Introduction
“The fate of a Cockroach” is a three act play written by Tawfiq al-Hakim being the writer’s outright disillusionment with the Egyptian people and the social revolution taken in that period of time. The play itself is reflection of the author on the actual sense of human life. The play is rather controversial because, on the one hand, al-Hakim depicts cockroaches behaving like men and, on the other hand, he compares men with cockroaches. Still, it is difficult to decide whether the author wants to satirize all the vices of the people and Egyptian people in particular or it is the bright example of the introduction of absurd in the play. In my opinion, the main goal of the writer is to criticize the Egyptian government and its army because by this device he accurately reflected the real states of affairs in the country, the outcomes of political and cultural life of Egypt and made people to face the real problems.
Discussion
First, it should be stated that al-Hakim captured the most of the attention in the American literature of that time by the unusual depiction of the human world. He was the first person who created the Arabic theatre in the twentieth century and all his works are differentiated by the extreme wittiness and satire.
My strong belief is that his comparison the human with animals is natural due to our belonging to the nature, and, as a result, our inborn qualities originate partly from animals. The characters of the play are cockroaches and ants representing the population of Egypt that struggled with each other. The cockroaches proclaimed their superiority over the ants governing the state. Still, they strongly believe that they are human creatures trying to find the truth and still hesitating over the essence of life and death. Hence, that induces me to reckon on how a cockroach can have the ability to think and to govern the country and to be the judge of human lives. I think the author intended to render the political situation of that period and his discontent with existed authority, namely, president Nasser. In addition, in the play the cockroaches are trying to be like men rather men subdued to the life of cockroaches. The phrase “In the whole of Cockroach, there is no cockroach that feeds another. Everyone strives for his own daily bread” illustrates the human vices embodied in the cockroaches who try to live as men.
Al-Hakim also involves a note of satire in the cultural and social structures of personified cockroaches who claim that they “are not like those small creatures who gather at the slightest of pretext”. Especially, it is brightly depicted in the first act when the king is sure of his complete power over his people and the Queen accuses the King in his disrespect towards her. In other words, this act reveals failed attempt of the cockroaches to behave like people being sure that they are the perfect creatures in the world. The King having no hint for the presence of mind boosts with his talents and “the length of his wickers”.
Another point that the writer focuses on is the incapability of a cockroach to confront the difficulties and avoiding them all the time. Their unwillingness to fight is explained by the Scientist constitution that “we cockroaches are the most superior creatures on the face of the Earth” still “…we suffer because of those other, inferior creatures” The opposition of cockroaches to the ants enhances the idea of vanity of their deeds and behavior.
If to consider the religious situation depicted in the play, the cockroaches’ attitude to it was rather skeptical which is proved by the Queen’s words: “in my position with all my beauty, and elegance, can’t even take a step without trembling foe fear that I might slip and fall on my back….and quickly pray for the army of ants.” Moreover, they consider the warning of the Priest’s word being “completely incomprehensible things”.
The second act displays the world of human creatures who call cockroaches “moving mountains” struggling in the bathe of Samiya and Adil. Hence, there are two outright parallelisms between the world of cockroaches and the human world that is proved by the fact that the dialogue between the characters takes place in the same place and manner. Thus, if before we observe the humanization of the roaches in the first act, the next one shows that human creatures were likened to the cockroaches. Therefore, al-Hakim leaves no chances for a human to improvement asserting that human behavior is becoming more alike to the animal’s behavior.
Conclusion
After, summarizing all the arguments, it brings me to the conclusion that al-Hakin’s comparison of two different and similar worlds was rather successful and logical and stipulates the inherent connection of the nature of deeds with inborn features of an animal. Thus, the satirical approach was justified by the author’s attempt to grasp people’s attention to the serious problems of the society. Though the parallelism is extremely crucial and insults the humanity, still, the play itself was widely accepted among American critics.