Write an essay on one of the following topics. Your essay should include both textual and comparative analysis of TWO of the following plays. Compare differing structures and conceptions of authority or power in the plays.
In Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of Anarchist and John Hodge’s Collaborators, authority and its inherent power appear in similar structures, both formal and informal, such as the police force and collaborations between civilians and state authorities. These civilians and statesmen often act as authorities in another way by authoring versions of events and constructing conceptions of power through performance and written works. Simon Nye’s translation of Accidental Death of Anarchist also includes an explicit, sexual power, embodied by the Journalist character. Similarly, women undertake sexual roles in order to maintain or gain power in Collaborators, although they remain subordinate to male roles in the power structure of each work. In addition, both plays emphasize the power of language structure. Finally, while Fo underscores the weakness of the state power structure by setting the author against the state; Hodge ultimately concludes the resilience of state structures, able to manipulate and incorporate authors like Bulgakov.
Most obviously, the plays incorporate formal power structures. Here, power derives from legal authority over others, rooted in political systems. For example, Vladimir and Stalin’s other officers in Collaborators and the police staff in Accidental Death of an Anarchist are authorities in formal, state structures. These structures have the power to control and enforce obedience. Vladimir kills anyone with “objective characteristics,” and the police staff arrests suspects, including t...
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... the corruption of the state power structure, but shows few weaknesses by allowing the state, Stalin, to triumph over the artist, Bolgakov.
In conclusion, both plays explore various power structures, including those of state, collaboration, authorship, gender, and language. They also examine conceptions of power, often created by performance and ambiguity. Ultimately, however, the plays diverge in their representations of authority and power. While Accidental Death of an Anarchist destabilizes the state’s power structure by pitting artist against state, the Collaborators strengthens the state’s power by subsuming the artist into its structure, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully.
Bibliography
Fo, Dario, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, trans. Simon Nye, ed. Joseph Pharrell (London:
Methuen Drama, 2003).
Hodge, John, Collaborators, (London: Faber, 2011).
The playwright explores the ideas of feminism and the role of men through the explorati...
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...he destitution and demoralization of the citizens of Petrograd. Andrei, the character with the most honor and virtue, still finds ruin because of his affiliation with the immoral politic. All morality is beaten out of the characters with the most potential for it by the dire circumstances of their lives. An excellent, emotionally moving story, this novel leaves no doubt as to the author's feelings about the path of destruction down which socialism leads.
Shakespeare, William, Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisaman Maus, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. Second ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. Print.
Topic: How important are the witches to Macbeth? Discuss the effects of the witches on character, plot, themes and audience.
The two scenes that the essay will be focusing on are Act 1 Scene 1
From the displays of power that have been shown through out this essay, we see that this story is a story about power. Power is the story is primarily about peoples need for some small amount of power to survive in life and to feel that hey have a purpose within their society which every society it may be whether its is Gilead or Nazi Germany or modern day Britain.
Paying particular attention to Act 3, scene 1, in which Polonius and others discuss keeping watch over Hamlet, write an essay which makes a case for why surveillance is so important in this play.
In this essay I will discuss Act 1 Scene 1, Act 3 Scene 1, Act 3 Scene
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... a change in this image to a realization that Stalin’s suppression of dissidents and opposition had real effects on soviet society and can not be justified by Marxist and Leninist Ideology instead they were just Stalin looking to maintain his autocracy.
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On November 7th, our class had the opportunity to see The Accidental Death of an Anarchist at Stockton’s Experimental Theatre. Overall, I was very impressed with the show. I thought the acting was superb for a college-level production, and I found the scenery to be satisfactory in complimenting the actions of the show.