Oriental Characters on the English Stage: A Product of Misunderstanding?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1602.28Keywords:
drama, Muslims, deity, polytheists, misunderstandingAbstract
Between the Renaissance and the twentieth century, Western dramatists wrote a body of plays about life in the Orient, to be performed for European audiences. These Oriental plays were particularly popular in England. Playwrights drew their information mainly from existing sources. These writers habitually portrayed Muslim characters in ways that not only seriously failed to reflect their actual beliefs, but outright contradicted the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. This paper explores the portrayal of Mohammed as a deity and Muslims as polytheists. It attempts to examine whether these misrepresentations of Muslims can be attributed to either grievous misunderstandings or malicious intentions. Although Islamic doctrine clearly emphasizes the nature of Mohammed as a normal human being, we find Muslim characters in the Western dramas elevate him to divine status, attributing to him the capabilities of a god or deity. We likewise find his followers acknowledging the existence of other gods, including those of the Greeks and the Romans, swearing by them and invoking them, despite the fact that those who adhere to the teachings of Mohammed are strict believers in the absolute oneness of God. Dramatists presented to the English audience Muslim characters who display an unnatural mix of Islamic, Christian, and pagan traditions. The result is a confused portrayal that distorts the Islamic identity of those characters. It seems evident that this misrepresentation of the Muslim character as being foreign, extremist, and uncivilized, whether intentionally or through misunderstanding, contributed to the attitudes held by Europeans toward Islam.
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