Ahmet Muhip's "Shadows"

In Ahmet Muhip Dıranas’ play “Gölgeler” (Shadows), the “ Woman in the Pomegranate Dress” , who is never a real being and always remains imaginary, defines the Father’s past and his relationship with this past. The other characters in the play who move between dream and reality, fulfill the function of conveying the Father’s present, his relationship with his environment within the time lived, his thoughts and delusions about the future within the imaginary time through abstraction.

Ahmet Muhip Dıranas constantly emphasized the concept of death, which was seen as the only expectation of Baba in his life, as an indispensable element in his play.

The symbol of death was determined as the hunchbacked neighbor . This persona was like a manifestation of Baba's crippled state of mind, one of the imaginary sides of the endless debate in his inner world. It symbolized the dark and "lame" face of Baba's dreams that oscillated between life and death.

In Shadows , none of the characters had names. They were called by the names of the functions they played in the game: Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, Fiance, Neighbor, Maid, Servant, etc. These characters took part in the game with the roles assigned to them in society.

The father is like a man who cares about his family, The mother is like a woman who worries about the future of her children, The daughter is like a young man who tries to find a rich husband, The fiance is like a rich young man who is engaged to a beautiful girl. The servant and the maid , although their destinies are different, represented poverty. The son seemed to represent youth and madness.

All the heroes of the play, which focuses on the human soul and the world of spirits, had to support Dıranas' view of nature, humanity and art from different perspectives.

The play begins with the conversations between the servant and the maid in a mansion, then between the owner of the mansion, the father , and the hunchbacked neighbor . After a while , the mother, daughter, fiancée and son join them. Among these people, the father and the neighbor are different from the others. They are before us with their pasts, dreams, and their interpretations of objects and events. Dıranas's poetry is reflected in the conversations of the father , the neighbor and the son , sometimes mutually and sometimes solo. After the stage darkens slightly, the father and the neighbor seem to read poetry to each other:

Neighbour:

– My youth? A deprived and unhappy heart; that's all. Always unrequited love, / Like kites with broken strings / In the air / I'm still unhappy, but it doesn't matter anymore. She wasn't the prettiest girl in our neighborhood / But I loved her. She said to me: 'Am I left to you?' Don't you ever look in the mirror?'

Father – The sea was visible from under an arch. / It was a sunny summer day; / One of those days that God gives to people for nothing / We were in a garden / Amongst flowers”

In the second act of the play Shadows, the “Lad” , who again appears as a ghost, appears before the “Lad” . The Lad is the Son ’s friend and his name is “ The Ceremony of Life ”. The Lad appears as the Mother ’s lover, directly opposite the Father’s relationship with the Lad. In the Mansion, the Daughter is having doubts about her relationship with the Fiancé . She is quite unhappy. The Son confesses his love to the Maid .

In the conversations between the Maid and the Servant , Ahmet Muhip Dıranas' thoughts on the meaninglessness and necessity of knowing how to read and write and the differences between people's living conditions are revealed.

In this act, the Mother 's jealousy towards the Woman in the Pomegranate Dress is expressed as the main reason for the family's unrest.

In the second act of the play, the Woman in the Pomegranate Flower Dress reminds the Father of the idea of ​​death. From that moment on, death covers the Father's whole world, he feels death step by step. He experiences death as if he were playing a game. After the death of the Father; people like the Daughter, Son, Fiancee experience a showy sadness, then they worry about inheritance. The Woman in the Pomegranate Flower Dress, who has lost her function, appears to the Mother and the others. Her youth and beauty especially affect the Neighbor and the Son . The Mother, Daughter, and Son reproach the Woman in the Pomegranate Flower Dress for not leaving their father to them.