A NEW DAY HAS COME....

I love reading so much so that it becomes a part of me. I love to read various genres of writing namely novels, short stories, magazines, newspapers as well as poems. But plays or dramas seem different, maybe because they are written to be performed. As James Howe mentioned in his article, “Every printed version of a play is a script waiting to be enacted”. In fact, I rarely read plays especially classical plays by Shakespeare, Shaw and others well-known playwrights. Knowing that I have to deal with Shakespeare, Sophocles and what more to come really freak me out. I can still remember my first encounter towards drama was during the first semester where I had to read modern drama. That was my first step in the realm of drama as I did enjoy reading Trifles and The Glass Menagerie although I am not really into them.
However, the good news is that I had actually finished reading Antigone this week-that’s unbelievable and I am very proud of myself. In the past two month’s holiday, I did not have the drive to really finished reading Antigone. The book actually became mere purple-dull object on my study table in my bedroom. Thus, this is definitely one of my great accomplishments of the year.
Now, I realized that Antigone is such a truly great masterpiece has ever written and reading a classic play as such is not that painful. Of course, I come across truckloads of “alien” words and phrases but I forced myself to just continue reading the drama in a day. (I actually got the motivation by Dr. Edwin’s advice of finishing it in a single seating.) To the very least, I managed to get the overall ideas of the play. Well, reading Antigone for the first time really gives me enlightening views towards plays. I had overcome my fear and problems to classical plays especially because of the lengthy and flowery words, weird pronunciations and difficult words. I realized that reading a play can be as fun as you read other genres of writing. It is just that in a play, the playwright used long and flowery phrases to convey an idea. Therefore, it depends on our wits and wisdom to determine the underlying meanings. For instance, when Creon said “My life’s work there before me lies. My folly slew my wife, my son. I know not where to turn mine eyes. All my misdeeds before me rise. Lead me away, brought low, undone”, the basic idea is that his life is meaningless after the death of his son and wife. Simple, isn’t it….?