Content/Theme as Textual Analysis in Drama

Content/Theme:

In the analysis of a play, the first issue that comes to mind is the theme. Theme is the main idea in a play that permeates its entire. How do we identify the theme of a play? Themes are identified through the dialogue, actions and manifestations in the actions of the major characters as they interact with other characters in the play. The interpersonal relationships of the characters help to highlight and advance that particular idea.

Themes in drama include corruption, love, revenge, and many others. The theme is the message which the playwright wants to send across to his audience and a play could have more than one theme. The playwright could draw his germinal idea from an incident or event in his contemporary society. It could also be drawn from history, legend, myth or folklore but the important factor is that there is a message he sends to the audience. Most playwrights try to make their societies better through the exploration of the negative impacts of these ideas in the societies. A playwright is normally influenced by his background and this is reflected in his plays. In Nigeria many contemporary playwrights explore the themes like military dictatorship, insecurity unemployment, bad leadership, bribery and corruption.

The playwright is said to be the conscience of his society, a teacher and an entertainer. He therefore strives to educate, inform and entertain his audience. This explains why he presents his theme through an interesting story and chooses the most appropriate dramatic form. For example, Bernard Shaw decides to dramatize the themes of love and war through comedy, while Shakespeare presents his theme of revenge through tragedy. The theme of the story is what gives it significance because without a recognizable and definable theme, a story will be trite and pointless. A clearly focused theme is the story’s “motivating force”. In Oedipus Rex for instance, the theme is man’s quest for his identity. The sub-theme is man’s helplessness in the hands of fate or the gods. If we take the main theme, we will see that Oedipus’ search for his true parents leads him to kill his father and marry his mother, while his search tor the cause of the plague in his kingdom and the murderer of King Laius leads to his search for his own identity. The search for his own identity leads to his doom. Consciously or unconsciously, every playwright has his theme in mind in chopping the style to adopt. The character, the setting, the language, the plot are chosen in such a way that should advance the major theme of the story. However, the fact must be noted that a story may have one or more themes.

It is also possible that each reader may discover a different theme or a multiplicity of themes in the same play. The theme of a play could be given in one word but ideally it is presented in sentence or statement. A play could be complex and it might be difficult to give the theme or the central idea in one word.

Finally, theme is the controlling idea in a play which the reader extracts consciously as he reads the text. It could be literal or symbolic. It is that idea or message which the playwright wants to share with or convey to his audience. In most cases, the theme emerges after the exploration of the entire play. Some plays have more than one theme. The major one which stands out is the main theme while the others are called the sub-themes.