The Role of Language in Processing Various Characters in Bahram Beyzai’s Play: One Thousand and First Night

Abstract

Language is one of the main components of narrative (both short story and play), the significance of which is irrefutable in narrative literature. Since most events occur within and through language in drama, studying elements of language is quite effective in the analysis of the discourse of characters. Characters communicate and bond with each other through language in a play; thus; the present study aims at the analysis and critical reading of Bahram Beyzai’s One Thousand and First Night, as one of the leading playwrights of Iran, in following realms: discourse system and structure of the play, it’s variety and tasks, features and functions, and characterization techniques which are realized through language. To do so, the present study scrutinizes the characters of the play in terms of speech and language usage and the effect of language on characterization and the flourishment of personae. Manfred Pfister’s Theory and Analysis of Drama has been applied as the main theoretical tools for studying various functions of language, such as referential function, expressive, rhetorical, speech-maker, meta-linguistic, and poetic.