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Response Paper: Fiddler On The Roof

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Response Paper: Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof is a play taking place during the small Russian town of Anatevka. The circumstance is early twentieth century, when Jewish towns are often targeted by Russian demonstrations. Anatevka is resided almost entirely by Jews. The townspeople uphold the tradition: young girls are match-maked and married off to men, often without choice. The play shows the resistance of Reb Tevye’s three daughters to the tradition. It also shows the internal struggle of the father in his decision between his beliefs and his daughters’ happiness.
There is a plot departure from the book Tevye the Dairyman, which the play was inspired by: Tevye’s wife Golde and Tzeitl’s husband Motl dies in the book; meanwhile, no one died in the play. The play received criticism for being too culturally sanitized and lacking intellectual content, but perhaps the underlying theme of story doesn’t require precise translation from text to motion. The theme of the play explores the idea of detaching from unmoving tradition and embracing the changing culture. The essential underlying theme is not new; …show more content…

The scene is set in Mordcha’s inn. A few drunken men surrounds the two characters. The immediate circumstances of the dialogue is awkward. Reb Tevye is bewildered by the misunderstanding from previous lines when the topic of marriage was confused with the buying of Tevye’s milk cow. Lazar’s objective is to gain Tevye’s approval for marrying Tzeitl, and is clearly extracted from his speech. The obstacle is an indecisive and dumbfounded Tevye, who originally find Lazar to be antagonistic. We see the tactic of Lazar Wolf from his tone. Originally, he speaks in a loud, almost-demanding tone, then shifting the beat to a softer, explanative tone when confronted by the obstacle. His beat is subtle, but it is ultimately the decisive moment that sealed the

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