All are by Nazir.
Miss Julie
Miss Julie
In this play the author brings out few different social issues with the story. First issue is extreme feminism which we can understand that Miss Julie was raised up by her mother to despise the male race but ironically Miss Julie tells Jean that her mother believes in gender equality and women’s rights and independence. Her mother either got a misconception about gender equality or she is plainly a hypocrite because she tries to oppress the opposite gender in the same way the male gender does. This feeling of superiority is found in Miss Julie as she loses are fiancé by treating him like a dog. Still these social and environmental influences seems to break loose once her human instincts takes over and submits sexually to a valet, Jean, who is much lower in the social class than her. The play brings out another issue with this incident. The old barrier between the aristocracy and the common people seems to be decimating. We can see that Jean a servant of a count knows how to speak French and drinks wine and Miss Julie the aristocrat is drinking common folk’s drinks and the barrier comes totally down between them after they become intimate. Although the barrier breaks between them it does not mean at that time, during the late 19th century, this barrier was already lifted but it started initiating then and the influence of this social class distinction was so powerful in the society that we witness the death of Miss Julie for not being able to fight against these environmental and cultural forces.
It is surprising that the western culture thought about these issues more than 100 years ago because in our culture in Bangladesh we still see these same scenarios. The gender inequality and also the distinction between the social classes are very much visible. I am quite certain that all of us in our culture faced situations that we can relate to this play. For example, still in our culture we have servants and they are not fit to sit down on the same table as us and eat with us. Although the situation is getting better it is still going in a very slow pace to correct the inequality in our culture. One fact is true that most of us do not welcome this change who are benefiting from this social class difference.
Medea
This is a tragic play based on the Greek mythology. Medea is a powerful sorceress who falls in love with Jason and marries him at the cost of abandoning her family and her country. In return after few years of marital bliss Jason abandons her for power and greed and marries another woman for her kingdom and fame. One of the issues brought out in this play by the author, Euripides, is that the ill treatment of women in the society where they had to listen to the men and bend to the command of men without any complains. Medea complains about these issues when she is very distressed and hurt due to the infidelity of her husband. She emphasizes about the difficulty of the role of women in the society where they do not have any freedom or rights. This uncontrollable passion drives her to do the unthinkable.
Medea plots the murder of the bride of Jason and the bride’s father and after that kills her two sons to spite Jason. Here the author tries to bring out another issue: Medea’s and Jason’s own character flaws brings their own destruction. Medea’s passion for revenge and Jason’s greed for power and fame and his committing infidelity, brings both their downturn by losing everything they had.
I find it very interesting to understand that the author of the play brought out issues in those days (431 B.C) about women’s rights and the role of women in the society. Undoubtedly ancient Greece had a male dominated culture but the authors of those days recognized gender inequality as a problem of society. We can see that infidelity was a major issue even then because some acts are always hazardous irrelevant of what time we are talking about. In spite of all the literatures from that early stage, it seems like there was not much done to bring change to these issues because the western civilization gave rights and freedom to women only in the last 50 to 60 years. Women in their culture could not vote or own properties before that. Although this play is more than 2000 years old we can still relate to the issues brought up to expose the social and cultural problems of that era. I reckon that is what makes these plays immortal.
Madam Bovary
Emma Bovary’s fantasy of the life she read about in the romantic novels distorts her view of the real life. She pursuits her materialistic dream by constantly deceiving her husband for men she thought would make her dream come true. Instead of looking for the fundamental aspects of love she looks for the wealth and riches and lavishness. Her selfishness and distorted view of life end her in being promiscuous and used up as an object of sex and it also put her in great financial debt. Ironically the superior life she dreamed about and chased turned her into an object of town gossip about her extramarital activities and ruined her reputation. Like the other two plays we talked about earlier, this character also ends up in destruction due to her flaws in character.
It is typical in a situation like this that, although Madam Bovary is in fault, still the men who committed adultery with her did not face similar fate as her. She ended up taking her life out of shame and guilt. There was clearly an issue about gender inequality as the two men who she had a non platonic relationship with had a happy ending with no string attached to their behavior but Emma ends up taking arsenic and killing herself. The genre of this novel is called realism where the author is not objective or passes judgment about any character. Things are portrayed as it is without any embellishment. I now understand the difference between naturalism and realism. Naturalism is involved in Miss Julie where it shows that no matter how much we are influenced by society or environment we still break the rules due to natural instincts. This is related to Darwin’s theory of natural selection because Miss Julie forgot about her status and committed adultery with a common folk because her natural desire took over her while trying to suppress it constantly.
Hedda seems to be a walking destruction wherever she goes. She is not like the other women we have spoke earlier about but, she is well in control of herself and does not give in to temptations. She suppresses her free will to extent that it makes her restless and she cannot stand to see other people happy. She deliberately destroys the life of Lovborg by burning his manuscript which was supposed to give him financial stability and help him get together with his lover Thea. Hedda have feelings for Lovborg and she despises Thea, and she cannot stand the thought of seeing them happy. Her attitude is one of extreme jealousy because she burns the manuscript which Thea and Lovborg worked on together and called it their baby. I think this act can be compared to the one where Medea kills her two sons just to spite Jason. After an act like this Hedda does not stop there but she further has the audacity to give Lovborg a gun to kill himself. Her attitude is that if she is not happy no one can be happy.
She seems to be also a very materialistic person like Madam Bovary because she talks about the promises made by her husband George, of giving her the lavish life she wants. She also got a commanding attitude like Miss Julie who thinks very superior of her self and above all other. This is the reason she ends up taking her own life when she realizes that Judge Brack got leverage on her and she has no control of the situation. I find a clear similarity between the four women, Hedda Gabler, Madam Bovary, Medea and Miss Julie. They all seem to throw themselves in the path of annihilation and the common reason is power. They all have pressures that do not allow them much freedom of will due to the social framework they are supposed to fit in. If they defile that order in society it brings their downfall and also if they suppress their desires that also brings out other negative aspects.
No comments:
Post a Comment