Dead white males
Dead White Males Essay
Dead White Males is an Australian play written by David Williamson. Throughout the play, the two ideologies Liberal Humanism and Post Structuralism are represented and hotly debated. The debate of these two ideologies had been the cause of many conflicts and drama from the beginning to the end of the play, and characters Dr Grant Swain and Shakes were the main characters behind this turmoil. Swain believes in the ideology Post Structuralism, and he is a university literary professor that abuses his potion by taking advantage of his power and forcing his views on his students. Shakes is a representation as Shakespeare and he believes in the ideology Liberal Humanism, he also appears in the imagination of Angela Judd who is one of Swain’s pupils. These two key characters are essential for the dramatic development of the play. They create a representation of the hero and the villain in the play, and entertain the audience with their views as they are theories that are applied to real life experiences.
The key character Shakes is a representation of the hero in the play. Shakes is an admirable character as he is immediately recognised by to the audience due to being a famous person from history. This gives Shakes credibility and the audience sees his character as intelligent as well as humorous. When Shakes is first introduced, he is killed almost immediately by the villain. Due to this event, the audience becomes sympathetic towards Shakes after Shakes dies he becomes a figure of Angela’s imagination and occasionally appears persuading Angela to consider opposing views to Swains belief in Post Structuralism. Shake’s figment in Angela’s mind also helps Angela avoid being bedded and question the validity of Swain’s theory on Post Structuralism. This is shown in Act 1 on pages 42 to 44 where Shakes is having a convocation with Angela and he attempts to persuade Angela out of believing Swain’s views by telling her that ‘It seemed to me a sly
Dead White Males is an Australian play written by David Williamson. Throughout the play, the two ideologies Liberal Humanism and Post Structuralism are represented and hotly debated. The debate of these two ideologies had been the cause of many conflicts and drama from the beginning to the end of the play, and characters Dr Grant Swain and Shakes were the main characters behind this turmoil. Swain believes in the ideology Post Structuralism, and he is a university literary professor that abuses his potion by taking advantage of his power and forcing his views on his students. Shakes is a representation as Shakespeare and he believes in the ideology Liberal Humanism, he also appears in the imagination of Angela Judd who is one of Swain’s pupils. These two key characters are essential for the dramatic development of the play. They create a representation of the hero and the villain in the play, and entertain the audience with their views as they are theories that are applied to real life experiences.
The key character Shakes is a representation of the hero in the play. Shakes is an admirable character as he is immediately recognised by to the audience due to being a famous person from history. This gives Shakes credibility and the audience sees his character as intelligent as well as humorous. When Shakes is first introduced, he is killed almost immediately by the villain. Due to this event, the audience becomes sympathetic towards Shakes after Shakes dies he becomes a figure of Angela’s imagination and occasionally appears persuading Angela to consider opposing views to Swains belief in Post Structuralism. Shake’s figment in Angela’s mind also helps Angela avoid being bedded and question the validity of Swain’s theory on Post Structuralism. This is shown in Act 1 on pages 42 to 44 where Shakes is having a convocation with Angela and he attempts to persuade Angela out of believing Swain’s views by telling her that ‘It seemed to me a sly