Women in Brechtian theater play important roles such as that of wives, mothers, and workers. For example, Pelagea Vlassova, in "The Mother" undergoes the transformation from a widow, home bound and uneducated, to a revolutionary, fighting against class oppression. However, Brecht uses Vlassova's experienced are entirely dictated on the basis of her class; her sex appears to have no bearing on any aspect of the play. In contrast, the women in Caryl Churchill's "A Mouthful of Birds" are portrayed primarily as female, with the suggestion of class oppression as an underlying theme. As written by Janelle Reinelt, the Brechtian techniques of epic theater, the gestus, and the alienation effect supply a way to "examine ideologically-determined beliefs and unconscious habitual perceptions."# Churchill utilizes Brechtian techniques and themes to explore gender roles and women as highly characterized by gender oppression as well as their economic conditions. "A Mouthful of Birds" is structurally based upon and characterized by Brecht's definitions of epic theater, as opposed to conventional dramatic theater. This was used by Brecht originally for the purpose of more effectively conveying political and social thought. He has stated that within epic theater, feelings are propelled into perceptions (not preserved), man is the object of the inquiry (not assumed to be known), it dictates what man is forced to do (not what he ought to do), and that social being determines thinking (thinking does not determine being), among others.# Churchill seamlessly absorbs these tenets into her own play to construct a critique of social and economic systems, and speculates particularly upon the unique effects such systems h... ... middle of paper ... ...stion to trigger realization. Doreen says, "It seems my mouth is full of birds which I crunch between my teeth. Their feathers, their blood, their broken bones are choking me. I continue my work as a secretary."# Dionysos continues to dance, ending the play in the same manner as it begun. The use of epic theater, the gestus, and the alienation effect are techniques that enable the audience, as spectators, to look beyond dialogue, action, and emotion in order to obtain a glimpse of what is not so easily conveyed. Churchill has utilized each technique to its fullest extent, and has achieved the Brechtian ideal of producing a work of political theater that incites thought, social criticism, and action. She has, in the same sense, exceeded this ideal by extending the Brechtian discourse to reflect the struggles and importance of the lives of women.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 11 May 2011.
All and all, Glaspell’s and Ibsen’s use of the bird cage, dead bird, and dollhouse allows the reader to identify with women of the nineteen century and the roles they played. Throughout the plays, the reader can visualize how men dismiss women as trivial and treat them like property, even though the lifestyles they are living is very much in contrast. The playwrights each in their own way are addressing the issues that have negatively impacted the identity of women in society.
By utilizing vivid details and intense imagery, she allows the readers to feel her emotions and visualize the abstract imagery that she put forth when describing the birds. Throughout her passage, Dillard incorporates very adept literary techniques to create a trance-like feeling, such as when recounting the flight patterns of the birds with, “The flight extended like a fluttering banner, an unfurled oriflamme, in either direction as far as I could see.” As she continues, she immerses the readers with the actions of the birds, in such a manner that makes it seem as if she was a bird herself, flying majestically with the flock. She stated that “Each individual bird bobbed and knitted up and down in the flight at apparent random, for no known reason except that that’s how starlings fly, yet all remained perfectly spaced.” By stating that, “The flocks each tapered at either end from a round middle, like an eye”, Dillard is able to provide additional explicit imagery and details that give the readers emotional insight rather than mere facts of what happened. Furthermore, as she describes the sounds she hears with, “Over my head, I hear a sound of beaten air like a million shook rugs, a muffled whuff. Into the woods they sifted without shifting a twig, right through the crowns of trees, intricate and rushing, like wind”, she provides so much intricate detail in a way that the
The triviality of melodrama is so often the theatrical scapegoat that boils the blood of the modern-day critic: the sentimental monologues, the martyred young lovers, the triumphant hero, and the self-indulgent imagery. Melodrama would seem the ultimate taboo; another failed Shakespearean staging or even worse, an opera minus the pretty music. Ironically, Bertolt Brecht, dramatic revolutionary and cynic of all things contrived found promise in the melodramatic presentation. Brecht examined and manipulated the various superficial and spectacular aspects of theatre, establishing a synthesis of entertainment and social criticism as his fundamental goal. Bertolt Brecht employs various facets of melodramatic technique in The Jewish Wife, ultimately reconfiguring the genre and conveying his central theme; a society rendered immobile at the will of a totalitarian regime.
In the opening of both the play and the novel we are introduced to the two main female characters which we see throughout both texts. The authors’ styles of writing effectively compare and contrast with one another, which enables the reader to see a distinct difference in characters, showing the constrictions that society has placed upon them.
Birds are a sizable image in The Awakening. Edna feels like a caged bird, and wishes to be freed. When Madame Ratignolle plays the piano, Edna often creates pictures in her head that represent the music. Edna's picture of a musical peice called "Solitude" is "the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore" (71). "His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him" (71). Edna feels like this man, as though she is trapped and cannot spread her wings and fly. This is a danger, however. Caged birds, although they are not free, are safe. They do not know of the dangers that can come with freedom. Once Edna tastes freedom, she does not want to go back to the safety of a caged life. She does not know of all the possible dangers, and being naive, she is very s...
One way they tied treatment of women into this play, is the way they talked to the women and the way they acted towards the women. Talking over them, and treating them as if they really did not know anything having to do with the event that took place. They basically treated the women as if they were less, as if the women were under men, as if the women’s opinion was no opinion. The men belittled the women, they displayed personalities of purpose and analytical skills while investigating, the men were basically ignoring what the women said and being a “know-it-all.” Also the author tied revenge into the play. Revenge was tied into the play when noticing that Mrs. Wright murdered Mr. Wright because Mr. Wright murdered her bird. At the time the bird was keeping her company and keeping her happiness, and Mr. Wright took that from her, so she did what she had to do. This was kind of foreshadowed as well, because the death of bird was basically the death of Mr. Wright. Both the bird and Mr. Wright were strangled. The author really did a delicate job tying themes thought this play, it really is
Caryl Churchill is a playwright much influenced by theatrical past, present, and future. Her work in the 1970s with the emergent Feminist movement produced a collection of plays that are in direct dialogue with the social and political climate of that time (Worthen 842). Similarly, many of her later plays look to the issues of tomorrow; A Number, for example, deals with a range of issues caused by human cloning. Influences from the past are just as pertinent to Churchill’s plays, but are sometimes a bit more obscure. In Cloud Nine, her contemporary and future influences are easy to spot: her participation in workshops on sexual politics at the Joint Stock Theatre Group (directly inspiring Cloud Nine) in 1978-1979, the questions that the play leaves hanging about the future of gender, racial, and sexual roles, and the uncertain results of a life repressed by neo-Victorian conservatism, to name a few (Worthen 843-844). But where is her influence from the past? Though harder to spot, Churchill draws heavily upon the work of Bertolt Brecht. I argue that in Cloud Nine, Churchill uses Brecht’s principle of the Verfremdungseffekt (hereafter referenced as the V-effekt) to create a divide between social expectation and truth onstage, in order to reveal societal stereotype and other-ing in the real world. In the following essay, I will briefly touch upon Brecht’s theories of defamiliarization, explore how Churchill uses those same concepts within Cloud Nine, and examine the specific ways in which these techniques are able to highlight social stereotype.
`Plays and Poetry by early modern women are primarily concerned with negotiating a position from which women could speak. A concern for ideas of gender, language and silence is, therefore, central, though its expression is sometimes open, sometimes covert.' Discuss with reference to Aemilia Lanyer and / or Elizabeth Cary.
Gender is a concept that has been socially constructed to identify people as male or female, masculine or feminine. The concept is used as to regulate the way people live and is something that influences the representation of female bodies in novels. Gayle Rubin’s article, “The Traffic in Women” uses several theorists, such as Freud, Marx, Levi-Strauss and Engels to understand the role of the women and show how they are oppressed and weak in comparison to men. Angela Carter reinforces Rubin’s beliefs by sharing similar ideas of male dominance in her novel, The Bloody Chamber. She demonstrates how gender is a reflection of the body in stories such as, “The Snow Child,” “The Erl-King” and “The Tiger’s
In my essay I’ve decided to examine how gender is presented on stage in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and Churchill’s “Cloud Nine”. More specifically, I will be looking at how both playwrights express the gender role of patriarchy in their male characters, Willy Loman and Clive. Gender, unlike the biological differentiation of sex, is a social condition that forms the basis of being a “male” or “female”. The role of patriarchy, as described by (renown feminist) Gerda Lerner, is “the manifestation and institutionalization of male dominance over women and children in the family” (1). This identity issue has since become very popular with play writers of sexual and gender politics in theatre, including Miller and Churchill.
Elizabethan times in the 1600s was a progression for the world of the theater. A period named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, it is from this period that modern day society has its foundation for the entertainment industry. From the violence that was prevalent because of the Black Death, people turned to the theater for its poetry and romance. During this time period, there were two types of theatrical performances that were available for the people’s viewing, comedies or tragedies. These two genres were never really intertwined until the time of William Shakespeare. His play, Romeo and Juliet, is an example of both a comedy and a tragedy. It starts off as a comedy with Romeo weeping like a baby because of his love Rosaline, who did not love him back and ends as a tragedy when Romeo and Juliet, a pair of star crossed lovers, commit suicide because the lost of each other. It was also during Shakespeare’s time that writer were finally acknowledged by the people. Before this time, writers were not considered upper classman. Another group of people that began to rise into a higher social class were the actors. Actresses were not present back then because women were not allowed on stage. It was considered unladylike to have a female actor. Men played all the parts. Theater owners were dependent on actors to make them a profit. Rehearsals for the plays were fairly short, only lasting for about a week. The performances themselves would only show for three to four days.
...her defiance to no longer comply with the gender constructions of society. Ibsen, therefore, criticises society’s compliance with the constructions of the culture and urges us to be more like Nora is at her epiphany. Lady Bracknell is memorable for her comically masculine traits and character. Not only does Wilde shatter our gender expectations, but ridicules the compliance of individuals in the performances that they make for society. Both plays raise questions regarding the submission of men and women to society’s presumptions and pressure regarding gender, and criticise individuals for conforming without asking questions. Each play makes us question our own performances for society and the performances of others in our lives. Nora’s realisation that she has married a construction is as unnerving now as it was to its contemporary audience because it forces us to look at our own behaviour and that of others around us, presenting us with a frightening and menacing awareness that we also may be existing in false and constructed lives.
Caryl Churchill is one of England's most premier female, post-modern playwrights. She has strived throughout her career as theatrical personality to make the world question roles, stereotypes and issues that are dealt with everyday, like, violence, and political and sexual oppression. She has been part of many facets of performance throughout her almost sixty year career. Not only has she been a strong force on the stage, but has also had strong influences with radio and television. She is truly a talented woman dabbling in not only a Brechtian style of theatre that has been commented on time and time again, but also musicals of a sort.
that show the themes are ‘perches,’ ‘sore,’ and ‘abash.’ When a bird sits on the branch as