Gilgamesh
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Gilgamesh
Literature is appreciated if it brings in particular themes and educates the audience on identified themes knowledge. If any form of literature lacks some themes, which are relevant to the audience, and does not give any form of direction to the audience, then, that form of literature is not appreciated and cannot be taken as having particular impacts. Major types of literature forms include the poems, the short stories, novels and plays among other forms. Looking at the knowledge from all of these, poem as an example helps make the reader or the reviewer search for the messages inside the lines of the poem, and for a short story, the message is contained in the activities of the characters that are presented in the short story.
This is the same case when analyzing the plays in either written form or when they are acted on stage, and the words, the kinesics and all other forms of non-verbal cues form the message of the characters. These characters are given significance and each of the character represents a particular idea. In this paper, the analysis is the play of Gilgamesh a play that was written by Yusef Komunyakaa involving King Gilgamesh and a person who grew amongst the beast among other people. The play itself was done in collaboration of Yusef Komunyakaa and Chad Gracia and this collaboration has brought in major themes in the whole literature and themes that can highly be appreciated. In this play, the analysis is on how the activities of Gilgamesh the king brings in some relevance that can be replicated in the present world or form knowledge for all people in the present world to appreciate. Some of the themes as involving this major character are like sinewy vitality, antique grace and contemporal directness.
Gilgamesh as a play developed by renowned artists of the calibers of Yusef Komunyakaa and Chad Gracia is one that brings in a number of lessons that are not only directed to the main character Gilgamesh the king, but also to the persons living in the present; and some of the major lessons that are learnt are: it is good to live in the present and leave the past behind, immortality belongs to the past, clinging to antiqueness cannot help in the present living, survival and loss can occur simultaneously, human intimacy is of essence and there is need for sinewy vitality in persons.
Contemporal Directness. Contemporal directness refers to the actions and activities that have the elements of the present world. The present world is a kind of world that thinks of advancements to the future on which has discarded most of the elements of the past generations. Contemporal directness in literature means that even though the characters belong to the past, their actions, what they say and how they think reflects the elements that are done in a contemporary world. The belief of death varies from one generation to the other; that is, the past generations had their beliefs about this while the present generation believes differently regarding the same issue. In this play as involving Gilgamesh the king, we can see some contemporal thinking; thinking that is associated with how the present generation thinks about the issues that affects them. Gilgamesh was like a god to many; however, as it will be noted, he also had a kind of fear for death and this is seen in the way he mourns his friend and tries in vain to bring back the dead friend.
After the death of his friend and searching to no avail the father of grief in attempts to bring back the life of the friend, he gets intense grief and fear that he also cannot live forever and he is just a human being. That is why this tale of Gilgamesh the king and his futile search of immortality can be considered as a masterpiece of literature. This is how the present world is and it is a world that does not believe in immortality. The present world is full of strong religious believes and it is not cowed to believing that a person can be brought back to life by some magical performances or through extreme believes of non existence human beings.
Antique Grace. The definition of antique is the doing of some things in the present day in the form of earlier times, which then was highly valued. In other instances, the word means totally out of fashion or it is not acceptable in the present world or is belonging to lasting times of the past. Therefore, the Antique grace means the kind of grace being practiced in the present world but belongs to the past; a past that people no longer use and may not be acceptable in the present form of thinking. There is the antique grace in Gilgamesh the king of Uruk that it is possible to bring back a dead person even when he quite well knew that the person had already passed away. His actions are démodé in nature and are of old age; and many people including the reviewers of this play agree that what the king was doing is something out of the box or does not apply in the present world.
This lessons that the king gets after a fruitless trial to bring back his friend that antique actions cannot be taken in the present world. In the past, it was possible to do what he was doing and as a god, he would have brought back the person back to the lives that were being enjoyed by other persons in the world. However, the times that he was in did, not have such rather believes and it was time that he lived with this hurting reality. At the end of it all, reviewers of the play get to know that Gilgamesh was just as self-proclaimed god and he did not have those much powers of doing what other gods of the past could do. Majorly, his actions were old fashioned, laughable and above all, they were very démodé. The antique grace was one of the lessons that at the end of all this the king assimilated in the brain and majorly, he came to know that he ought to have contemporary thinking.
Sinewy Vitality. By definition, refers to being fibrous. However, in real life situations, this means being hefty, tendinous, muscular, brawny and powerful. On the other hand, vitality refers to a kind of verve, animation, energy or vital force; and in real life situation, it means having power that helps one do something that a number of people may not be in a position to do the same. Combining the two words, the phrase means being overly capable or being in a position to do something other people cannot contemplate even trying. Some people have generally a hypothetical force; and this is a kind of force that is not chemical or physical but force that can cause major evolutions as well as developments in certain areas or enforcement of a particular idea in people. In this play, reviewers can see a kind of dramatic work that is essentially of sinewy vitality especially of a real hero who can move and breathe on the stage. This person is Gilgamesh the king, a person who tries anything possible and to some extent, comes to succeed on some while fail trying on others.
Search for Immortality. The general definition of immortality is to have permanency or not dying, and this is believed of gods, demi-gods, and people who are close to these beings. This theme comes in this play especially as relating to the main character Gilgamesh the king who goes on a searching spree for somebody who could prevent his friend from dying. Gilgamesh has a strong belief that it is possible to bring back the life of his friend or prevent him from dying as he was near death; and he terms this as confronting the father of grief. What can be learnt in this is that no person who can prevent death from happening other than the God. Therefore, what can be seen in this is a search that is futile or that is not aimed at bringing in fruits. The king comes to learn this loss and there is now where he could find the father of grief who could as well stop death from happening or bringing back what is already lost.
Loss and Survival. What is clearly brought out in this play is that loss and survival are realities in this world, and to some extent, these can occur simultaneously. That is, it is possible that somebody or something that is believed to be surviving for life gets lost as soon as it came. This is one of the lessons are learnt in this play and which as it seems character Gilgamesh comes to terms with. His friend who had assisted him defeat the inherent enemies dies and the king does not come to agree to this and that is why he goes on a searching spree for something that can heal his friend and the father of grief, but as it is learnt, loss and survival are one and the same thing.
Human Intimacy. This play is one, which is startling, lean, has a kind of chiaroscuro renovation and above all, it has lots of human intimacy in it. The character of Gilgamesh the king is one who is close to people and especially how he tries to shield Enkidu his friend in the battle from dying. While in the forbidden forest, Gilgamesh tries to wake up Enkidu, paces around the neck and picking up his charms from the ground in an effort to put his beloved friend back to life. In fact, Gilgamesh can be seen in strange grief after the loss of his dear friend, and therefore, the theme that is coming out in this, and which is heavily tied to actions of the king towards his friend Enkidu is that of Human Intimacy.
CONCLUSION
Gilgamesh play as written and directed by two renowned writes of the calibers of Yusef Komunyakaa and Chad Gracia is to be celebrated and especially in the way, the character of Gilgamesh is brought out clearly. From this character, it is possible to learn very many lessons; however, these are put as the lessons that are learnt by Gilgamesh the king. The king is in dear friendship with Enkidu; his friend who had grown in the forest with the beasts and therefore as fearless as the lion; and they together defeat enemies. However, his friend was to die, and from this, he feels lots of grief and goes on searching somebody who could bring the life of his friend back but this is next to impossibility. In this therefore, some of the lessons that are learnt are like human intimacy, antique of grief, search for a father of grief, survival and loss, sinewy vitality, contemporal directness and the search for immortality for his friend, and these are to form major lessons for him and others.