Reflection of the Ages of Man.

Previously, our class has learnt about the theory ages of man by William Shakespeare in As You Like It. Then we also have gone through the other literally works that work on the theory of the stages of man. For instance, Oedipus The King by Sophocles, the Four Ages of Man by W.B. Yeats and Life’s Brief Candle by William Shakespeare. As I look at these riddle and poems, I realized that there are some differences among of them, which are unique and require the readers to think creatively and critically about the issue that arises in their writing. Let me take an example an example from the riddle. “What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at evening?” Then, Oedipus correctly answered, “Man.” That means as a baby, he crawls on all fours, then as a man he walks erect, then as an old man, he uses a cane. Nevertheless, this riddle only gives us a general statement about the ages of man since ‘two at noon” means either you are a teenager or an adult, which is not really specific. Besides that, “three at evening” which is referred to an old man is really cannot been accepted since not all people will be the old man in their lives. This is because death as we all know is beyond of our expectation. Even the young man can die before he reaches his old age. Therefore, not all human being will have their own final stage for being the old man in their lives, as death does not discriminate anybody and it never look at your age before it takes away your life. Therefore, this riddle cannot been accepted in order to describe about the ages of man since based on this riddle a person must follow all these three stages to be a man, which starts from the baby until the old man’s stage. As a result, this riddle is totally different from The Four Ages of Man by W.B. Yeats. This is because according to the poet, there are four stages of man, which is started with a toddler, then a teenager, followed by an adult and lastly is the stage where someone is struggle from death and this stage is not purposely refer to the old man like in the riddle by Oedipus. Nevertheless, we always perceive that only when we are old then we will die. This is our common perception in our society about death that we cannot avoid from it. On the other hand, in Life’s Brief Candle by William Shakespeare, the poet imagines that humans’ lives are like a play and the human beings are the actors for the play. According to this poem, the humans’ lives will begin when the play is been started and in contrast, their lives will reach the end when the play is finished since they are the actors of the play. In my opinion, The Four Ages of Man by W.B. Yeats is the best described for the theory of stages of man. This is because even the scientists also have categorized the stages of man into four like what W.B. Yeats has stated in his poem. As we all know, every human being in this world will be dead soon but we just do not know when the time will come. Thus, when someone dies, he has to experience for being alive like as a toddler, an adult or even as the old man. Furthermore, death does not discriminate even to a newborn baby. Thus, I suggest that every human being will go through all these four stages as recommended by W.B. Yeats unless he is been dead at the early of the stages of man like when he is at the young age. However, live and death are like a cycle, which is never ending process and everyone who is been dead will be replaced with someone who is just borne as a baby. Then, the baby will go through all the four stages. In a nutshell, The Four Ages of Man is the best described for the theory of the stages of a man in this world.

Reflection of the Play.

For the next class, our lecturer has asked us to get in pair and understand the dialogue of a play (Edward Bond Bingo) on page 28 in book entitled Now Read On by John McRae and Malachi Edwin Vethamani. After understanding the dialogue, our lecturer has asked us to act as the speaker of the dialogue with the partner in order to answer the next questions that arise, which we are going to answer later. For instance, who the characters are, where they are (the setting), how they speak and move in relation to each other (tone, proxemics), how they do what they do- and so on. What makes our class more fun is there is a few groups whom presenting the play in front of the class with different style of presentation. From the activity, we can see the play in different perspective since we have complete freedom to interpret the text- to build up a context, to create characters, and to make a performance. Moreover, before the performance, my lecturer does not explain about the setting or characters in order to make it clear by showing rather than telling. In my opinion, this kind of technique, which makes students become more active, has result the best outcome. This is because as I can see, every performance that my friends make is unique and very different from each other. Thus, we can see discuss all the questions that arise before by looking at their performances. For example, how many characters are there? Are they standing, sitting, walking, running, jogging…? In other words, the various performances will show differences in all aspects discussed, plus intonation and emphasis, pace and attitude. Therefore, I am happy to have this kind of activity since it opens my mind about the general perspective of the play besides avoid us from being passive during the class. It is due to this activity requires us to give a complete involvement during the lesson- student centered learning. As a result, it gives us an opportunity to learn autonomously and thinks creatively about our learning.

Second Reflection.

For our second class, our lecturer has taught us about the history of theater and drama. May be for many students they will feel bore during the lesson since it is more about the introduction of theatre and drama in Greek and Roman. Nevertheless, for me it does not bore me as I have learnt many things during that lesson. This is because by listening to the lecture, I have acquired many inputs that make me to have background knowledge about the theatre and drama. For instance, I just know that actually, theatre is origin from Greek and there are two types of Greek theatre, which are Greek Tragedy and Greek Comedy. I think, if I do not take this course, I will not have any knowledge about theatre or drama since it is very important especially for future English teachers out there. This is because during the class, I have learnt about the history of theatre from all over the world. In other words, I have learnt many new things that I cannot get from the other classes. As a result, by having information about the theatre and drama, it is easier for me to learn about those topics in future when we go deeper on that since I am already having the prior knowledge about the topics. In a nutshell, I like this lesson as I acquire useful information and have learnt many things about the history of theatre and drama from throughout of the world.

First Reflection

As my first class of Teaching the Language of Drama begins, we are been asked by our lecturer to write the types of point of view on a piece of paper. Even it looks easy and simple actually it is quite difficult for me as there are many types of point of view to look out. In fact, point of view is a perspective from which a story is been told. The storyteller may be a character in the story (first-person narrator) or someone who does not figure in the action (third-person narrator), in which case he or she may know the actions and internal doings of everyone in the story (omniscient narrator) or some part of these (limited omniscient narrator). Rarely, there may be a second-person narrator, who uses “you” and the imperative mood throughout the story. The narrator may be an observer or a participant. If he or she is untrustworthy (stupid or bad, for instance), one has an unreliable narrator; narrators who are unreliable because they do not understand what they are reporting (children, for instance) are called naïve narrators. If the perspective on the events is the same, as one would get by simply watching the action unfold on stage, the point of view is dramatic or objective. After we finish the first exercise, then our lecturer has given us another exercise, which is also has related with the element of point of view. For that exercise, we are been given many kinds of texts and then we are required to identify the point of view for every text by providing appropriate explanation in order to support our answers. Actually, I am very confused while I am answering all those questions, as I do not know what types of point of view are suitable for every text. It is due to I am still not empowering the topic, which lead me to the confusion. Nevertheless, I think there are many benefits by answering those questions. First and foremost, it trains me to be more familiar with the various kind of point of view. Secondly, by doing those questions, I just realized that actually, for one text it could content more than one point of view. This is because before this I assume that one text should have one kind of point of view only but actually, it is wrong. As a result, my prior knowledge about the element of point of view becomes higher than previously. Moreover, point of view is one of the most important elements in literature since without it the readers cannot view the storyline of the drama from different perspective. All in all, I like my first class of Teaching the Language of Drama since it activates my schemata about the point of view in the literally works that I have learnt in my previous class. Therefore, it is easier for me when I am going to learn about drama in the next class as my background knowledge about the point of view becomes wide.