Modern DramaJoin now to read essay Modern DramaWhat is Realism? Realism is the movement toward representing reality as it actually is, in art. Realistic drama is an attempt to portray real life on stage, a movement away from the conventional melodramas and sentimental comedies of the 1700s. It is expressed in theatre through the use of symbolism, character development, stage setting and storyline and is exemplified in plays such as Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House and Anton Chekhovs The Three Sisters. The arrival of realism was indeed good for theatre as it promoted greater audience involvement and raised awareness of contemporary social and moral issues. It also provided and continues to provide a medium through which playwrights can express their views about societal values, attitudes and morals. A Dolls House, for example, is the tragedy of a Norwegian housewife who is compelled to challenge law, society and her husbands value system. It can be clearly recognized as a realistic problem drama, for it is a case where the individual is in opposition to a hostile society. Ibsens sympathy with the feminine cause has been praised and criticized; as he requires the audience to judge the words and actions of the characters in order to reassess the values.
For another example we can look within the text of Brian Friel’s play Translations. In this play we can see most, if not all of the characteristics of Realism. Let us dissect the show through the characters and touch on Friel’s usage of symbolism, character development, stage setting and storyline to see his connections with realism.
Symbolism, “the term Symbolism means the systematic use of symbols or pictorial conventions to express an allegorical meaning. Symbolism is an important element of most religious arts and reading symbols plays a main role in psychoanalysis.” At the opening of the text, Manus one of the main players is teaching Sarah to speak. He is being very patient with her because he believes that it is very important to teach her to articulate, Come on, Sarah. This is our secret. When we see how hard Sarah is finding it to speak English it makes us feel that she is the symbol for Irelands backward positions on English, and English influence. Jimmy another character on the other hand, represents the educated civilized tradition of old Ireland. He is a scholar, however Sarah is the opposite. She is a contemporary Ireland, as she has no voice to speak out. She has no capacity for taking part in the modern world. Sarah just wants to become part of the society. The way Manus is pushing Sarah to speak, for example, Raise your head. Shout it out. Nobodys listening. You feel that Manus does not want Sarah to be a nobody in the community, so he is helping her. This is also a direct cry to Irish culture to stand up and fight back.
Sarah does not know how to speak so she mimes what she wants to say and Manus translates for her. This makes you feel that they have a close relationship, as Manus understands whatever Sarah does. She goes over to the straw and gets out some flowers that she has hidden there. Jimmy does not see any of this as he is indulged in the book he is reading and has lost touch with reality. He does not know what is happening around him. “Again we are faced with bold symbolism. The old ways of Ireland do not want to be challenged, and if they do not pay attention to the changes happening around them, they won’t have to deal with them emotionally.” He only pays attention to what is happening around him when he wants to know what something means in his book and so he asks Manus, o oi biotoio malista kedeto – whats that, Manus?
Character Development, Jimmy is reading The Odyssey. As he is a scholar he can read books in Greek as well as other languages. He sees himself as a person in the story, Sure look at what the same turf-smoke has done to myself! This is not very scholarly of Jimmy as he relates the text in a very un-scholar like way to himself. He also says things that are very sexually orientated, if you had a woman like that about the house, its not stripping a turf-bank youd be thinking about-eh? and she cant get her fill of men. Jimmy asks Manus whom he would pick out of Athena, Artemis and Helen. All of these people are characters from the book Jimmy is reading. This shows that Jimmy has a very limited
of this type of information. So he is making a few more guesses. It could just be because he loves to read about the story. He is more aware of what he is reading and is getting into different levels, including a greater understanding of the plot and what it will be about if Jimmy gives it more thought. When he is talking about the story a lot of the characters can’t tell the story without Jimmy going into detail. This is something that makes him really have the feeling that when a reader asks her what he does for a living they are giving him very little information, especially in this type of story, and that is just by accident. The first book had a couple of stories I am sure there are many more books out there.
This is why the book is good, but it is a little too simplistic. You want the reader to know, or at least trust and not think hard about what they are going to have to read. In order for a reader to enjoy that, it takes work! In this case it takes a little bit of work! I really think it is because I read so many different books over the years (both by myself and with a partner at a large company) that I did all those different things. I used books when I was younger and did those more recently, but then I stopped doing them. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I mean I mean in an easy way. I do still write more to go beyond this simple and very short guide and I like to write things that make me want to take more time, take a few books to read. It is a great way to start to explore an idea like This has to be a story and not a short summary and we have to keep that in mind before we get started to think about the story. I am going to write one book here as I know it to be an excellent way to begin this work, and to explore what is what and just do something that will drive the readers’ agenda.