Ancient Greek Theatre: Origins of the Term "Deus Ex Machina"

In ancient Greek theatre, actors portraying gods were lowered to
the stage floor with a mekane, or machina.

In order to fully understand the term "deus ex machina" as it's used today, it's important for a reader to understand the ancient Greek origin of the term.

Theatre history experts and scholars agree that ancient Greek theatre is the basis of all Western theatre and dramatic writing. It is no surprise, then, that the term deus ex machina, which originated in ancient Greece, is still used today.

"God From the Machine"

Translated, the Latin phrase deus ex machina means “god from the machine.” This phrase originated because of the ancient Greek playwrights’ use of a stage device, what was called a mekane or a machina (Brockett & Hildy, 2008). Simply based on how the words look and sound, it’s easy to see that these words refer to some type of machine. In this instance, “the machine” was a crane, either installed to lower an actor onto the stage floor or to raise an actor through a trapdoor onto the stage floor. Oftentimes, this actor was portraying one of the various Greek gods or goddesses, hence the phrase, “god from the machine.”

Deus Ex Machina as a Plot Device

However, as time went on the physical device came to be relied upon not only as part of plays’ spectacle and staging, but as a plot device. According to Brocket and Hildy, “Its overuse in the last part of the century (especially by Euripides, who often employed gods to resolve his plots) led to the term deus ex machina, god from the machine, to describe any contrived ending” (2008, pg. 27).

An example of this would be the ending of Euripides’s play, Medea. At the end of this play, Medea escapes the scene of her crimes in a dragon-drawn chariot sent by her grandfather, the Sun-God. The crane, the mekane, would have been used literally to hoist the actor from the stage, while at the same time the escape of Medea “neatly” ends the play. This type of plot device has been criticized as bad writing by critics since Medea’s original production in 431 B.C.E. (pg. 14).

The Contemporary Use of the Term Deus Ex Machina

Even today, those who criticize or review new films and plays will sometimes refer to a contrived ending as deus ex machina. In this type of contemporary contrived ending, a more metaphorical god or a godlike figure appears seemingly out of nowhere to solve a main character’s problem or resolve the plot of a story. The use of this type of contrived ending is often used as a joke in dramatic or cinematic parody, and its use in more serious drama is discouraged.

Presumably, this "mechanical" ending is a way for a writer to achieve an ending as desired without having to work out a more logical and realistic chain of events. Although most people would very much appreciate being saved from foreclosure, for example, by an answered prayer for a money tree, most people recognize that this is not a probable solution. In film or theatre, this type of ending would be considered a deus ex machina.


Want to read more about theatre?  Try
 Production Dramaturgy: What's a Dramaturg Do?

References

• Brockett, O.G. & Hildy, F. J. (2008). History of the theatre (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Copyright Amy Lynn Hess. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

Why Write a Narrative Essay?

To Narrate is to Tell a Story.  

All essay writing is divided into four types, or "modes." These four modes of writing are expository, argumentative, descriptive, and narrative. What distinguishes one mode from another is its purpose, or the purpose of the writer.

An expository essay is an essay that informs a reader. An argumentative essay is an essay that convinces a reader. A descriptive essay gives visceral details to a reader. A narrative essay tells a story to a reader. Of the four modes, the narrative essay offers the writer a chance to be the most personal, to share with the reader a moment of personal insight.

The personal narrative offers readers and writers a chance to get to know one another better and share an insight about the human condition.

A Chance to be Personal

The narrative essay is my favorite type of essay to both read and write because of the chance for the writer and his or her intended audience to get to know one another better. It's the essay in which the writer can be the most personal.

The key to finding the right level of personal language, tone, voice, and style in a narrative essay is for the writer to clearly define the intended audience. For example, a narrative essay written for a child will not be written in the same way a person would write an essay for his or her mother or grandfather. An essay written for a close friend will not be written the same way as an essay written for a professor or acquaintance. Yet, the intent remains the same: The writer has a chance to demonstrate his or her personality in the telling of a story that holds personal significance. The writer get to know the reader better by carefully thinking about what that person already knows and needs to know in order to understand the story being told. The reader has the benefit by learning about the writer by reading the essay. No matter how well the writer already knows the reader, there's always the possibility, in a narrative essay, to get to know one another better.

A Chance to Share a Moment of Insight

In addition to getting to know one another better, the narrative offers both the writer and the reader a chance to learn something about the universal human condition.

Writers and readers might share a moment of insight about the motivations of individuals, how people do or do not adapt to changing circumstances, how one might persevere to achieve a goal or bounce back after a series of failures. There are numerous types of lessons to be learned, and the writer has a chance to "frame" the lesson in a way encapsulates a personal moment. The implication in this is that in order to construct the frame for the narrative, literally meaning within the introduction and conclusion of the essay, the writer has a chance to learn from the memory he or she is sharing in the body paragraphs of the essay. Of course, the writer may have already had an idea about the importance of the moment, but the dual layer of introspection makes the lesson all the richer for both the reader and the writer.

Because of the chance to share a moment of personal insight with a reader, I find that the narrative essay assignments I receive from students are by far the strongest and most well-written essays I receive. The most convincing reason to choose the narrative essay over the other modes is in the opportunity to learn from one another and our uniquely individual life experiences.

Want to read more about narrative essays?

• The Narrative Frame: Prewriting a Narrative Essay
• The Use of Narrative Assignments in Introductory Literature Courses
• The Power of Stories: The Power of Narrative

Want to learn more about writing essays?  

Try my complete online essay writing course on Udemy Writing for English Composition: College Essays.


 

Copyright Amy Lynn Hess. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

The Narrative Frame: Prewriting a Narrative Essay

Planning the Frame of a Narrative Essay

While it may seem challenging to write a narrative essay, effective planning and organization can make the process more manageable.

What is a Narrative Essay?

Writers draft essays for many reasons: to inform, describe, persuade, or tell a story. A narrative essay tells a story. However, writing a narrative essay involves more than just recounting events. The writer must also explain why the story is meaningful and how it helps readers understand the world better. The narrative essay is an avenue by which writers reflect on events from the past, which means they must be able to convey to readers the shifts in time and perspective the narrative requires.

One way to do this is through a technique called the "narrative frame."

Defining the Frame Technique

Eric Berlatsky, a scholar of narrative theory, says the frame is “one of the most difficult and confusing of narratological concepts” (2009). Despite this, the flexibility of the narrative frame makes it useful for many different types of writing, including narrative essays.

The frame of a narrative essay works much like the frame used in fiction writing. The simplest way to think about the narrative frame is that it helps create a "story within a story." In fiction, a famous example is Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, where pilgrims tell stories to each other during their journey. In a narrative essay, the writer uses the frame to reflect on a meaningful moment from the past. This reflection, often given in the conclusion as the thesis of the essay, reveals why the story is important to tell in the present moment.

How to Apply the Narrative Frame in an Essay

Writing a framed narrative essay requires the writer to think both about the past and the present during the planning and organizing stages of the writing process. They have to think like their past selves while thinking like their current selves. In the body of the essay, the writer tells a story about the past. In the introduction and conclusion, the writer reflects on that story from the present, explaining why it is significant.

One of the best ways to plan a framed narrative essay is to use a structured prewriting method. Because narrative essays require jumping between past and present, a more organized approach to planning and organizing can help clarify the writer’s thoughts.

A Prewriting Strategy for Narrative Essays

Here’s a simple prewriting technique for planning the frame of your narrative essay:

1. Create a chart with three columns labeled “Past,” “Present,” and “Insight.”
2. Brainstorm in each column using techniques like clustering, listing, or outlining. Don’t worry about the order; you can move between columns freely.
3. After you’ve filled the columns, look for connections. Ask yourself questions like:
   • Is there a lesson or insight from the present that stems from a past experience?
   • Is something happening now that is making me reflect on a moment from the past?
   • Can a past experience help me understand a situation in the present?
4. Once you’ve identified a meaningful connection between past and present, use it to develop your thesis or main insight. This will guide your essay and explain to readers why the story matters.
5. Place the thesis in the conclusion, where the reader can realize the significance of the story as the culmination of the past experience.

Final Thoughts

By using the frame technique, the writer tells a story from the past while offering insight from the present. Although planning this type of essay can be difficult, careful prewriting can help you structure your ideas and effectively communicate the significance of your story.

References

Berlatsky, E. (2009). Lost in the Gutter: Within and Between Frames in Narrative and Narrative Theory. Narrative, 17(2), pp. 162-187.

Want to read more about narrative essays? 

• The Use of Narrative Assignments in Introductory Literature Courses 

• Advice from an English Professor: Why Write a Narrative Essay?

• A Narrative Essay: Holding Hands

Want to learn more about writing essays?  

Try my complete online essay writing course on Udemy Writing for English Composition: College Essays.

Copyright Amy Lynn Hess. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

Life Lessons from a Ukulele Learner

A Yellow Ukulele, Image by Jem Yoshioka

Over my quarter of a century playing many different instruments, I've learned a few life lessons that help me maintain my momentum as a ukulele learner.

Over the past twenty-five years, I've dabbled with the violin, harmonica, and clarinet. I've struggled with the guitar and French horn, and I've somewhat successfully pulled off the mellophone, F-alto, and cornet. Recently, I added the ukulele to this list, this symphonic menagerie. The uke certainly isn't the instrument with which I currently have the most proficiency, but even though it's the newest of my instruments, it isn't at the bottom of my list, either. I attribute this proficiency not to mere skill, knowledge of scales, lessons, or expensive gear. Rather, over my quarter of a century playing many different instruments, I've learned a few life lessons that help me maintain my momentum as a ukulele learner.

A little humility can make a big difference.

First, I've learned that a little humility can make a big difference. There's more to humility in this case than having to keep stubby fingernails and develop unsightly calluses. For example, I was mortified the first time I saw myself practicing the French horn: My eyebrows moved up and down the scale with my notes, my nostrils flared, and I suspect that at one point my eyes even crossed. I'm convinced that this one glimpse in the mirror forever stilted my ability and was the reason I sat sixth chair out of six horns for six years. I was terribly vain about the whole thing, but I've learned my lesson. When I catch myself looking a bit silly, wearing my self-crocheted ukulele strap and wincing with wrinkled nose over my bad singing, I just smile it off and persevere.

Play is what playing is all about.

More importantly, I've learned the value of play. This is not to say that I never practiced or worked on a particular piece of music or memorized fingerings and scales. It's to say that until a few years ago, I never recognized the value of just plain old play. It's great to practice, work, and memorize, but when all is said and done, I want my experience to just be fun. Incorporating whimsy, experimentation, improvisational moments, and laughter into my daily practice sessions reminds me that at its center, this is what playing is all about. It's that sense of play and playfulness that keeps me wanting to learn.

Patience is a natural part of the process.

And although it's taken me the longest to learn, I've learned that being patient with myself while making mistakes is a natural part of the process. I've learned this lesson by example from kind-hearted musicians who have an enormous capacity to encourage and inspire. Even when playing with professionals, I've been complimented on my tone, my ability to read music, or even just how I shake a plastic egg. In the studio they've patiently waited for me to tune, to empty my spit valves onto their floors, and waited for me to comfortably reach my potential at the right moment. Their kindness has helped me remember that in this, the process of learning is just as important as the product. Contrary to the popular belief that instruments should be practiced in teeny-tiny closets called "practice rooms," I've found that practicing with others has helped me learn to be kind and patient with myself.

I'm fairly certain at this point in my life that I will never be a professional ukulele player. However, I do know that no matter how proficient I do become on this instrument, the lessons about life that I've learned, and will continue to learn while playing, will be well worth the effort.  That's why I play the ukulele.

Why do you play the ukulele? Feel free to leave a comment.

Want to read more life lessons and insights?  Try

Instead of Watching Television
Project 333: Making My Own Rules
Grief and Healing: Using the Nice Dishes

Copyright Amy Lynn Hess. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

Making Crochet Sushi Toys

Assemble Your Own Sushi - Crochet Sushi Toys

Children love to take things apart and put them together, again. Gifts that celebrate that inquiry and creativity are often appreciated and used for years.

One common type of toy that encourages that creative type of play is a food set. However, those food sets can often be expensive. Making an amigurumi (Japanese for "cute crochet") set of sushi ingredients is a great way to create a child's gift in only a few hours and for only a few dollars.

Decide Which "Ingredients" to Crochet

If you're an intermediate or advanced crochet artist and would like to work on your own patterns, a quick look at SushiFan can help you decide which pieces and ingredients you'd like to make. If you'd prefer to stick to a pattern, the items pictured in the attached images include my simplified interpretations of the following ingredients:

• Tamago (egg) - The square yellow pieces
• Amaebi (shrimp) - The pink pieces
• Maguro (tuna) - The red pieces
• Shari (sushi rice) - The white pieces
• Wasabi (spicy horseradish paste) - The light green pieces
• Nori (seaweed wrap) - The dark green pieces

 

Gather Crochet Supplies

Brightly colored acrylic yarns work well for this project, as children love bright colors. However, depending on the level of realism you're trying to achieve, more subtle food colors are available. As for crochet hooks, use the smallest hook possible for the type of yarn you choose. The stitches should be very tight for the pieces to hold their finished shapes.

I used worsted weight yarns and craft yarns for my pieces. Most of the yarns I chose would normally require an I-9 hook (5.5 mm), but I used an American size F-5 (3.75 mm) hook and an H-8 (5 mm) hook to keep the stitches as tight as possible.

• Caron Simply Soft - Pink
• Red Heart Super Saver - White
• Red Heart Super Saver - Red
• Unlabeled bargain - Yellow
• Unlabeled bargain - Sage green
• Unlabeled bargain - Dark green
• F-5 (3.75 mm) hook 
• H-8 (5 mm) hook
• Scissors

Crocheting the Sushi Pieces

As you can see from the images, my "sushi ingredients" are not all the same shape and size. However, all of the pieces utilize only two stitches, and those are the chain and the American single crochet (called a double crochet in the British pattern terminology) with variations created by increasing or decreasing stitches. Some pieces are worked flat by turning, and others are created by joining and working in the round.

Creating this set requires the following skills and techniques:

• Chain
• American Single Crochet
• Single Crochet Increase
• Single Crochet Decrease
• Join a Chain
• Turn
• Bind Off

To create the set pictured in the attached images, you may use the following set of instructions:

1. Tamago (egg) - The square yellow pieces were created by chaining 4, then reversing and adding 1 sc per stitch for 5 - 6 rows, then binding off and weaving in the ends.
2. Amaebi (shrimp) - The pink pieces were created by chaining 3, joining the chain and creating a round of 6 sc, then increasing by alternating 2 sc, 1 sc for 2 - 4 rounds. After the increase, crochet 3 - 4 rounds with only 1 sc in each stitch and a final 2 - 4 rows decreasing down to close the round. The variations in the number of rounds and increases is a personal preference.
3. Maguro (tuna) - The red pieces were created by chaining 3, joining the chain and creating a round of 6 sc, then increasing by alternating 2 sc, 1 sc for 2 - 4 rounds. After the increase, crochet 3 - 4 rounds with only 1 sc in each stitch and a final 2 - 4 rows decreasing down to close the round. The variations in the number of rounds and increases is a personal preference.
4. Shari (sushi rice) - The white pieces were made two ways. The "rice" balls were created by chaining 3, joining the chain and creating a round of 6 sc, then adding 8 - 10 rows of 6 sc until decreasing to close the end. The "rice" wraps were made by chaining 8 - 12, then reversing and adding 1 sc in each stitch for 12 - 15 rows, then binding off and weaving in the ends.
5. Wasabi (spicy horseradish paste) - The light green pieces were created by chaining 3, joining the chain and creating a round of 6 sc, then adding 2-3 rows of 6 sc until decreasing to close the end.
6. Nori (seaweed wrap) - The dark green pieces were created last to fit the size of the previously made and assembled pieces. Begin by chaining 16 - 24 (depending on the size of the "sushi"), then join the ends and crochet 2 - 3 rows of sc, neither increasing or decreasing. When complete, bind off and weave in the ends.

One last hint before you begin to crochet: Tight knots and carefully woven ends will strengthen the pieces and help ensure lots of playtime for years to come.

Want to learn more about crochet online?  

Try my complete online crochet course for beginners!

You can sign up using this link to create a free Udemy account and take my complete crochet course for beginners for only $10.00!

Copyright Amy Lynn Hess. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.