Uses of Characters in Different Theatrical Genres

Uses of Characters in Different Theatrical Genres

Works of drama in different genres are created to have some kind of effect on the audiences. However, effects of each plays are different. Each plays attempt to lead the audience to think a certain way towards a social problem.

During ancient Greek, there was a time where the Athens Empire was in way with the Peloponnesian League led by the Sparta. In the middle of the war, question regarding the purpose and legitimacy of the war arose in Aristotle’s mind. So he wrote a play about a woman, Lysistrata, successfully forcing the men to stop fighting the war and come back home to his family. Throughout the play, Aristotle uses irony to communicate his idea on the war to try to get his audience to support him while preventing himself to get into trouble. One way how Aristotle did it was by using female characters. At the beginning of his play, Lysistrata proposed to the other women that they should stop having sex with their husband and force them to sign a peace treaty to end the war. However, Calonice comments that “its salvation hangs on a poor thread.” Hinting that what the woman planned to do will not be able to end the war. During the sex boycott, Cinesias keeps stalling on having sex with her husband by asking him doing numerous things until he agrees to commit to sign the peace treaty. Indicating that the woman are “more dominated” than the man. The action done by Cinesias could have two different interpretations. One interpretation could be to voice out his feeling toward to end the war. However, not everyone share the same thought with him during that time period. If he gets into trouble with voicing out his anti-war idea, he could argue that there is another interpretation of that action or his play.

Macbeth was written during the time period when James I succeeded the English crown on the death of Elizabeth in 1603. Scotland during the time where this play is written was in a very poor state. People...