Greek drama and our course theme: balancing duty and desire (Essay Sample)

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Number Date Greek Drama and our Course Theme: Balancing Duty and Desire Balancing duty and desire is a constant theme in Greek tragedy. The theme, however, manifests in real life outside the fantasy world. Daily social issues, especially in the contemporary world, augment the battle between upholding what is right and opting for the fulfillment of inner passions. Greek playwrights and various contemporary playwrights have presented the theme of the theatre to portray society's nature. How the production and the directing are done in the theatre is essential in passing the message of a play. as a theatre critic, I will analyze Euripides’ Medea, the least effective in portraying the struggle between duty and desire, followed by Sophocles’ Antigone, then Antigone in Fergusson- Theatre of War as the most effective. The paper will also explore how the contemporary play, Medallion by Tanya Barfield maintains the conflict portrayed by the three performances by reconstructing Sophocles' Antigone to suit the post-9/11 context. Euripides’ Medea is a good example of a representation of internal conflict. Medea fights between her maternal duty and a strong desire for revenge. The director ensures that Medea's character is one with uncontrollable rage so that she will not prefer to opt for what is morally right; forgiving Jason and letting him marry Glauce. Medea's cries and wailing are also made to be recurrent to pull the viewers' heartstrings, engulfing them in fear, tension, and pity simultaneously. Glauce, the daughter of the king of Corinth, is beautiful and exudes royalty. Therefore, the robe that Medea bought for her as a "gift" must have been costly, just as she says, “…they shall take the princess a costly robe and a golden crown, and pray for her protection” (Luschnig 25). In this sense, the play achieves to bring the intended picture. However, the imagery and symbolism in the performance were not enough to represent internal conflict. In Sophocles’ Antigone, the struggle to balance between duty and passion is epitomized by Antigone and Creon. Antigone is proud in that she will not let societal gender stereotypes or laws demean her, and she also feels obligated to do the right thing, which is giving his brother Polyneices a decent burial. Ismene tries to change her mind by telling her, “You are always defying the world, but you are only a girl, after all," but that does not stop her (Woodruff 42). On the other hand, Creon is conflicted between obeying a higher law; Zeus' will to respectfully bury Polyneices, or upholding his own-constructed laws as the king; banning Antigone from burying Polyneices. Antigone is given a rebellious trait to facilitate the play’s end, which is the tragic deaths of many royal family members. Moreover, the idea of involving law in the play is an element that gives the focal conflict a reference point. The designers must have set up the stage in a manner depicting a palace to insinuate law and constitution and also to give Antigone the personal perceived power because she is the daughter of a deceased king, Oedipus. Antigone in Fergusson- Theatre of War embodies Sophocles’ Antigone message. How the play was relived in real life by protesters who projected the inhumanity behind Michael Brown’s death was an outstanding method of portraying the themes in Antigone. The clash between state law and personal conviction presented in the play manifested through the literal involvement of a choir to represent the chorus in the original play. In the project, the choir was diverse, involving law enforcement officers, youth teachers, activists, and concerned citizens from New York and St. Louis Missouri (“Antigone in Ferguson Performance…” 05: 28). The diversity was ideally used to represent the concerns of every citizen regardless of age, gender or ethnicity in attempts to show how inner motivations leading to police brutality and community violence harm society. The project is characterized by the intense emotions that Antigone went through in her pursuit to ensure a decent burial for his brother Polyneices. Generally, the Theatre of War project achieves the highest rank in presenting the struggle between balancing duty and desire by re-presenting Antigone in a contemporary context. Tanya Barfield's Medallion maintains the conflict by reconstructing Antigone into a play reflecting the state of affairs after 9/11. Medallion's Antigone, Antoinette, faces the problems Antigone faces in Creon's stand-in character Carlton's regime. Tanya’s play represents the racial disparities between white and black communities, focusing on white supremacy and privilege. Carlton's family members were given burial honors because they were white, while Antoinette, a black woman, is ...