ages of man

The Sphinx riddle by Sophocles, The Four Ages of Man by WB Yates, Life’s Brief Candle and As You Like It by William Shakespeare are all presenting the same issue of the level or ‘ages’ of man.
The sphinx riddle; “What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at evening?” which the answer is “Man” , suggest that, as a baby he crawls on all fours, then as a man he walks erect, then as an old man he uses cane.
Next, The Four Ages of Man; “He with body waged a fight,But body won; it walks upright.Then he struggled with the heart;Innocence and peace depart.Then he struggled with the mind;His proud heart he left behind.Now his wars on God begin;At stroke of midnight God shall win.” is also imply the time when a baby try to walk, grow up to the innocent child and teenager, be mature during the adult times and the day when a man died regardless of age.
Life’s Brief Candle however, advocates that a man’s life is like a play. The life begins, when the play start. And when the play ends, it means death to a man.
Besides, As You Like It tell the whole life of man. The speech marked the seven ‘ages’ of man from infant, school-boy, lover, soldier, the justice, slipper’d pantaloon to an end of second childishness.
Personally, I prefer the speech by Jaques in As You Like It as it shows the ages of man explicitly. The stages are also very similar to what is almost happen in each man. Moreover, the words used are simpler than those poems mentioned above.
Nevertheless, those poems and riddle show that there are many of literary works talk about the man’s life, whether in general or specific. It is interesting actually to deal with a very close issue to us. Even though some of them are really hard to interpret, the subject is truly fascinating.

sketch

On 14th January, we were asked to perform a sketch on an extract by Edward Bond, ‘Bingo’. The sketch was carried in a group of 2 or 3. It was a very interesting activity since we have not experience once.
The activity gives us the opportunity to express our own interpretation and experiment on the very short and simplest text. We can create our own setting, build up a context and even come up with our own character’s name, since there is no particular about that was mentioned in the text. We have the complete freedom to interpret and perform by our own way.
Some of my friends acted in an angry mood, some in happy tone and some make it as humor. They played as kindergarten kids, buddies, colleagues and even victims. I can also see the differentiation of the presentation which carried by 2 people and by triplet. At first, I wonder how the task is going to work by 3 people, since the first 3 to 4 couples done by duet. But then, when 3 of my partners came up, they show that the sketch can also be conducted in a larger group.
Based on this exciting activity, I think that a performance should consider a script, setting, role/character, mood, context and etc. Without this entire basis, there is impossible to carry out a play/sketch. In fact, there is not even exist.

point of view

Dr. Edwin started the lesson for this semester with a bunch of questions on literary devise, point of view. We were asked to answer all the questions in just an hour. For me, it was not enough time, since we have to read the notes given and the questions were long. In fact, there were more than five pages of enquiry to be answered. However, I found it quite rational in terms of time management and develop our reading skills.
In the lesson, I learnt that there are five types of point of view, which I always thought there are just four. And the saddest thing, I never heard some of the terms. The notes stated that there are five sets of point of view; 1.Objective point of view, 2.3rd person point of view, 3.1st person point of view, 4.omniscient point of view, and 5. limited omniscient point of view.
Even though the detail of each kind of point of view is provided, I still confused of its function and have problems in solving the questions given. The most difficult part for me, is to distinguish between the 3rd person point of view and omniscient.
Nevertheless, I acknowledge that there is more than one type of point of view can be in a story (but not for all stories). For this exercise, it makes it less difficult as I put the answers (more than one type) which I feel accurate.
However, this lesson on point of view have make an initial step for me to widen my eyes and to be familiar with all the categories of this particular devise.

introduction to drama

The first lesson, 'overview of the history of theatre' makes me feel a bit tense, cause i've no experience in study plays.However, as Dr. Edwin taught about the history of Greek,Roman,Medieval,Restoration n etc., i excited to know more.It is interesting to know how theatre exist and what leads it to the emergence of Modern Drama.There are lot of changes are being made to suit the need of the new era. It can be seen in terms of theme, setting,character and even the plot. I also learn the different genre in plays.There are tragedy,comedy,tragicomedy,farce and etc. Tragedy plays are popular in Greek Theatre. For further information, i've search about the Greek Theory of Tragedy: Aristotle's Poetics at http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html. The tragic play would involves the human fallibility and reversal of fortune. As well as tragedy, Comedy Theatre also have its own discourse which a dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion. Comedy play associates with the examination of social worlds, social values and people as social beings. Along with that, tragicomedy is the combination of both genres. It is a serious and potentially tragic plays with adverted catastrophe. From the lesson given by the lecturer, some discussion and research, I've make myself clear about the distinction of tragedy and comedy play. I should read more plays to come across these genre more often and be familiar with it.