2. Story
Set in Russia, Fiddler on the Roof is a story about
a poor Jewish man and his family as they
experience the end of their traditional, rural
lifestyle due to the changes and revolutions at
the turn of the century. It is a musical that goes
over many subjects like marriage, poverty,
religion, education, and the values that the
characters hold dear. The movie, and the play it
is based off, starts off as a romantic comedy,
then transitions into its second act as a tragedy.
3. Characters
Needless to say, a story so rich with family, religions, and change
there are many characters, I will provide the main characters
and some minor that will be used for the concept later on.
Lazar Wolf - the butcher
Mottel Kamzoil - the tailor
Yente - the matchmaker
Perchik - the revolutionary
Fyedka - a Christian
The Constable
(Namless Christian
Russians)
Tevye -The main character.
Husband and Father, he is the man
of his house, but he is poor and
has no dowry for his five
daughters.
Golde – Tevye's Husband.
Tzeitel - the oldest daughter
(Marries Mottel)
Hodel - the second daughter
(Marries Perchik)
Chava - the third daughter (Marries
Fyedka)
4. Concepts
1 – Characteristics of Intimate Relationships
2 – Intercultural Communication
3 – Types of Nonverbal Communication
4 – Listening Styles
5 – Direct & Indirect Verbal Styles
6 – Supportive Messages
7 – Interpersonal Needs Theory
8 – Protecting Privacy
9 – Types of Interpersonal Conflicts
10 – The aggressive Approach
5. Characteristics of Intimate
Relationships
Intimate relationships are when partners share regular
intimate interactions, feel affection for each other, trust
each other, and are cohesive.
Intimate relationships consist of families, friendships, and
marriage/long term romantic relationships.
Families are networks of people who share their lives
over long periods of time bound by ties of marriage,
blood, or commitment.
Friendships are voluntary, platonic relationships
characterized by equality and reciprocity.
6. Fiddler on the roof's premise is based off intimate
relationships. The two that garner the most attention is family and
marriage. Tevye is the father of five girls and a husband to their
mother Goulde. The family structures in his little village are
important to keep in mind, (the opening song is about what the
roles are for fathers, mothers, daughters, and sons). He is the man
of the house and therefore the bread winner while the women stay
at home and do chores.
This is also a culture where the men arrange the marriages
of their daughters. When Lazar Wolf the butcher wants to marry
Tzeitel, he invites Tevye in order to persuade him.
7. Intercultural Communications
Interactions that occur between people whose cultures
are so different that the communication between them is
altered.
Intercultural communications look at the values,
dominant, co-cultures.
Values are the commonly accepted preference for some
states of affairs over others.
Dominant Culture is the learned system of those values,
beliefs, attitudes and orientation by the majority.
Co-cultures exist side by side with the dominant culture,
but contain a smaller group of people who hold common
values that differ with the dominant culture.
Culture determines the communication in subjects like
gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion social
class, and age.
8. Fiddler on the Roof is a story about a co-
culture, the Jews, as their traditions and way of live
comes to an end when the Christians (dominant
culture) terrorism them on and off, and eventually
evict them for their land exile them from the country.
This hostile divide is displayed very well in one
scene when Chava is bullied by a group of
Christians They joked, messed with her cow, and
played with her clothes making her very
uncomfortable. Her future husband Fyedka came to
her rescue, and tries to befriend her. He offers her a
book as a gift, but she immediately shoots him down
because he aligns with the dominant culture and
because of her experiences with the Christians she
doesn't trust them.
9. Types of Nonverbal
Messages
Body Language, the intentional or unintentional
movements. - The use of eye contact, facial expressions,
emoticons, gestures, emblems, posture, and touch.
Para-language, using the voice to convey meaning – parts of
which pitch, volume, rate, quality, intonation, and vocal interferences.
Spatial Usage – The boundaries of personal space, acoustics,
territory, and artifacts.
Self-Presentation Cues – Which include physical appearance, use
of time, use of smell and scents.
10. In the movie Tevye is played by a very eccentric actor and
what strikes me was the power of his body language. The movie
could be a silent film and the that powerful physical acting would
speak to us. A good moment to examine this is when young Chava
comes to tell her father that she was married to Fyedka. In Tevye's
eyes she has destroyed all of the values he holds dear. Being a
very devote Jew, it is sacrilege to marry outside the faith. The
moment she is dead to him he ignores her. He puts up a wall and
stops listening to her words. He refuses to make eye contact, and
orients his body away from her. All of this to send the message
that she is longer accepted in his family.
11. Listening Styles
Listening styles are the favored, but usually unconscious approach to
listening.
Content Orientation – The focus on the facts and
evidence in a message.
People Orientation – The focus on what a
message tells us about our partners and their
feelings.
Action Orientation – The preference of focusing on
the point of the conversation, having little patience
for rambling.
Time Orientation – The preference of brief and
swift messages, having no patience for long
messages.
12. The majority of the characters in this movie tend to
have the action oriented listening style. For example,
whenever the bookshop owner came into the scene and
had news that he read in his newspaper. All of the older
men in the scene cut him off when he started to babble
and constantly asked him to “talk”, expressing their wish
for him to explain the news to them.
13. Direct & Indirect Verbal Styles
Direct Verbal Style – message language
that openly states the speaker's intention
and message content that is
straightforward and unambiguous
Indirect Verbal Style – message language
that masks the speaker's true intentions
and roundabout, vague message content
whose real meaning is embedded in the
social or cultural context.
14. In the movie the Constable uses a very indirect verbal style
to warn his friend Tevye about an upcoming event. The
Constable was ordered to harass the Jews in order to scare
them off their land. Before he carried off that order he went to
his friend and heavily implied that he should be careful and
keep off the streets for a while so he won't harmed. Of
course, the constable doesn't come out and say that, he
simply states that he will have to “make a demonstration in
town” and “I'm telling you this because I like you Tevye”. This
dialogue doesn't fully infer the events that took place horrible
night when the Christian's attack and ruin Tzeitel.
15. Supportive Messages
Supportive messages are the communications that provide intangible support
for your partner, including emotional support, info, advice, and motivation.
Celebratory Support – Honoring achievements or transitions,
wishing good luck, and expressing relief
Comforting Support – Acknowledging everyday hurts and
disappointments.
Grief management Support – Supporting through
bereavement and major losses.
Esteem Support – Helping process failures, rejections, and
transgressions.
Info Support – Aiding in problem solving and decision making.
Motivational Support – Encouraging change in a problematic
behavior.
16. There is one long, awesome scene that is mostly in
lyrics, but I consider it counts for supportive messages.
The song is called “lihiam to life”, and it the song that the
entire male cast sings when Tevye agrees to Tzeitel's
marriage to Lazar Wolf. All the Jewish men exclaim
“lihiam” in celebration. At the mid point of the song the
Christian's joining and congratulate Tevye on the union.
Like all good musicals the jolly bar song is full of men
giving those celebratory support messages.
17. Interpersonal Needs Theory
The Interpersonal Needs Theory is the premise that all
of us have inclusion, affection, and control need that
need to be met in our relationships.
Inclusion Need – the desire to be in the company of other
people.
Affection Need – the desire to be loved and to love others.
Control Need – The desire to influence the events and
people around us and to influence others.
18.
The best couple to represent the interpersonal
needs theory is Tzeitel and her husband Mottel.
These two exemplify the affection need and control
need in particular. Both of the young adults have
strong need for love, and that young love was
almost dashed when Tzeitel was arranged to marry
Lazar Wolf. She expressed that great need for love
that Mottel could supply.
As for Control need, Tzeitel had to support and build
Mottel up because she wanted him to be a man
with a need for control, instead of having everyone
influence him. Mottel stood his ground and
expressed that desire to influence Tevye, and in
turn it allowed the two young lovers to be married.
19. Protecting Privacy
Protecting privacy can be a real dicey game, but there several
ways to manage privacy.
Change the Subject – Lead the conversation
elsewhere
Mask Feelings – Conceal verbal and nonverbal
cues to limit your communication
White Lies – Respond with a false statement to
ensure the relationship goes unharmed.
Describe Feelings – Excuse yourself by explaining
your feelings about discussing info.
Personal Boundaries – Mark what you are not
comfortable about sharing.
20. There is a scene in Fiddler on The Roof when
Tevye has to tell Goulde about the marriage
between Mottel and Tzeitel. Instead of coming
right out and saying what happened, which
would have damaged both his relationship
with his wife, Mottel and Tzeitel's relationship,
and the town's relationship with the parents. So
instead unleashing that chaos he tells a white lie
about her grandmother coming from the grave to
persuade her that the kid should be married. The
lie worked, ensuring the kids privacy.
21. Types of Interpersonal
Conflicts
Pseudoconflict – A disagreement that is caused by a
perceptual difference between partners.
Fact Conflict – A disagreement based off a dispute over
the truth or accuracy of info.
Value Conflict – A disagreement caused by differences in
deep seeded moral beliefs.
Policy Conflict – Disagreement based off a difference
over a preferred plan of action.
Ego Conflict – A disagreement that results when both
parties insist on being the winner of the argument.
Metaconflict – is disagreement over the process of
communication itself during the argument.
22. There are many disagreements in any story due to conflict.
One that occurred at the midpoint in the movie is policy
conflict that Lazar and Tevye have about change in
Tzeitel's marriage. Tevye agreed, they had many
signifying moments where it was agreed that Tzeitel
would marry Lazar Wolf. In the end Tevye disagrees
because he is the father and he is the one to give
his daughter away, so what he says is right – Lazar
naturally disagrees because of they drank on it.
23. The Aggressive Approach
The approach uses verbal aggression by sending
messages to attack another person's self-esteem. This
also includes:
Flaming – Sending aggressive messages through social
media
Argumentativeness – Defending ideas or attacking the
reasoning of others.
Passive Aggressive Behavior – Messages that
indirectly express hostility.
24. There is a fair amount of verbal aggression depending on
which scene and which characters interact. For example
whenever Mottel talked to Tevye before his marriage,
Tevye would become sort tempered with Mottel's
rambling and his nervousness and express hurtful
aggressive messages to stop his ramblings. These short,
but expressive exchanges end up hurting Mottel's self
esteem, and spoils his opportunity to ask for Tzeitel's
hand first.
25. Take Away
Does the movie relate to your communication style?
To me? No not really. This movie is based on a co-culture
over a hundred years old on the other side of the globe, in
a religion I don't practice. Other than the generalities of
managing conflicts, the use of indirect verbal style to warn
my friends I don't have many similarities. I am geared to be
a person oriented listener and the culture is comprised by
people that appreciate action oriented styles.
How do you think you would do in a relationship depicted in the
movie?
How would I be as a poor Jewish father/husband? Poorly –
I feel that being the father of five daughters and having
everything go wrong would be too much stress for me. I
don't have the same assertive, life loving quality that Tevye
carries into every scene. I am too humble, and too liberal
to live in that age and accept my place in my family and in
my village.
26. Evaluation – Continued
Do you think that the movie offers a realistic portrayal of
interpersonal communications?
No, I firmly believe this movie does not represent
real life. For one, it is a musical and a comedy. It is
isn't realistic to break out into song and dance
every twenty some odd minutes. There are many
depictions of those important concepts within the
world of the movie, but it is too dramatic to be an
accurate portrayal. Especially when Tevye freezes
the movie and talks to himself while everything else
is frozen still. I love this movie, and I feel there was
a lot to analyze, but to say that it is a realistic
portrayal is exaggerating.
