Amelia Bedelia Problem

“In Athens, circa, 500 BC, the ancient Greeks create a new form of entertainment known as theater. Meaning at some point, there had to have been…THE FIRST PLAY.”

Saturday Night Live began a dramatic introduction of a sketch with this introduction. Jack Black and the cast portray what the writers envisioned the very first theater to be like.

As the theater actors performed, the audience could not comprehend the role of metaphor. “Look there off in the distance!” The audience would gaze away and respond, “There’s no one there!” When someone on stage died a fake death, the audience screamed at the murder they believed to have literally occurred.

This bit dramatizes a very real misunderstanding of the arts in our day. I call it our “Amelia Bedelia problem,” taken from the beloved children’s character.

Amelia Bedelia’s character is defined by interpreting language entirely literally. She takes every phrase and instruction at face value, without recognizing figures of speech, idioms, or implied meanings.

When we don’t assume metaphor when we view art, we turn into Evangelical Amelia Bedelias.