Moral Ambiguity of Charlie in The Little Drummer Girl
In George J. Lennard’s, “John le Carre” critical assessment of the ending of Little Drummer Girl, he claims that “Charlie can not continue to act in the theater of the real...she can no longer return to the romantic fluff of Western middle class society.” Charlie’s last line in the novel, the theater of the real, are “I am dead” (pp.659), which confirms Lennard’s statement. Charlie, an actress, by nature and craft is a coerced into a scheme to infiltrate a terrorist ring, against her convictions. By playing upon Charlie’s insecurities and her need for acceptance, this scheme forms a kind of moral ambiguity and uncertainness inside Charlie. When it ends, her world is shattered, and she becomes “dead” in a figurative sense.
The theater of the real forces Charlie to give a performance of a lifetime as her own life is at stake. In the beginning Charlie, willing and naive, accepts the script given to her by Joseph. Joseph himself, trains Charlie how to act in this scheme, much like an acting coach trains an inexperienced theatrical student. Along the way, Joseph gives her important pieces of advice such as “stay with the logic of the fiction...weaken and you will ruin the operation...we’ll repair [any] damage (pp. 468), advice which Charlie does not closely follow. In a world that will be turn upside down for Charlie, Joseph is her one remaining constant.
The people Charlie comes in contact with can be best described as characters or actors in fiction as well. The characters names change almost as frequently as Charlie’s views of her situation. The changing names give way to the belief that the characters, under disguise, can not really be held responsible for their actions as they are in costume. As the novel progresses, Charlie also changes costumes much like a chameleon changes with its environment. When Charlie’s character is the Israelites, she is sympathetic to them; likewise, when she is with the Palestinians, she takes on their beliefs, which in it self creates a chaos and provides substance to the theme of moral ambiguity in le Carre’s novel.
Charlie begins her journey into moral ambiguity with the death of Michel, a Palestinian terrorist. Following her script carefully, Charlie infiltrates the terrorist ring, convincing them that she was Michel’s lover. Charli...
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... [into the real] is futile” (pp. 600). And so, Charlie enters back into the world of the real changed and alone, even “dead” because she is unable to ever be the same.
Charlie’s character deals with concerns of terrorism, the persuasive power of love and the moral ambiguity on both sides of the fence. Perhaps her most important discovery is when she realizes the cost of violence to those who preform it. Although Charlie is clearly the protagonist of the novel, she makes an important discover which seems to eliminate the conflict of moral ambiguity: there is good and evil in everyone. This lesson affects Charlie in ways the writers of her script never could have known. Like the writers of a good novel, she has already begun to miss the character she has fallen in love with– herself. Charlie now, neither belongs in the theater of the real no in the real world– she will no longer fit in either as she once did, Making her “dead” to herself and everyone who once knew her Le Carre leaves us with an image of Charlie preforming works of art in a theater for a real audience. Significantly because Charlie’s ambiguity of herself can best be seen by playing the characters of others.
The play is so relatable to viewers because the characters are the kind of people everyone knows. Steve Brand is the sensible character. He, alone, is the person who keeps level-headed throughout the entire ordeal. He addresses each development rationally and tries to keep everyone together. Charlie starts out as a friendly neighbor, but soon turns into the leader of the witch hunt. He even kills someone in his pursuit to find a scapegoat. He and the rest of the people on Maple Street become dangerously defensive once they?re willing to hurt another human being.
Gradually, Charlie regains his strength and is healed through Kanaalaq's patient care. It is only after all this happens that he bothers to learn that she is called Kanaalaq. Slowly, he learns to connect with this young woman in a way that he has never connected with anyone. He learns to appreciate her, discovering that she is beautiful both inside and out.
Soon however, Charlie would encounter challenges he never faced with the intelligence of a 6 year old. Before his surgery, Charlie had great friends in Miss Kinnian and the bakery workers. After the surgery, the relationship between Charlie and everyone he knew would take a drastic turn. A growing problem for Charlie’s is his extremely mixed emotions toward the opposite gender. He starts a serious relationship with Alice Kinnian, his former teacher.
Caden Cotard is a theater director who is fresh off his last successful production of Death of a Salesman. He was presented a grant and was determined to create a brutally honest play. He gathers together a cast into a warehouse in Manhattan’s theater. He leads them into a celebration of the ordinary, telling them to live out their lives in a small replica of the city outside. As this city inside the warehouse begins to grow, Caden’s life begins to swerve off the tracks. His wife, Adele, who is a famous painter and the mother of his child Olive, left him years ago and traveled to Germany’s art scene. Caden is driving his current marriage to an actress named Claire directly into the ground. The actor Caden has hired to play himself within the play is a little too perfect for the part is making it harder for Caden to revitalize his relationship with Hazel. Caden’s condition is one by one shutting down all of his autonomic functions. Years go by and Caden is concealing himself deeper into this magnum opus. The line between the world of his play and what is reality soon becomes a little blurry. The rehearsal for the play will go on for decades making it unclear if the production will ever launch.
Both quotes show the extent of Charlie’s change throughout the novel. Silvey also uses this element to successfully create empathy from the readers and make the book that much more brilliant.
He doesn’t lack of encourage anymore, he has overcome his fear and despair. “I have to go. I have to disobey every impulse and leave her for Jasper Jones, for Jack Lionel, for this horrible mess.” We see a different Charlie from his determination. From escape to face up, he shows us more responsible. From helpless to assertive, he comes to realize what he really wants. He knows the dark side of human nature and this unfair and cold world. His innocent, his perfect world has been destroyed by those horrible things; because of these, he knows the part of real world, he knows how the ‘dark’ actually changes this world, his friends, his family, included
...ing identity to the point where it no longer exists. This identity can be lost through extreme devotion, new experience, and immense tragedy. Relationships with the most meaningful companions impact both main characters, Elie and Frederic. Due to the events they must encounter alongside loved ones, Elie and Frederic change completely, losing the identity that once existed. The most impactful events of any life are those that involve struggle and tragedy. Any tragic event that one encounters can significantly alter the purpose of life forever. Tragic events such as taking away what one may hold dearest, such as a loved one in the cases of Elie and Frederic. This type of loss can create a saddened, purposeless life in all humans.
...d longs for her elder sister and mother. Frances is a good person – at heart – and is always looking out for her younger sister. Moreover, even though she has different views that her father and will always do the opposite of what is expected of her, it is seen that this insecurity is caused by James indeed. Frances feels that in order to gain security in her life, she must perform these actions. She feels compelled to live her life the way she does. Frances’s naughty and mischievous behaviour can be viewed as a weakness she possesses, and she longs to correct these weaknesses by her actions. She is not a role model by any means, but she is by no means the Devil’s advocate. A sincere heart – compelled by circumstances – does its best to make the situation turn out for the better than the worse, and Frances, through her love for her mother, inevitably does just that.
The parallelism in this play showed the changes in the morals of the town and characters throughout the story. One of the parallel scenes is when Claire comes into town, when Claire leaves town. The town have gone through major changes, in time between Claire being welcomed into the town and leaving the town. At first the one of the townspeople claims “We may be poor but we are not heathens. In the name of the town Gullen, I decline your offer. In the name of humanity. We shall never accept”(38). In the end the townspeople have exchanged their morals for a town of “blinding and somewhat technical perfection”(87). This display of parallelism exemplifies the moral changes the changes of the whole
Charlie struggles with apparent mental illness throughout his letters, but he never explicitly addresses this problem. His friends make him realize that he is different and it is okay to be different from everyone else. This change in perspective gives Charlie new opportunities to experience life from a side he was unfamiliar with. Without these new friends, Charlie would have never dared to try on the things he has. His friends have helped him develop from an antisocial wallflower to an adventurous young man who is both brave and loyal. Transitioning shapes how the individual enters into the workforce, live independently and gain some control over their future
...le contradicts the pleasant ambience of the town. When the foreshadowing job reaches its goal, it leads to the climatic point of the story. Through this climax, the reader sees the cruelty of the residents and how they undervalue life for this particular ritual.
...of all responsibility (for, of course, there is no way that a normal person could ever kill.) In keeping with this principle the film attempts to absolve Young Charlie from all responsibility in her Uncle's death, for it is seen as an accident that occurred when Young Charlie was fighting her Uncle in self-defence. In the final stages of the film we are brought back to the small town introduced to us in the beginning, this time, however, it is in morning for a beloved son. Charlie's death has brought Graham back to Young Charlie. We can see the good side has won the battle for her. As in early situational Charlie has learned her moral lesson and the episode may end.
The spectacle and melody in the movie are the “pleasurable accessories of Tragedy” in that, despite their minor roles, they are two parts of the whole in a tragedy (72). The thought and diction behind a character’s lines or lack thereof carry messages of significance to carry out the plot and convey the morals behind its actions to the audience. The characters of a tragedy are defined by the actions they take and act as a medium to convey their moral purpose in the plot. Finally, the plot must flow from its beginning to its end with a unified, cohesive series of events while revealing peripeteia and discoveries as the tragedy draws closer to its conclusion. In the end, Bruno, a boy stuck in-between his family and their country’s beliefs and his friendship with Shmuel, the Jew Bruno was supposed to be brought up to hate, would eventually lead to his untimely death whilst not understanding the gravity of the situation surrounding Nazi Germany during the World
The film revealed a lot of business phases in its course. Charlie as the main character is ...
Because of the parties he attends with his new friends he has tried using some drugs. These new friends help Charlie see things with a positive perspective, and to be confident in himself. When his friends move away, Charlie experience isolation and has a mental crisis that leads him to be internalized in a clinic.