Analysis of Social and Political Contexts in Plays

Analysis of Social and Political Contexts in PlaysWith reference to at least two plays of your choice by divers(prenominal) authors from different periods of theatre hi report analyze in what modal values they ruminate the social and political context in which they were written.In the theatre, e truly earn once born is mortal every form must(prenominal) be reconceived, and its new conception will bear the marks of all the influences that all overr for each one it.(Peter Brook) William Shakespe atomic number 18 takes the story of Julius Caesar and expresses his ideas close to male monarch Elizabeth, and the political atmosphere of Elizabethan England, employ Julius Caesar himself as a metaphor for the growing Elizabethan empire, and the fears concerning the death of an heir-less Queen. Arthur miller infuses the story of the Salem catch Trials with sub textual references to the McCarthyism and departure Scare, which were expiration on in America in the 1950s. In 2013, Anne Washburn sets her story, Mr. Burns A Post-Electric Play, against a nuclear post-apocalyptic backdrop, using a popular television show, The Simpsons, as a catalyst, which in itself is a reflection on her ideas of modern American clubhouse, and society in general, as throughout the play, one bears witness to an previous(a) civilization unraveling, and a resorting to story-telling in its most basic beginnings. This test is a discussion on in what delegacys Julius Caesar, The crucible, and Mr. Burns A Post-Electric Play reflects the social and political context in which they were written.Julius Caesar was first performed in 1599, the first show to be performed at the Globe Theater in London. Though the text was non released until 1623, it is Shakespeares shortest play. Shakespeare is thought to have been severely influenced in reference to the historical context by Plutarchs Lives of the fearful Greeks and Romans, which was written by Plutarch in the first century. In the play, Julius Caesar has just overthr give birth Pompey, who was inauspicious the republic. In the opening scenes, the flock of Rome are seen celebrating Caesar, and try to top off him multiple times. This troubles umpteen another(prenominal) people in the shadows, who begin to whisper active the integrity of Caesar, and whether he will take the throne for his own, or awarding the democratic republic, which Rome was in 440 B.C. These whisperings concern his peers, such as Cassius, who convinces Brutus that Caesar must be taken down before he becomes more unchewable than the Republic. Ultimately, Caesar is assassinated, which results in draw chaos, as the entire country breaks out in civil war. In the end, almost everyone dies.Queen Elizabeth became Queen in 1558, cardinal years before Julius Caesar was first performed. The Virgin Queen, as she was normally k this instantn, was the daughter of Henry VIII, and the last in the line of the Tudor monarchy. Queen Elizabeth ruled very strictly, and was extremely paranoid, therefore many people were intent and questioned all the time for treasonous activity. This was a meticulously recorded practice of law State, comparable with Hitlers Germany, Pinochets Chile, the former Soviet Bloc or Saddam Hussains Iraq. just about all the major players in Shakespeares bearing including the poet himself would find themselves on the ill-treat side of the law at some point during their life And so England was a land of clear divisions in the midst of the old faith and the new, between the cities and the rural communities, between the spangn and that which was unknown and therefore frightening.(pbs.org) It was urgently requirement that if Shakespeare had a political view to share, he must share it very subtly.Early modern writers frequently compared the English Parliament to the Roman republics Senate and popular tribunate. The English were also mindful of Romes role in their early history Julius Caesar successfully i nvaded Britain in 54 BCE and the Roman Empire, which succeeded the republic, controlled Britain from 77 to 407 CE. At the broader level of political culture, English people strongly identified themselves as free in ways that (they believed) citizens of the Roman republic had been and others in Europe were not.(newberry.org) In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare remarks on the political agitation of Elizabethan England in his portrayal of the rebellion and assassi tribe of Julius Caesar. Throughout her reign, Elizabeth I thwarted many assassination attempts, as well as attempts at overthrowing her strongly Protestant rule by the Catholics. Shakespeare also comments on the impend future of England, as Elizabeth was very such(prenominal) the like Caesar in age, and had no heirs to carry on her rule. He uses the Roman civil wars as a vehicle to perhaps predict a post-Elizabethan England, one that did not count on well for the English heap, as the eco-system that was Elizabethan English pol itics disintegrated into mass chaos.Hundreds of years later, Arthur miller wrote The Crucible, in 1953. The Crucible is about The Salem Witch Trials, which happened in 1692 in Puritan Salem, Massachusetts. In the actual trials, young girls began accusive people of witchcraft, which led to mass hysteria, the persecution of over 200 people, and the execution of 20 people. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller adds dimension to a historic event, by adding his own ideas as to wherefore and how the whole thing came about. He get tod answers as to why the girls began the dangerous faade. He also combined historical figures as characters to create a clear and concise storyline. He took many artistic liberties. For example, many of the accusations of witchcraft in the play are driven by the function between farmer, husband, and father John Proctor, and the Ministers teenage niece Abigail Williams however, in real life Williams was probably about eleven at the time of the accusations and Proct or was over sixty, which reads it most unlikely that there was ever any such relationship. Miller himself said, The play is not reportage of any kind . nobody can suck to write a tragedy and hope to make it reportage . what I was doing was writing a fictional story about an important theme.(ukmc.edu)In the 1950s, the United States of America was going through a similar mass hysteria as during the Salem Witch Trials. After World contend II, there was a huge anti-communist movement, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who illustriously brought in many people in the artistic and intellectual community and interrogated them about being communists. Americans were afraid of communism, or radical leftism, because of the belief that communism was in direct opposition to American values. This was the second time in the twentieth century, that America had a Red Scare, the first being in the 1920s. However, in the 1920s the suspicions revolved a social movement, and in the 1950s the fears cau line from fears because of the conflict in Korea and China, and espionage based upon confessions by government officials of spying for the Soviet Union, the most famous being the trials of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed for passing on sequestered nurture to the Soviet Union about the atomic bomb. Senator McCarthy headed the Congresss House unpatriotic Activities Committee, which launched an investigation into purported Communist influence in the movie business. HUAC subpoenaed writers, directors, actors and studio executives and inquired whether they were now or had ever been a member of the Communist Party.(collin.edu)Although there is much speculation as to the take mirroring of The Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible to the McCarthyism Red Scare hysteria of the 1950s, Miller writes, These plays, in one sense, are my response to what was in the air, they are one mans way of saying to his fellow men, This is what you see every day, or think or feel now I will show you what you really know hardly have not had the time, or the disinterestedness, or the insight, or the information to understand consciously.(Steppenwolf.org) Arthur Miller himself had been brought in for questioning about being a communist, and among many others in the Hollywood and theatre scene. He was actually blacklisted at one point. The mass hysteria spread throughout the country, just like in Salem in The Crucible, and people became suspicious of everyone. One meeting collected and published the names of people in the conception of the arts and entertainment thought to be un-American in their politics. The most famous were able to successfully fight off such attacks butRed Channels The root of Communist Influence in Radio and Television, ruined or harmed many peoples careers.(Collins.edu)Anne Washburn wrote Mr. Burns A Post-Electric Play, which was performed at The Playwrights Horizon studio in newly York City in Fall 2013. In the play, which is triple acts, the sho w opens with a group of people sitting around a fire, in the result of a nuclear holocaust, trying to recall an chance from the popular TV series, The Simpsons. Throughout the whole first act, the audience watches what was an actually article for excogitate transcription of the cast during one of the first workshops try and remember word for word the episode, Cape Feare. In the second act, time has moved foregoing ten years and the audience learns that this new world has evolved into a luff where people barter with memories of Simpsons episodes, with different troupes going around performing them, along with commercial breaks.It is as if any fragment of the old world is cherished, if not quite misunderstood by this new civilization. People are impulsive to trade food and shelter for missing pieces of the stories, and there is somewhat of a rivalry between the different troupes, a competition for how many stories each has collected. The second act ends in bloodshed, as people become dotty in trying to attain as many recalling of Simpsons episodes. In the deuce-ace act, it is hundreds of years later, and the audience watches a bizarre performance of what was being rehearsed in the second act, except it is now revered, almost religious in the personal manner it is being performed. The whole act is culmination of years of retelling and evolution into a masked performance that at the same time is almost an exact retelling and something completely different.Anne Washburns use of the post-apocalyptic theme is smart, as the idea of post-apocalyptic society has taken Americas imagination by storm. We use fictional narratives not just now to emotionally cope with the possibility of impending doom, but even more importantly perhaps to work through the estimable and philosophical frameworks that were in many ways left shattered in the wake of WWII.(livescience.com) In a post 9/11 society, later on two wars and a financial recession, America needs the catharsi s that comes with an imagined world after the end of the world. The image of New Yorkers fleeing the crashing towers and the toxic clouds of the death was dole out over and over until the image was emblazoned in indelibly in nations collective psychic. Americas exalted sense of indomitability came crashing down with the WTC, our feeling of security forever buried underneath mensural tons rubble.(ipharoah.thoughts) With Mr. Burns, Anne Washburn has also commented on the influence of pop culture in America, and the trend towards escapism in American society. Television especially is implant into the American culture, and many Americans use television as a way to block out the impending bills, and declining health, and general disarray of their lives.That single Simpsons episode becomes a treasure-laden bridge, both to the past and into the future. And in tracing a storys hold on the imaginations of different generations, the play is likely to make you think back way back to narra tives that survive today from millenniums ago. both age, it seems, has its Homers.(nytimes.com) Throughout history, playwrights have continued to give us a childs play of the world from which they are writing. Whether it is about a specific person, a movement, or the society as whole, Julius Caesar, The Crucible, and Mr. Burns A Post-Electric Play are three examples. All three plays reflect the social and political context in which they were written with the use of metaphor and symbolism, and sometimes just a hearty up comparison. The interesting thing about these three plays, is that not notwithstanding are they allegories for the time in which they were written, but they can also be related to on contemporary terms. In turn, the three plays not only comment on a social and political context, but on the human condition, which never changes.BibliographyArnold, Oliver O. Chronology and Republicanism, Popular Politics, and the Rhetoric of Liberty in 1599. InJulius Caesar,by Willia m Shakespeare. pep pill Saddle River, NJ Pearson Education, 2010.Blumberg, J. (2007).A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials. addressable http//www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/. fail accessed 14 Jan 2014.Brantley, B. (2013).Stand Up, Survivors Homer Is With You.Availablehttp//www.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/theater/reviews/mr-burns-a-post-electric-play-at-playwrights-horizons.html?_r=0. Last accessed 19 Jan 2014.Brook, P (1968).The Empty Space. New York, NY Touchstone.Ipharoah. (2012).Apocalypse As American as Apple Pie.Available http//ipharaoh.thoughts.com/posts/apocalypse-as-american-as-apple-pie. Last accessed 14 Jan 2014.Layson, H and Zurcher, A. (2012).Shakespeares Romans Politics and Ethics in Julius Caesar and Coriolanus.Available http//dcc.newberry.org/collections/shakespeare-rome. Last accessed 14 Jan 2014.Linder, D. (2013).The Witchcraft Trials in Salem A Commentary.Availablehttp//law2.umkc.edu/ efficacy/projects/ftrials/s alem/SAL_ACCT.HTM. Last accessed 15 Jan 2014.Love, M. (2003).Shakespeares England.Available http//www.pbs.org/shakespeare/locations/location153.html. Last accessed 10 Jan 2014.Miller, A (1953).The Crucible. the States Penguin Books.Pappas, S. (2013).Why Were Obsessed with the Zombie Apocalypse.Available http//www.livescience.com/27287-zombie-apocalypse-world-war-ii.html. Last accessed 18 Jan 2014.Shakespeare, W (1603).Julius Caesar. London N/A.Washburn, A (2010).Mr Burns A Post-Electric Play. New York Smith Kraus.Wilkison, K. (2013).The Second Red Scare Fear and Loathing in High Places, 1947-1954.Available http//iws.collin.edu/kwilkison/Resources for Students/redscare.html. Last accessed 19 Jan 2014.