Abstract

THE CONCEPT OF TEACHING IN THE HOUR– GLASS (1914)

Asst.Prof.Kamal Walee, Asst.Prof .Asmaa Mukaram

Volume: 8 Issue: 4 2018

Abstract:

The play is based on "The Priest's Soul" a tale in Lady Wilde's Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions (1887).The main characters of the tale are a priest, an angel and a child. 2 There is no Fool in Lady Wilde's tale. Teigue, the Fool of The Hour-Glass is Yeats's creation. The Protagonist isa schoolmaster – Wise Man. The other characters of the play are the pupils and the family of Wise Man-his wife and children. The setting of the play is a classroom. Hence the setting is suggestive. . The action is a day in the life of Wise Men. The stage direction stipulates that [The stage is brought out into the orchestra so as to leave a wide space in front of the curtain]. (p. 299). Thus the curtained area is used to represent Wise Man's study. The scene is discovered only when the curtain is drawn. When the play opens the pupils are standing before the curtain which is still closed. One of the pupils carries a book. The action begins with a simple incident. The pupils try to choose a subject for the day'slesson. The opening dialogue of the pupils sets the atmosphere and the situation of the play. The pupils are nervous and inhibited. They are in a state of confusion about what to choose for discussion. They doubt the wisdom of their master's teaching that there is no God3 . One pupil says that he know the question that must be asked. He says that in a dream he heard a voice telling him to challenge Wise Man on account of his claim that there is no God: "I was to say to him, you were wrong to say there is no God and soul – may be, if there is not much of either there is yet some tatters, some tag on the wind – so to speak". (p. 299). Thus the remark of the pupil helps us to know that the Protagonist is a skeptical man. The pupils want to refute his ideas but they are afraid.

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