Drama is representation of life. It examines the individual and mirrors society, and in doing so, it functions as social commentary and criticism. As a genre of literature, drama refers to written text as well as physical performance. It embodies a corpus of creative and imaginative works of arts meant to entertain, teach morals, inform, and educate its audience. Although drama may look different from one time and society to another, it most often reflects the patterns of life that exists in society and among humanity, including its problems and aspirations. Playwrights have long used drama to help us understand ourselves and our environments by reflecting human nature staged in compelling human condition. In this way, through social commentary and criticism, drama becomes an important tool for social reflection and cultural understanding. Such criticism and commentary can be direct and literal, or it can be conveyed through figurative means, such as symbolism, allusion, allegory, and spectacle, leaving the interpretation of the message up to the readers and viewers.
Considering their commentary on humanity's problems and aspirations, choose two plays from our assigned readings in which you find a strong thematic basis for comparison, and choose a critical theory from chapter 9 that will help you interpret and explain the meaning of the plays (see Literature 170-83). Using the critical theory of your choice as a guiding principle of your analysis, write an analytical essay interpreting your comparison of the plays, explaining what the social commentary and criticism is. By analyzing the relevant elements of drama and literature, show how the plays comment on human nature, the human condition, and important issues facing humanity. In a formal introduction paragraph, develop a well-defined central argument culminating in a clear and comprehensive thesis statement about what the plays together say about humanity and life in the real world, reinforced by all your supporting paragraphs and summed up in a conclusion paragraph.
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