The Wakefield Dramatist Discussion (Research Paper Sample)

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The Second Shepherds Play Was Performed As A Way Of Making The Bible Accessible To A Wide Population. Discuss The Strategies Employed By The Wakefield Dramatist That Allow The Audience To Relate To The Characters
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Strategies Employed By the Wakefield Dramatist to Validate the Characters
            The master of the Second Shepherds’ Play intended it for the people, a vast audience with whom he demonstrated a great connection with. This way, the play attained its destined purpose where it was dramatized with the core aim of making the Bible accessible to a wider audience. The Second Shepherds’ play is set in Wakefield, a town that was famous for its wool production; hence shepherds were responsible for much of the wealth and thus they gained respect and admiration of the society. Moreover, the shepherds were symbolic characters in the Bible. Jesus Himself was allegorized as a shepherd while the flock was the followers. In order to make the Second Shepherds’ play relevant to a vast audience in Wakefield, the dramatist made use of various strategies that made live the period of nativity and the familiar religious orthodoxy allowing the audience to connect easily with the Sacred history.
            The Wakefield dramatist breaks away from the common styles used in playwriting and adapts end rhyme strategies aimed at allowing the audience to relate to the characters. In depicting the living standards of the humble servants, the dramatist reveals the state of the shepherds using the end rhyme to help the audience grasp the story.
            “We ar so hamyd,
            Fortaxed and ramyd,
            We ar mayde hand-tymd” (15 - 17). 
Through this strategy, the audience gets to understand that the shepherds were fatigued and unhappy with the way society handled their affairs. This way, the dramatist evokes a sense of compassion and thus allowing the audience to grasp a greater understanding and relate on who the actors were and their identity. The drama opens with complaints from the shepherds who are in the cold, and in conditions that are intolerable and through the use of repeated end rhyme, the dramatist affirms the identity of the characters used and the awful social structure that the shepherds were exposed to and which helps identify the background through which the pious savior was born.
            The Dramatist applies irony as a strategy to get the audience glued to the events unfolding in the story. By depicting the third shepherd, Daw, as the least rational, Coll and Gib are afraid that he will beguile them with a lie thus making them liars unless they beware of him, and Coll says of him, that he is  a lazy hind. Here, the audience is led to believe that the third shepherd was inadequate and they should not expect a lot from him. However, later in the story, the audience is taken by surprise since when a sheep is stolen; the third shepherd is the only individual who comes close to the reality of tracing the stolen sheep. Therefore, through the use of irony, the dramatist strategically fools the audience to a false conclusion and thus arouses their eagerness, desire and curiosity as well as drawing their attention to delight in unpredictability. This way, the dramatist invites the audience to pay close attention to all the characters since they play a great role in the biblical drama.
            To greatly help the audience grasp the story being dramatized and the natures of the characters used, the Dramatist use parallelism as a strategy in reaching out to his mixed audience. The author tells the story through direct comparisons of incidences and to characters so as to help the audience in understanding the story deeply. The actual birth of Christ and the false birth of the stolen sheep are parallel events used by the dramatist to create emphasis to the audience. The playwright uses two events in a distinct way to tell the audience of a general occurrence despite the fact that the birth of Christ is glorious while that of the stolen sheep was a lie. This way, the dramatist holds the audience through the farcical and the serious act thus making the point and inviting the audience to pay attention to the details of the two births (384). Additionally, the Dramatist used a distinctive parallel with an aim of unmasking Mak, being one of his characters, to the audience. The sheep stealer is compared to a wolf. Mak asserts;
             “A fatt shepe, I dar say,
            A good flese, dar I lay.
            Eft-whyte when I may,
            Bot this will I borrow.” (line 292-295, p 394).
This shows Mak trying to justify himself but Daw’s comments on this, stating that he thought he was wrapped in a wolf's skin, reveals to the audience that Mak was a predator. This way, the playwright invites the audience to appreciate the fact that there are good and bad shepherds. Therefore, the use of distinct parallel is a great strategy employed by the Wakefield dramatist in attempt to help the audience to relate to the characters and events in the play.
            The Dramatist in the Second Shepherds Play uses timely imprecision involving concepts, images and symbols regarded as anachronisms vital to get the audience to relate and then vividly understand the play. At the beginning of the play, the dramatist...