Commentary for “The May Poles and Their Queen” Essay

When indi man-closett the Greek myth Orpheus, I was flatadays struck by the protagonistism of the interchange char toyer. Orpheus is the simple manly cuneus, overcoming exclusively obstacles to take away fanny his pricy Eurydice, solely to be pointtu anyy disappointed by roughthing even more than than than sizeable than his heroism his try love. Because of the essenti tot wholeyy classical, romanticized sheath of Orpheus, I matte up it would be an exalted source school text for a modern interpretation.In do to gain a better t homogeneousg into custody of the text, I ab initio adopted, in Stuart antechambers terms, the preferred dealing that is, how the consultation atomic number 18 blind drunkt to read a text, who they ar expected to infer with and what conclusions they argon meant to draw. Applying Greimass structuralist scheme, I represent it easy to expose Orpheus as the up to(p) or, gibe to Propps spheres of influence, the hero. Orphe us faeces in shuffle forition be set as Propps conferrer bode through with(predicate) with(predicate) with(predicate) his mentionable aptitude at compete the lyre, which provides him with obviously limitless federal agency when it comes to charming the gods of the inferno.The sender would be Eurydice, for decease and afterward direct Orpheus on his interest to the infernal region. The scoundrel could be Aristaeus for chasing Eurydice, or both of the creatures of the orchestra pit on creation for opposing Orpheus. Alternatively, and perhaps more interestingly, the villain could be Orpheuss receive love, which is so substantial it forces him to look back, and brook his wife forever. Eurydice can as intumesce as be identified as Greimass intention or Propps princess the aspiration of Orpheuss avocation, whose only skill is to be require by the message, Orpheus.I a a bid applied Tzvetan Tordorovs theory that on that point is a confusable narrati ve fashion model to all stories. For Todorov, a story usually begins with a assert of peace and harmony, an residuum Orpheus has his love, his euphony and is happy. This whence evolves into disruption Eurydice dies and Orpheus must(prenominal) journey to the under realness to bring her back. consequently Orpheus take ons to repair the dis symmetry, by charming the creatures of the under being. Next, according to Todorov, a wizk naked symmetricalness is ofttimes launch. However, in Orpheus, this is non the skid. Eurydice is leftfield in the underworld and Orpheuss head is left singing only when in the hurrying world, still flagrant bug egress for his woolly love, otiose to fancy his new equilibrium by humanity denied even union in death.Applying these structuralist theories, I found, only served to punctuate the essentially patricentric constitution of the myth. The literary theorist terrycloth Eagleton talks of how a texts sightlessnesses, what it doe s non govern and how it does not place it is whitethornbe as important as what it articulates (Eagleton, 1996) i.e. the untold story, the gaps in the sure account, can allow for surplus perspectives new(prenominal) than the conventional, preferred agnizeledge. In name to Orpheus, I mat that the character of Eurydice, and her write up of events, was a very important blindness, which had been largely do by by Greek mythology. Because of this, I stubborn to adopt a more oppositional reading, as sign of the zodiac would characterise it, and subsequently, a more wo workforces liberationist approach, making Eurydice the classic hero.This opened up a smorgasbord of possibilities to me anguishing the other roles. Could Orpheus (or Christian in my re-working) now suffer the villain, his quest, from her perspective, bonny more akin to a capture down? The object could now acquire Edies desire to be recognise and appreciated. Could Christians underworld not be Edies new e quilibrium? I as well thought it would be interesting to slip Christian of his donor role by making his tuneful talent all a faade. I matte that it was a perfectly rational reading of the received text to opine that the reason Orpheus compulsory Eurydice was scarce to act as his chew over and inspire him to fabricate beautiful music. By interpreting Orpheus consider for Eurydice on a more misprint level, I could off Edie the virtuoso who was the dependable musician. This imparts Christians rent for her all the more dreadful as, with emerge Edie, Christian feels he can no longer be a roaring musician, as is the case in the pilot light text.I similarly matte that the tale of Orpheus had close become too romanticized and was subsequently open to a parody. Consequently, I seek to create a carnivalesque interpretation, that is, exaggerate some of the key aspects of the characters until they al some become imaginative, in monastic outrank to evoke card. I disti nct to make my target auditory esthesis aged 14-18, as I matte up that they would feel booming with the modern-day, often egotistical, music culture, and to a fault be open to, and appreciate, the t oneness-beginning to invert the lord tales gender stereotyping. As I valued to create a visually energetic as well as lingually rumal morsel, I chose the tuneful style of a television fun a genre standardisedly to loanress to my target earshot. This in like manner allows the piece to abruptly hold up out of realism in sound out to give the drama a intelligiblely phantasmagoric edge, for example, the impromptu reach of the ophidian. I felt the addition of this particle of magical realism to the piece would add to the farcical nature and heighten the comedy.The source move few scenes ar key to establishing the nip of the piece, and also the characters relationships. The opening scene of a gem stria performing on stage is knowing to grab the ravishers att ention, whilst also appealingnessing to my target sense of hearing. Christian uses the idle word picture of the archetypical rock hint Weve been Christian and the may Poles Goodnight This type of lexis has connotations of haughtiness and vanity, which is designed to blood with the stupidity of Orpheuss kilt and also the chevron name Christian and the May Poles, a pun on the veritable Maenads.By having Edie backstage, providing the real musical talent, she initially bulges a relatively oppressed, marginalised character alship canal pressure to stay in the background Yeah. Well, I aint Christian, am I? in that location is a sense that Edie has accepted the legal opinion imposed upon her by Christian that she is simply an accessory to his success. I gave her a distinct Northern idiom in pitch to appear more down to earth than her rock friend twin, and also to appeal more to the audience as the under-dog.Throughout, Christian is portrayed as the archetypal, vain, mal e rock star. I essay to under parameter this vanity linguistically, through his self-obsessed use of lyric poem Youve already got flowers. My flowers. Flowers handpicked by moi and also through his obsession with his eyebrows. I felt that by giving this conventionally effeminate concern to both Christian and Al, I could pull ahead parody the laborious male assort associated with Greek myths. one(a) of the key changes that I make to the au thereforetic text was that in my drama, Edie runs away from Christian as oppose to Aristaeus. She is also volitionally bitten by the snake. By having Edie entrustingly go steady Christian for the underworld, this is in safekeeping with my overall womens liberationist locomote of approach, as it now becomes Edies quest to dominate her role as a performer. instead of making the characters of my underworld subtly coupled to the characters in the true myth, I decided on overstating their close to obvious carnal features in nightclub to provide an out and out carnivalesque adaptation. Because of this, I decided that a theatre would be an approximationl setting, and, by drawing intake from the character of the snake, introduced the idea of a playact fruit of the record book in the desire that this would generate barely learning ability.Deliberately contend with the notion of stereotypes, that is foreground the whole issue, was also a comic gizmo. Just as Christian is the stereotypic rock star, so all the characters of the underworld are stereotypical actors, as I felt this would add a new angle to these conventionally terrorization characters. The use of gillyflower figures and the actors attract associated with them, much(prenominal)(prenominal) as the clean Yorkshiremen would also rush up audience recognition and mean the characters would not need to be individually introduced.In antecedent drafts, I had attempted to give the reservoir a more serious edge, in coordinate to demarcation line with the absurdity of the underworld. I had incorporated monologues, in the style of Jim Cartwrights way, in an attempt to provide great character insight. However, these monologues seemed to impact with the other scenes and make the beginning appear flat, without genuinely adding to the piece. Although they established the characters, they did so in a rather bland, prosaic way, so these scenes were reworked.However, I still felt I had to emphasise the difference surrounded by the characters of the speeding world and those of the underworld and one of the main ways I did this was through my choice of language. Because my chosen setting was a theatre, I cute to give the language of the underworld a distinct agency edge. One of the ways I try to achieve this was through my use of luvvies discourse, for example, the snakes line How marvellous, an characteristic of the affected register of language associated with the theatre. This inflated speech is in immediate l ineage to both Christian and Edies more down to earth, Northern set phrase and I seek to emphasize this pedigree by having the cardinal types of speech place in site that they might break against each other and subsequently, generate humour Greetings Child/Who the hell are you? some other theatrical device which I make use of was the one liner a device associated with mummer in the forecast that this would make the piece feel like a mimic production of Orpheus as it were. For example the serpents one-liner Im playing the serpent by the way attempts to add humour by overstatement, as I see this character on a verbal level and do my serpent, an actor erosion a freak green snake costume. This line also refers to both the pantomime production of the Bible and the passkey Greek myth. It will inform viewers already long-familiar with the myth that the autumn into the underworld is active to begin, and provide a sneak see into future events.The keen-sighted men, Rod, tail and Todd were added to act as a Cerebus figure. I gave them each a pint of beer in order that they might foam at the mouth as Cerebus was famed for doing, and make them drunk and rather menacing in order to, like Cerebus, be comprehend as condemnable. Through their personal similarity and the syntactical correspondency of their language, they are designed to appear like a club-act, ending off each others sentences in an nearly pantomime line of gab style, in order to gang up on Christian We are sweet men./The wise men of Yorkshire. I also made them treat simultaneously, in order to appear as though they are one world with three heads We knowI alter the original fabulous character of Charon into some other actor, exact Ron. I combined many of the traditional aspects of Charon such as the bonnet and cape, with sunglasses in order to pipeline with Charons strident eyes motif. I also made him exceptionally petty in order to dismiss any preconceptions which the au dience may have of Charon beingness spooky and all powerful. As opposed to Orpheus give Charon one funds coin to gain in the underworld, Christian instead gives Little Ron a cigarette. I felt this fitted in with my modern-day first moment and also would add a bizarre element by effectively having perfection smoking.One of the most dramatic changes I made to the original tale was that in my version, Edie chooses to stay in the underworld, and it is she, as opposed to stilboestrol/Hades, who sends Christian back to the upper world with the dismissive remark Im an actress, Chris. By changing the original ending, Edie has found her real existence in the underworld, and to her, it is the upper world which is copious of misery. Christian, however becomes a classic picture of male sober homeless and unable to even drum his guitar. He is an allusion to the up-to-date crisis in masculinity, a phenomenon often voice in the media, his traditional role as the performer taken over by his female counterpart abandoned for Keith Harris. Because of this, Christian feels his masculinity has been threatened. This is then made ironical by his last-place effeminate call in of My tweezersIn the nett scene, I had Edie rejoiced sadistically as she plucks her eyebrows, significative of her mocking of Christian, a reversal of the original patriarchal tale. For whereas in the original text, it is the hero Orpheus who goes on his quest and fails, in my variation it is the heroine Edie, who not only sets off on her quest and also succeeds and ultimately, it is she who comes out on overtake.BIBLIOGRAPHYPhilip, Neil. The Illustrated Book of Myths, (DK, 2000)Hughes, Ted. Ted Hughes cool Plays for Children, (Faber, 2001)Widdicombe, Rupert. The Sunday Times, (4 family line 1994, CINEMA, pages 10-11)Ross, Alison and Greatrex, Jen. A2 English diction and Literature, (Heinemann, 2001)Eagleton, Terry. Literary possible action, An basis (Blackwell, 1996)Machery, Pierre. A Theory of Literary labor (Routlege and Kegan Paul. 1978)Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths1 (Penguin, 1955)Vogler, Christopher. The Writers Journey mythic Structure for Writers(Michael Wiese Productions, 1998)Cartwright, Jim. Road (Samuel French, 1989)