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MY FAVOURITE GREEK PLAY
ELSA Online Meet 24 April 2022
On 24th April 2022 members of
ELSA had an online meet to discuss their favourite Greek Plays. Members were
elated as the topic gave most of them an opportunity to visit a generally
lesser explored area of literature. Prof. Nibir K Ghosh provided the background
to the discussion by highlighting the two important aspects of the Greek plays,
Humanism and the strong concept of individuality. He pointed out that the Greek
plays, tragic and comic, emphasized the high moral order of the Athenian
society. He mentioned the role of these plays in opening the human mind to new
ideas in life.
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus was taken up for discussion
by Saurabh Agarwal. He talked about the inversion of the justice of Zeus and
the theme of rebellion against the tyranny in the play. The relevance of the
play written around 456 BCE in modern scenarios was also taken up for
discussion. Dr. G. L. Gautam took up Socrates' Philosophical Beliefs and
the Athenian Educational Programme in Clouds by Aristophanes as his topic. The play is a
reflection on the moral upbringing and quest for proper education.
Dr Santosh Gupta while speaking on the topic “Discovery
of the Greek tragic vision in the contemporary world with reference to
Euripides’ The Bacchae and Alcestis,” stated how
Greek plays still spark up the imagination of modern writers and inspire them
to revisit these ancient texts. Two such noteworthy works brought forth in the
course of her presentation were The Silent Patient by Alex
Michaelides and Home Fires by Kamila Shamsie. The former book
draws its inspiration from the myth of Alcestis while the latter is a modern
retelling of the play Antigone. Her presentation laid emphasis on
gender issues and freedom from excessive restraint.
Euripides’ Medea was analyzed
by Dr. Anjali Singh as an extreme case of individualism and unconventional
choices that a person makes when society fails to give them their rightful
place. She mentioned how the play shows women of those times taking some
drastic steps rather than humbly submitting to the dictates of the patriarchal
society. Dr. Tanya Mander talked on “Greek Drama as a vehicle for raising
awareness” where she drew
the attention to the dynamics of human and the divine law. Her talk also
focused on the way the Greek stage was used to educate the masses.
The aftermath of war has always been a point
of interest of the thinkers and writers. The Greek playwright Euripides’ The
Trojan Women is focused on the state of Troy and the fate of its women
after its defeat in the Trojan War. Dr. Mukesh Vyas in his presentation drew the attention
to the pathetic situation of the women like Hecuba in the play and the woes of
war. Jessica Joel’s talk titled ‘The Oresteia trilogy of
Aeschylus and Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra’ drew a
succinct comparison between the ancient and the modern play.
Dr. Seema Sinha talked about the Greek
influence on T. S. Eliot’s play The Cocktail Party by bringing out
elements from Greek drama to substantiate her viewpoint. Sharbani Roy
Choudhury took active part in the ensuing discussions.
At the end of the meet, Dr Ghosh thanked all
the participants for their contributions in the following words:
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Greek Plays and their Eternal Appeal
Nibir K. Ghosh
The impact of Greek literature and art was largely responsible for the flowering of the Italian Renaissance. Innumerable translations carried the treasures of the classics far and wide through that large miscellaneous public to which the originals would have been sealed books. In this way, as has been well said, "every breeze was dusty with the pollen of Greece, Rome, and of Italy." Even the general atmosphere was charged with the spirit of the new learning. While the Renaissance aroused the intellect and the aesthetic faculties, the Reformation awakened the true spiritual nature in man. The same printing press which diffused the knowledge of the classics put the English Bible into the hands of the people; and the spread of an interest in religion was inevitably accompanied by a deepening of moral earnestness. Transformation from a god-centred universe of the Middle Ages to a Man-centred universe. Milton’s classic Paradise Lost provided such a wonderful debate between faith and reason that to this day we have not been able to decide with any finality whether Satan or God is the hero of the immortal epic.
Greek Literature
5th century BC witnessed the heyday of art, philosophy and democracy never seen before or since Greek Classical Age. Socrates’ pronouncement, “An unexamined life is not worth living,” brought to centre-stage Humanism and strong Individualism leading to the opening of the human mind to rational approaches and principles. Respect for ethics and high moral order governed the unrestricted spirit of Athenian Democracy.
The role of Socrates in proclaiming the need for a free spirit of inquiry may be seen from the remark made by him during his trial:
My whole employment is to persuade the young and old against too much love for the body, for riches, and all other precarious things of whatsoever nature they be, and against too little regard for the soul, which ought to be the object of their affection. For I incessantly urge to you, that virtue does not proceed from riches, but on the contrary, riches from virtue; and that all the other goods of human life, public as well as private, have their source in the same principle. If to speak in this manner be to corrupt youth. I confess, Athenians, that I am guilty, and deserve to be punished.
It is no small matter that Socrates happily accepted his fate rather
than beg for mercy or seek asylum in other kingdoms. Yet, it is ironical that
Socrates had to drink the hemlock and Plato felt unsure about including poets
in his Republic.
However, it is noteworthy that the principal Greek playwrights – Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes – skilfully used the power of the stage to put forth their views that appealed to all sections of society.
Coming to Greek Drama and the theme of today’s meet, we may aver that the Ancient Greeks took their entertainment very seriously and used drama as a way of investigating the world they lived in, and what it meant to be human. The three genres of drama were comedy, satyr plays, and most important of all, tragedy.
Tragedy
Tragedies dealt with the downfall of the high and mighty. Tragedies borrowed from existing legends and heroes in popular imagination. Mythical heroes appeared with attributes common to ordinary people. Tragedies performed in the evening.
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex shows the accountability of the ruler to his subjects. When Oedipus realizes his guilt, he does not indulge in abuse of his power to refute the charges. He blinds himself and walks out of his kingdom to save his people from the wrath of Gods. Performed in the morning. Again, in his Antigone
We notice how tragedy
occurs when hate becomes greater than love.
Comedy
Comedies addressed current events, celebrated ordinary people and attacked the powerful. Comedies attacked arrogant politicians, war mongering generals and self-important intellectuals.
Aristophanes boldly stated: “I'm a comedian so I will speak of justice no matter how far it sounds to your ears.” … “Open your mind before your mouth.” Women were treated in his plays as humans with real and complicated personalities. Women, to him, were as virtuous as men if not more: “I would rather stand 3 times with a shield in battle than give birth once.” Through his plays, Lysistrata, Clouds etc. he explored new ideas and encouraged self-criticism. With free speech and ordinary heroes, his plays made his audience think while they laughed. In Clouds Aristophanes mocked fashionable philosophical thinking. He cared more for the misunderstood and misfits than for the heroes.
The Impact of Greek plays on modern Literature
Tagore wrote: “Time has no pity on the human heart. He laughs at its struggle to remember.” Yet, the impact of Greek literature right from the time of the Renaissance to the present era makes it evident that the power of Time proved ineffectual in erasing the agony and ecstasy of enjoying the extant Greek tragedies and comedies. The definition of Tragedy propounded by Aristotle and its modern variants -- Hamartia, Catharsis, Hubris etc. -- show the enduring appeal of Greek plays. The Tragic hero as a man of renown may no longer be held as a model, but when we read Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, we cannot deny that Willy Loman is any less a tragic hero than Oedipus.
Nibir K. Ghosh is Chief Editor, Re-Markings.
.Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides in the Light of Greek Plays
Santosh Gupta
In the recent past I have come across new novels which have adapted some well-known Greek tragedies. These texts, such as Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (2017) and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (2019) interweave the socio-political, cultural and emotional tensions portrayed in the ancient Greek plays with modern situations, indicating the continuing relevance of the ancient texts. One of the reasons for such smooth interrelation between the past and the present could be the fact that the modern Western civilization has been based on the ancient Greek civilization, its philosophical, political and cultural values, practices and achievements. The Greek thought has been the premises on which the West has continued to grow.
Inevitably, many social values and practices, such as the phallocentric and hierarchical structures rooted in the Greek culture have also persisted. Modern day Feminists have spoken of the rebellious women in Greek plays, who dared to stand up against injustice on state, social and family levels. But most Greek women were not as bold as Antigone and Medea. They submitted to the prevailing male constructed social norms, gender roles, even if they suffered many forms of humiliations and injustice. It is in this perspective that I like the two plays by Euripedes, Alcestis and The Bacchae, where he depicted the Greek women’s socially subservient position. Most women could not express their inner feelings, as they lived in accordance to the social/male expectations from them.
The play Alcestis depicts the return of the queen Alcestis, wife of King Alcibiades, from the clutches of death, saved by Hercules. After her return the wife adopts a total silence, not expressing any emotions. Euripides uses this story to show silence adopted as a means of expressing the inexpressible, by the helpless woman (and most women). Adopted as she (they) learns of their utter dispensability to the husband, who happily agrees to let her die, in his place. This play had shocked me as I first read it for my Master’s course. But I responded to this behaviour with a better understanding after reading the novel The Silent Patient. This novel begins with another silent woman who has killed her husband and then refuses to give the reasons for her action. The woman’s action now expresses her rage and disgust at a somewhat similar betrayal.
The Bacche is one of the greatest portrayals of women’s struggle against undue restraint and misogynism. The Greek playwrights, and Euripides more than the others, expressed many of the fears, inner insecurities and sense of incompleteness the contemporary Athenian adult male must have been experiencing. One of these source of tensions must have been enforcing unequal gender roles, denying women the privileges and freedoms the men enjoyed. The play uses masterfully the myth of Dionysus’s entry into Thebes and the conflict with the King Pentheus to bring forth the many layers of the conflict between the king and his (female) subjects, the male fear of granting freedom to women, and other psychological tensions. As a ruler, Pentheus wants to protect his state and people, especially the women, from the attractions the foreigner offers. However, the women of the city, including his mother, have gone out of the city to participate in the new worship. The play draws out the gradual descent of the King’s character into the unstated and unconscious feelings as he begins to show his deep lying fear and disapproval of female freedom and power. I admire the ancient writer’s deep insight into the un/conscious emotions of human beings.
Professor Santosh Gupta, former Head, Department of English, Rajasthan University, Jaipur.
Socrates'
Philosophical Beliefs and Programme of Education in
Aristophanes'
The Clouds
G. L Gautam
It's a matter of common knowledge
that the Greek philosopher Socrates (470-399 B.C.) executed in 399 B.C., and
the Greek playwright Aristophanes (450-388 B.C.) had been living for half a
century at the same time during the fifth century B.C. It's no surprise
therefore that Socrates as a teacher of physical or nature Sciences, having
amounted to his disrespecting the existence of weather gods. occupies a
prominent site in the play The Clouds penned by Aristophanes. We can
reimagine now what a towering character as a proponent of physical Sciences and corresponding disrepute as non-believer
in gods like Jove popular among the public Socrates had acquired that
Aristophanes had been compelled to characterize
Socrates in the Clouds. Jove in popular Greek imagination
occupies the same place as god Indra has in the Indian imagination. As the
clouds gather across the sky, I have heard the people of my village hail them
as the bringers of rain.
Bertrand Russell [1872-1970] in his best-selling book History of Western Philosophy devotes chapter 11th to discussing Socrates and notes how playwright Aristophanes, the writer of The Clouds was aware of the fame of Socrates as a wise man and disrepute as a non-believer in the gods. In the words of Russell: ''Socrates was known to the public who speculated about the heavens above and searched into the earth below and made the worse appear the better cause." (104)
Bertrand Russell, awarded a Noble
prize in 1950, feels unequal to construct as to what made up the beliefs of
Socrates, since he had not penned his philosophical musings. What Socrates
taught as contents, our inquiry, Russell argues, is informed by the opposite
views Socrates' two famous students hold.
Xenophon was a historian and a
military man. Xenophon feels unhappy why his morally upright teacher had been
charged with impiety and corrupting the youth. He argues how his teacher was
profoundly concerned with ethics in all walks of life, including politics. As a
historian, Xenophon is dismayed at why Socrates' concern for inducing the
competent people in positions of power was not well-received by the
authorities.
Socrates’ another student, Plato,
constructs the imaginative narrative of his legendary wise teacher's trial in Apology
for Socrates. The Apology is a lively account of what Socrates had
spoken out in self-defense before the
Jury. At trial, Plato had been present.
Plato had seen his beloved teacher plead how he had become defamed among the
public as non- believer when the Judges would still be children. Socrates knows
only one person among the public who is no other than Aristophanes.
Aristophanes’ The Clouds, a
well-known Greek comedy, calls to the mind the present generation of the youth
who love consumerism to the point of a passion. The global economy with the
culture of credit-cards has pawned the youth in the hands of private banks run
by the sole motive of making capitalist gains by earning interest. Aristophanes
foregrounds The Clouds in the culture of love for racehorses. Pheidippides,
the spendthrift son of Strepsiades could be seen as representing the present
generation. The youth's passion for capitalist items ranging from the costly
cars to the electronic items could be shown analogous to Pheidippides’s love
for racehorses. The enraged father warns his over expensive son: “If you
persists in this, that neither you, nor your coach horses - nor your racing
mares shall be maintained, one minute at my cost (The Clouds, Act 1 ,
Scene 1, lines 178-180)
Following pampering his son,
Strepsiades owes huge money to the creditors. However, he knows it for sure
that thoughtful people teach how to turn wrong to right at payment of money.
That way you could outwit your creditors by the logic the philosophers teach.
Aristophanes confuses the teachings of the Sophists who taught for money with
the School of Socrates who taught for free. Aristophanes calls it “the glorious
art of turning wrong to right, The Cloud, ACT1, Scene 1 171).
At the school of Socrates,
Strepsiades accepts the fact how the patterns of the clouds determine the conditions of rain and thunder,
a phenomenon hitherto held under the power of Jove. With the new learning
cultivated at the School, Strepsiades outwits his creditors and flogs one of
them. This immoral act returns back to Strepsiades as his own son thrashes him,
an act for which he holds the new learning corrupting him. Full of fury,
Strepsiades sets to fire the School of Socrates.
To conclude, Aristophanes'
representation of Socrates is not fair as he shared the general perception
about him as corrupting the youth. In fact, what Socrates was trying to do was
to establish the power of logic in place of accepted beliefs. Socrates has been
misrepresented as accepting money for his teaching though he taught for free.
His sincere effort was to separate ethical philosophy, as Gautam Buddha did, from the Sophists who
made money.
Dr. G. L. Gautam, former Head, Department of English, Lajpat Rai College, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad is a bilingual poet and translator.
My Favourite Greek Play: The Trojan Women by Euripides
Mukesh Vyas
The Trojan Women by Euripides is a tragedy by the Greek playwright
Euripides. written in 415 BCE.
I like this play because it deals with the Trojan war
and it is an anti-war play. The play presents the sufferings and woes of war on
the Women of Troy. The Trojan war didn’t result in any positive outcome. The
Trojans, especially the women and the children, suffered. The Greeks won the
war but their victory was hollow as 10 years they spent away resulted in chaos
and loss. Even Helen was not given death sentence but was allowed instead to live
out her days.
The Trojan women present the theme of suffering and
pain through the women of Troy. The suffering of Hecuba is never mitigated. It
will persist for as long as she lives. This view that this suffering is endless
was revolutionary in Greek drama. We find the indifference of the Gods and the
sorrow associated with war. War brings suffering and pain. It is an antiwar
play in the history of Greek drama. The Trojans were left in sufferings and
woes. The Greeks, the victors, felt tired and unhappy. The reasons for war are
irrational. Even the amount of suffering is unreal. The consequences of the war
are hollow too.
The most important part of the play is the
presentation of the women characters. They are Hecuba – Cassandra – Andromache
– Helen – Chorus (mainly women characters). Hecuba reveals her sorrow but she
doesn’t bow under defeat. She comforts Andromache that life is preferable to
death because life provides a cup of hope. “Death cannot be what Life is,
Child; the cup of Death is empty, and Life hath always hope”.
The Trojan men in this play exist only in the women’s
memories. They are not there to face the fate of the losers of the war. War
affects Women and Children more. Women are treated as concubines and slaves.
Children are separated from their parents or outright killed because they
represent a future generation. The Victor doesn’t want them to grow up. The
citizens must endure the absurdity and cruelty of war.
Through the use of Symbols, Euripides has created a
realistic atmosphere in the play. Cassandra’s torch is a magic symbol of light
and knowledge. She will go with Agamemnon as his wife but will destroy that
house completely. It will be a revenge for the Trojans. She has the knowledge
of the future events but no one believes her as they are ‘dark’ prophecies.
Astyanax’s body is a potent symbol. His dead body is now put up with his
father’s (Hector) shield. It suggests the father and son united now both in
death and defeat.
The Troy’s end is a perfect metaphor for the story of
the Troy, its Glory and now its end. “Troy Is gone forever Farewell.” The events
of the play represent the end of an entire civilization. “Woe to the, ill-fated
Troy, thy Sun is set”. The fundamental message of this play is that Universal
suffering and pain are the ultimate aftermath of war.
Reference: The Trojan Women by Euripides. Greek translation by Gilbert Murray.
Prof. Mukesh Vyas, former Principal Govt. College, Gujarat
Eliot’s The Cocktail Party: Greek Tragedy Retold
Seema Sinha
The
Cocktail Party is one of the seven plays written by T. S. Eliot. It
is one of the landmark plays of postwar years. It defies any genre, because
there are elements of social comedy, drawing room comedy of manners, Christian
ideals of sin and salvation and the myths of sacrifice and resurrection. The
modern comedies or drawing room comedies as well as musicals had been popularized
by Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward in the twenties, the decade between the two
world wars. Along with many changes, the three Act play had taken over the five
Act drama. There were undercurrents of meaning in these urban elite comedies,
like in Maugham’s Caesar’s Wife,
where there is a modern and poignant interpretation of the ancient idea that Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion.
Purification of
the soul, a noble death, grandeur and sublimity these are the ideals of Greek
Tragedy. Tragedy in its pristine form brings a catharsis. Heroism of the body
and the spirit are essential for the protagonists of Greek Drama, who achieve a
meaningful death, as Alcestis and other Greek tragic characters achieve.
The Cocktail Party has
elements of psychiatry, Christian ideals of sin and sacrifice, family drama,
Catholic belief in atonement and salvation. It is based on Euripides’s Alcestis, which is the legend of
Alcestis or Alkestis, the Greek princess sacrificing herself as a part of a
ritual, to be resurrected and brought back to life again. The Cocktail Party is a modern drama in an urban setting; it does
not present a mythical world. It incorporates the influences of Alcestis as well as those of modern day reality.
Whether The Cocktail Party can be categorized as
a tragedy is debatable. Celia sacrifices herself for a Cause which she believes
is her mission, and in her self- inflicted suffering, she finds peace. Celia
has a nobility of spirit and conscience which marks her as different from the
mediocrity of the people around her. Unlike the Greek Tragedy, the world of The Cocktail Party is about ordinary
people and their limited thinking, desires and problems.
Celia’s spiritual
voyage is symbolized as a physical one. She becomes a martyr but there is no resurrection
like that of Alcestis in the Greek Drama. Celia’s death becomes more meaningful
than her life like those of the Holy martyrs or saints. Her metaphysical quest
leads her to a mission of self-discovery, ‘a journey’ [Act Two] as Dr. Reilly
calls it. Dr. Reilly, the mysterious
stranger, a psychiatrist assumes the role of her spiritual guide, who is
convinced of her desire for atonement for her ‘sense of sin’ [Act Two], which is that of falling in love
with Edward Chamberlayne, a married man.
Edward and Lavinia
are the married couple, bored with each other, bored with life and predictable
routine trying to find a way out of monotony. Lavinia makes an effort to break
free by going away and Edward by having a brief fling with Celia. But both of
them are people with limited imagination and courage and as Dr. Reilly says
they are not meant for soul searching. Lavinia returns after her brief attempt
at escape and Edward discovers he cannot risk his reputation for Celia. This
ends his affair with her on a flimsy excuse. Both Edward and Lavinia lack
courage and conviction. Dissatisfied as they are, they choose placidity and mediocrity
over a spiritual quest.
The mystical quest
of Celia likens her to the figures of Christian martyrdom and great saints like
Gautam Buddha who sacrificed the world to discover their own truth. It is a
consciousness of sin and a desire for atonement which leads them to purgation
and individual search for salvation.
Celia is burdened
with a sense of guilt and sin because she has fallen in love with a married
man, Edward. His refusal to continue with their affair because he doesn’t want
the inconvenience of a social scandal opens Celia’s eyes to Edward’s
superficiality and mediocrity. It acts as a catalyst for her and becomes a
turning point. Like many before her, she embarks on a difficult quest, which as
Dr. Reilly tells her is lonely and not for the faint hearted. But Celia’s will
power and her disenchantment with the world and an awareness of her flaws convinces
Dr. Reilly that she has a nobility of character, a deep faith and heroism.
This aspect of T.S.
Eliot’s portrayal of Celia, elevates her to the tragic level of the Greek Tragedy.
Alcestis in Euripides‘ Alcestis is similar in her courage and willingness to
sacrifice herself. Hamartia and Hubris, the
two central motifs of Greek Tragedy are present in Celia’s wrong decision and
her certainty in herself. She feels she has overestimated herself, committed a
sin and it creates a feeling of self hatred in her which leads her to her Catharsis and brutal death. Complex
existential and spiritual crisis, physical trauma, emotional evolution, savage
death are all present in Celia’s martyrdom as they are in the lives of saints
and martyrs. Their death is not the end but the beginning and a transition into
something holy and sanctified.
As Dr. Reilly
tells the grieving Edward and Lavinia who mourn her death: ‘You think her life
was wasted/ It was triumphant.’[Act Three]
The character of
Dr. Reilly can be compared to that of an Oracle or Savant of myths and Greek
Drama. He has extraordinary powers of perception and wisdom and like a
spiritual guide leads Celia towards the right path. He also has an
understanding of the mediocrity of people like Edward and Lavinia who do not
have the capacity to undergo an agony of the soul, unlike Celia. He knows that
they are ordinary people who belong to the ordinary world.
The metaphysical
truth is that everyone is responsible for their choices. As Dr. Reilly tersely
says to Edward and Lavinia that people like them learn to make compromises with
their own limited narrow selves: “…They do not repine/ Are contented with the
morning that separates/ And the evening that brings together/ For casual talk
before the fire/ Two people who know they do not understand each other,/ Breeding
children whom they do not understand/ And who will never understand them.”
[Act Two]
Dr. Seema Sinha, Head, Dept. of English, B.B.M.K.
University, Dhanbad.
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus
Saurabh Agarwal
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus is based on a Greek mythological tale where
Prometheus brings the fire to mankind and faces the wrath of god Zeus due to
his non-submissive behavior. Prometheus of Aeschylus is shown bearing “the
fruit of his philanthropy” and he is being “punished for his excessive love of
Man.” He is the bold rebel who stays loyal and firm for the greater good though
it has brought him great suffering. This unrelenting image of Prometheus has
inspired generations of writers, artists, musicians and thinkers alike. It was this
image which forms the basis of P. B. Shelley’s lyrical play Prometheus
Unbound. Beethoven uses it for his own revolutionary ideas in “The
creatures of Prometheus.” Karl Marx in his doctoral dissertation of 1841 called
him “the loftiest saint and martyr in the philosophical calendar.”
The Aeschylus’ play has been unique as it is the sole play
of his where Zeus is painted as a tyrant. Nowhere in the play does he make a
direct appearance but his torturous shadow looms over the whole play. The
Justice of Zeus is being put to question. It is said so because the play Prometheus
Bound represents the early stage of the reign of Zeus. This play was the
first of the trilogy which is not available to us. The harsh image of Zeus
shown in Prometheus Bound mellows down in the later parts as he settles
in his reign.
Inversion of the character was not unique to Greek plays as
almost an Aeschylus’ contemporary, living in India, would attempt the similar
feat. The great Sanskrit dramatist, Bhasa, who wrote Mahabharat plays showed
the characters in different light. Bhasa’s Urubhangam had transformed
the much-hated character of Duryodhana into a sympathetic one.
The fire stolen and given to humans by Prometheus is
a symbol of knowledge for as he says he “gave shrewdness to their childish mind
and taught them reason.” What he gave to the human race can be summed up “in
one short word: All human arts were founded by Prometheus.” Zeus treats it
as a crime. So it is to be understood that some section of society which has
stayed devoid of benefits that are available to other preferred ones should
continue being so. Any modern-day Prometheus who seeks to disrupt the balance
of power by imparting the knowledge to the down trodden will call for a severe
punishment on himself. Only a few can stay defiant till the end and proclaim: “Let
me assure you, I would not exchange my own misfortune for your slavery.”
Antigone and its
Adaptations
Tanya Mander
Sophocles’ Antigone has had number of
interpretations being expressed through adaptations and presentation on the
stage. George Steiner explains, “Each production of Sophocles’ Antigone since
the first is a dynamic enactment of understanding.” Some of the significant
adaptations that are covered here are the ones that add something to the
established perspectives or they make complete break from tradition and explore
a new dimension. Hegel’s theory on Antigone was largely responsible for the
popularity that Antigone enjoyed in the 19th century. For Hegel the play was
essentially a moral lesson from which people could learn important lessons on
goodness, divine blessing, political success, and humankind’s achievement. It
was Johan Jakob Christian Donner’s translation and Ludwig Tieck’s direction
that imbued Antigone in 19th century the authentic Greek flavor. Prussian King
Friedrich Wilhelm IV chose the work for the mild and moderate voice of the
Chorus resonated with the idea of perfect ‘moral community’. In an age opening
itself to political liberalism Antigone offered itself as new illustration of greater
social good.
In 20th Century Antigone has interested the adapters to explore the intersections between individual and state, their relationship (political and social). In 20th Century the focus of the adaptations has been political and not as lesson on morality to political class; it fulfills the role of exemplary resistance to controlling regimes. Jean Anouilh’s adaptation calls out the futility of active engagement with the political class; it does not offer any lesson on how to fight back against oppressive states. In 1944, in Nazi occupied France Anouilh’s adaptation caused a furore because the adaptation is ambiguous about whether Antigone or Creon is right but it is certain in its portrayal that Creon is not in the wrong. The contrast is drawn between Creon, the emergency political leader and Antigone, young rash romantic girl; Creon, who is duty-bound to maintain order and Antigone who brings in anarchy; Creon who loses everything to maintain the State and Antigone, who causes most of the trouble for her quest of world of purity.
Brecht’s Antigone, however sent out a clear and loud
political message against the fascist regime of Germany. Brecht gave central
position to the chorus, making way for the new interpretation: Theban elders to
be looked at not as Hegel’s ‘moral community’ but German majority who were
unequipped to fight against the fascist government even though they disapproved
of its mechanics. The Chorus in this production wore same clothes as Creon and
shared the same stage space. Living Theatre Company, in 1967, further adapted
Brecht’s version but to offer a different perspective. This adaptation brought
into focus concerns about Vietnam War and explored individual and their
connection to ‘self-guilt’. The characters wore jeans and t-shirts; all words
were performed as actions and the focus of the performance was to look within,
and explore the self. The take away from the play was that reason becomes
insufficient when separated from instincts and emotions; conflicts need
emotions too, to be resolved.
Many other adaptations pitched Antigone as a character who fights against oppression and became examples of psychological resistance against tyrannical regimes. Athol Fugard’s The Island reconstructs a production of Antigone that was staged in a prison with Nelson Mandela as Antigone. The story develops through real-life and fictional events being threaded together. In 1986, BBC televised Antigone to underscore the dynamics of Cold war and contemporary political situations. Don Taylor, while commenting on the relevance of televised Antigone said, “Nothing could have illustrated that more clearly than the fact we were rehearsing the Antigone in summer of 1984, in the first months of miners’ strike and throughout the drama of the Sarah Tisdall trial. In both cases the words being spoken in our rehearsal room exactly paralleled the arguments being rehearsed in the papers and on the T.V political discussion programme” (Translator’s Introduction).
Greek tragedies will continue to offer diverse interpretations and allow artists and playwrights to creatively adapt them to explore and examine new configurations of meanings.
Dr. Tanya Mander, RGNUL, Patiala
My Favourite Play: Medea by Euripides
Anjali Singh
Why
is it my favourite? Sharing a little background to it such as when I first
heard of it, what drew me to it and why do I find it remarkable.
I first heard about the play during my Masters/Post Graduation. And it stayed in my memory since then. This was in 2015. At that time I detested the character Medea.
Why? Because how could a mother murder her own children, whatever the motive may have been. I myself was a mother of two lovely daughters – aged three and six then (in 2015). I was an ‘empowered mother’ who believed it to be my prime duty to protect my girlies. Since then life has moved on for me and my girlies have also grown up. My ‘Motherhood’ duties remain almost the same and more added on.
However, I have grown since then and have gained a wider perspective too. Not to mention the current ‘possibly fourth or the fifth wave of feminism’; being in its midst and with a flood of texts and dialogues and retellings of literary texts and historical events, there is a need to re-interpret Medea too. I no longer am aghast at the ‘mother who murdered her children’. Certainly, it comes as a shock, whatever the Age may be - Greek or contempory. Yet she is not spilling her rage on others outside her world. Medea is not a gun-shooting teenager out to kill her classmates or a deranged woman who goes on a stabbing spree in a public space. She is well aware of what she wants. And after some confusion of the conflicting emotions, she gets the much-needed clarity of what she needs to do.
Jason
is a man for whom Medea breaks all her ties. She makes him the sun of her solar
system. However, she feels betrayed as she finds that she is only ‘his second
thought’ or his back-up plan, that he manipulated her to get what he wanted.
So, Medea does what she thinks is the best in order to survive. Her actions are
about survival and self-preservation. They are a far cry
from the conventional choices.
Let’s
look at the things a little differently. What if Medea chose to abide by her
husband’s wish and be a second fiddle to his New Greek wife? What could have
possibly happened? Her powers would have diminished and this would pour on to
her children too. The old would have been replaced by the new. Maybe the New
Greek wife would have found Medea and her children a threat and would act on
securing her position. Would they not have been in the line of fire then?
Moreover,
the play was written by a man. Even though he tried his best to show her as a
tragic figure for whom one developed sympathies towards the end. Alternatively,
Medea could have schemed up another plan of survival – that of joining hands
with her ‘sister’, the New Greek Wife. Except that ‘Sisterhood’ (my thesis
topic) was an idea frowned upon and ‘women-sisters’ were a divided and extinct
species.
Regarding its contempory relevance: In the age of feminism, it holds importance as the myth of ‘ideal woman’ is questioned? Does she even exist? She is as human as a ‘He’ and feels similarly too. Since, the start of the feminist movement, women have come a long way with miles more to go, yet, the two parameters which they still struggle with are –
1. They need to look and be desirable.
2.
Their need to fit the frame of ‘ideal
motherhood’, their guilt is evoked if they are unable to meet the perceived
picture.
Medea breaks that mould as she is an unconventional mother. Before any of her roles, she is a human who feels all emotions that anybody else may. Because it is a play that has intrigued me the most and has had me question (questions unanswered), I have chosen to speak about it as ‘My favourite Greek’ play, one that has left a mark on the audience and everybody has a lesson to learn from it. It certainly is a play that cannot be ignored.
Anjali Singh, Research Scholar, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Agra
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The Oresteia Trilogy of Aeschylus
and
Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes
Electra
Jessica Joel
Adaption of Aeschylus’s Oresteia to an American setting is
Eugene O’Neill’s most intriguing and intricate work. By adapting the character
types, their relationships and the plot, O’Neill used the sequence of events
point by point; He perforce induced the conventional ritual construction of
Conflict (Agon), Suffering (Pathos) and Revelation (Epiphany) from the Greek
tragedy, and carefully spun these components in the construction of his plot.
O’Neill’s intention to create a modern psychological drama
structured on Aeschylus’s Oresteia trilogy was noted in his work diary as early
as in 1925, and thus began his five year progression towards Mourning Becomes
Electra, a Broadway Production. He successfully changed the cultural milieu by
changing the situation of the drama from Athens to New England, but what he
couldn’t adapt from Aeschylus’s Oresteia trilogy was the culturally determined
attitude which it expressed, the view of history as a providential evolution
from a code of private vengeance to an arrangement of trial by jury.
Anyone with a cursory knowledge of Greek tragedy will be able
to pluck the meticulously shared plot lines of Mourning becomes Electra and the
Oresteia. From a King/ General returning from the Trojan war and American Civil
war in O’Neill, to being murdered by their spiteful wives who in their
husband’s absence had been conducting romantic affairs (Aegisthus and Adam
Brant) and the couples’ progeny murdering the romantic lovers. Electra and Oedipus complex can be seen in
both Oresteia and Mourning becomes Electra; the progeny seek revenge for their
father’s murders even though revenge intensifies their suffering.
The doomed house of
Mannon, O’Neill’s version of the House of Atreus, phonetically reminds of the
Greek king ‘Agamemnon’ mildly connoting the silent surge of wickedness which often accompanies great wealth. The house of
Mannon was built upon “outraged pride and Puritanism”, its temple like white
columns suggesting prison bars, project black shadows against the front of the
house that have locked up generations of Mannons and will incarcerate Lavinia
to her death.
Code of Blood vengeance can be observed in both the plays,
while in Oresteia, Orestes’ motivation to murder his mother to avenge his
father can be seen through the eyes of the Greek code of blood vengeance as a
perfect dilemma which defines his crime and guilt. Orestes’ purgation is sanctioned by Gods and
is thus complete through its roots in the popular history of the Athenian
nation. But, in O’Neill’s play, “the crimes are rooted in the character’s
subconscious”, their feeling of guilt is infinite as it arises from the Puritan
sense of damnation; O’Neill’s solution to the Mannon curse is not purgation but
rather death through Lavinia’s self-immurement which is merely a surrogate for
suicide.
Converse to the epiphany of Oresteia, Mannons become
progressively isolated from the community as O’Neill doesn’t open to a social
revolution and theophany in his judgement towards the end of the play. In the
sepulchral family mansion, Lavinia immures herself, and stabs herself with the
punishment of living death. The epiphany of the Oresteia vindicates the
teological process through which the misery and suffering lead to a transformed
life for the individual and the community, while in the isolation imposed
through self-judgement that ultimately leads to death in Mourning becomes
Electra; death becomes the Mannons.
Jessica Joel is pursuing her Masters in English.
