Midterm Essays

Normally I would start this off with a witty retort or a joke but this is a essay portion of a test and they don't grade snark or humor. So here I go.

6) Interpreting Greek Speeches

The funeral speech (since I can't spell ancient Greek names off the top of my head) doesn't really seem to fit the style of rhetoric that is way placed under besides the setting where it takes place. It doesn't have the other qualifications that speeches under the same category would have. No mentions of human vice or virtue, it's just said for the sake of tradition and where the speaker is at. It's like someone giving a speech that would seem like a foot in the mouth thing at a graduation ceremony just for the sake of the ceremony itself and the long-standing tradition that someone has to give a speech to fit the time limit.

Like Kelly said in her version of her essay, there's not a whole lot besides where this is taking place that would make it seem like it truly fits where history and rhetoric have placed it. There are foreign elements in the entire thing that now makes me scratch my head and wonder why. But I can't really challenge historians and PHD holders on that since I'm not absolutely qualified to do so at the present time. There's really not a lot to say about it other than it was there for the sake of the people.

1) The Irrational

Drama is everywhere, in the media and in real life. I literally saw two girls start a fight that caused everyone else to run in High School and I made a sketch about it during my drama class. Why? Because I didn't know how else to deal with it other than acting it out.

I would imagine why the Greeks would do that for life as well. They had their pantheon of Gods and Demi-Gods to explain weather and death but other than that there was too much for them to place on religion and worship. It's like the pope laid the blame for everything at God's feet (metaphorically speaking) and walking away. It's not the proper why to deal and explain why things happen.

In addition, acting it out can be therapeutic. One can channel the energy form a bad day and let loose on the stage without slaying someone (unlike the Romans) and walk away feeling tons better. Of course that would also have to depend on how much effort and direction they send that energy.

The other way it deals with life is that we don't focus on our own lives and send our sympathies to the characters in a play. It's a great way to deal with emotions when you have a good cry with lets say Romeo and Juliet or be absolutely disgusted with Oedipus when the truth was revealed. All the audience's energy goes to the characters and the story that is being shown on stage. And when you run out of energy, you don't think about what happened that day and be ready to face the next one as crazy as it could seem.