Menander's Dyskolos (Essay Sample)

Menander’s Dyskolos Name: Institution: Instructor: Subject: Date: Introduction Comedy has overtime been a viable tool over which actors, authors and even filmmakers reveal social situations in a manner that an average individual can effectively relate to them. Even though, it is true that a larger percentage of modern comedies are crude to some, not all of them are offensive in nature. There is no case whereby two individuals can ever have the same religious, political, or personal beliefs, and therefore it is impossible for comedies to fulfill everyone’s beliefs. Each generation has its own editions of comedy. Therefore, as generations pass by, comedies also evolve to the extent that authors are no longer afraid of presenting subjects like politics, war, religion or race. Therefore, this paper attempts to ascertain various aspects pertaining to the realism of the Menandrean comedy.Ancient Greek Comedy The overall Greek comedy has undergone tremendous changes since ancient times to date. Radical changes in both political and social conditions that took the stage in Greece during the primeval times resulted into elemental changes in the field of theatre. The unprecedented nature of Greeks commercial and cultural affairs opened the prospect for new and inimitable genre to rise (Menander & Konstan, 1983). It is critical to note that, the “Old Comedy” was highly comical unlike the “New Comedy” that based its humor on the turbulent lives of typical individuals in the society.Menandrean Comedy Based upon reason, Menander emerged as not only one of the most proficient playwrights of ancient times, but also one of the highly lauded Greek writers ever. His writing creates a unique transition between the old and new comedy (Goldberg, 1978). Even though, this kind of comedy never attracted much attention during the middle ages, it has endured much popularity in recent times. It is upon this basic rationale that this part of this paper seeks to ascertain how increased realism of the Menandrean comedy makes it more suitable for writing social history. Realism in the Menandrean comedy setting implies to the objectivity of values and principles exposed by the comedy being distinct about both truth and opinion. In this case, realism offers a platform for an objective or rational argument to be supported by concrete evidence thus leading to subjective judgment. The realism of the aforementioned comedy makes it more appropriate for writing and communicating events of social history. Social historians gradually consider Menandrean comedy as a source for not only a reflection of Greek’s social history but also an advocate for family, gender, as well as private law. The comedy’s realistic nature makes the comedy to raise more issues of real interest such as the historic trends of social attitudes among the Athenians (Menandro, 1992). This imperative control and balance between the actual dramatic interests and the social attitudes portrayed in the characters and plots ensures an adequate reception of provisions of ancient comedy. As a result, the level of precision, validity, and acceptance of social history is heightened through realism of the Menandrean comedy. The Menandrean comedy is effective in the writing of social history due to its characteristic nature to not only introduce dependable comic routines but also social themes of thrift, luxury, indulgence, abstinence, and ritual sacrifice (Menander & Handley, 1965). An example of the aforesaid trait associated with Menandrean comedy is in the case with the cook (mageiros) who was sly, abusive, vain and boastful just to give the new comedy a contemporary edge. Therefore, through this different kind of comedy, social history can be written with much certainty.Neither of the plays in the Old Comedy is about marriage, love, or even sex, except in the cases whereby simple issues regarding the aforementioned are given in a glimpse. On the contrary, Menandrean comedy has a lot to show concerning legitimate marriages and other aspects of Athenians social life. In fact, comedies by Menander continue to exist since the realism of all his comedies makes them meaningful in the present and even future worlds. Moreover, the quality of Menandrean comedy makes it to be read adequately not only in vast urban areas of Roman and Greek civilization but also on the cultural and even the geographical periphery of the ancient world. In this regard, as much as the ancients relied on Greek literature for both wisdom and pleasure, Menandrean comedy was seen to utterly instruct and delight. This kind of realism whereby the Greek and Roman culture was seen as a unique brand of its own during ancient times makes Menandrean comedy be more suitable in writing social history. Most interestingly, Menandrean comedy effectively exposes the awareness of diverse modes thus creating a powerful distinction amid plot and situation. This distinction in the long run enhances sensitivity to the creative and wise use of lucratively traditional devices that often portray the kind of diversity of a given culture. Given that the Menandrean characters as well as situations belong to a powerful tradition, and the course of the play is highly predictable, then the comedy facilitates the adoption of other sources of cultural diversity that have not yet been established. This makes it mainly ideal for it to be used in the writing of social history because of its flexible nature. Besides, new Menandrean comedy texts have shaken the basis of thus arranging the long fragment of historical events in chronological order. For instance, through the comedy the following aspects are presented chronologically; [1] the declaration of older or real persons contemporary, [2] the usage of another meter apart from the iambic trimeter, [3] the powerful comic element also known as farcical scenes, [4] the traditional tools linked with comic types, and [5] the presence and high use of monologs. Therefore, Menandrean comedy enables us to rely mostly on the internal or intrinsic evidence, which makes the play, its characters and plot to express each and every stage of the evolution of social history. The play in this case is not only seen as the work of the art, but also as a measure of social reality. For instance, in the Dyskolos play, the dramatic skills of highly lauded genius are shown along with an exceptional ability to create individualistic characters. The abovementioned attributes of the Menandrean comedy makes it suitable for the writing of social history. Factually, information regarding any of the historical events is often associated with mixed reactions. In this case, the information might be catchy and attractive or even unexciting. Therefore, such information requires higher levels of dramatic skills, which can be attained through Menandrean...