TheOccurrence of Death in Plays (Zoo Story, M.Butterfly, Purgatory, and Dutchman)
In this essay, I want to discuss
some plays that have some similarities and differences about the occurrence of
death. The first play is Zoo Story.
In that play, there are two characters, Peter and Jerry. In the beginning of
play, Peter did not interest at all to jerry’s conversation. Jerry always
brings the idea of Zoo Story, what happened there, and he told the story of
him, and the dog. The conflict occurred when jerry and Peter to fight over the
bench. Then “With a rush he charges Peter
and impales himself on the knife” (Zoo
Story:13). The “death” happened because jerry’s character. Jerry makes the
conflict and in the end, he killed himself through Peter.
In Dutchman by Amiri Baraka,
the characters are Lula and Clay. Lula, thirty-year-old white woman met Clay,
twenty-year-old Negro in the train. The similarity of Lula’s and jerry’s character is they started a chat
in that play, and keep asking to other, and make the conflict happened. Lula
started making conversation, then seduced Clay, and invited him for having sex
after party. The conflict is when Lula mocked Clay. “She switches strategies and mocks Clay's Anglo-American speech, his
college education and his three-button suit. She rides his being black and
passive. She dances mockingly in an R&B style and tells Clay to join her
and "do the nasty. Rub bellies" (Dutchman: scene II). Besides
both character Jerry and Lula has similarity, but they also has a difference.
In Zoo Story, Jerry kills himself
through Peter, but in Dutchman, Lula
kills Clay. “killed himself” also occurred in M.Butterfly.
In M.Butterfly,Gallimard
interested to Song. Those characters created the story become ironic. Song
camouflage himself being oriental woman who attracted Gallimard. In the end of
play, Gallimard performed Seppuku by
wear Kimono. He said; “Women willing to
sacrifice themselves for the love of man. Even a man whose love is completely
without worth,… Death with honor is better than life”(M.Buttterfly : ACT 3
Scene 3). In Zoo Story, Jerry kills himself in the zoo to create how the Zoo
Story happened, but, in M.Butterfly, gallimard kills himself after he found out
about Song who actually was a man and in the end, he declared himself being
butterfly, whereas at first, Galiimmard mentioned that butterfly is Song. The
Performance before ”death” is also showed in Purgatory.
Purgatory by Yeats is the play that told about Old man and the boy. The
meaning of Purgatory is the anniversary of the old man’s wedding night/the
night wherein he was begotten or A silhouette of a lonely young girl/the old
man’s mother. In this play, the old man kills his father and his son for the
soul of his mother. “Release my mother’s
soul from its dream! Mankind can do no more. Appease The misery of living and
remorse of the dead” (Purgatory:7). The old man still kills his son, and he
said that twice murderer and all for nothing. The old man did that, because he
won’t his son repeat what he done, so that the old man kills his son. In
M.butterfly, Gallimard performed Seppuku for
his dishonor life. The “death” in Purgatory has similarity with Dutchman. In
these plays, the main character kills others. Lula kills Clay and the old man
kills the boy.
Those four plays have similarity and differences build by characters,
conflict and theme. The characters in Zoo Story and Dutchman build the
relationship between characters and the conflict but the occurrence of death
(conflict) is different. Dutchman has same conflict with purgatory. It is “Kill
other character”. In M.Butterfly and Zoo Story also has same conflict, it is
“kill himself”, and then the performance before “death” occurred in Purgatory
and M.Butterfly with different goal (Purgatory : for other, and M.butterfly :
for himself). The tool that used for
“death” in four plays is same. It is a knife. In King Lear, the death of
Cordelia by hung up, and in the Real Inspector Hound, the tool is a gun.
The occurrence of death is associated with body, because the death will
happen if a thing (knife, gun, string) insisted to touch the body or there is
something missing or gone of the body (soul). The occurrence of the death in
those plays is important to create the conflict there. For example is the Zoo
Story. In the beginning of the Zoo Story, the characters just having a chat,
the story is simple but in the end, the death occurred when the characters have
fought each other just for “the bench”.
(Response 1)
(Response 1)