Understanding The Drama In Life

Of all the plays that I have studied this semester, the one that really leaves an impact on me is Willy Russell’s “Educating Rita”. It is humorous and entertaining in its own way and yet meaningful. The questions asked frequently by Rita are just like having my voice recorded and was played over and over again in my mind. What is it like to be educated? Can education change your life? Can you develop your character through education? Is education about having qualification only? Rita has decided to enter the Open University and there she is lucky enough to meet Frank who has quenched her thirst with knowledge she needs. Interestingly not only that, Frank too has learnt a lot from Rita despite her lack of “education” compared to him who is a professor in a university. What about me? Why am I here in University Putra Malaysia, leaving my kids with my mom and dad? Is it everything about getting a higher pay when you have a higher education? People believe that as an educated p...

The last play that we study in this semester, “30 Days in September” by Mahesh Dattani was simply remarkable. My friends and I, we were fortunate enough to have the chance to watch the play before even studying it in the class. By watching the play, it helps us a lot in comprehending the story and getting us prepared for discussions in class. It deals with the tattered relationship between a mother and her only child, Mala. Mala was a victim of a man with the beast-like-behaviour. She was being abused ever since she was a little girl. As she grew up, her feelings of anger and resentment towards her mother grew as well. She sort of blamed her mother for everything that had had happened to her when she was young. What she expected from her mom was some protection, instead her mom seemed to ignore and denying the fact that her only daughter was being molested by her own blood brother. Who could have imagined such filthy and immoral act were actually done by someone from your own family, f...

A tear-jerking ending!!! It really tears my heart out. That was my first remarks after the movie has ended. And I found myself in a pool of tears! Well, I was not the only one. My friends were crying too. Personally I feel that Yasmin Ahmad has done a good job. She has successfully convey her message through this simple and yet touching love story but very deep in its meaning. “He doesn’t know me well enough to like me, but he’s in love with me.” The line uttered by Orked, in one of the scenes in “Sepet”. I think that statement is very true indeed. Love is very subjective and it has no boundaries. We have no reason why we like a person. We can’t possibly justify why we love one even though the person is oceans apart. Love can reach out and touch one’s heart even without knowing how the other person looks like. Of course this is very rare but it does happen sometimes. Love, to me, is indeed a piece of literature - different people and different culture with different percept...

Questions after questions kept flashing in my mind as I read one of Bernard Shaw’s famous plays “Pygmalion”. What does it mean by real education? Does beauty reflect virtue? What is the importance of one’s appearance and how does it change someone’s life? Through the main character, Eliza Doolittle, I noticed that the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. Eliza manages to fool the society about her “real” identity and has successfully made others think that she is a princess from the way she dressed and the proper way of speaking. Is this the education that she needs in order to make her feel accepted by the so-called noble society? Is this the real education that she is talking about? To me Eliza is a smart girl. She knows what she wants in her life. Eliza, despite her lacking of education, has learnt that external changes are never enough to make her an educated lady. She realizes that the real education th...

When we were assigned to work on eblogs, it reminds me of the online forums that we had last semester. It was an exciting experience indeed working on the forums. Eblogs are quite similar to online forums except that we have a wider range of audience and we are free to write about anything that we want to regard the main title that we had chosen. Having to post my writings on eblogs is just like having my personal diaries read by others. Whatever I have learnt in my Literature class have somehow given me the chance to make my own reflection and how I relate to those happenings in real life and finally have my thoughts displayed on this eblogs. For me, writing eblogs is, in the many ways, an ideal tool for both teaching and learning because it provides novelty and opportunities for language learning especially for the students. Besides private chat rooms where students can experience authentic environment and real audiences for students ( some people believe that chatting is...

Last week my classmates and I were assigned with our first simulated teaching for this semester. However just before the class started, I realized that I have forgotten to bring my CD, which I’m going to use for the set induction. Without any delay, I grabbed my car keys, ran down a flight of stairs, walked hurriedly to the parking lot, started my car and quickly drove home. Along the way I can’t help but to be angry to myself. How could I be so careless? What was I thinking? After less than 15 minutes I found myself standing right in front of my study table searching for my CD. Bingo!! Found it!! After putting it safely in my bag, I rushed back to class. The minute I stepped my feet in the classroom obviously the class has started when I saw one of my classmates performing her simulated teaching with Dr. Edwin sitting at the back of the class evaluating her. I managed to squeeze in quietly hoping that I will not be disturbing others. After panting a breathe of exasperation, I heard my...

Having to study one of Shakespeare’s famous plays “King Lear” was really a great experience for me. Not that I have never read any of his plays before, but the difference is that this time I am to analyze his words and why he uses them besides studying the plot and etc. However I was quite surprised to know that Shakespeare had been using the Modern English Language for his writing. My God, if that kind of English I found it rather difficult to study then what more can I expect from playwrights before him, Chaucer, for instance? Recently I found out that Chaucer has actually used the Middle English Language where it was recognizable to the English speakers’ eyes. They find it difficult though but slightly better than the old English. English Language is a very old language indeed and it has gone through a lot of changes. Old, Middle and Modern English are languages that are from mixed languages from others like German, France, Latin and Greek. Well whatever it...