The character of witshes and influence of Turkish fairy tale on

shadow theatre
Traditionally associated with, and performed during, the holy month
of Ramazan, Karagz and Hacvat also provide the people with a
release from the religious strictures of the season. The origins of the
plays are in traditional fairy tales and myths. Karagz,according to
tradition, represents the honest and straightforward common people,
speaking his mind and telling things as he sees them to be, while
Hacvat, as a member of the Ottoman aristocracy, is in direct contrast
to this, speaking a stilted, flowery language often interspersed with
bits of poetry and religious wisdom. As a result, his point is always
somewhat difficult to decipher, but the witty and sharp Karagz never
fails to eventually deduce what is important. Along with Karagz and
Hacvat, the plays feature an interesting cast of characters representing
stock caricatures of Turkish people, such as Lady and Dandy in this
play The Witches. While each character may have a larger or smaller
role depending on the story being told, it is Karagz and Hacvat who
always take center stage, and through them that the story unfolds.


Turkish shadow theatre has served as a mirror to show people their
lives. Some men are presented as individuals without anything useful
to contribute to the society they live in. Women are also treated
critically in Turkish shadow theatre. Karagz's wife and Hacivat's
daughter are disapproved of because of their desire to spend more
money than their family earns. Another fault found with women is
presented through the inclusion of prostitutes, portrayed as women
renting a house in the vicinity and receiving men into their house.
Some women are also shown to be fond of women, not men. They do
not hesitate to express their sexual preference publicly, although the
society they live in rejects this and they are said to lower the moral
values of the society. Some women seek to live in luxury at any cost.
Some of them give birth on the day they get married. They recite love
poems and serve alcoholic drinks to the men with whom they make
love. The moral perspective of Karagz plays requires that the society
as a whole should be shown the good
and the bad in order for the educational function of the theatre to serve
its purpose. That is why Karagz shadow theatre reflects all sorts of
women, so that the spectators can reach a logical conclusion about
what is decent and what is not. The fact that Karagz uses even his
wife for this proves that he is not against women because they are
women; his sole aim is to teach while making people laugh.
This indicates that, while the tradition of shadow theatre may have
originally come from the Nile valley, the character of Karagz seems
much more home-grown and characteristic of Turkey .
The content of Turkish shadow theatre is sometimes claimed to be
obscene, and spectators are said to enjoy this. Even when
performances were held in a sultan's presence, they retained their
coarseness as a way of presenting critical ideas concerning the
conditions of the society.
In this play witches are potraed like creatures with paws and with
snake heads like inTurkish fairy tales. The puppet of witch is designet
like witch in fairy tale The Horse-Dew and the Witch. And in this
story have ambition to interfere in life of her son or dauther and
control them. The witches have a magicalpower to transform people
in animals. In fairy tales the characters must find a way toprotect
themselves for evel wiches and to remove magic spels. In shadow
play magic disapeard spontansesly afther some period of time. The
influence of witches is not evil or frightened like in fairy tales ,in play
magic made opportunity for comic situation and dialogs.
Resourses:
http://www.tedaproject.com/EN/dosya/2-
5973/h/turkishshadowplaykaragoz.pdf
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/asia
n_theatre_journal/v021/21.2smith.pdf
Applied Theatre Researcher No 6 2005 Article No. 1 Page 4 of 7
http://www.griffith.edu.au/centre/cpci/atr/journal/volume6_article1.ht
m 3/01/2008prejudiced

The Horse-Dew and the Witch

http://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/ftft/ftft12.htm