Gonzalo, Sebastian, and Antonio argue whether the island is beautiful or barren. The bareness of the stage would have allowed either option to be possible in the audience’s mind at any given moment. At the same time, The Tempest includes stage directions for a number of elaborate special effects. The many pageants and songs accompanied by ornately costumed figures or stage-magic—for example, the banquet in Act III, scene iii, or the wedding celebration for Ferdinand and Miranda in Act IV, scene i—give the play the feeling of a masque, a highly stylized form of dramatic, musical entertainment popular among the aristocracy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is perhaps the tension between simple stage effects and very elaborate and surprising ones that gives the play its eerie and dreamlike quality, making it seem rich and complex even though it is one of Shakespeare’s shortest, most simply constructed plays. It is tempting to think of The Tempest as Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage because of its theme of a great magician giving up his art. Indeed, we can interpret Prospero’s reference to the dissolution of “the great globe itself” (IV.i.153) as an allusion to Shakespeare’s theatre. However, Shakespeare is known to have collaborated on at least two other plays after The Tempest: The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII in 1613, both probably written with John Fletcher. A performance of the latter was, in fact, the occasion for the actual dissolution of the Globe. A cannon fired during the performance accidentally ignited the thatch, and the theater burned to the ground.

Characters Prospero - The play’s protagonist, and father of Miranda. Twelve years before the events of the play, Prospero was the duke of Milan. His brother, Antonio, in concert with Alonso, king of Naples, usurped him, forcing him to flee in a boat with his daughter. The honest lord Gonzalo aided Prospero in his escape. Prospero has spent his twelve years on the island refining the magic that gives him the power he needs to punish and forgive his enemies.

Miranda - The daughter of Prospero, Miranda was brought to the island at an early age and has never seen any men other than her father and Caliban, though she dimly remembers being cared for by female servants as an infant. Because she has been sealed

35 off from the world for so long, Miranda’s perceptions of other people tend to be naïve and non-judgmental. She is compassionate, generous, and loyal to her father.

Ariel - Prospero’s spirit helper. Ariel is referred to throughout this SparkNote and in most criticism as “he,” but his gender and physical form are ambiguous. Rescued by Prospero from a long imprisonment at the hands of the witch Sycorax, Ariel is Prospero’s servant until Prospero decides to release him. He is mischievous and ubiquitous, able to traverse the length of the island in an instant and to change shapes at will. He carries out virtually every task that Prospero needs accomplished in the play.

Caliban - Another of Prospero’s servants. Caliban, the son of the now-deceased witch Sycorax, acquainted Prospero with the island when Prospero arrived. Caliban believes that the island rightfully belongs to him and has been stolen by Prospero. His speech and behavior is sometimes coarse and brutal, as in his drunken scenes with Stephano and Trinculo (II.ii, IV.i), and sometimes eloquent and sensitive, as in his rebukes of Prospero in Act I, scene ii, and in his description of the eerie beauty of the island in Act III, scene ii (III.ii.130-138). Ferdinand - Son and heir of Alonso. Ferdinand seems in some ways to be as pure and naïve as Miranda. He falls in love with her upon first sight and happily submits to servitude in order to win her father’s approval. Alonso - King of Naples and father of Ferdinand. Alonso aided Antonio in unseating Prospero as Duke of Milan twelve years before. As he appears in the play, however, he is acutely aware of the consequences of all his actions. He blames his decision to marry his daughter to the Prince of Tunis on the apparent death of his son. In addition, after the magical banquet, he regrets his role in the usurping of Prospero. Antonio - Prospero’s brother. Antonio quickly demonstrates that he is power-hungry and foolish. In Act II, scene i, he persuades Sebastian to kill the sleeping Alonso. He then goes along with Sebastian’s absurd story about fending off lions when Gonzalo wakes up and catches Antonio and Sebastian with their swords drawn. Sebastian - Alonso’s brother. Like Antonio, he is both aggressive and cowardly. He is easily persuaded to kill his brother in Act II, scene i, and he initiates the ridiculous story about lions when Gonzalo catches him with his sword drawn. Gonzalo - An old, honest lord, Gonzalo helped Prospero and Miranda to escape after Antonio usurped Prospero’s title. Gonzalo’s speeches provide an important commentary on the events of the play, as he remarks on the beauty of the island when the stranded party first lands, then on the desperation of Alonso after the magic banquet, and on the miracle of the reconciliation in Act V, scene i. Trinculo & Stephano - Trinculo, a jester, and Stephano, a drunken butler, are two minor members of the shipwrecked party. They provide a comic foil to the other, more powerful pairs of Prospero and Alonso and Antonio and Sebastian. Their drunken boasting and

36 petty greed reflect and deflate the quarrels and power struggles of Prospero and the other noblemen. Boatswain - Appearing only in the first and last scenes, the Boatswain is vigorously good-natured. He seems competent and almost cheerful in the shipwreck scene, demanding practical help rather than weeping and praying. And he seems surprised but not stunned when he awakens from a long sleep at the end of the play. Plot Summary A storm strikes a ship carrying Alonso, Ferdinand, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Stephano, and Trinculo, who are on their way to Italy after coming from the wedding of Alonso’s daughter, Claribel, to the prince of Tunis in Africa. The royal party and the other mariners, with the exception of the unflappable Boatswain, begin to fear for their lives. Lightning cracks, and the mariners cry that the ship has been hit. Everyone prepares to sink. The next scene begins much more quietly. Miranda and Prospero stand on the shore of their island, looking out to sea at the recent shipwreck. Miranda asks her father to do anything he can to help the poor souls in the ship. Prospero assures her that everything is all right and then informs her that it is time she learned more about herself and her past. He reveals to her that he orchestrated the shipwreck and tells her the lengthy story of her past, a story he has often started to tell her before but never finished. The story goes that Prospero was the Duke of Milan until his brother Antonio, conspiring with Alonso, the King of Naples, usurped his position. Kidnapped and left to die on a raft at sea, Prospero and his daughter survive because Gonzalo leaves them supplies and Prospero’s books, which are the source of his magic and power. Prospero and his daughter arrived on the island where they remain now and have been for twelve years. Only now, Prospero says, has Fortune at last sent his enemies his way, and he has raised the tempest in order to make things right with them once and for all. After telling this story, Prospero charms Miranda to sleep and then calls forth his familiar spirit Ariel, his chief magical agent. Prospero and Ariel’s discussion reveals that Ariel brought the tempest upon the ship and set fire to the mast. He then made sure that everyone got safely to the island, though they are now separated from each other into small groups. Ariel, who is a captive servant to Prospero, reminds his master that he has promised Ariel freedom a year early if he performs tasks such as these without complaint. Prospero chastises Ariel for protesting and reminds him of the horrible fate from which he was rescued. Before Prospero came to the island, a witch named Sycorax imprisoned Ariel in a tree. Sycorax died, leaving Ariel trapped until Prospero arrived and freed him. After Ariel assures Prospero that he knows his place, Prospero orders Ariel to take the shape of a sea nymph and make himself invisible to all but Prospero. Miranda awakens from her sleep, and she and Prospero go to visit Caliban, Prospero’s servant and the son of the dead Sycorax. Caliban curses Prospero, and Prospero and Miranda berate him for being ungrateful for what they have given and taught him. Prospero sends Caliban to fetch firewood. Ariel, invisible, enters playing music and leading in the awed Ferdinand. Miranda and Ferdinand are immediately smitten with each other. He is the only man Miranda has ever seen, besides Caliban and her father.

37 Prospero is happy to see that his plan for his daughter’s future marriage is working, but decides that he must upset things temporarily in order to prevent their relationship from developing too quickly. He accuses Ferdinand of merely pretending to be the Prince of Naples and threatens him with imprisonment. When Ferdinand draws his sword, Prospero charms him and leads him off to prison, ignoring Miranda’s cries for mercy. He then sends Ariel on another mysterious mission. On another part of the island, Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, and other miscellaneous lords give thanks for their safety but worry about the fate of Ferdinand. Alonso says that he wishes he never had married his daughter to the prince of Tunis because if he had not made this journey, his son would still be alive. Gonzalo tries to maintain high spirits by discussing the beauty of the island, but his remarks are undercut by the sarcastic sourness of Antonio and Sebastian. Ariel appears, invisible, and plays music that puts all but Sebastian and Antonio to sleep. These two then begin to discuss the possible advantages of killing their sleeping companions. Antonio persuades Sebastian that the latter will become ruler of Naples if they kill Alonso. Claribel, who would be the next heir if Ferdinand were indeed dead, is too far away to be able to claim her right. Sebastian is convinced, and the two are about to stab the sleeping men when Ariel causes Gonzalo to wake with a shout. Everyone wakes up, and Antonio and Sebastian concoct a ridiculous story about having drawn their swords to protect the king from lions. Ariel goes back to Prospero while Alonso and his party continue to search for Ferdinand. Caliban, meanwhile, is hauling wood for Prospero when he sees Trinculo and thinks he is a spirit sent by Prospero to torment him. He lies down and hides under his cloak. A storm is brewing, and Trinculo, curious about but undeterred by Caliban’s strange appearance and smell, crawls under the cloak with him. Stephano, drunk and singing, comes along and stumbles upon the bizarre spectacle of Caliban and Trinculo huddled under the cloak. Caliban, hearing the singing, cries out that he will work faster so long as the “spirits” leave him alone. Stephano decides that this monster requires liquor and attempts to get Caliban to drink. Trinculo recognizes his friend Stephano and calls out to him. Soon the three are sitting up together and drinking. Caliban quickly becomes an enthusiastic drinker, and begins to sing. Prospero puts Ferdinand to work hauling wood. Ferdinand finds his labor pleasant because it is for Miranda’s sake. Miranda, thinking that her father is asleep, tells Ferdinand to take a break. The two flirt with one another. Miranda proposes marriage, and Ferdinand accepts. Prospero has been on stage most of the time, unseen, and he is pleased with this development. Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban are now drunk and raucous and are made all the more so by Ariel, who comes to them invisibly and provokes them to fight with one another by impersonating their voices and taunting them. Caliban grows more and more fervent in his boasts that he knows how to kill Prospero. He even tells Stephano that he can bring him to where Prospero is sleeping. He proposes that they kill Prospero, take his daughter, and set Stephano up as king of the island. Stephano thinks this a good plan, and the three prepare to set off to find Prospero. They are distracted, however, by the sound of music

38 that Ariel plays on his flute and tabor-drum, and they decide to follow this music before executing their plot. Alonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian, and Antonio grow weary from traveling and pause to rest. Antonio and Sebastian secretly plot to take advantage of Alonso and Gonzalo’s exhaustion, deciding to kill them in the evening. Prospero, probably on the balcony of the stage and invisible to the men, causes a banquet to be set out by strangely shaped spirits. As the men prepare to eat, Ariel appears like a harpy and causes the banquet to vanish. He then accuses the men of supplanting Prospero and says that it was for this sin that Alonso’s son, Ferdinand, has been taken. He vanishes, leaving Alonso feeling vexed and guilty. Prospero now softens toward Ferdinand and welcomes him into his family as the soon-to- be-husband of Miranda. He sternly reminds Ferdinand, however, that Miranda’s “virgin- knot” (IV.i.15) is not to be broken until the wedding has been officially solemnized. Prospero then asks Ariel to call forth some spirits to perform a masque for Ferdinand and Miranda. The spirits assume the shapes of Ceres, Juno, and Iris and perform a short masque celebrating the rites of marriage and the bounty of the earth. A dance of reapers and nymphs follows but is interrupted when Prospero suddenly remembers that he still must stop the plot against his life. He sends the spirits away and asks Ariel about Trinculo, Stephano, and Caliban. Ariel tells his master of the three men’s drunken plans. He also tells how he led the men with his music through prickly grass and briars and finally into a filthy pond near Prospero’s cell. Ariel and Prospero then set a trap by hanging beautiful clothing in Prospero’s cell. Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban enter looking for Prospero and, finding the beautiful clothing, decide to steal it. They are immediately set upon by a pack of spirits in the shape of dogs and hounds, driven on by Prospero and Ariel. Prospero uses Ariel to bring Alonso and the others before him. He then sends Ariel to bring the Boatswain and the mariners from where they sleep on the wrecked ship. Prospero confronts Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian with their treachery, but tells them that he forgives them. Alonso tells him of having lost Ferdinand in the tempest and Prospero says that he recently lost his own daughter. Clarifying his meaning, he draws aside a curtain to reveal Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess. Alonso and his companions are amazed by the miracle of Ferdinand’s survival, and Miranda is stunned by the sight of people unlike any she has seen before. Ferdinand tells his father about his marriage. Ariel returns with the Boatswain and mariners. The Boatswain tells a story of having been awakened from a sleep that had apparently lasted since the tempest. At Prospero’s bidding, Ariel releases Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano, who then enter wearing their stolen clothing. Prospero and Alonso command them to return it and to clean up Prospero’s cell. Prospero invites Alonso and the others to stay for the night so that he can tell them the tale of his life in the past twelve years. After this, the group plans to return to Italy. Prospero, restored to his dukedom, will retire to Milan. Prospero gives Ariel one final task—to make sure the seas are calm for the return voyage—before setting him free.

39 Finally, Prospero delivers an epilogue to the audience, asking them to forgive him for his wrongdoing and set him free by applauding.

Themes The Illusion of Justice--The Tempest tells a fairly straightforward story involving an unjust act, the usurpation of Prospero’s throne by his brother, and Prospero’s quest to re- establish justice by restoring himself to power. However, the idea of justice that the play works toward seems highly subjective, since this idea represents the view of one character who controls the fate of all the other characters. Though Prospero presents himself as a victim of injustice working to right the wrongs that have been done to him, Prospero’s idea of justice and injustice is somewhat hypocritical—though he is furious with his brother for taking his power, he has no qualms about enslaving Ariel and Caliban in order to achieve his ends. At many moments throughout the play, Prospero’s sense of justice seems extremely one-sided and mainly involves what is good for Prospero. Moreover, because the play offers no notion of higher order or justice to supersede Prospero’s interpretation of events, the play is morally ambiguous. As the play progresses, however, it becomes more and more involved with the idea of creativity and art, and Prospero’s role begins to mirror more explicitly the role of an author creating a story around him. With this metaphor in mind, and especially if we accept Prospero as a surrogate for Shakespeare himself, Prospero’s sense of justice begins to seem, if not perfect, at least sympathetic. Moreover, the means he uses to achieve his idea of justice mirror the machinations of the artist, who also seeks to enable others to see his view of the world. Playwrights arrange their stories in such a way that their own idea of justice is imposed upon events. In The Tempest, the author is in the play, and the fact that he establishes his idea of justice and creates a happy ending for all the characters becomes a cause for celebration, not criticism. By using magic and tricks that echo the special effects and spectacles of the theater, Prospero gradually persuades the other characters and the audience of the rightness of his case. As he does so, the ambiguities surrounding his methods slowly resolve themselves. Prospero forgives his enemies, releases his slaves, and relinquishes his magic power, so that, at the end of the play, he is only an old man whose work has been responsible for all the audience’s pleasure. The establishment of Prospero’s idea of justice becomes less a commentary on justice in life than on the nature of morality in art. Happy endings are possible, Shakespeare seems to say, because the creativity of artists can create them, even if the moral values that establish the happy ending originate from nowhere but the imagination of the artist. The Difficulty of Distinguishing “Men” from “Monsters”--Upon seeing Ferdinand for the first time, Miranda says that he is “the third man that e’er I saw” (I.ii.449). The other two are, presumably, Prospero and Caliban. In their first conversation with Caliban, however, Miranda and Prospero say very little that shows they consider him to be human. Miranda reminds Caliban that before she taught him language, he gabbled “like / A thing most brutish” (I.ii.359–360) and Prospero says that he gave Caliban “human care” (I.ii.349),

40 implying that this was something Caliban ultimately did not deserve. Caliban’s exact nature continues to be slightly ambiguous later. In Act IV, scene i, reminded of Caliban’s plot, Prospero refers to him as a “devil, a born devil, on whose nature / Nurture can never stick” (IV.i.188–189). Miranda and Prospero both have contradictory views of Caliban’s humanity. On the one hand, they think that their education of him has lifted him from his formerly brutish status. On the other hand, they seem to see him as inherently brutish. His devilish nature can never be overcome by nurture, according to Prospero. Miranda expresses a similar sentiment in Act I, scene ii: “thy vile race, / Though thou didst learn, had that in’t which good natures / Could not abide to be with” (I.ii.361–363). The inhuman part of Caliban drives out the human part, the “good nature,” that is imposed on him. Caliban claims that he was kind to Prospero, and that Prospero repaid that kindness by imprisoning him (see I.ii.347). In contrast, Prospero claims that he stopped being kind to Caliban once Caliban had tried to rape Miranda (I.ii.347–351). Which character the audience decides to believe depends on whether it views Caliban as inherently brutish, or as made brutish by oppression. The play leaves the matter ambiguous. Caliban balances all of his eloquent speeches, such as his curses in Act I, scene ii and his speech about the isle’s “noises” in Act III, scene ii, with the most degrading kind of drunken, servile behavior. But Trinculo’s speech upon first seeing Caliban (II.ii.18–38), the longest speech in the play, reproaches too harsh a view of Caliban and blurs the distinction between men and monsters. In England, which he visited once, Trinculo says, Caliban could be shown off for money: “There would this monster make a man. Any strange beast there makes a man. When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian” (II.ii.28–31). What seems most monstrous in these sentences is not the “dead Indian,” or “any strange beast,” but the cruel voyeurism of those who capture and gape at them. The Allure of Ruling a Colony--The nearly uninhabited island presents the sense of infinite possibility to almost everyone who lands there. Prospero has found it, in its isolation, an ideal place to school his daughter. Sycorax, Caliban’s mother, worked her magic there after she was exiled from Algeria. Caliban, once alone on the island, now Prospero’s slave, laments that he had been his own king (I.ii.344–345). As he attempts to comfort Alonso, Gonzalo imagines a utopian society on the island, over which he would rule (II.i.148–156). In Act III, scene ii, Caliban suggests that Stephano kill Prospero, and Stephano immediately envisions his own reign: “Monster, I will kill this man. His daughter and I will be King and Queen—save our graces!—and Trinculo and thyself shall be my viceroys” (III.ii.101–103). Stephano particularly looks forward to taking advantage of the spirits that make “noises” on the isle; they will provide music for his kingdom for free. All these characters envision the island as a space of freedom and unrealized potential. The tone of the play, however, toward the hopes of the would-be colonizers is vexed at best. Gonzalo’s utopian vision in Act II, scene i is undercut by a sharp retort from the usually foolish Sebastian and Antonio. When Gonzalo says that there would be no commerce or work or “sovereignty” in his society, Sebastian replies, “yet he would be king on’t,” and Antonio adds, “The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the

41 beginning” (II.i.156–157). Gonzalo’s fantasy thus involves him ruling the island while seeming not to rule it, and in this he becomes a kind of parody of Prospero. While there are many representatives of the colonial impulse in the play, the colonized have only one representative: Caliban. We might develop sympathy for him at first, when Prospero seeks him out merely to abuse him, and when we see him tormented by spirits. However, this sympathy is made more difficult by his willingness to abase himself before Stephano in Act II, scene ii. Even as Caliban plots to kill one colonial master (Prospero) in Act III, scene ii, he sets up another (Stephano). The urge to rule and the urge to be ruled seem inextricably intertwined.

Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. Masters and Servants--Nearly every scene in the play either explicitly or implicitly portrays a relationship between a figure that possesses power and a figure that is subject to that power. The play explores the master-servant dynamic most harshly in cases in which the harmony of the relationship is threatened or disrupted, as by the rebellion of a servant or the ineptitude of a master. For instance, in the opening scene, the “servant” (the Boatswain) is dismissive and angry toward his “masters” (the noblemen), whose ineptitude threatens to lead to a shipwreck in the storm. From then on, master-servant relationships like these dominate the play: Prospero and Caliban; Prospero and Ariel; Alonso and his nobles; the nobles and Gonzalo; Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban; and so forth. The play explores the psychological and social dynamics of power relationships from a number of contrasting angles, such as the generally positive relationship between Prospero and Ariel, the generally negative relationship between Prospero and Caliban, and the treachery in Alonso’s relationship to his nobles.

Water and Drowning--The play is awash with references to water. The Mariners enter “wet” in Act I, scene i, and Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo enter “all wet,” after being led by Ariel into a swampy lake (IV.i.193). Miranda’s fear for the lives of the sailors in the “wild waters” (I.ii.2) causes her to weep. Alonso, believing his son dead because of his own actions against Prospero, decides in Act III, scene iii to drown himself. His language is echoed by Prospero in Act V, scene i when the magician promises that, once he has reconciled with his enemies, “deeper than did ever plummet sound / I’ll drown my book” (V.i.56–57). These are only a few of the references to water in the play. Occasionally, the references to water are used to compare characters. For example, the echo of Alonso’s desire to drown himself in Prospero’s promise to drown his book calls attention to the similarity of the sacrifices each man must make. Alonso must be willing to give up his life in order to become truly penitent and to be forgiven for his treachery against Prospero. Similarly, in order to rejoin the world he has been driven from, Prospero must be willing to give up his magic and his power.

42 Perhaps the most important overall effect of this water motif is to heighten the symbolic importance of the tempest itself. It is as though the water from that storm runs through the language and action of the entire play—just as the tempest itself literally and crucially affects the lives and actions of all the characters. Mysterious Noises--The isle is indeed, as Caliban says, “full of noises” (III.ii.130). The play begins with a “tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning” (I.i.1, stage direction), and the splitting of the ship is signaled in part by “a confused noise within” (I.i.54, stage direction). Much of the noise of the play is musical, and much of the music is Ariel’s. Ferdinand is led to Miranda by Ariel’s music. Ariel’s music also wakes Gonzalo just as Antonio and Sebastian are about to kill Alonso in Act II, scene i. Moreover, the magical banquet of Act III, scene iii is laid out to the tune of “Solemn and strange music” (III.iii.18, stage direction), and Juno and Ceres sing in the wedding masque (IV.i.106– 117). The noises, sounds, and music of the play are made most significant by Caliban’s speech about the noises of the island at III.ii.130–138. Shakespeare shows Caliban in the thrall of magic, which the theater audience also experiences as the illusion of thunder, rain, invisibility. The action of The Tempest is very simple. What gives the play most of its hypnotic, magical atmosphere is the series of dreamlike events it stages, such as the tempest, the magical banquet, and the wedding masque. Accompanied by music, these present a feast for the eye and the ear and convince us of the magical glory of Prospero’s enchanted isle.

Symbols The Tempest--The tempest that begins the play, and which puts all of Prospero’s enemies at his disposal, symbolizes the suffering Prospero endured, and which he wants to inflict on others. All of those shipwrecked are put at the mercy of the sea, just as Prospero and his infant daughter were twelve years ago, when some loyal friends helped them out to sea in a ragged little boat (see I.ii.144–151). Prospero must make his enemies suffer as he has suffered so that they will learn from their suffering, as he has from his. The tempest is also a symbol of Prospero’s magic, and of the frightening, potentially malevolent side of his power.

The Game of Chess--The object of chess is to capture the king. That, at the simplest level, is the symbolic significance of Prospero revealing Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess in the final scene. Prospero has caught the king—Alonso—and reprimanded him for his treachery. In doing so, Prospero has married Alonso’s son to his own daughter without the king’s knowledge, a deft political maneuver that assures Alonso’s support because Alonso will have no interest in upsetting a dukedom to which his own son is heir. This is the final move in Prospero’s plot, which began with the tempest. He has maneuvered the different passengers of Alonso’s ship around the island with the skill of a great chess player. Caught up in their game, Miranda and Ferdinand also symbolize something ominous about Prospero’s power. They do not even notice the others staring at them for a few lines. “Sweet lord, you play me false,” Miranda says, and Ferdinand assures her that he “would not for the world” do so (V.i.174–176). The theatrical tableau is almost too

43 perfect: Ferdinand and Miranda, suddenly and unexpectedly revealed behind a curtain, playing chess and talking gently of love and faith, seem entirely removed from the world around them. Though he has promised to relinquish his magic, Prospero still seems to see his daughter as a mere pawn in his game. Prospero’s Books--Like the tempest, Prospero’s books are a symbol of his power. “Remember / First to possess his books,” Caliban says to Stephano and Trinculo, “for without them / He’s but a sot” (III.ii.86–88). The books are also, however, a symbol of Prospero’s dangerous desire to withdraw entirely from the world. It was his devotion to study that put him at the mercy of his ambitious brother, and it is this same devotion to study that has made him content to raise Miranda in isolation. Yet, Miranda’s isolation has made her ignorant of where she came from (see I.ii.33–36), and Prospero’s own isolation provides him with little company. In order to return to the world where his knowledge means something more than power, Prospero must let go of his magic. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Tempest.” SparkNotes LLC. 2002. http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/tempest/ (accessed December 13, 2012).

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