meditation 7

I found Amphitryon to be much easier and enticing than the tragedies to read because of the quick wit and underlying humor involved. In the tragedies we have read many of them have an extensive amount of long monologues where most of the plot is found and I cannot focus on them to understand what is going on. I had the same difficulty in reading Amphitryon, but once the first monologues passed, the play was all back and forth between the characters and all very entertaining. In the comedies we have read there if you read something and think it might be trying to be funny, it is, while in a tragedy I was always unsure of the underlying meaning. I feel that Amphitryon is much more direct with its statements and they are much more understandable than tragedies, or even to Lysistrita. I think in this translation of Amphitryon especially it is written to make sure the audience understands what is going on, and for their enjoyment- with Mercury’s opening monologue and asides to keep you caught up and add a humorous comment from the audience perspective. I really enjoyed that it was easy to connect this play to today’s times because so many movies, plays and books involve all the characters but one knowing something, but they know something is up and are trying to catch them in the act. I found it easy to relate to, “Ten Things I Hate about You” during the scene where Kat is trying to get the guy out of detention so she uses several diversions, including flashing the teacher so her friend can escape unnoticed. Amphitryon is just another story that uses the diversion tactic to keep other characters from knowing a secret, which is a topic easily relatable to and enjoyed by society today.