Fiddler on the Roof Report

Fiddler on the Roof Report

In the little village of Antevka, Tradition rules the lives of the villagers. Tevye says to the audience in the prologue to Act I, ‘‘Because of our traditions, we’ve kept our balance for many, many years. Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.’’ In the village the tradition of marriage is that a match maker finds you a match, the father then must approve on the match, and the match must be of the same religion. All of these traditions are broken by Tevye’s daughters Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava.
Tzeitel is the first of the daughters to break tradition. After Tevye has talked to lazar wolf and agreed on him marring his daughter, he tells the family about it. Golde is overjoyed, but Tzeitel is horrified and pleads with Tevye to reconsider. Then Motel arrives and gathers the courage to tell Tevye that he would like to marry Tzeitel and that they have given each other a pledge to marry. Tevye is outraged at this, because tradition has been broke. The tradition is that the matchmaker finds the match, not a regular person. Also people don’t give pledges to each other. After Motel stands up for himself, Tevye lets them marry. Tradition is also broke again at the wedding. In a traditional Jewish wedding the men dance with men and women dance with women. But Perchik breaks this custom by going to the girl’s side and dancing with Hodel.
The next daughter to break tradition is Hodel. At the beginning of Act II, Perchik tells Hodel that he must return to Kiev to work for the revolution. He proposes marriage, admitting that he loves her, and says that he will send for her. She agrees. They tell Tevye that they are engaged, and he is appalled because they are breaking tradition by making their own match, especially since Perchik is leaving. At first he forbids the marriage, but Perchik and Hodel inform him that they are not seeking his permission, they only want his blessing. After reviewing the pros and cons, Tevye tells them that...

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