توفيق الحكيم ومسرحيته "نهرالجنون

Abstract

Tawfiq al-Hakim is a famous writer and playwright. He was born
in Alexandria in 1898 to an Egyptian father and a Turkish mother.
He joined Dimnahur Primary School until he finished his primary
education in 1915. He then enrolled in a public school in the
governorate of Buhaira where he graduated from secondary school
and then went to Cairo with his uncles. His parents were not
satisfied to have their son practice music and acting. When he
departed from his parents, it was easier for him to take part in
music and acting. He participated in the Revolution of 1919. It had
a great impact on him. Hakim studied law in Cairo and then his
father sent him to France to keer him a way from theater and acting
and study law there. He traveled to Paris in 1925. But he turned to
theatrical literature and stories, frequented the French theaters and
the Opera House, and wrote more than fifty plays. This is why he
is called the "father of the Arab theater". Tawfiq al-Hakim died on
the 26th of July 1987 in Cairo.
The play "Nahr al junun" (River of Madness): The play is a mirror
of human life which represents the progresses of its problems and
accidents that occur in its folds and stages, and the theater thinks to
reform human errors so that they can rescue humanity. The play
"Nahr al junun," from Hakim's precious creations, has tried to
portray the problems that are existing in Egyptian society and other
developing nations in the play. He saw in his era that their the
rulers are on mistake in there perception. So they took part in the
movement of removing them from power and originally the rulers
were thinking to change the badEgyptian society to good. But they
could not because the percentage of Revolutionaryaretoo much and
majority werethe most likely in the democratic system. The nation 

has not been able to recognize the truth for their ignorance and
deep feelings. This is what Hakim portrayed as a true portrayal of
the worst of the Egyptian society in which he lived. Egypt became
a farm of ignorance, chaos and corruption. If people were in the
defense of the corrupt environment, Egypt couldsavethem from
bad situation. But people failed to do so. They helped the men who
destroyed their country and left the experts of the people and their
thinkers. This is the result of their ignorance and backwardness in
teaching and learning. It was revealed from the play that
democracy may not benefit the ignorant nation always.