Assignment Code: MEG-02/TMA/2021-22

Course Code: MEG-02

Assignment Name: British Drama

Year: 2021-2022

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Answer any five questions. All questions carry equal marks. Answer each question in about 350 to 400 words.

Q1. Write an essay on British Drama in the twentieth Century.

Ans) From its beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, naturalism has had a considerable impact on modern dramatic form. Although it was not the only period that influenced how viewers thought, it had an impact on how productions were played, staged, and presented. Barrie was never a member of any college or theatre. His act is distinguished by inventive comedy, delicate sadness, and fantasy. The admirable Crichton is his most distinctive and characteristic drama. Expressionism is a modernist period in British theatre that began in Europe in the early twentieth century and spread to the United States afterwards. It is a part of the play's greater period of expressionism.

The reaction to naturalism and realism was diverse, with some nonrealism dramatic approaches holding names from the past, others receiving new titles, and others appearing to fit into a specific paly. The modernist reaction against naturalism and realism was epitomised by expressionism and symbolism, both of which were declarations and evocations of a reality beyond the comprehension of positivistic art. The birth of one of the most important periods in modern British drama, the kitchen sink drama, occurred from the 1950s through the 1970s. This type of play, as well as various roles that they played, set them apart from previous forms of play. They may be comparable to the absurdist theatre of authors such as Samuel Beckett.

Tragicomedy is a literary genre that incorporates elements of both comedy and tragedy. The phrase is most commonly associated with British dramatic literature, although it can also refer to a tragic theatre with enough humorous elements to lighten the overall atmosphere, or a serious theatre with a joyful conclusion. Although British dramatic language is based on real-life human communication, when watching a play, one must also understand the variations between dram talk and real chat. British dramatic lang is always manufactured or made up, and it is frequently used for a variety of purposes.

Kitchen sink realism, a word coined to characterise novel, drama, art, and other plays, was a significant cultural moment in British drama that began in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Members of this creative movement were frequently referred to as "angry gentlemen." It described social and political issues using a sort of social realism that depicts the domestic lives of career oriental society. In the 1950s, these angry gentlemen, in the theatre like John Osborne's, found the drawing room theatre of the post-war trend, typical of dramatists like Noel Coward and Terence Rattigan, challenging. In 1956, it is staged. Social issues were also addressed in the theatre by Nell Dunn and Arnold Wesker. Another fascinating aspect of post-war British drama was the dramatic shift in the way plays were staged. These shifts are inextricably linked to changes in the way plays are written. The theatre's innovations necessitate new acting forms, new plays, the evolution of acting forms, and new trends in play management, all of which support the creation of innovation theatre.

Q2. Discuss the play within the play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Ans) In the first play-within-a-play, the labourers portray Pyramus and Thisbe. Many aspects of the Athenian lovers' storey, as well as some of the larger themes, are identical to those found in the main play. In the subplot, Pyramus and Thisbe, like Lysander and Hermia in the main storey, face parental disapproval. Despite the play's sorrowful theme, the artisans portray Pyramus and Thisbe's love storey in such a light-hearted fashion that it parodies the theatrical Athenian lovers and concludes with a very cheerful and amusing ending.

Another parallel is the importance of darkness in both plays, as it creates love ambiguity. When Pyramus sees Thisbe's bleeding cloak in the middle of night, he wrongly concludes she has been slaughtered by the lion and commits himself as a result of his mistake. Similarly, the Athenian lovers are put in a difficult situation by the love sprite Puck's mischief and intervention, which occurs at night in the woods. Despite the fact that the craftsmen's performance transforms the Athenian lovers' storey, which is full of powerful emotions, into a hilarious and joyful comedy, the sub play serves as a symbol for the larger play. While the lovers, Theseus, and Hippolyta criticise the labourers' foolish performance, it is said that the audience watching the lovers watch the craftsmen's play are also aware of the lovers' own absurdity.

The craftsmen's play-within-a-play also allude to the theatre’s strict rules and limitations. The construction workers establish a strange theatrical troupe. All of these personalities appear to be amusing due to their surface characteristics and personal peculiarities. They mumble, mispronounce words, and act as if they are stupid. These inexperienced craftsmen are anxious about their new theatrical roles for Pyramus, Thisbe, a wall, a lion, and a moon because none of them have previous acting experience. Despite their concerns, the troupe's leader Quince fails to aid the actors in improving their pronunciation and understanding critical dramatic techniques. Instead, he simply tries to match the performers during rehearsals in the hopes that they will play out.

Shakespeare's play-within-a-play, on the one hand, is offered as a humorous interlude to demonstrate his cleverness. The sub-play, on the other hand, assists the audience in grasping some of the larger concepts of the main play. That is, the play does not specify explicitly how the craftsmen come together or who chooses them for the part. These characters, as well as the sub-play in which they appear, exist to cast doubt on a person's capacity to play a particular role in a play. One of the concerns discussed in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream is who is deserving of performing in a play. Another aspect of this topic to think about is who is responsible for presenting a play to the audience, as well as what kinds of attitudes and behaviours are appropriate for bringing a play to the stage. This is proven by the craftsmen-actors' debates in which they argue whether they can bring an actual wall to stage and conclude that they cannot.

Q3. To what extent does Hamlet correspond to classical or medieval notions of tragedy?

Ans) Hamlet is one of the most well-known tragedies ever written, and it exemplifies many of the tragic genre's traits. In the classical or mediaeval meaning, Hamlet is a tragedy. Hamlet is the prototypical tragic protagonist, not only because the play ends with Hamlet and a slew of other characters dying, but also because the play finishes with Hamlet and a slew of other characters dying. Hamlet, as Prince of Denmark, is a figure whose actions have far-reaching consequences for the entire country, therefore the events of the play reverberate around the globe. He, like other tragic heroes, has a number of redeeming characteristics. In the classical or mediaeval meaning, Hamlet is a tragedy.

Hamlet's reputation for moping around Elsinore Castle with a gloomy demeanour derives from his grief over his father's untimely death. In the classical or mediaeval meaning, Hamlet is a tragedy. Despite his melancholy, Hamlet is a brilliant young man with a lot of promise, as many of the other characters see him. In the play's final lines (V.ii.3743—74), Fortinbras says, "He was probable, had he been set on [the throne], To have proved most royal." Finally, Hamlet succumbs to growing loneliness, which is one of the reasons he chooses the dark route to doom. His loneliness heightens his introspection and has tragic effects for others around him. In the classical or mediaeval meaning, Hamlet is a tragedy.

Ophelia's rejection, along with his father's death, drives her insane, and she probably commits suicide.

Hamlet breaks the genre's established conventions, despite its similarities to conventional tragedy. One notable example is Hamlet's "dark path," which ultimately leads to calamity. In the classical or mediaeval meaning, Hamlet is a tragedy. In most tragedies, the hero chooses to pursue something he or she shouldn't; in a revenge tragedy, the hero succumbs to a desire for deadly vengeance. In Hamlet's instance, he appears to have every reason to seek vengeance because Claudius murdered the king and usurped his power, but Hamlet appears uncertain or slow to carry out the Ghost's vengeance request. In the classical or mediaeval meaning, Hamlet is a tragedy. Above all, he seemed to want to know the truth, which does not appear to be a tragic alternative. He decides to isolate himself from everyone else, act erratically, and act insane, which leads to many of the play's tragic results, including Ophelia's death.

Q4. Can The Alchemist be understood as a satire? Give suitable examples.

Ans) Introduction - Comedy holds up a mirror to reflect and reveal things as they are, so that a city can recognise its flaws and folly of its ways and set about correcting them. Volpone (published in 1606), epicene (published in 1609), the alchemist (published in 1610), and Bartholomew Fair (issued in 1614) are among Ben Jonson's magnificent plays that provide a fully informative contemporaneous portrayal of the vices and follies that are always with us.

The Alchemist as a Satire

The direction of Johnsonian comics is in the hands of a devious manipulator. The manipulator is on a mission to bend reality to his will. Sometimes, like in the case of the astute young guy, he succeeds. In Epicene, a young man inherits his uncle's estate. Or the other, who in Bartholomew's fair acquires the wealthy Puritan widow as his life companion. The drama in the alchemy finally becomes feeble, but this is a mistake made by the manipulators. When the manipulators are ahead, they should never let up, and this is not due to any knowledge into the victims' actions. The satirist in the role of alchemist is primarily concerned with describing the devious manoeuvres that women and men use to fulfil nature while remaining inside the bounds of social decency.

It is widely acknowledged that Ben Jonson failed as a tragic dramatist. It is widely agreed that Jon failed because his intelligence was geared toward satiric humour. That is why he loaded his two tragically unsuccessful children with the weight of pedantic knowledge. The two points indicate an obvious inaccuracy of information: one is too crude a point to be accepted; to ask that he failed because his intelligence was not suited to planning is to give us nothing at all. Ben Jonson did not write a good circumstance, but there is no reason why he couldn't have done so. If two comedies of such disparate types as The Silent Woman and The Tempest are both comedies, the section of scenario and comedy is usually used to distinguish them, but in dramatic literature, it can suffice.

Jonson's merciless, scathing wit attracts people from all walks of life. With the figure of Sir Epicure Mammon, Jonson mocks man's gullibility and vulnerability to advertising and magical cures. He fantasises about sipping the elixir of youth and having sexual conquests in his dreams. The alchemist play focuses on what occurs when one individual seeks profit at the expense of another. The play Alchemist is a social satire that spans the period from Jacobean London to the present day. It is a kind of umbrella term for all fraudsters. The scientific charlatan and solemn knave with his indispensable collaborator are physically represented by the principal charter and his confederates. As a result, the drama depicts a predicament that is all too familiar. It's also a depiction of a civilization turned on its head. The world is driven by foolishness and greed. Almost every level of gullibility is represented by a variety of roles.

Q5. Can Eliza in Pygmalion be termed as feminist? Elaborate.

Ans) When Pygmalion was introduced to arrange, it turned out to be immensely common throughout the European world. The completion was interpreted impractically by the on-screen characters and the group of spectators in defiance of the creator's firm objection. The audience has reasons to be particularly pleased with the heartfelt and optimistic conclusion, given that the play is clearly based on another popular fallacy - the Cinderella narrative. In that fantasy, a poor but upright young lady is transformed for one night at a ball, meets her Prince Enchanting, and, as a result, becomes a princess in reality. Pygmalion, on the other hand, has transformed this sentimental shift into something more practical and feasible. The conclusion, as acknowledged by the audience, that Eliza is marrying Higgins and settling down to collect his shoes for him makes the audience (or, more plausibly, the masculine audience) feel so fulfilled that they must believe they have rediscovered the desire for the world.

The plot of the play is without a doubt the production of a woman, either a duchess from a blossoming young lady or a duchess from a duchess, in which man is God, the father, and the creator, while lady is in the position of a kid, being rectified and transformed by man. We can perceive the inconsistency between man and lady right from the beginning of the play: guy is peerless, lady is mediocre.

When the two protagonists first appear in Act 1, we can clearly see the difference: the male character, the language instructor, is a high society man of honour, but the blossoming young lady is just a " animal" with obvious and recognisable marks of lower-class society. Shaw gradually transmits his own judgement of ethical quality through the language teacher, and Shaw plans to educate with his own brand of instruction through the tasks Higgins instructs. "A lady who articulates discouraging and sickening sounds has no privilege to be anywhere—no privilege to live," Higgins says to the grieving Eliza in his first speech. Remember that you are a human being with a spirit and the ability to communicate with others; that your native tongue is the language of Shakespeare, Milton, and the Bible; and don't stay there muttering like a bilious pigeon."

Using this insulting speech, we can deduce that societal restructuring is dependent on the phonetic reorganisation of women, despite the fact that the language educator himself speaks in extremely cruel and horrible language throughout the play. Growing up is something else with which the plot is very concerned. Eliza learns phonetics and habits while also figuring out how to find her own "spark of heavenly flame" because she is considered as a kid and understudy, therefore under the control and education of Higgins. So the play isn't just about constructing a lady for a man's inclination, but also about making a spirit for a man's respect and deference.

Q6. Discuss the art of characterisation in The Playboy of the Western World?

Ans) In Irish literature, J.M. Synge is the most well-known playwright. The Abbey Theatre staged the first performance of the playboy of the western staging on January 26, 1907. The playwright's use of poetry is well-known. The three-act drama "The Playboy of the Western World" has a dark comedy narrative. A self-admitted patricide who is glorified as a significant character and fostered as a love partner by a Mayo community is the basic idea of this play.

Patricide is an evident motif in this piece, as it is the theme of the Western world's playboy. The patricide topic is inspired by a real-life incident in which Mr. Christy Mahon mistakenly believes he killed his father. Christy gains the self-assurance and respect from the locals as a result of his belief that he killed his father, allowing him to become the title's playboy. The Western World's Playboy is a tragicomic comedy with satirical overtones. Synge intended that his audience would laugh a lot at his performance, but that they would also recognise his compassion.

The fundamental themes of the play are myth, imagination, and creativity. J. M. Synge calls for the best imagination in the preface, one that is huge and burning. The villagers, through their creativity, fill in the gaps in the play's facts, then make the bones of his confession into an epic, with Christy as the central person played in Byronic style in this play, which explodes the imagination of modern mythology around Christy. When Mahon storms onto the stage to hurt his kid, reality clashes with the myth built from the beginning.

Christy is a playboy in this play. Other trials and perspectives inspire new responses from him. Due to his loud and egotistical nature, he is completely untrustworthy. His developing self-esteem is reflected in his creativity. From the beginning to the finish of the play, he was a chatty character. He is only a man of words during this time, not a man of action. However, by the play's conclusion, he reveals that he is a man of action. The entrance gives Christy the chance to play the major role, and J. M. Synge the chance to recover the play's title as the first festivity. The other characters decide on Christy's identity after meeting him and realising he isn't who they expected. He is on the run despite the shocking knowledge that his father has been murdered.

Q7. Discuss Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama.

Ans) The chorus in Murder in the Cathedral rouses "us to engage totally in the emotional crises that occur, supplying the action with an all-pervasive background that, like music, is all-pervasive," as John Peter puts it. This leads to a discussion of the language and versification, which are the means by which the 'poetry' can be felt. Eliot admitted that he carefully selected his idiom. "It required a special language as a period work and something out of the usual," Donald Hall observes. Eliot was unable to utilise present words when writing about a distant era. Sean Lucy's remark in July underscored the significance of Eliot's versification. "The verse is the action, the theme is the theme, the atmosphere is the atmosphere, and the meaning is the meaning."

Murder in the Cathedral emerges as a poetic drama that is essentially Eliot's own. It not only brings poetry and drama together and re-establishes lost linkages between religion and theatre, but it also helps to establish poetic drama as a contemporary tradition. Eliot gives his drama an inwardness, an introspection that goes beyond naturalism's reach and depicts a "deeper" truth of current times. "A verse drama is not a play written in verse, but a distinct form of play, in a way more realistic than "naturalistic drama," it should remove the surface of things, disclose the bottom, or the inner," as Eliot contends.

In Eliot's words, "modern poetic play is still quite experimental." I don't think there's a single poet in the theatre today who can say with certainty that he's found the perfect form, idiom, or spectrum of human emotions and experience to manipulate." In Murder in the Cathedral, Eliot developed a pattern of poetic drama that employs verse to communicate the most impassioned in the realistic setting of the modern theatre, Eliot attempts to look beyond the outer world of fleeting changes and material decay, thereby arriving at a world within that is eternal and abiding, at a time when drama was qualitatively written in prose.

Two sections of this mix of drama and poetry stand out as seemingly departing from the usual. The intermission between the two clearly delineated portions of the play, Thomas's sermon in the Cathedral, and the knights' speech after the murder are both addressed to the audience in prose. On the morning of Christmas. Thomas outlines the nature and meaning of Christian martyrdom in his sermon, while the knights attempt to justify their actions on many, sometimes contradictory grounds after he is killed. The use of prose cuts down the barriers between the audience and the stage. In Murder in the Cathedral, Eliot believes that the timely intrusion of prose makes the situations inherently dramatic, which could not have been achieved through a continuance in verse.

Q8. Comment on the historical significance of Look Back in Anger.

Ans) For decades, the British Empire had been dwindling by 1956. The British Empire was all but gone with the grant of independence to India in 1947, following Gandhi's thirty-year battle, as well as the loss of African possessions and the near independence of Commonwealth states such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The 1956 Suez crisis, in which Egypt refused to renew the concession of the British-owned Suez Canal Company, resulting in a disastrous and embarrassing intervention by England, highlighted Britain's lack of authority in the post-World War II world. Since the early Victorian era, there have been intrusions into the power structure, with the ruling elites resisting at every turn. In 1945, the Labour Party defeated the Conservatives in a landslide, removing Winston Churchill, the wartime hero, from office.

The concept of a Kitchen Sink drama was equally ground-breaking in British theatre. Prior to Look Back in Anger, most British theatre embraced Victorian dramas and comedies, as well as staging of classical plays. In general, Victorian plays dealt with polite themes from the upper governing class in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In contrast, Osborne's play highlighted the working class's unvarnished emotions and living conditions. Because of its focus on the intimate domestic and emotional lives of regular people, this theatre style was dubbed "Kitchen Sink." The kitchen is practically a part of the set in Look Back in Anger.

The growth and fall of the British empire serves as the play's cultural setting. British colonialism reached its pinnacle of power and influence around the turn of the twentieth century. The British empire had begun a sharp decline by the 1950s, thanks to two World Wars that destroyed the British economy and the advent of the United States as the new world military and political power. Jimmy Porter embodies an entire culture that pines for the great days of the past. He idealises the noble causes of the past while mocking those who can't grasp why things have changed so drastically.

Look Back in Anger was written at a critical juncture between Britain's Victorian history and the modern twentieth century. Jimmy's hatred and indignation are an outpouring of pent-up passion and a desperate longing for life in a world that has grown dull and uninteresting. That rage became a symbol of defiance against British culture's political and social malaise. His rage is damaging to those around him, and the play's psychological violence has been widely panned. Today's critics believe, however, that the play is essential to understanding British life in the twentieth century and hence a key piece of British literature.

Q9. Discuss Waiting for Godot as a reflection of existential themes.

Ans) Samuel Beckett used the existentialist theory in his play "Waiting for Godot." It is regarded as one of the most well-known existentialist plays, with the concept of existentialism serving as the central plot. However, there are several components in it that show a nihilism theme. Although nihilism and existentialism are two different concepts, Samuel Beckett appears to have blended them in order to demonstrate Existentialism's supremacy. Some commentators believe that "Waiting for Godot" is neither totally existentialist nor entirely nihilism, but rather somewhere in the middle.

As a reflection on existential topics, Waiting for Godot: The existentialist idea was offered by Jean Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger, who claimed that people had been thrown into a pointless cosmos with no purpose. They had been placed in an absurd circumstance by an unknown entity and were suffering from mental anguish. Whether life is dreadful or not is irrelevant to existentialist theory. As a result, the major cause of human suffering is not the dreadful world, but the fact that people are free to live in it. They have the freedom to choose, but the irony is that no choice is given to them; existentialism, on the other hand, argues that not making a decision is a choice. In a nutshell, existentialism is a philosophy that holds that "man is what he does."

Waiting for Godot as a reflection of existential themes: "Waiting for Godot" is a drama that does indeed exhibit existentialism as a theme. Vladimir and Estragon, the play's two major protagonists, are placed in an absurd predicament, just like humans are placed in the world for no reason. Throughout the play, they do little to improve their awful situation. Existentialism emphasises the need of doing something and making a difference while accepting one's place in the world. As a result, they have the freedom to improve their lives. They have the ability to get out of this circumstance and provide meaning to their lives, yet they do nothing.

In this light, Estragon's dialogue is noteworthy. He declares: As a reflection on existential topics, Waiting for Godot: Despite this, the play does not support nihilism as a theory. Even when they are doing nothing, two tramps are doing something. They're waiting for Godot to arrive. They have given them a reason to exist, and they have accepted it. They are also figuring out who they are. They are unable to locate answers to their questions, and the sole reason for their failure is because they are perplexed. Furthermore, they are Christians who believe in the existence of God, which is the polar opposite of nihilism. Existentialism is a philosophy that does not believe in the existence of God. There is, however, a subset of existentialism that does so. It's referred to as "Christian Existentialism." In this way, "Waiting for Godot" exemplifies this form of existentialism.