Second Year Hons(English) Introduction to Drama

Second Year Hons(English) Introduction to Drama

by KHAN SIR, B.A(HONS)M.A(ENGLISH)DU, MIRPUR-10 GOALCHAKKAR( BESIDE Overbridge)TEL: 01713030838
Oedipus the King- a short summary of the play
A plague has stricken Thebes. The citizens gather outside the palace of their king, Oedipus, asking him to take action. Oedipus replies that he already sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle at Delphi to learn how to help the city. Creon returns with a message from the oracle: the plague will end when the murderer of Laius, former king of Thebes, is caught and expelled; the murderer is within the city. Oedipus questions Creon about the murder of Laius, who was killed by thieves on his way to consult an oracle. Only one of his fellow travelers escaped alive. Oedipus promises to solve the mystery of Laius’s death, vowing to curse and drive out the murderer.
Oedipus sends for Tiresias, the blind prophet, and asks him what he knows about the murder. Tiresias responds cryptically, lamenting his ability to see the truth when the truth brings nothing but pain. At first he refuses to tell Oedipus what he knows. Oedipus curses and insults the old man, going so far as to accuse him of the murder. These taunts provoke Tiresias into revealing that Oedipus himself is the murderer. Oedipus naturally refuses to believe Tiresias’s accusation. He accuses Creon and Tiresias of conspiring against his life, and charges Tiresias with insanity. He asks why Tiresias did nothing when Thebes suffered under a plague once before. At that time, a Sphinx held the city captive and refused to leave until someone answered her riddle. Oedipus brags that he alone was able to solve the puzzle. Tiresias defends his skills as a prophet, noting that Oedipus’s parents found him trustworthy. At this mention of his parents, Oedipus, who grew up in the distant city of Corinth, asks how Tiresias knew his parents. But Tiresias answers enigmatically. Then, before leaving the stage, Tiresias puts forth one last riddle, saying that the murderer of Laius will turn out to be both father and brother to his own children, and the son of his own wife.
After Tiresias leaves, Oedipus threatens Creon with death or exile for conspiring with the prophet. Oedipus’s wife, Jocasta (also the widow of King Laius), enters and asks why the men shout at one another. Oedipus explains to Jocasta that the prophet has charged him with Laius’s murder, and Jocasta replies that all prophecies are false. As proof, she notes that the Delphic oracle once told Laius he would be murdered by his son, when in fact his son was cast out of Thebes as a baby, and Laius was murdered by a band of thieves. Her description of Laius’s murder, however, sounds familiar to Oedipus, and he asks further questions. Jocasta tells him that Laius was killed at a three-way crossroads, just before Oedipus arrived in Thebes. Oedipus, stunned, tells his wife that he may be the one who murdered Laius. He tells Jocasta that, long ago, when he was the prince of Corinth, he overheard someone mention at a banquet that he was not really the son of the king and queen. He therefore traveled to the oracle of Delphi, who did not answer him but did tell him he would murder his father and sleep with his mother. Hearing this, Oedipus fled his home, never to return. It was then, on the journey that would take him to Thebes, that Oedipus was confronted and harassed by a group of travelers, whom he killed in self-defense. This skirmish occurred at the very crossroads where Laius was killed.
Oedipus sends for the man who survived the attack, a shepherd, in the hope that he will not be identified as the murderer. Outside the palace, a messenger approaches Jocasta and tells her that he has come from Corinth to inform Oedipus that his father, Polybus, is dead, and that Corinth has asked Oedipus to come and rule there in his place. Jocasta rejoices, convinced that Polybus’s death from natural causes has disproved the prophecy that Oedipus would murder his father. At Jocasta’s summons, Oedipus comes outside, hears the news, and rejoices with her. He now feels much more inclined to agree with the queen in deeming prophecies worthless and viewing chance as the principle governing the world. But while Oedipus finds great comfort in the fact that one-half of the prophecy has been disproved, he still fears the other half—the half that claimed he would sleep with his mother.
The messenger remarks that Oedipus need not worry, because Polybus and his wife, Merope, are not Oedipus’s biological parents. The messenger, a shepherd by profession, knows firsthand that Oedipus came to Corinth as an orphan. One day long ago, he was tending his sheep when another shepherd approached him carrying a baby, its ankles pinned together. The messenger took the baby to the royal family of Corinth, and they raised him as their own. That baby was Oedipus. Oedipus asks who the other shepherd was, and the messenger answers that he was a servant of Laius.
Oedipus asks that this shepherd be brought forth to testify, but Jocasta, beginning to suspect the truth, begs her husband not to seek more information. She runs back into the palace. The shepherd then enters. Oedipus interrogates him, asking who gave him the baby. The shepherd refuses to disclose anything, and Oedipus threatens him with torture. Finally, he answers that the child came from the house of Laius. Questioned further, he answers that the baby was in fact the child of Laius himself, and that it was Jocasta who gave him the infant, ordering him to kill it, as it had been prophesied that the child would kill his parents. But the shepherd pitied the child, and decided that the prophecy could be avoided just as well if the child were to grow up in a foreign city, far from his true parents. The shepherd therefore passed the boy on to the shepherd in Corinth.
Realizing who he is and who his parents are, Oedipus screams that he sees the truth and flees back into the palace. The shepherd and the messenger slowly exit the stage. A second messenger enters and describes scenes of suffering. Jocasta has hanged herself, and Oedipus, finding her dead, has pulled the pins from her robe and stabbed out his own eyes. Oedipus now emerges from the palace, bleeding and begging to be exiled. He asks Creon to send him away from Thebes and to look after his daughters, Antigone and Ismene. Creon, covetous of royal power, is all too happy to oblige. by KHAN SIR, B.A(HONS)M.A(ENGLISH)DU, MIRPUR-10 GOALCHAKKAR( BESIDE Overbridge)TEL: 01713030838

A Brief Synopsis of Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw
The play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. Its heroine, Raina (rah-EE-na) Petkoff, is a young Bulgarian woman engaged to Sergius Saranoff, one of the heroes of that war, whom she idolizes. One night, a Swiss mercenary soldier in the Serbian army, Captain Bluntschli, climbs in through her bedroom balocony- window and threatens to shoot Raina if she gives the alarm. When Russian/Bulgarian troops burst in to search the house for him, Raina hides him so that he won’t be killed. he says to her to remember that “nine soldiers out of ten are born fools.” In a conversation after the soldiers have left, Bluntschli’s attitude towards war and soldiering (pragmatic and practical as opposed to Raina’s idealistic views) shock her, especially after he admits that he uses his ammunition pouches to carry chocolates rather than cartridges for his pistol. When the search dies down, Raina and her mother Catherine sneak Bluntschli out of the house, disguised in an old housecoat.
The war ends with the Bulgarians and Serbians signing a peace treaty and Sergius returns to Raina, but also flirts with her insolent servant girl Louka (a soubrette role), who is engaged to Nicola, the Petkoffs’ manservant. Raina begins to find Sergius both foolhardy and tiresome, but she hides it. Bluntschli unexpectedly returns so that he can give back the old housecoat, but also so that he can see her. Raina and her mother are shocked, especially when her father and Sergius reveal that they have met Bluntschli before and invite him to stay for lunch (and to help them with troop movements).
Afterwards, left alone with Bluntschli, Raina realizes that he sees through her romantic posturing, but that he respects her as a woman, as Sergius does not. She tells him that she had left a photograph of herself in the pocket of the coat, inscribed “To my chocolate-cream soldier”, but Bluntschli says that he didn’t find it and that it must still be in the coat pocket. Bluntschli gets a telegram informing him of his father’s death and revealing to him his now-enormous inheritance. Louka then tells Sergius that Bluntschli is the man whom Raina protected and that Raina is really in love with him. Sergius challenges Bluntschli to a duel, but Bluntschli avoids fighting and Sergius and Raina break off their engagement (with some relief on both sides). Raina’s father, Major Paul Petkoff, discovers the portrait in the pocket of his housecoat, but Raina and Bluntschli trick him by removing the photograph before he finds it again in an attempt to convince him that his mind is playing tricks on him, but Petkoff is determined to learn the truth and claims that the “chocolate-cream soldier” is Sergius. After Bluntschli reveals the whole story to Major Petkoff, Sergius proposes marriage to Louka (to Mrs. Petkoff’s horror); Nicola quietly and gallantly lets Sergius have her, and Bluntschli, recognising Nicola’s dedication and ability, determines to offer him a job as a hotel manager.
While Raina is now unattached, Bluntschli protests that—being 34 and believing she is 17—he is too old for her. On learning that she is actually 23, he immediately proposes marriage and proves his wealth and position by listing his inheritance from the telegram. Raina, realizing the hollowness of her romantic ideals, protests that she would prefer her poor “chocolate-cream soldier” to this wealthy businessman. Bluntschli says that he is still the same person, and the play ends with Raina proclaiming her love for him and Bluntschli, with Swiss precision, both clearing up the major’s troop movement problems and informing everyone that he will return to be married to Raina exactly two weeks from Tuesday.
KHAN SIR, B.A(HONS)M.A(ENGLISH)DU, MIRPUR-10 GOALCHAKKAR( BESIDE Overbridge)TEL: 01713030838

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Book Summary
This story takes place in Athens, Greece ‐ where everything is going wrong. The play starts in the court room of Duke Theseus. A man named Egeus is having trouble with his daughter so he brings her to the duke for help. Egeus’s daughter, Hermia doesn’t want to marry Demetrius ‐ the man her father has promised to her. Instead, Hermia wants to marry the Poet Lysander. Duke Theseus reminds Hermia that the law allows fathers to make their daughters do anything. He tells her that her only other choice is to become a nun and never marry anyone.

Because the duke gives them little choice, Lysander and Hermia decide to run away form Athens. They run into the woods to make plans. While they are in the woods, they run into Helena. Helena is Hermia’s best friend. She is sad because she loves Demetrius. Hermia wishes Demetrius would love Helena back ‐ then Hermia could marry Lysander and their problem would be solved!

The fairies that live in the woods are also having problems. Oberon, the king of fairies, is angry at his queen, Titania. She is taking care of a little human boy and Oberon is jealous. He wants to take the boy to be his servant. Titania won’t let him so Oberon decides to play a trick on her. He asks his helper, Puck, to find a magical flower. The flower’s juices are supposed to make someone fall in love with the first thing they see. Oberon wants Puck to use the flower on Titania.

As night begins to fall, the lovers from Athens are all lost in the woods. Lysander and Hermia are still trying to run away. Demetrius chases them while Helena follows, begging him to love her back. Demetrius is mean to Helena and swears he will never love her. Oberon sees this and feels sorry for Helena. He decides to help her by using the magic flower on Demetrius too.

In another part of the woods, a group of workers, or mechanicals, are practicing a play to perform for Duke Theseus on his wedding day. They are very funny and silly characters. Nick Bottom is the loudest and funniest of them all. He is also very bossy and wants to play all the play’s parts. Puck sees Nick Bottom and thinks it would be funny to make Queen Titania fall in love with him. While Titania is sleeping, Puck drops the magic juices into her eyes. Then Puck make the joke even funnier by turning Nick Bottom’s head into a donkey head. All of the mechanicals are scared when they see Nick Bottom with a donkey head. They run away screaming and wake up Titania. She instantly falls in love with Nick Bottom.

On his way back to King Oberon, Puck finds Lysander and Hermia sleeping. Puck thinks that Lysander is the man who needs the love drops. He is wrong! Puck accidentally makes Lysander fall in love with Helena. Helena is very confused, and Hermia is very mad. She thinks her best friend has stolen her boyfriend. Puck tries to fix things by putting the drops into Demetrius’s eyes. Now Demetrius loves Helena too! Helena is angry and thinks the men are teasing her. Hermia tries to fight Helena. Oberon is mad at Puck for making so many mistakes. He makes Puck stay up all night and fix the mess. When the lovers wake up in the morning, Lysander loves Hermia and Demetrius loves Helena. Everyone is happy and they go back to Athens to tell Egeus and Duke Theseus. Everything is better in the fairy kingdom too. Oberon reverses the spell on Titania and Nick Bottom. Oberon and Titania stop fighting and Puck apologizes for all of his mistakes. by KHAN SIR, B.A(HONS)M.A(ENGLISH)DU, MIRPUR-10 GOALCHAKKAR( BESIDE Overbridge)TEL: 01713030838
Summary of the play Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge

The play begins with Maurya, who has fallen into a fitful sleep. She is certain that her son, Michael, has drowned, even though she has no proof, and has been constantly grieving for nine days. Cathleen, her daughter, is doing household chores when Nora, another daughter arrives. She quietly slips into the kitchen with a bundle that had been given to her by a young priest. In the bundle are clothes taken from the body of a man who drowned in the far north. They were sent to Maurya’s home, hoping that she would be able to identify the body.
Maurya begins to look as if she is going to wake up soon, so the daughters hide the bundle until a time when they are alone. Maurya awakes, and her fear for losing her only remaining son Bartley intensifies her grieving for Michael. Keep in mind, she has already lost five sons and a husband to the sea. The priest claims that that “insatiable tyrant” will not take her sixth. However, Bartley proclaims that he is going to venture over to the mainland that same day, in order to sell a horse at the fair, despite knowing of the high winds and seas.
Maurya begs Bartley not to go, yet he insists despite her pleas. In a flustered state of irritation, Maurya bids him gone without her blessing. Upon seeing these events unfold, the sisters tell Maurya, that she should go out and search for Bartley in order to give him the lunch that they he had forgotten to bring, and while at it, give him her blessing.
Maurya agrees to go, and once she is gone, the girls open the bundle. They find that they were indeed Michael’s clothes, but at least they have the comfort of knowing he got a respectable Christian burial where he washed up in the north. At this point, Maurya returns even more flustered and terrified before. She has seen a vision of Michael riding on the lead horse behind Bartley. Because of this, she is sure Bartley is doomed to die at sea. The girls then show her Michael’s clothes, and she exclaims that the nice white boards she had bought for Michael’s coffin may now be used for Bartley’s instead.
As she says this, the neighbors (women) enter, their voices raised in what the play calls a “keen”, or wailing lament for the dead. Men follow the women, who bring in the body of Bartley, who, sure enough, is dead. He has been knocked off a cliff into the surf below by the horse he was leading. The play ends with Maurya’s fatal submission as she says, “They’re all gone now and there isn’t anything more the sea can do to me.”
This play resulted in the public having an interesting outlook to the sea. Whereas beforehand the sea was always mysterious and adventurous, it now became melodramatic and depressing. This had a somewhat similar effect to “Jaws” in the mid 70s, changing peoples’ views of water and the ocean, but on a lesser scale.
by KHAN SIR, B.A(HONS)M.A(ENGLISH)DU, MIRPUR-10 GOALCHAKKAR( BESIDE Overbridge)TEL: 01713030838