Hamlet Essay

In the play Hamlet Shakespeare stated that actors as well as theatre are “the abstract and brief chronicles of the time” (II.ii.459). this is because often times authors will go and write plays regarding what they know about the things around them in their life. With this being said Vladimir Mayakovsky once said “Theatre is not a mirror to life; it is a magnifying glass.” Throughout the second half of the semester we sampled various theatrical plays that reflect their society of time and place, and they even are able to reflect concerns of today’s modern society. Three of the plays that we covered that are able to reflect society and issues of today’s societies are Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Rivals,

The characters of the play would pass judgment on those of a different social classes. However, these upper class society members often times lacked education. Lydia, Julia and Captain Absolute used a sophisticated vocabulary that Bob acres, and Mrs. Malaprop could never quite understand. Sometimes they failed to notice that they were being mocked by captain absolute’s sarcastic tone. This is quite humorous, or even ironic since Mrs. Malaprop is supposed to be a well off, smart, sophisticated woman who prides herself on her exquisite vocabulary when in actuallty she is not that bright. She misuses the wrong words all the time, most likely Sheridan does this as a comedic relief because he is showing how women of the time were mearly objects and the wealthy upper class were fools. For example, she states “he is the very pine-apple of politeness” (scene 2 page 113) when she is actually trying to say that this man, Captain Absolute is a great example of what it means to be polite. This right here is relatable to today’s society because people in today’s upper class usually have money and often times lack a basic education, or even common sense. Then Mrs. Malaprop also states to Sir Anthony that her “affluence over her niece is very small” (scene 2 page 156). Except, she tried to say influence, but this is comedic because Lydia, her niece was in love with a poor lower class man and that her wealth did not control