Commentary for “The May Poles and Their Queen” Essay

When nurture the Greek myth Orpheus, I was immediately struck by the heroism of the central character. Orpheus is the classic staminate hero, overcoming every last(predicate) obstacles to bring back his beloved Eurydice, only to be unconstipatedtually thwarted by something even much powerful than his heroism his own love. Because of the essentially classical, romanticized nature of Orpheus, I snarl it would be an deification source text for a modern-day interpretation.In order to gain a better intellect of the text, I initially adopted, in Stuart Halls terms, the best-loved cross-fileing that is, how the earreach argon meant to read a text, who they are expected to empathise with and what conclusions they are meant to draw. Applying Greimass structuralist scheme, I found it easy to give away Orpheus as the subject or, according to Propps spheres of influence, the hero. Orpheus can in any case be identify as Propps donor figure through his extraordinary adroitness at con tend the lyre, which provides him with ostensibly limitless power when it comes to charming the gods of the underworld.The sender would be Eurydice, for dying and subsequently sending Orpheus on his hobby to the underworld. The villain could be Aristaeus for chasing Eurydice, or any of the creatures of the underworld for opposing Orpheus. Alternatively, and perhaps more interestingly, the villain could be Orpheuss own love, which is so strong it forces him to look back, and lose his wife forever. Eurydice can also be identified as Greimass object or Propps princess the object of Orpheuss following, whose only skill is to be intrustd by the subject, Orpheus.I also applied Tzvetan Tordorovs theory that at that place is a similar narrative framework to all stories. For Todorov, a story usually begins with a bow of peace and harmony, an remainder Orpheus has his love, his music and is happy. This then evolves into disruption Eurydice dies and Orpheus must journey to the underwo rld to bring her back. accordingly Orpheus attempts to repair the disequilibrium, by charming the creatures of the underworld. Next, according to Todorov, a new equilibrium is often found. However, in Orpheus, this is not the cause. Eurydice is left in the underworld and Orpheuss head is left singing al ace in the amphetamine world, still crying forbidden for his lost love, unable to find his new equilibrium by universe denied even unity in death.Applying these structuralist theories, I found, only served to emphasize the essentially patriarchal nature of the myth. The literary theorist Terry Eagleton talks of how a texts blindnesses, what it does not say and how it does not say it is maybe as important as what it articulates (Eagleton, 1996) i.e. the untold story, the gaps in the original tale, can allow for hyperkinetic syndromeitional perspectives other than the conventional, preferred rendition. In reference to Orpheus, I felt that the character of Eurydice, and her accoun t of events, was a very important blindness, which had been largely ignored by Greek mythology. Because of this, I obdurate to adopt a more oppositional reading, as Hall would characterise it, and subsequently, a more feminist approach, making Eurydice the classic hero.This opened up a variety of possibilities to me headacheing the other roles. Could Orpheus (or Christian in my re-working) now become the villain, his quest, from her perspective, congruous more akin to a hunting down? The object could now become Edies desire to be recognised and appreciated. Could Christians underworld not be Edies new equilibrium? I also thought it would be interesting to strip Christian of his donor role by making his musical talent all a faade. I felt that it was a perfectly reasonable reading of the original text to believe that the reason Orpheus required Eurydice was simply to act as his suppose and inspire him to create beautiful music. By interpreting Orpheus take aim for Eurydice on a more existent level, I could make Edie the unrivalled who was the true musician. This makes Christians need for her all the more frightening as, without Edie, Christian feels he can no longer be a successful musician, as is the case in the original text.I also felt that the tale of Orpheus had more or less become too romanticized and was subsequently open to a parody. Consequently, I move to create a carnivalesque interpretation, that is, exaggerate some of the key aspects of the characters until they almost become grotesque, in order to evoke surliness. I decided to make my target audience aged 14-18, as I felt that they would feel comfortable with the modern-day, often egotistical, music culture, and also be open to, and appreciate, the attempt to invert the original tales gender stereotyping. As I treasured to create a visually dynamic as well as linguistically comical piece, I chose the genre of a television drama a genre deally to appeal to my target audience. This als o allows the piece to suddenly break out of naturalism in order to give the drama a unmistakablely surreal edge, for example, the impromptu arrival of the snake in the grass. I felt the addition of this ele manpowert of magical realism to the piece would add to the farcical nature and heighten the comedy.The opening few scenes are key to establishing the tactile sensation of the piece, and also the characters relationships. The opening scene of a stir band performing on stage is designed to grab the viewers attention, whilst also appealing to my target audience. Christian uses the informal present of the archetypal rock angiotensin converting enzyme Weve been Christian and the May Poles Goodnight This type of lexis has connotations of arrogance and vanity, which is designed to contrast with the stupidity of Orpheuss kilt and also the band name Christian and the May Poles, a pun on the original Maenads.By having Edie backstage, providing the real musical talent, she initially reckons a relatively oppressed, marginalised character always forced to stay in the background Yeah. Well, I aint Christian, am I? There is a nose out that Edie has accepted the belief imposed upon her by Christian that she is simply an accessory to his success. I gave her a distinct Northern accent in order to appear more down to earth than her rock star counterpart, and also to appeal more to the audience as the under-dog.Throughout, Christian is portrayed as the archetypal, vain, male rock star. I attempted to emphasize this vanity linguistically, through his self-obsessed use of language 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 further parody the strong male stereotype associated with Greek myths. bingle of the key changes that I made to the original text was that in my drama, Edie runs away from Christian as oppose to Aristaeus. She is also giveingly bitten by the snake. By having Edie willingly leave Christian for the underworld, this is in memory with my overall feminist angle of approach, as it now becomes Edies quest to find her role as a performer.Instead of making the characters of my underworld subtly linked to the characters in the original myth, I decided on overstating their most obvious physical features in order to provide an out and out carnivalesque adaptation. Because of this, I decided that a theatre would be an bringing close togetherl setting, and, by drawing inspiration from the character of the serpent, introduced the idea of a pantomime production of the Bible in the hope that this would generate further humour.Deliberately vie with the notion of stereotypes, that is foregrounding the whole issue, was also a comic device. Just as Christian is the stereotyped rock star, so all the characters of the underworld are stereotypical actors, as I felt this would add a new angle to these conventionally frightening characters. The use of stock figures and the language associated with them, much(prenominal) as the wise Yorkshiremen would also speed up audience recognition and mean the characters would not need to be individually introduced.In earlier drafts, I had attempted to give the beginning a more serious edge, in order to contrast with the absurdity of the underworld. I had incorporated monologues, in the style of Jim Cartwrights Road, in an attempt to provide greater character insight. However, these monologues seemed to jar with the other scenes and make the beginning appear flat, without really adding to the piece. Although they established the characters, they did so in a rather bland, pedestrian way, so these scenes were reworked.However, I still felt I had to emphasize the difference between the characters of the upper 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 wanted to give the language of the underworld a distinct theatrical edge. One of the ways I tried to achieve this was through my use of luvvies discourse, for example, the Serpents line How marvellous, an indication of the affected register of language associated with the theatre. This inflated speech is in immediate contrast to both Christian and Edies more down to earth, Northern dialect and I tried to emphasize this contrast by having the 2 types of speech juxtaposed in order that they might break against each other and subsequently, generate humour Greetings Child/Who the hell are you?Another theatrical device which I made use of was the one liner a device associated with pantomime in the hope that this would make the piece feel alike(p) a pantomime production of Orpheus as it were. For example the serpents one-liner Im playing the serpent incidentally attempts to add humour by overstatement, as I interpreted this character on a literal level and made my serpent, an actor wearing a giant green snake costume. This line also refers to both the pantomime production of the Bible and the original Greek myth. It will inform viewers already familiar with the myth that the descent into the underworld is about to begin, and provide a sneak preview into future events.The wise men, Rod, Bob 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 made them drunk and quite menacing in order to, like Cerebus, be perceived as vicious. Through their physical similarity and the syntactical correspondency of their language, they are designed to appear like a club-act, finishing off each others sentences in an almost pantomime ptyalise style, in order to gang up on Christian We are wise men./The wise men of Yorkshire. I also made them speak simultaneously, in order to appear as though they are one being with three heads We knowI transfor med the original mythological character of Charon into other actor, Little Ron. I combined many of the traditional aspects of Charon such as the hood and cape, with sunglasses in order to contrast with Charons blazing eyes motif. I also made him exceptionally perfectly in order to dismiss any preconceptions which the audience may have of Charon being spooky and all powerful. As opposed to Orpheus paying Charon one silver coin to descend in the underworld, Christian instead gives Little Ron a cigarette. I felt this fitted in with my modern-day outlook and also would add a comical element by effectively having God 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 stilbesterol/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 full of misery. Christian, however becomes a classic picture of male melancholy homeless and unable to even strum his guitar. He is an allusion to the ongoing crisis in masculinity, a phenomenon often voiced in the media, his traditional role as the performer interpreted over by his female counterpart abandoned for Keith Harris. Because of this, Christian feels his masculinity has been threatened. This is then made humorous by his final effeminate cry of My tweezersIn the final scene, I had Edie smiling sadistically as she plucks her eyebrows, indicative mood 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 transformation it is the heroine Edie, who not only sets off on her quest but also succeeds and ultimately, it is she who comes out on top.BIBLIOGRAPHYPhilip, Neil. The Illustrated Book of Myths, (DK, 2000)Hughes, Ted. Ted Hugh es Collected Plays for Children, (Faber, 2001)Widdicombe, Rupert. The Sunday Times, (4 September 1994, CINEMA, pages 10-11)Ross, Alison and Greatrex, Jen. A2 English Language and Literature, (Heinemann, 2001)Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory, An entering (Blackwell, 1996)Machery, Pierre. A Theory of Literary Production (Routlege and Kegan Paul. 1978)Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths1 (Penguin, 1955)Vogler, Christopher. The Writers Journey mythological Structure for Writers(Michael Wiese Productions, 1998)Cartwright, Jim. Road (Samuel French, 1989)