Snow In Midsummer Analysis

Snow in Midsummer is a classical drama known by the Chinese as zaju drama. Guan Haqing is known for giving his plays a since of a life that was not glamorous, just real. Haqing is also known for giving female characters strong roles as we see in Snow in Midsummer. At the beginning of the drama Snow in Midsummer, Dou owes a debt to a Widow Cai. When he is unable to pay they reach an agreement to sell his daughter, Duanyun, to the mistress Mrs. Cai to be her future daughter-in-law. Upon the arrival of Duanyun to her new home Mrs. Cai changes her name to Dou E. This is the incident from which nothing will be the same. After Dou E. became Mrs. Cai’s daughter-in-law her son died forcing Dou E to be a widow. One day Mrs. Cai went to collect debt from a doctor in …show more content…
Cai insists that her husband Zhang try the soup first. Shortly after Zhang falls to the floor dead. Donkey accuses Dou E of murdering his father and offers her a private escape. Donkey proposes that if Dou E will marry him he can make this all go away. When Dou E refuses he takes her to court. The judge asked who has committed the crime and all three, Donkey, Dou E, and Mrs. Cai refuse. The judge orders for Dou E to be beaten, when this still does not break her the judge orders for Mrs. Cai to be beaten. Dou E knows her elderly ill step-mother will never last through the beating so she confesses to the crime. The executioner leads Dou E into town and has her executed. Just before Dou E was killed she prophesized that if she was indeed innocent like she claims there will be three feet of snow and three years of drought. At the end of the play Dou E appears to her father who has since become a counsellor. Dou E tells her father of the wrong that has been committed against her and that she is the reason for the drought; her father promises to look after Mrs. Cai and to seek revenge for his daughter. When the play closes Dou is telling Mrs. Cai that both donkey and the doctor will be hung for their wrong