Snow in Midsummer - Chinese Theatre

The structure of this poem was what really caught my interest at first. The way there are stanzas’s and then paragraphs, it made the play flow very strangely, until I knew that it was mostly to be sung. Then the structure made more sense to me. The repetition of every detail of the story in every characters line’s was very frustrating because I felt like the author was just doing it to fill in space. It was helpful at some points in the play because it did get confusing when characters began threatening each other and gold was being exchanged and everyone was strangling each other.

This play seemed a very different form then the Greek drama’s we’ve been reading. This was not completely centered around mythology or religion, but was in fact focused and driven by one factor which was the Chinese belief of the 7 virtues. Dou E. had to follow the virtues so that her family name and honor would be upheld; the same is true for the Greek drama’s, the people had to uphold their family name and honor but instead of following virtues they had to follow and appease the rules of the gods. The presence of a tragic hero isn’t so much present in the Chinese drama but there is a sense of a flaw in the characters. The characters in these drama’s also are not royal members, but instead merely peasants or common people.

When it comes to the visual sense of the Chinese dramas, they are very similar to the Greek dramas. The presence of masks does exist in both cultures and the Skene doors are replaced by a simple indented wall for the exit and entrances of the actors. Both forms of theatre are preformed outside for the most part, and involve similar use of props such as masks and scenery. Both the Greek and Chinese theatre use masks to represent the characters, as well as using little to no scenery, instead they both use props and body movement to represent what is going on in the play in place of the scenery. These plays types are very similar in nature and it makes you wonder if they either have influences from each other or from a similar outside source. Certainly they are not very similar to today’s plays and dramas, which are pretty much the same all over the world.