Michael Frayn's Copenhagen “Our children and our children’s children. Preserved, just possibly, by that one short moment in Copenhagen. By some event that will never quite be located or defined. By that final core of uncertainty at the heart of things.” (Frayn 94) The final line of Michael Frayn's Copenhagen suggests an approach to reading the entire work that looks at the inseparable scientific and dramatic elements of the play. Heisenberg says that no one will ever fully understand the meeting in Copenhagen between himself and Bohr in 1941; Uncertainty forever preserves the moment. Therefore, it is Uncertainty that must guide the reading of the play. Understanding the basic principle of Uncertainty is necessary in understanding how Frayn uses it dramatically. Uncertainty states that when describing the state of an atomic particle, the more accurately you describe its position, the less accurately you can describe its velocity and vice versa (134). This means any observation of a particle will never fully describe it and that a certain amount of mystery will always exist. Demonstrating how Frayn uses scientific principles to construct his play, and then more closely how he uses Uncertainty to construct Heisenberg, demands a careful analysis of how the play functions, how Uncertainty connects to the drama (primarily through Heisenberg) and how this ultimately allows us to explore the moral implications of Copenhagen. Frayn makes the connection between the drama and science in two ways. The primary method he uses is language. Characters’ observations about one another are integral in illustrating the properties of Complimentarity and Relativism. Complimentarity works in the play by saying an observ... ... middle of paper ... ...n takes over once the individual processes all the information. The “Uncertainty at the heart of things” is that everyone perceives the same information differently based on individual perspectives (whether they are a physicist or an audience member like Margrethe). Although there is something poetic and beautiful about Heisenberg’s last sentiments about Uncertainty preserving the instance in time, Frayn compels us to use our imaginations by providing as much information as possible and allowing us to reach our own individual conclusions. Works Cited Dasenbrock, Reed Way. Copenhagen: The Drama of History. Contemporary Literature, 2004 Summer; 45 (2): 218-28. Frayn, Michael. Copenhagen. Anchor Books, Random House, New York 2000 Lustig, Harry; Shepherd-Barr, Kirsten. Science as Theater. American Scientist Nov/Dec2002, Vol. 90 Issue 6, p550, 6p, 3c, 1bw
Frederic is very much alienated from the science of his day. He finds it obscure and frightening, involved in inhuman and ritualistic experiments, and motivated by goals that are fully detached from the needs of ordinary people. His dread and loathing of the coldness and ruthlessness of the aloof scientist come from the Gothic horror of writers like Edgar Allen Poe and Mary Shelley.
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print
“A dramatistic explaination appears in terms that performers can comfortably employ in their efforts to stage events” (Pelias and Shaffer 62). This means that the process for understanding text in an aethestic manor needs to be simple and understandable to the performer so it can be clearly related to the audience. So, for the process to be effective it has to be true to reality, otherwise the message of the text will be lost. Pelias and Shaffer describe the questions in Burke’s Pentad as “fundamental of all human action” (62). The simplicity and familiarity of the concepts are comfortable for even the most inexperienced performer.
He says that it is harder for him to doubt something deliberate, and the idea that he can have opportunities that are up to him to decide that fate of an outcome. He goes on to say that we must be wiser with our principles and start adjusting our theories to our data and avoid tailoring our data to our theories.
The story’s tone is one of romantic controversy, a dilemma at a high level of existence. The scientist’s love for his craft competes very intensively with his newfound love for his wife. It is also very psychological, strictly dealing with the raw mind of its subjects as if the ominous narrator told the story from inside their mind, rather than observe it from the outside. He describes the processes that one may take to reach a certain degree of knowledge and to find the elixir of life, which is described in this story as the ultimate goal of the scientific community. Also, the narrator is very opinionated about events in the story.
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print
Jorgensen. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985. Twayne's English Authors Series 415. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.
Works Cited Shakespeare, William. The. “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Eds. X. J. Kennedy, Dana. Gioia.
One of the most effective methods Barry uses throughout the aforementioned passage, is his comparison of scientists to explorers. The first lines of paragraph four set up the comparison, “All real scientists exist on the frontier,” this furthers the point Barry makes that scientific research is about uncertainty and embracing it, only then will the research that is done yield any answers. Barry furthers the point of uncertainty is the very nature of science with this quote, “There they probe in a
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Literature. 5th ed. Ed. Robert Di Yanni. New York. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2002. 1395-1496.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2012. Print.
Simonds, W. E. "Henrik Ibsen." Dial 10.119 (Mar. 1890): 301-303. Rpt. in Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Mar. 2011.
The New Cambridge Shakespeare: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Philip Edwards. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Shakespeare, William.
Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Washington Square Press new Folger ed. New York: Washington Square, 2002. Print.
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print