Drama Assignment

LHE 3253 TEACHING THE LANGUAGE OF DRAMA Assignment 1 Dorothy Ting Siao Wei 153071 Dr. Habsah Bt Hussin Submission date: 19 Oct 2011 THE JEWELS OF THE SHRINE 1. One of the themes of this play is  false relationship  among family members. Quote the part(s) in the play where you can discern this theme. Throughout the play the theme false relationship among family members is seen. Firstly, it is seen in the character of Bassi. Bassi is not related to Okorie at all but is seen to be always around the house attending to Okorie. It is as if she is his wife when she is not at all. She is actually married elsewhere and have kids. This is seen in several parts where she appears. â€Å" Bassi: It is enough, Grandfather. Long talk make you tired. Come, your food is now ready. Okorie: Woman, I cannot eat. When happiness fills your heart, you cannot eat. † From here we see how Bassi would advice Okorie to stop talking and eat his meal. Her tone sounds like a wife who cares for a husband rather than a married woman of a neighbor. â€Å"Bassi (holding him and leading him to sit on the bed): You are excited. You know that whenever you are excited, you begin to forget things. Okorie: That is not my fault. It is old age. Well, but what was I saying? † Here we even see Bassi sending Okorie to bed which could be hardly seen in olden times. Bassi is a married woman with her own husband which she should be putting to bed with rather than a senile old man. But she did and she did in gently like how a wife would. Perhaps there is a sincerity of the treatment she gave but there’s no legit relationship that they have. The other place in the play where false relationship among family members is seen is when Arob and Ojuma started treating Okorie nicely just because they heard something like a great inheritance that they will get if they treat him nicely and bury him with great honour. All of these can be seen in the following excerpts of the play. â€Å"Ojima: At last, poor Grandfather is gone. I wonder if he know that we only played up just to get something from his will. Arob: Well, it didn’t matter to him. He believed us, and that is why he has left his property to us. A few months ago he would rather have thrown it all into the sea. † 2. From the language used by Okorie, Arob and Ojuma in their dialogue, what can you discern about their relationship? Give two factors contributing to the disintegration of family units and children neglecting their filial duties toward their elders. From the language used by Okorie, Arob and Ojuma in their dialogue, it seemed like their relationship is not a good one. Okorie doesn’t even call or refer to his grandsons as his grandsons but people and Arob and Ojuma didn’t speak properly or with respect all the time. In my opinion, one of the factors contributing to the disintegration of family units and children neglecting their filial duties toward their elders is, the lack of proper discipline in the family. As seen in the play, Arob and Ojuma’s father passed away earlier than their grandfather, Okorie. No one disciplined them or brought them up in the proper manner. Okorie might have even spoilt them when they were younger so there was no sense of fear and respect from both of them towards their grandfather. They cannot even see the contribution of their grandfather and appreciate him. They even took everything that is his and sold them to get whatever finances that they could get. They never had anyone to discipline them. The other factor that contributes to their misbehavior is a growing sense of selfishness that comes with the welcoming of modernity. As seen and discussed by Okorie and the stranger at the beginning of the play, it seemed like the society has been getting more and more selfish and cruel that they don’t take care of older people but mistreat them too. With the coming of new technologies, new development that first enters the city, more selfishness prevails and the people are getting crueler. They only think about their own welfare, their own happiness and they just disregard for any other people, even the older people in their own family who are flesh and blood. It seemed like all that does not matter at all anymore. Everything is about their own pleasure and comfort and no one else. MOTHER’S DAY 3. Mrs. Pearson’s difficulty in speaking her mind and communicating the truth with her family had caused her much unhappiness. Quote the part(s) in the Play where you can discern this quality in Mrs. Pearson. There are several parts in the play where Mrs. Pearson depicts her difficulty in speaking her mind and conveying the truth with her family. Firstly is when Mrs. Fitzgerald came to visit her at her house and they were talking casually when the subject of her unhappiness in her home came up. When Mrs. Fitzgerald advised her to be firm and do something about it she became apologetic saying, â€Å"That’s easier said than done. Besides, I’m so fond of them even if they are so thoughtless and selfish. They don’t mean to be†¦Ã¢â‚¬  It shows that she does love her family although they are thoughtless and selfish but she gave them too much leeway that they mistreated her by not thinking about her but only themselves. She finds it hard to speak her mind also because she doesn’t like confrontations and she is mighty afraid to make others feel unpleasant. She doesn’t know how to tell them how she felt. She only drops hints to them. This is seen later when she said, â€Å"I – keep dropping a hint†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and â€Å"†¦ But I do hate any unpleasantness. And it’s so hard to know where to start. I keep making up my mind to have it out with them – but somehow I don’t know how to begin. † It is also pretty obvious from the way she kept having pauses in her speaking and getting embarrassed and sending a sense of hopelessness that she has very low confidence which, I believe contributed in her difficulty in communicating the truth with her family. Even when she talks to Mrs. Fitzgerald, she has lots of pauses as seen, â€Å"Mrs. Fitzgerald – I know you mean well – in fact, I agree with you – but I can’t – and it’s no use you trying to make me. If I promise you I’d really have it out with them, I know I wouldn’t be able to keep my promise. 4. Discuss effective communication skills that Mrs. Pearson should inculcate in herself to make her family be respectful of her and appreciate her more. Mrs. Pearson needs to learn to speak more confidently and perhaps, be more confident about herself. If she kept bein g not confident about herself, she will not get anywhere. Her lack of confidence shows in her communication and her family, who seemed to consist of stronger personalities will take advantage of her lack of confidence and mistreat her. Mrs. Pearson needs to know her role in the family is a mother and a wife and not a servant and she eeds to realize that she needs to stand firm and strong in her role in the family as a mother and a wife by speaking more with confidence and a sense of authority and eliminate her habit of always being apologetic and trying to explain. This will help her family recognize her as she executes orderliness in her family, establishing boundaries and a sense of respect within her family. Through that, her family will respect her and she will be able to teach and perhaps train them to have proper manners and a sense of respect for people especially towards her. If she is able to establish that, her family will not step all over her and know that she is serious and not one to simply mess with. Mrs. Pearson needs to also speak clearly and directly to her family, to convey her true wishes to them so that they will know what she wants, how she feels and what she wants them to do and they will be able to understand her better and treat her well. She cannot just throw hints at them because in general, a lot of people cannot pick up hints. Only those who are sensitive and does pay attention to little details will pick up hints but these kind of people are rare unless the hints are too obvious to ignore. Mrs. Pearson also needs to eliminate her fear of confrontation and fear of unpleasant atmospheres because confrontations are necessary to convey clear messages and not at all evil. Unpleasant atmospheres cannot be avoided totally also in all relationships as each human are unique, complete with strengths and weaknesses so certain unpleasantness will come naturally once in a while and it is not necessarily bad, just depending on how one deals with it and also the cause of it. A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL 5. In this Play, conflict in the form of argument prevents Lomov from asking Natalia to marry him. Extract sample dialogues from the Play to indicate where the conflicts are. There are two conflicts that happened in the play. Firstly, Lomov got into an argument with Natalia about who owns the meadows when he was trying to propose to her. The argument went as followed: â€Å"LOMOV: †¦ and my property, as you know, adjoins your own. If you will be so good as to remember, my meadows touch your birchwoods. NATALIA: Pardon the interruption. You said â€Å"my meadows† – but are they yours? LOMOV: Yes, they belong to me. NATALIA: What nonsense! The meadows belong to us – not you! LOMOV: No, to me! Now, my dear Natalia Stepanovna! NATALIA: Well, this is certainly news to me. How do they belong to you? LOMOV: How? I am speaking of the meadows lying between your birchwoods and my brick earth. NATALIA: Yes, exactly. They belong to us†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Lomov and Natalia continued arguing and then a series of things happened and he got chased out of the house and asked to come back again to get engaged to Natalia. Then the second conflict happened when they started talking about hunting and they argued about whose dog is a better dog, Otkatai or Ugadi. The argument went as followed: â€Å"LOMOV: †¦Really? Otkatai is better than Ugadi? What an idea! Otkatai better than Ugadi! NATALIA: Of course he is better. It is true Otkatai is still young; he isn’t full-grown yet, but in the pack or on the leash with two or three, there is no better than he, even- LOMOV: I really beg you rpardon, Natalia Stepanovna, but you quite overlooked the fact that he has a short lower jaw, and a dog with a short lower jaw can’t snap. NATALIA: Short lower jaw? That’s the first time I ever heard that! LOMOV: I assure you, his lower jaw is shorter than the upper. NATALIA: Have you measured it? LOMOV: I have measured it. He is good at running though†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Their argument, yet again, went on for a while and Tschubukov came in and forced them to quickly get engaged. Right after they are engaged, they continued with their arguing. 6. If Natalia and Lomov get married, what should they do to minimize conflicts in their marriage? If Natalia and Lomov get married, they should learn the art of communication. Lomov’s speech seemed too elaborated and containing too much details which are so unnecessary and long. If he learns to communicate clearly and directly while also respecting the other, it would have lessened so much miscommunication. Natalia should also learn to be less sensitive over petty issues. Perhaps the issue of who the meadow belongs to is important for her but she could have expressed her disagreement in a gentler manner without flying off the handle and her opinions could have been easier to be taken in. Both of them should learn how to manage their anger and know ow to discuss issues or difference of opinions in a more civilized manner rather than getting heated up so fast and raising their voice at each other. They need to look at the other’s perspective and try to be more understanding. They could have responded in a more neutral manner and there would not have much conflict. They should also learn to be more selfless and put each other higher than themsel ves. From the way they have argued, they seemed rather selfish, insisting that they themselves are right instead of tolerating each other and they also go to the point of degrading the other’s opinions. They need to learn not to cross the boundary, to respect each other’s opinions and not to put down each other. They also need to work out their differences and look for each other’s similarities. Natalie really wanted to marry Lomov so obviously there is something that she likes about him and the fact that Lomov went to propose to Natalia also indicates that there is attraction. They need to focus on the good points, especially the things they love about each other and always be reminded of that and not let petty arguments get in the way.