Article summary
Abstract
In English political play, language serves as more than just a means of communication; it is a powerful tool for persuasion, manipulation, and authority. Political theater, from Shakespeare’s oratory to the scathing satire of contemporary playwrights like Harold Pinter and David Hare, sheds light on the ways language establishes, undermines, and maintains power systems. Political leaders and institutions are shown in these plays as using ideological jargon, euphemisms, deceit, and persuasion to establish power, highlighting the complex relationship between speech and domination. Richard III and Julius Caesar are two of Shakespeare’s plays where orators use words as weapons, influencing public opinion and rewriting history with their command of the English language. Language reveals governmental dishonesty, structural oppression, state monitoring, and Pinter’s austere dialogues or Hare’s bombastic polemics in modern political play. This study delves into the complex ways language functions in English political play, examining how it serves as both a reflection and a tool of authority. It examines how dramatists from different eras use words to subvert or liberate authority, expose political theater, and challenge authoritarianism. In political theater, language serves as a mirror for ideology and often transforms into a stage for the performance and contestation of power, as the research concludes.