The Reflection of War in the family and the Relationship of the Family in the Plays of the Ù?Sacred defense War

Abstract

In this article it is tried to offer some definitions of the war from the social studies and from a dramatic point of view the role of the family in the creation of the play is discussed. At first we will deal with the investigation of the relationship of the families especially in the Iranian society at the time of the imposed war that was the context through which these plays have been created. In what follows the reflection of the family in the Ù?Sacred defense war plays such as 31 / 6 / 77, three parts of the pure life of a polite and beautiful young man, murmurs behind the front lines written by Ali Reza Naderi, Zemestan 66 by Mohammad Yagoobi, Nahre Firooz Abad ( First Part : Special care taking ) written by Mohammad Rahmanian, Asmaeeb and Dahani Por az Kalagh written by Jamshid Khanian have been investigated. In the end the Iranian plays mentioned above will be comparatively investigated with a foreign successful example, “All My Sons”? by Arthur Miller, the American writer.
Through the scenes the theater shows the world outside that deals with the creation of the traditions, contracts, violence and honors. The theater of resistance after the world war 2 all over the world become important to a great extent in a way that in many countries of the world, different conferences, halls and important buildings to this issues in the name of the theater of resistance.
In America, to remember the World War II, an opera house for the remembrance of the San Francisco war, was established that is regarded as a the most important halls and even building of their country. This is while the theater of resistance in Iran has a special and noticeable position at least from this point of view. It is possible to say that in many cases lack of understanding as well as cliché and superficial representations of the theater of resistance has been of the basic elements in the formation of this issue. Lack of research and incorrect understanding of the conditions of war as well as lack of understanding the abilities as well as understanding the techniques as well as creating means of the theater can be included as the other factors of this problem. The correct understanding of the audience and the ability of up to dating the issues and the concerns of the war, whose effects are clear on the society, can be the cause of progress and efflorescence of the theater of resistance in Iran and can lead a lot of audience to the halls of the theater.
Due to personal interest in the subject of the influence of the war on the family as well as the lack of researches which are to somewhat comprehensive and valuable in this regard, I have chosen this as my subject. Almost certainly it can be said that that there would be no such research under this title anywhere; or at least I could not find anything in this regard. The preliminary hypotheses that were considered for this research include: to what extent has the war been effective on the family circle in the theaters of the Ù?Sacred defense war? Is there anything common between Iranian plays and those of the foreign countries for example All My Sons by Arthur Miller? If there are some common characteristics what are they? To what extent will the repetitive subjects or differences be found in the Iranian Plays on the Ù?Sacred defense war?

The Definition of War From the viewpoints of sociology and dramatic point of view:
This is the world of the battle if you have a general point of view (Masnavi Ma’navi)

War has a lot of definitions from the point of view of sociology, politics as well as a concrete and objective phenomenon. Therefore, based on the point of view we take in investigating the roots of the war we will have various definitions of it. For example: The sociology point of view and the war, war and culture, politics and war, geography and war, economy and war as wee;; as community and war and . . . . . . . . . . . Wars as social movements have different natures and based on the nature and the goals they are seeking, they are defined in different ways. In other words, the wars are defined based on the goals and the intentions and not based on the results they achieve. For example, it is possible to refer to some of this goals and basic needs in the formation of the wars:
1. War is the natural result of resistance against power.
2. War is the consequence of hating each other by the nations.
3. War is the result of feeling inferior with regard to the other nations.
4. Most of the wars had religious and belief reasons.
5. Wars have been exploitative due to the material interests.
6. Wars have been anti – exploitative movements due to the need to independence and freedom from exploitative powers.
7. The invention and the development of the militaristic arms have changed most of the wars to the innovative wars.

In as much as the discussion on the kinds and types of the arms during the history may put the main topic aside we will refer to the types of the wars:
1. Historical wars
2. traditional era wars
3. middle age wars
4. Renaissance wars
5. National and revolutionary wars
6. National and international wars

Definition of the war from the point of view of Sociology:
Emphasizing the legal aspect of the war, M . Quincy Wright thinks that : “ the war is the legal condition that lets the involved groups settle the dispute by the use of armed forces.”?
Clause Vince with regard to the goals of the wars, says: “War is a violent act the goal of which is to convince the competitor to fulfill our requirement.”?
Von Bogoslavsky defines the war in this way: “The group struggle of a specific group of the people, nations, people or governments against another group or some other groups.”?
La Gor Jet defines the war in this way: “War is violent competition between two or more similar groups that occur as a result of some specific needs they have.”?
Guston Bootol also defines the war in this way: “War is armed and bloody fighting between organized groups.”?
According to Allan Biro war has been taken from a German root werra which means the test of the forces through the use of guns between the nations (foreign war) or among the contesting groups within the country (civil war).
From the point of view of Emile Durkheim the common principle of the social theories is the acceptance as well as the authorization of war as a social phenomenon during the lives of the nations. And this is why the sociologists consider war as one of the most surprising and wonderful event of the world.

The definition of War from the Dramatic Point of view :

As it was mentioned in the different definitions and sometimes opposite definitions of the war, it is necessary that this tern be considered along with the term politics. . . . . . . .
Martin Esslin in defining the nature of the play writes: “the element that makes a play a play is the action or the function that fulfills the thought or the concept of the writer of the work.”?

Bertolt Brecht used to consider the play as a practical method and the theater as a laboratory for the examination of the human behavior under different conditions.

Of course it is not good to politicize all literature; political theater enacts situations and events that are of importance for all the people. If the political theater can take the spectator to the fundamental analysis, it has done a great service and this is the most outstanding characteristic of the political theater. In this theater the audience is faced with reality; a reality that is directly related to him / her.
The first theater of the history of the dramatic work, Iranians, is war play and it seems as if the theater is born with war and the war seems as the motivation of the crisis and a threat on the life of the human beings and is thus the source and the origin of tragedy and its political area. Achilles in an Iranian war scene makes use of the strategy of turning around and this process shows that focusing on the war on the theatrical scene is not possible unless some practical changes are made and some measures are taken into account. Iranians, is a historical drama under the control of lyrical and epical methods and make us aware of the challenges that war makes on the dramatic forms. War is first of all a dramtic act before being a subject which organizes the reformation of forms from within.
Luckacs explains the struggle with in the structure of the dram in the following way: Every dramatic act, and every dramatic change in an act, needs a common ground among the competitors even if this “common characteristic, is regarded enmity from the social position. The exploiter and the exploited, the oppressor and the oppressed can be the managers of this battle ground.
From the dramatic point of view the war can be screened on the theatrical scene in two ways . . . . . : the war act and the war situation. A war act introduces a militaristic act as the content of the work and through remembrance of this point that the “war act”? does not follow a low abiding model of drama. The war act indeed refers to the military war in which gun is used and it takes into consideration the nature, the arrangement as well as the number of the forces and the technical conditions dominating the current of the confrontation. But when the war is considered in its social context and in its relationship with the other political and humanitarian activities it is the war situation that is of importance. In other words if we do not limit war to the war arena and treat it as a illness of the society and even the body of the human beings, it is not regarded as the act of war rather it is regarded as the situation of war.

The Family and the Familial Relationship in the Iranian Society:

“Family is a social institution composed of mother and father as well as children and possibly their relatives”? or in other words it is comprised of a group of people that are related together through blood relations and marriage as well as taking as step child and thereby form an economical unit in which the grown ups are responsible for rearing the children. All the known societies have forms of family organizations although the mature of their relations is greatly various.”?
In the human society family has different forms the most important forms of which are mentioned below:
Core family
Expanded family
Step families
Native father family
Native mother family

A Core family or an independent family is a family that is composed of wife and husband ( or one of them ) as well as their children.
The expanded family is a family group including more than two generations of the relatives who are living in a family or very close to each other.
Native father family is a family in which the wife is expected to live near parents of the husband.
Native mother family is a family in which the husband is expected to live near parents of the husband.
A Step family is a family in which at least one of the parents has children living with them or very near to them from their ex – marriages.
In the contemporary societies the form of the real family is a core family form but the families of the type of expanded families are also found. As it was mentioned, the core family, include two grown ups that live together with their children or the ones they have adopted as their children. But in the traditional societies such as Iran china and . . . . . . . . .most of the families types are of he expanded family type. In these types the relatives other than a wife and a husband and their families in the family are in close contacts and live near each other most of the time. These types might also include grand fathers and grand mothers, brothers and their wives, aunts and uncles as well as nephews and nieces; in most of the Iranian families it is expected that when a person marries he lives near the house of the brides’ parents or even live with them and this is called mother native families. The model of the father native families come in to being when the married couple live near the parents of the bridegroom or even live with them. On this basis it can be understood that the father native families and the mother native families are found in Iran and there are quite a lot of examples of these type of families that every Iranian is familiar with them.
One of the other characteristics of the human society in Iran regarding the formation of the family and marriage is the subject of freedom of choice in the marriage contract and the other aspects of the family. In many of such cases, the person is the follower of the interest of the others such as those of his / her father’s or mother’s as well as those of the relatives. For this reason the family in these cases is open to the protections, guidance, research and interference from without on the part of the neighbors and the relatives and almost there is no personal and private issue. Therefore family is an open, abiding and domestic, un – emotional , authoritative as well as transient and instable organization and breaks at the death of the wife or husband as well as infertility of the wife or their early departures from the house.
The family model all over the world has seen a lot of changes in its forms. In most of the third world countries there are some extensive changes to take place and the origin of these changes are very complex but it is possible to consider some factors as great elements in causing these changes. In the first place these factors such as those of the previous periods of the west, include industrial changes as well as city life. Of the most important elements in causing changes in the family paradigms all over the world one can refer to the following cases:
1. Multitudes or connected groups of relatives are loosing their influence.
2. A general process towards freedom in choosing one’s wife / husband.
3. The rights of women, both their rights in choosing right in marriage as well as in making decisions at homes, are more than ever acknowledged.
4. Most marriages in the traditional cultures used to be “marriages among relatives”?. This is decreasing day after day.
5. Sexual freedom in societies that have been very strict has increased.
6. There is an increasing and progressive procedure to expand the rights of the children.
But an important issue in the family as well as familial relationship is the issue of violence in the family circle. Basically in family circle violence is a male domain.
It is possible to define the family violence as physical attack of a member of the family against the other member ( s ) of the family. Usually there are two types of violence in the family circles: violence towards the children that is conducted on the part of both the wife and the husband and the other the violence of the husbands that is conducted against the wives. Of course there are some cases in which the wives have conducted acts of violence against their husbands but this is rare.

One of the most principle foundations of the Iranian families is the role of the women as one of the basic columns in the growth as well as the preservation of the family in the Iranian society. Before the Islamic Revolution in the framework of the theory of reconstruction as well as under the aegis of the strategy of growth and decision making in the supreme levels of the management of the country some changes occurred for the well fare of the people.
The result of these changes, was coming in to existence of a little group of the educated women in a society whose major characteristics can be summarized in the social – economical inequality. During the past 20 years, the gender criteria show some advancements as well as backwardness.
Changes in the conditions of the women can be sought in two social classes:
A . Geniuses: Women with higher education who have jobs or who have more extensive social interaction
B . The mass of the traditional women: Mostly housekeepers, more religious and having lower educational levels.

The external forces as well as the internal forces were both effective in the changes occurred; education of the young girls as well as the role of the media among the internal forces were of more importance. The outcome of these changes was lack of cognitive understanding for the first group and different models of norms and a more extensive web of social relations for the second group. In a way that the society of women need a higher social position as well as a greater portion of participation in decision making of the Iranian People.
The condition of the women in the years after the Islamic revolution, on the basis of the social – political changes can be divided in to two periods: Causing Change and Contextual:

In the Causing Change period, a quick structural change was regarded as a necessity. Changes in the ownership of the properties, the policies of the government, the way of the economical growth as well as its distribution, more equality in the economical benefits, settlement of the social justice, structural changes in the current values of the society through the educational and mass media systems, participation of the people especially the active presence of the poor as the necessity condition for the economical growth are examples of what changed the structure of the society. Changes in the productive sections, economical problems, the beginning of the war and the more extensive effectiveness of the dominant point of view about the appropriate role of the women made them to be set aside from the economical activities; they were seen best to play the role of mothers as well as wives; the family circle was considered to be their main domain and the general arena was that of men who were regarded as bread winners; in the best cases the jobs that were regarded to be specialized for women or were similar to the role of the mothers were given to them such as teaching and nursing.

The Importance of the Role of the Family Relationships in the Creation of the Plays:
Most playwrights, be it consciously or be it unconsciously, are seeking to find forms and frames for their plays in accordance with the thoughts and the contents which they intend to express. The selection of form and content or in other word the selection of the dominant element has been one of the most important worries of the writers. But the real issue seems to be the propriety of form and content.
With a cursory look at the history of the dramatic works in the world as well as Iran it can be understood that the importance of the family relations and making use of it for dealing with it is completely a historical event, although making use of the family and family ties has been subjected to a lot of changes in the contemporary world.

Most of the plays that we see currently on the stages of the theater have the ambience and the color and characteristics of Realistic plays. When we are thinking of realism, we are feeling relaxed first of all for 1 . the play is written in prose 2 . the executive group thinks that life, free from the audience who are seeing them through a “fourth wall”?, is moving and its real object is to adapt everything with the concept of life or it seems at least to be so.
Is it not the attraction of the family relationship and ties that creates the force or the energy of the realism or even causes it? And is it not the social relationship and interaction that creates non – realistic situations in an innovative way and devoid from any resistance?
Arthur Miller, the late American writer, has said about the play Called “Pyer Gunt”? by Henric Ibsen that: “It is amazing for me that Ibsen, as the master of Realism, who used to write his realistic plays with the seriousness he had in writing the social plays, suddenly quits the realistic frame / setting i. e. the living room. I think he had left not only the living room – because this element makes the production of a creative poetical play impossible – but also he has left the family context as well; because Pyer Gunt is more than anything else depicted as a lonely man; he is also shown as a man who is facing the social forces as well as social relationships and non – familial types of relationships.”? Of course it should be mentioned that the first thing that was of great importance for Ibsen was the relationship of the human with the other humans as their interaction. Therefore Ibsen can not have characterization set as his only goal rather he intended to create a context in which the characters are formed so as they behave as the other humans do. The context that he chose to present his characters was like a mirror hold up to the society. Therefore If he wanted to create a climax he had to create the society in the framework of money, social customs, tradition as well as spiritual and intellectual condition of his characters. All the plays that have been written on these issues have been and are regarded great works which in the end deal with an aspect of a unique issue. How the human beings from the external world make a house for him? On what basis he should try? Or what changes and alternation he should make or to what he has to achieve?
It seems to be true of we say that the language of the family and the language of the private life, the prose and the language of the society – that is the language of the common life – is order. Regarding the new plays one issue affects the audience as well as the spectators of the contemporary world more than the other issues and it is the fact that the contemporary plays present and exhibit the concept of lack. In other words they present the bereavement of the human beings from the sometimes extant mercies and affluences that are no more in existence and are subjected to oblivion. Therefore most of the times it is said that the theme of the new and modern plays is the “self – estrangement”? of the human beings; but it is the social concept of it that is of great importance by which it is meant that the individual can not find a satisfactory role in the society. Although this is true about the contemporary plays but it is the instinctual and to some how latent feeling that is prior to the social “self – estrangement”? and that is the un – said or en – expressible feeling of satisfaction in the mind of the author as well as the spectators of the plays which has its origins in the family relationships as well as memories of the childhood experience. Therefore the motivating force of feeling in the great plays is the contrast that the time leaves for us to inherit; that we can not return to home and the world in which we live is a strange place.
It seems that family and familial relationships as well as making use of its potential have a great and strong tie with the school of Realism. Human beings, be they writer or the creator of a dramatic work or be they the spectator or audience, have a common experience of life with them and this experience would never leave him in any condition and situation that the individual is placed. In other words all the human beings take roles that are prioritized over the other tasks he had to attend: All of us in the first place are boys, girls, sisters and brother; therefore it is quite natural that no play can change these roles. The concepts of sister, brother, father and mother as well as the like have been accepted naturally and unconsciously when we understood ourselves as individuals. While the concepts such as friend, colleague, manager, staff and teacher as well as other social relationships came to our minds after we became aware of our being and in this way they are located in the external.
From this point of view, the family relationship is sublimated reality and seems stable. It is while the social relationship is always fairly stable and accidental and seems in the end domineering. But today there is a great gap between the social life of the human beings as well as their private lives and the artists were trying to show this. The escape of the human beings from the imaginary, fantasy and un – real world towards realism is seen more today. In other words when the time comes for misfortune and hardship the people of the society in a way tend towards personal and private lives and ignore the society. It is as if the human beings in these conditions are trying to get away from the society. Therefore the more the problems and difficulties of a society the more the inclination towards personal and family life would be. The importance of the role of the families in the plays is completely obvious in this issue. The various wars of the 20th C., fatal illnesses, lack of resources as well as the increase in the number of the of the population, have the human beings to move inward and step by step made them move towards solitude; in other words they have become more lonely.
The modern plays are based on some parts of the private and personal life . . . . . . . the great system of art, which includes plays and drama as well, is reached when something is said about the general condition of the human beings and it can not be created out of the blue. What all these plays generally have in common is the self – crimination characteristics; this means that they want to seem in a way as if they not only have not plots and plans but also have no authors. They want to ascertain us that what we see “happen automatically”? and no director has done anything in this regard; in contrast to the Plays of Ibsen, Shakespeare and Greek Plays.”?

The Reflection of War in the Family Environment and Family Relationship in the Ù?Sacred Defense War Plays:

The Theater of Resistance denotatively is a theater that aims at showing the contrast between two forces; or it is a theater on one side of which badness is located and on the other side it is goodness that is located. In other words the theater of resistance is a theater that is comprised of two parts: theater and resistance (this means resistance and stability against the attacking and transgressing forces). . . . . . .. . The Theater of Resistance like the other kinds of theater is the result of special characteristics of the human society. Therefore, this kind of theater in general has the following characteristics:

1. preserving different aspects of the human society against the attacking forces
2. relying and emphasizing the national unity
3. the aggregation of the human resources as experienced forces
In general the factors and the elements that differentiate this theater from the other theaters are as follow:
1. Propagation against war and differentiating between the defense war as well as transgressing wars
2. Fighting against exploitative powers
3. Education

If we accept that the point of view of the author and the playwright totally depend on the environmental and time conditions, then one can conclude that the subject matters in the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war has changed in the course of the history to a great extent. Except for some differences, it is possible to categorize these subjects in three periodical times:
A. The Beginning Stage: In this stage which is simultaneous with the beginning of the imposed war, the subjects have been chosen in a hurry with the goal of imparting knowledge regarding an important historical event in the country and the plays, without having a conscious theory about the “Theater of the Ù?Sacred Defense War”?, are just reflecting the conditions of the people who are unwillingly faced with a great war.

B. The Middle Stage: In this stage the structure of the society is formed on this basis that our people have been involved in a full scale and possibly a long war. The theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war as a famous dramatic genre opens his path through the other plays that have subject matters different from it . . . . . . . The subject matters in this regard, include mostly self – sacrifices, martyrdoms as well as victory over enemies and the oppressed conditions of the people who were arranged against the enemy lines.

C. The stage after the war: The most various as well as the most acute subjects of the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war theater can be seen at this period. With the end of the imposed war, the subjects of the Ù?Sacred defense war are divided into some groups:

• Subject matters that have remained loyal to the events occurred during eight years of war and those which try to keep and preserve the same mood and ambience with the same characteristics of the war era.
• The subject matters that deal with the works as well as the characters of the defense war with a positive point of view.
• The subject matters that deal with the works of the defense war with a different point of view and try to show the effects of the war from its destructive point of view.

Of the most important characteristics of writing plays about the subject matters that are related to the war era is historical reference and it voluminous quality of it in the forms that are not dramatic. This shows the double delicacy of writing plays about this period. This period – from the point of view time – is based on the centralization of the military issues and in the end on actions and military operations. It is why the war period in its extensive dimensions is divided into two categories of “frontier”? and “behind the frontier”? then it goes away from the military arenas and tended towards the basic body of the society.
Writing plays about issues relating to the war period due to achieving one’s three goals (preserving the different humanitarian society against the attacking forces, emphasizing and focusing on the national unity, the gathering of the human forces as efficient forces) is having the benefit of being victorious in the fields of war. This form of writing play, due to its emphasis on the military documents, although they lack the central core of dram that is movement and dynamism, is successful in gaining its three goals. One of the other features of writing plays is breaking away from the known forms and at the same time a thoughtful departure from those norms in order to settle the war as its basic subject and its establishment as a force in the dramatic structure makes the mechanism of the play arranged to the benefit of the war and the military framework. Making use of the masses of the people as actors, going out of the scenes and attending the place of the accidents or at an extent in the same form, the haphazardness of the scenes as well as the place where the audience are placed are some of the characteristics of this theater.
In the most of the plays in the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war in Iran, war as a progressive as well as basic event has not been paid attention to a great extent.
When the plays of the Ù?Sacred defense war deal with war and has been written after the war, it is natural the writer go to present the reflections of war and its effects on society and especially family as an important and key element of the society. In this case the playwright with sufficient understanding of the war events and happening, its destructive effects on the society, the deterioration of the families, the fatal physical and spiritual ailments of the participants in the wars as well as the forces, lacks or the effects that this phenomenon and the effects that this phenomenon has had on the family canon, goes towards writing plays.
Therefore in this case the playwright does not directly go towards the war as the major acts of his play and the war in this case changes to a seemingly strange subject in the lives of the characters of his plays. Of the notable works in writing plays in the history of dramatic literature one can refer to a lot of expressionist plays in Germany such as “Sea Combat”? written by Reinhardt Goring”?.

Family in the Ù?Sacred Defense War Plays:
In the theaters of the Ù?Sacred defense war, the artist, before creating a work has some beliefs and presuppositions and thereby wants to show it to the society or wants to guide the people towards believing in is own ideas and beliefs. Therefore the artist or the playwright knows his addressee and is familiar with his culture and understand all of his codes; he is further familiar with his accents and language as well as his reactions about the special critics of him. One should pay careful attention that the goal of all promotional efforts and movement are “making culture”?, therefore it is quite natural the creator and the playwright of the Ù?Sacred defense war knows to whom he is performing his play, what he wants to tell them and how to tell them so that what he says is understandable and is accepted by him. For example it is possible to bring some example from the promotional activities of Soviet Union in the beginning of the 1917 Revolution and thereafter in the creation of Socialist Realist Art. In this regard it is possible to refer to some excerpts from Lenin’s speeches: “Look, We are both old and do not understand the meaning of the new art. And we are staggering behind it; but our ideas about art are not so much important; it is not important that how many hundreds or thousands of people among human beings say what about art. Art belongs to a nation and it has to have its roots among the masses of the workers and those who tolerate suffering. Art has to be understood by these masses of the people . . . . . .Art has to look for the artists among these people. Are we authorized to distribute among a small minority sweet and delicious biscuits while a great multitude of the masses of workers and farmers do not even have access to breads. . . . . . In order for the massive multitude of the people be attracted to art and art turn towards them, it is necessary to increase the level education as well as culture. It is while tens of thousands of people are pleased with the bright plays of the theater of Moscow; the need of the millions of people all over the country to the art of spelling, writing and calculating is overtly felt.
Here, Lenin considers the mass of the people as a context for the cultural movements. But Brecht goes further and not only considers the masses context for the cultural movements but also he specifies the way to talk to the people: “the study of the realist stylistic writing can not be ignored or paid attention to as easily as it was common in the past because they have become unavoidable at present. The royal governors tell lies more than they did in the past and even big lies. Therefore it becomes tougher duty to tell the truth. Suffering and oppression has become worsen and along with the number of the people who are suffering has increased. With regard to the suffering of the masses it is felt that being busy with the minor difficulties, with minor difficulties of small groups, is funny and worthy of derision. In contrast to the increasing violence of the world, there is only one allied and this is people who are really suffering from it to a great extent. One can only expect them. Therefore, it is clear that we have turn to the people and today it is more necessary compared to other times to talk to people in their language. Therefore the two concepts of the people art and the real art are naturally related. . . . . . . . Common means something that is understandable for the masses of the people and making use of their language to add to the depth and value of the work – getting their ideas and making use of them, the representative of the most advanced people and therefore being able to lead them and therefore understandable for the other sections and parts of the people, relating to the other customs and advancing it, transferring the achievements of the dominant group to those group of people who are trying to reach leadership . . . . . . . . . In fact this means discovering the cause and effect webs in society and divulging the fact that the dominant and the current ideas of the society are the same ideas of power and domination. Looking through the eyes of a class of people who is thinking of the most comprehensive solutions for the problems that have afflicted the human society (emphasizing the elements of evolution and progress), making the sensible and the real events possible, and making rejuvenation that is created with the pass of time: “what was very liked by the people in the past, is not liked today by the people; because they are not the same as what they used to be in the past.”?
Basically the need of the addressees has changed with the pass of the time and its orientations change as well. Therefore it is reasonable that the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war appears as a mass media and transferor and well as injector of culture to the addressees in any time and at any period; whenever the need for change in the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war is made apparent it will adapt itself to the new changes; as some concepts such as war and family has been subject to changes during the course of time for they have gone well with time.
Since the art in general and theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war in particular have the characteristics of media therefore they have to impart some information TO THE READER OR TO THE AUDIECE. In the usual theater it is that part of the conclusion that is sued as guide and leading part for the audience. According to Brecht in theater “ we have to reveal and divulge truth and express the reality; those realities and facts that are hidden in the dark.”?
The Theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war is an effort to organize power for the creation of unity of ideas among the people of a nation. On one hand one should remember that information has its own life span and will die. In other words it will lose its value step by step and it needs to be replaced by new information; and in as much as the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war is based on these ideas and beliefs, therefore the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war has its own life span. In general this is the characteristics of the promotional art that they sometimes will lose their effectiveness and their usage.
In the continuation of the goal of culture making, one important task that is considered for the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war is the subject of cultural identity. The subject of the cultural identity has got two main branches: . . . . . . first: the identity of background that is that section of the cultural identity that is related to the original and the roots of the culture of the addressee as well as his cultural belonging and . . . . . . the Second: Modern identity that is always forming and constructing as well as rejuvenating because of the oppression of the time as well as the forces of technological advances and its effects on all the cultural branches. Basically the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war is in need of two cases of “making belief in addressee”? as well as “creating a sense of sympathy in the addressee”? for the creation of the unity of ideas. In the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war for the creation of beliefs a technique is used which is named “realist narrative”?. This means that the addressee considers all what happens in the scenes real and believes in them. On the other hand the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war makes use of the technique of cultural identity to create sympathy in the addressee in order to achieve a sense of unity of ideas. The audience enters the hall of the theater with their cultural background. Therefore the theater of the Ù?Sacred defense war, to create a modern identity, has to choose special cases of the cultural belongings of the addressee and then plays with them; then it adds something to it and afterwards returns it to the audience as a modern identity which is inline with the contemporary condition of the audience. The artist of the theater is in search of communication. He has to transfer to the audience the highest degree of sensations, emotions, aims and goals by the use of the least and the most useful means as well as in the least amount of time. . . . . . .
Adapting the discussed issues in the definitions as well as the concepts of families with the condition of Iran, the laws of Islam and their interpretations by the great men of religion, is of prime importance. The religious perspectives are not only effective in formulating the laws of right but also effective in directing the general thought as well as formulating the social norms. Social dynamism on one side and social changes on the other hand has created great changes in the traditional forms of marriage and the concept of family. In addition one should not ignore the role of the eight years of war in the changing the marriage norms as well as the other concepts of family.
For example, for the active and effective role of the religious perspectives and jurisdictions and its domination on one’s point of view about life and the issue marriage one can refer to a play called “three parts of the pure life of a gorgeous and courteous young man”? written by Ali Reza Naderi. Ali Reza is one of the characters of the play who is injured in the war and accordingly lost his memory; at 17 when he did not go to the war, he was in love with his cousin called “Ziba”? but he did not express it to her in any way before.
Ali Reza: When Cain killed Abel there were two eyes which we chasing him . . . . . . I did not kill anybody . . . . . . But those two eyes were there that day, they are today as well . . .. . . . There are two eyes and. They want to say something. . . . . . . But I do not know if it is because of shame or is it because of nobility . . . . . . . that they are silent . . . . . Mother! . . . . . . . My uncle had a daughter whose name was . . . . . . . What was her name? . . . . . What . . . . . . ?
Ali Reza: Mom! Is my face livid? Do you know why? They did hit my cheek. It was all my faults. I know it was my own fault. Yea. But it is a mistake that you think I have listened to what my heart says. This was not the case. At first I was thinking that it was because of God’s mercy that did not let me tell Ziba who much I love her. It was very hard for me. But I always wanted her to understand this, but she did not. I did not ever look at her and she did not either. I want to stay at this house so much as the lividness of the slap, which was the result of love, is diminished from my face.
Ali Reza then said . . . . . go and tell Ziba. I was amazed for I knew that one should not be angry with what God trust one with. I was thinking it was God’s mercifulness that I was not telling Ziba how much love him . . . . . . . I have taken Ziba for granted for the sake of God. . . . . . .
Ali Reza hides his love for Ziba, his uncle’s daughter and when Ali Reza was in the war Ziba had married Hamid Nezam, a friend of him.

Mom: When your first letter came, it was the time that he wooed Ziba; your late uncle opposed as he had said he did not want a son in law who has not hands. When your second letter arrived from Abadan, your uncle finally had agreed and they were serving the sweet. Dar Khovain operation was the time of their marriage and went to MAshhad for their honeymoon . . . . . . it was all your mistake. You did never tell anyone. It was because of shame or decency . . . . .
Like other countries, Iran was affected by the cultural and economical as well as social changes in the latter decades of the 20th C and these had affected the structure and the function of the family in the country. Although the Iranian society, like the other countries in the present age, has a long time to go to the complete eradication of male domination in an out of the family but one can claim that some important steps have been taken in the last decades of the 20th C. to perform this important goal. The increase in the percentage of the employment of females as well as accepting the active economic role and accordingly . . . . . . having income and new social responsibilities for a greater number of people both in the middle class as well as working class, has naturally a deeper influence on the performance of the family circle in a way that it has completely changed the relationship as well s the traditional roles that were as a result of the economical dependence of the wife on the husband; this is exemplified by the play in which the father is generally omitted from play or their presences are so colorless. Their presence is more shadowy and not sensible. In the Plays such as “Ismaeil, Ismaeil”? and a “Mouth full of Crow”? as well as the “Winter 66”? the role of the father is totally absent from the plays. In all these plays the father is died and is not living. It is only a memory of him that sometimes reminds us of his role in the family. In addition, in a play called “three parts of the pure life of a gorgeous and courteous young man”? written. . . . . . by Ali Reza Naderi the father has a very shadowy and minute role.
In the play “Winter 66”? the father is dead and thus has not the least effects on the actions of the play. The major characters of the play are females.
As it was aforementioned in “three parts of the pure life of a gorgeous and courteous young man”? written by Ali Reza Naderi, the father appears as a sensible and concrete character but his presence is so rare and shadowy and is limited only to the third section. In addition to this, he is also referred to in the end of section 2:
Section Two:
Ali Reza: . . . . . . See who it is.
Mohsen: . . . . Where?
Ali Reza: . . . in the yard. A shadow has filled the yard. . . .
Mother: it is your father . . . . .
Mohsen: He has gone to prayer, thus he does not come up so soon . . . . . . . .

Section Three:
The father enters. Silently and shadowy and looks at his wife and children. Mohsen is sitting in a corner calmly and revolutionized while he is sitting he is smoking. The father simulates to be happy. . . . . . .
As it is clear from the setting of the scene, the presence of the father is calm and shadowy; in addition the effects of the father on the progress of the actions of the play is Zero and his role is limited to three very short and ineffective dialogues.
In another play called “the Murmurs behind the Frontier Lines”? where we are facing with an uncommon family, there is no way to suppose a role for the father; in other words the father as a normal dominant character does not exist in this play.
Of the most important worries of a family for living beside each other is having a ceiling over one’s head or in other words a house. House is the same important and basic element that Miller emphasizes it with regard to family. For example one can refer to teo plays “three parts of the pure life of a gorgeous and courteous young man”? written by Ali Reza Naderi”? and “Winter 66”?. Still, the main important part of a play such as “31/ 6 / 77 (22nd September 1998)) is the house.
In Winter 66: . . . . . .
The Voice of the Man: . . . .Naser will live. He approaches the house. It is no more home; he approaches a destroyed house which used to be a home not long ago. He comes close. He is hot under the collar. He notices a rooster that is on the wall of the destroyed house and is staring at him. Then he reclines there and cries. In the alley, in front of the destroyed house he is crying; this is the only thing that he does. . . . . . .
In the present society of Iran the family, while there are different norms regarding having different wives as well as temporary marriages, and the increase in the number of the families who have only one child, increase in the number of adoptions especially in cases where one of the couples is infertile, has continued to its being and to its modern applications. In these cases, while the family continues to its normal course and adapting itself to these new conditions, the couples are still inclined to preserve the traditional role of the family in educating and raring children as well as continuation of reproduction. In addition, with the increase of the number of divorces and accepting the basic role of the family by other people based on their familial relations, these changes have not been of great importance and significance. To prove and to further exemplify this claim one can refer to the play called “A mouth Full of Crow”?: . .

The First: You did not say anything about Atieh . . . .
The Second: She is fine . . . . .
The First: How many kinds do you have?
The Second: I have no kinds. . . . . . .
The First: (with amazement) you do not have any child?
The Second: I am not able to bear a child. . . . . .
The first: is it because of you or is it because of your husband?
[a pause and then . . . . .]
The Second: (shortly) it is because of me
The first: adopt one from a nursery – or somewhere else
The Second: he says no. I want my own child.
[silence]
The reproduction of the division of labor is one of the most important features of the family. Natural division (based on age and gender) of labor is the complement of the social work and in addition to creation of necessary requirements for its re – production, it is regarded as an important element is the production of duties as well as the other norms of the society. For this reason, the women’s occupation and employment that was increased to a greater extent during the period after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, has been the greatest element of the dynamism of the family and has caused some changes in the relationship between the couples as well as on the relationships of the parents with their children as well as the roles and educational responsibilities of the members of the family and in general in all relations as well as the family norms. The role and the duty of the women in the family, in these conditions, can be done in one of the following ways: accepting a part of these duties on the part of the husband, double exploitation of women and increasing the efficiency of their work and the socialization of some of these duties and most of the works and family responsibilities would become easier.
In practice, a combination of these three methods is used in different societies:
Almost in many of the plays under discussion, women play the role of wife or mother and the majority of them are housewives. For example in plays such as “Winter 66”? the mother is a traditional house keeper and she is dealing with the education of the children as well as house keeping; her social role and works are very limited. In addition, no where in this place the social role of Nahid out of her house is mentioned. In the play “three parts of the pure life of a gorgeous and courteous young man”? written by Ali Reza Naderi”? the mother plays her own role and is a house keeper. In the play called “Esmaeil, Esmaeil”? the young woman doe not refer to her own occupation and social responsibility. But in another play called “Nahr-e- Frooz Abad”? (First Part: Emergency Cares) the only woman of the play is a nurse. In other words, she is doing her job as well as social activity while there is war.
For the meticulous and precise understanding of the plays as well as the role of the family in these plays one needs exactly to know the time and the place in which the play took place; it seems that the best way for appreciation of these works is to make use of narrative – historical analysis or the traditional analysis. The playwright adopts a critical approach through which he tries to react to the existing conditions as well as situations and to create characters in the middle of these events and thereby he wants to be the historical memory of the societies; he plays a crucial and important role in the dynamism of the social minds of the people. These playwrights, through dealing with the subjects and characters that are the results of their societies at the time in which they live, helped to revitalize this historical memory. For example, Ali Reza Naderi in his play called 31/ 06/1377 sets five fighters as the major characters of his play and through social and emotional analysis of them years after the war, he tries, in addition to creating a dramatic situation, to present a critical picture of the society in which they live where the fighters feel a great gap in their wills and their volition as well as their worth. These are the people who were proud of themselves for fighting in the imposed war and now that peace and immunity is rife every where in the society, they are grappling with their unconscious picture of themselves. The war and the values that used to act as columns to rely on and had given meaning to their lives, even before the settlement of peace, is step by step deteriorating; a process which reaches its extreme point when Reza, the commander, disappears. Now in the absence of the commander, of whom they had a great depth of feelings, there are a lot of injuries and unhappiness that are about coming to the surface after years.

Comparative Study of the theaters on the Ù?Sacred defense war written by Iranian writers with “All My Sons”? written by Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller, separate from many known and unknown techniques, tries to present and exhibit in this play all his experiences, what he has seen as well as all his sensible events around him after the World War II. All My Sons introduces the American society participants and sinful in the war and hence it can be regarded as an anti war play. The play has been written on the principles of Realism as the Iranian plays do. In the conditions of the war and the periods after war possibly realism has been one of the toughest and the most difficult duties of the truthful writers. It is true that every year many works are produced in the world but only a few of these works do mot subjected to oblivion due to the pass of time and remain fro ever. This everlasting quality has a direct relationship with the realism of the writer of the works and it has become step by step understandable.
The Iranian writers were not exempt from this rule to some extent. For example the play called “The Murmur behind the Frontier Lines”? was faced with severe opposition as well as prohibition of performance in the beginning. Tending towards realism as well as dependence on the characters and situations as well as the occurred events and happenings have been the subject matter of the Iranian playwrights as well, although writing realistic play has had a long history in Iran. Many of the playwrights, who write about the Ù?Sacred defense war such as Ali Reza Naderi, are those figures who took part in the war in person. Therefore, being present in the war scenes and experiencing its environments, provides them with a strong means to write plays with more comprehensive knowledge and information. Of the most important and repetitive elements that are visible in all the Iranian plays as well as “All My Sons”? are Home, family and living together of these characters at any price. As in All My Sons, the reason for committing a sin on the part of Clare is mentioned in the following way:

Clare: . . . . . . You wanted money and I brought it for you. For what should I be forgiven? Didn’t you want money?
Mother: not in this way.
Clare: I did not either in this way! But is there any difference if it is in this way/ . . . . . Forgive! . . . .I could lead a life with 25 cents per day, but as I did have family I went . . . . . .
Mother: Jo, Jo. . . . . . Having family does not justify what you have done.
Clare: How is it not?
Mother: from his point of view it is more important than the family.
Clare: nothing is more important.
Mother: it is, from his point of view.
Clare: There is nothing that he could do and I could not forgive as he is my son. Because I am his father and he is my son.
Mother: Jo, I say . . . . . .
Clare: nothing is more important than this and I want you to tell this to him, understand? I am his father and he is my son, if there is anything more important than this I am ready to shot a bullet into my head.
For Clare, nothing is more important than only and only his family neither the lives of the soldiers nor the lives of the other families. As he a few times mentions in the play that the head of the faulty cylinders have been loaded on the P – 40 airplanes; the airplane whose pilot was not Larry and this points to this important clue as it always released Clare from self – criticism and the sufferings of the conscience.
Clare to Anne: Those cylinder heads are used only for the P – 40 Air planes. What are you saying? You yourself know that Larry had never flown with a P – 40 airplanes during his life.
Chris: Let me see. Who were flying with P – 40 Airplanes, The Pigs?
Clare: it is Ok. Do not make any silly mistakes. But do not turn him to a killer. . . . . . If you knew what were going on in that factory at the time of the war you would never say these words; it was exactly like a mad house. Every half hour the general called and asked about the cylinder heads; the ringing of the phone used to drive us crazy. The trucks used to load and carry them while they were very hot. I mean you have to understand the issue from its humanitarian aspects, let’s see its humanitarian aspects. . . . . .
With these descriptions it is very easy to understand Clare’s standpoints with regard to the war; a war which had only economical and monetary aspects for tradesmen as well as a person like him. But when he was reading Larry’s last letter in the end of act three he understand this important truth that there are other critical and important things except for the family that one has to think about them in the critical conditions; when the country and the lives of the soldiers, each of which have their families and people who are waiting for their returns, are considered more important; it is when he understands that all those dead soldiers and pilots can appear in the form and the role of his son, Larry, it is exactly at this time that he understands and comes to this sure conclusion that the father is the killer of his own son, Larry as well as his sons i.e. the pilots and the sons of America; now he has no endurance to continue to his life. He has now understood that there is a value greater than that of his small family; he is now thinking of his bigger and more extensive family, which is his own country; a family who people like him and Steve were the agents of its destruction.
Clare : (Looks at the letter that is in his hand) this is not a want? So what is it? It is clear that he was my son. But I think from his point of view all were his sons. I think all were. I think they were. I will now return. (He enters the palace . . . . . A shot of a bullet is heard)

Like the theme of many great plays such as (Oedipus Rex and . . . . . . ), the truth should not be looked for in the external world but in that same small house of oneself – in oneself - one should look for it. This truth is made clear from the very beginning pages of “All My sons”?. Clare had to look for the results of his deeds and actions as well as the real cause fro the death of his son in himself but adherence to the external and materialistic world and being at the center of the attention of the others has hidden the truth from him and creates an obstacle in the way of discovering this bitter reality. He evaluates every thing with money. It is a reality that the other people have forgotten and they are looking for it in other places.

Frank: yea, I think it was him. He was discovering something in the basement of his house. What you have to do, if you want to help humanity, not to . . . . . . . . . .
Jim: If the Warned Company gives me the same payment, I would be very thankful to God to be able to serve the humanity.
Clare: (While he was smiling he point with his finger) you said it perfectly.
Clare has been in this doubt for so many years that Larry has been a very obedient and submissive boy. Clare thinks that Larry would have taken part with his father during these critical conditions. But finally when he was reading the letter he would have understood this bitter reality that the boy would not have gone the same way as the father did. This has been repeated in a play called 31/6/77:
Ali Reza: This is what parents, those who have children, say.
Mahmoud: My father used to say this repeatedly.
Jalil: Noah . . . . . Noah had child of whom he was ashamed.
Mahmoud: Noah? This man who used to be in opposition and enmity with the Americans has a child who has gone in to the army and became a wild person, traitor.
There are a lot of other similarities that one can find in “All My sons”? and 31/6/77. For example in 31/6/77 it was agreed that the fighters of the war period come together in the house f the commander who is now disappeared. The commander – Reza – Who is the absent character of the play – has ordered to kill 25 handicapped soldiers during his period of service in the war and this has caused a lot of emotional problems for him in his lifetime; the nightmare that has engulfed all his life. Clare, although had no military position, but he consciously caused the deaths of twenty one pilots as well as his own son; a feeling of guilt that that has led to the final death of Clare and the seclusion and loneliness of Reza.

Fakhri: look at his face, who knows he is a war criminal?
Ali Reza: He was the eye of an army who decapitated the enemy army.
Fakhri: it is not an honor to kill 25 captives.
Ali Reza: You and all those who believed and had hoped in the enemy are hateful of him, it is quite natural but the nation has respect for all the bullets that he poured on the enemy.
Fakhri: but the nightmare of killing those captives does not leave him free.
In both of these plays, the future of the war, is not only satisfactory and lovely but also it is quite doubtful and unsatisfactory. Characters, even those who like Clare gained money because of war are still injured by the war. People as if they are still afflicted with war and will not leave them until their deaths. Reza, that famous and well – known commander of the war time, is now leading a banal life in the basement of his house among the bullets and the gallons.
Ali Reza: No commander is ever ready to see people under his order, the soldiers that were used to following his decrees after the war because he had talked about this glamorous future a lot and Reza was the one who used to believe a lot in the past.
The Voice of Peiman: Now that nothing happened, which one of you is the one who did not want to be?
Mahmoud, you have become whatever shit because of war?
Peiman: be Polite.
Some characters of the plays have achieved a lot of things because of the war but many of the characters are still living in the war days as well as with its memories.
Clare, well it is because of war. I had also two children. Now I have only one. The war has destabilized all my schedules; it was an honor to have a son at those times. Now if a doctor is found to bring to life the boys of the other people without a finger to pull the trigger then he would become a millioner.
In the play called three parts of the pure life of a polite and beautiful young man this anti – war concept is repeated:
Mohsen: what do you want it to be? Are you looking for something worse? This story that every thing will be erased from your mind is not repetitive? But it has become too repetitive for us to tolerate. Repeating this tale a lot would decrease its importance; it is a truth that the war came and we wish it did not come; your forehead has been punctured which I wish it did not. The bullet that went through your head went with it all what has happened before and we wish it did not. Now every morning it is heard for again and again with your waking up . . . . . . . .
In the play “All My Sons”?, twenty fif