Dead White Males - David Williamson
Dead White Males, the play by Australian playwright David Williamson, deals with several conflicts which occur between the characters. Whether they concern patriarchy and feminism, or intellectualism and anti-intellectualism, these opposing ideas each spawn from the play's chief conflict between liberal humanism and post-structuralism. In the beginning, the play's main character, Angela Judd, finds herself somewhere amidst the two. During the course of the play she and the audience are presented with supporters of each ideology and finally led to prefer one above the other. The ideologies are represented through the actual characters in the play, and by the use of excerpts from some of Shakespeare's famous plays.The two opposing ideologies in Dead White Males are liberal humanism and post-structuralism. Liberal humanism upholds the idea that men and women's behaviour are steered by an all-embracing human nature. Permanent truths concerning human nature do exist; it is not socially constructed. People are not constrained by ideologies and are free to be individuals. On the other hand, post-structuralism promotes its belief that in the world there is no reality, only "manufactured reality" constructed by words, and no absolute t
ruths. Human behaviour is controlled by many ideologies that dominate society. However, gaps that exist within the systems directing society make it possible for people to break free and change. David Williamson utilises many techniques in his play Dead White Males to represent the two opposing ideologies of liberal humanism and post-structuralism. The central ideas are communicated to the audience through the main characters, William Shakespeare and Dr Grant Swain. Shakespeare, the liberal humanist, considers people's behaviour as guided by human nature, while Swain, being the post-structuralist, sees society as being controlled by many constraining ideologies. On several occasions intertextual meanings are constructed using Shakespeare's plays, which position the audience to prefer one ideology above the other. Liberal humanism is favoured in the end. Swain is unsuccessful in his attempts to win his students' support, and Angela and Steve close the play as a real-life Rosalind and Orlando. Shakespeare's plays are also incorporated in the script of Dead White Males on several occasions. They are used to demonstrate, and provide arguments against, the two conflicting ideologies. As You Like It is selected by Angela for her English paper. She uses Shakespeare's play to prove "Dr Swain's assertion that literature is essentially ideological" (I, page 29). Angela states, "patriarchal ideology has fashioned the characters, the values and the very structure of this play" (I, page 29). Here, she is representing post-structuralism. Her elaborate and educated speech sways the audience to look slightly more favourably towards this ideology.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1201
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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