Comparison of the 3 texts

The three texts that I have read from “As You Like It” by William Shakespeare, “the Sphinx’s riddle” in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles and “The Four Ages of Man” by William Butler Yeats have a similarity that is showing the metaphor of human’s life journey. The human life journey is using an imaginative comparison between two unlike items.
In “As You Like It”, the whole life of human is compared to a stage or a theatre where actors on the stage play a different role play to show the different ages of a human’s life. William Shakespeare describes human life is like actors acting on stage also shows that the different ages a human goes through is concrete or can be seen easily because it is a physical process. For instance, we can see clearly from the text the different ages of human: the infant, the whining school-boy, the lover, a soldier, the justice, the sixth age and second childishness where it comes to the end of a human’s life journey, “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” I like this text very much because it shows a clear picture of a human’s life journey in a very organized way.
As for “the Sphinx’s riddle” in Oedipus Rex, it also describes the human life journey with different ages metaphorically. At first, it talks about four legs in the morning. Morning shows the young stage of human, fresh, brand new and enthusiastic. The four legs is clearly describes when a human is in a baby stage that crawls. “Two at noon”, shows the middle age of human where he or she walks with two legs. Finally, “three at the evening” shows the old age of a human where he or she needs support by walking with a stick and this makes the number from two to three.
In “The Four Ages of Man”, it shows the process of growing in a human. Initially, it is the body, then heart, mind and lastly God. The poem shows the human growing process in a difficult way, such as “fight” and “struggle” in order to enter into the different phase of human life. It shows a proceeding process where the human fights with body which shows a physical growth, then comes to the heart where it grows from innocence to maturity. Next, he struggles with his thinking until he comes to the end of his life, God comes over to take back his life.

Tragic character in Oedipus Rex

In this blog, I would like to talk about the tragic character in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles that is Oedipus. He is a wise, arrogant, respectful king from the start, but due to his own weaknesses, he experiences great shock and fall.
I found this Oedipus is a very interesting character. Personally, I pity him because he is lost and in the darkness. He does not even know he had married his own biological mother, Iocastê. He holds on his position as a king of Thebes and a caring husband to his wife. he is ignorant and does not know his true parents. Instead, he thought King Polybos and Meropê from Corinth are his true parents. After listening to the prophecy that he will kill his own father and marry his mother, he quickly flee from Corinth in fear and thought that he will escape from the prophecy. Besides living in ignorant, he is also living in fear.
Although stubbornness is his weakness that causes his to the great shock and fall, I admired his determination and courage of wanting to find his own true origin though his life may be at risk. It is because he told the shepherd either he himself or the shepherd will die if the truth does not being revealed. His determination can be seen when he keeps on looking for people after people to find out the truth without giving up. He is brave because he dares to take risk.
Besides that, Oedipus is a person with justice. Even he himself is a King, he is absolutely disappointed and make himself blind because he thinks that he deserves it. Moreover, he is ready to be exiled to another country. I admire his attitude of willing to come from a position that is a well respected king to a position that is so embarrass and shameful. He admits his wrong doings and he is ready to take a painful consequences. That is why I see him as justice.

Learned something meaningful and interesting

I learned something very meaningful and interesting in Dr Edwin’s class that is the use of underline discourse, also known as implicature in a drama text. In my opinion, underline discourse is the internal meaning you are going to convey to somebody which actually on the surface of the sentence, it has a meaning that is totally different from the internal meaning. For instance, from the book we are using in class, “Now Read On”, two drama texts that are “A Night Out’ by Harold Pinter, Pg 107 and “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, Pg 167 shows the use of underline discourse.
In “A Night Out”, sentences such as “We are going to have our game of cards.” , “Put the bulb in Grandma’s room, Albert” and “But what about your dinner?” shows the underline discourse where Albert’s mother actually does not want him to go to “a sort of party” by asking many questions to delay his time. On the surface, Albert may not know what is his mother’s true intention but probably feels that she is being too long winded.
As for “The Importance of Being Earnest”, we can see the underline discourse by looking at the way the characters being addressed. The utterance such as “Dearest Gwendolen” and “My darling Cecily” seems very loving and intimate. However, in further down the text, Gwendolen address Cecily as “Detestable girl!”. It shows that what they address each other on the surface meaning does not match at all to the internal meaning. It shows that there is underline discourse used in this drama.
I find this element is interesting because it needs reader’s further interpretation by not just accept what is being said on the surface structure only. It helps us to think more and be tactful when reading the drama text or even watching it from the movie.

Things to consider in a short performance

In a short performance, the things that I consider are the script, characters, setting, area for performance that is the invisible line between audiences and actors, tone, proxemics, turn taking, clothing, lighting, gestures and props. The elements mentioned are important to let the audience know that it is a stage performance and they can sit at their respective places to enjoy the performance. Another important reason is to let audience open their correct prior knowledge to know what is happening on the stage. For instance, the setting, characters, clothing and props play an important role. Setting with blackboard, waste paper basket, chalks, tables and chairs as props will let audience connect to their prior knowledge that it is a classroom. As for characters, a character with formal clothing standing in front of the blackboard holding a chalk will be recognized as a teacher and a character wearing uniform sitting on a chair will be recognized as a student. Besides that, the tone and turn taking will show to audience the degree of mannerism by characters. A proper tone, turn taking, mood and gestures shows a respectable scene where as no proper tone, turn taking, mood and gestures may show a chaotic scene. Lastly, a proper lighting will also affect the scene. A dark scene may show something tragic is going to happen or changing of scene. Different lighting enables audience to have a proper idea of how the performance is going on.