“The Nina Variations” were performed by Nipissing's Theatre Arts course this week. The play is based on the final scene of Anton Chekov's “The Seagull” written by Steven Dietz. After being asked to write a new adaptation of “The Seagull,” Dietz could not stop thinking about the final scene between the two, and he has said “I could not focus on the rest of the play at all. I was mesmerized by the magnitude of this single fateful encounter” (Burns). He never wrote the adaption of “The Seagull” and instead created forty-three different variations of the way the final scene could end between the two. The scene is between Treplov, a playwright who is desperately in love with Nina, who is desperately in love with another man (who happens to be Treplov's mother's lover). The play portrays the forty-three variations of the final scene between the two, and the outcomes range from a happy ending, with both characters admitting they are in love with each other, to a hopeless ending where Treplov breaks Nina's heart, or Nina breaks Treplov's heart. It was difficult for me to find many parallels between this play and the works that we studied in Canadian Literature because this play does not follow a plot line and does not include many elements that could be relatable to the works we studied. It also does not relate to the themes that were emphasized in our course. However, I found the close analysis of the final scene of a play, acted out forty- three different times to be reflective of the close analysis’ we have done many times in class with poetry and prose. It was interesting to watch these close analysis’ to understand all of the possible interactions these characters could have had. It led me to question the endings of the works that ... ... middle of paper ... ... (Chekhov). Further, he has stated that “The artist must not be the judge of his characters and of their conventions, but merely an impartial witness” (Chekhov). He has been very influential in the evolution of the short story because of his “stream-of-consciousness” which is exemplified by Daisy in The Stone Diaries. Although there were not many similiarites I was able to find between Canadian Literature and “The Nina Variations,” a close analysis of Checkov’s techniques has helped me to better understand Realism and the influences it has on Canadian Literature. Works Cited Burns, Gail. Review of “The Nina Variations.” August, 2005. Chekhov, Anton. Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with Biographical Sketch, translated by Constance Garnett, Macmillan, 1920. 16 February 2007. Oxford English Dictionary. “Stream-of-consciousness.” 1 April 2010.
Fate is the strongest seen attribute in the play. In both plays audiences see a character or characters that take the dramatic path of freewill to find or avoid their fate. Through these constituent elements of literature that are brought about by drama and freewill audience everywhere have a chance to witness, read, and understand the dramatic chase that these characters sought out to come to know what the end truly
After reading the entire play, the reader can safely say that fate works in mysterious ways. To love and be loved in return is considered by many to be one of the greatest gifts a human being can receive. At the same time, it is thought of as unbearable to love someone you cannot be with. Especially when the reasoning behind limitations is cau...
The story of Romeo and Juliet is a classic. It is preformed in many forms and fashions. Themes changed, twisted, and unfolded accordingly. Although the play may have consisted of a tragic ending, other directors tended to put their own twists on the theme to give a happier ending. For West Side Story, on the other hand, this unforgettable play followed in the footsteps of the Shakespearean classic. With so many performances and awards, West Side Story stood tall alongside Romeo and Juliet, in its own silhouette. Because the popular works were so similar, but yet so different, it is only appropriate to examine the two works and compare them amongst each other respectively.
In One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn creates many characters that are memorable to the reader because of both their personal situations and their responses to those situations. Through characters such as Ivan Shukhov Denisovich, Fetyukov, Aloyska the Baptist, and the two Estonians, Solzhenitsyn explores the varied reactions of the characters and the effect of these reactions on other characters' perceptions of them.
...ly progressed from a way to tell stories about kings and gods to a way to tell stories about ordinary human beings. By moving our focus off of nobility, the language of plays became the language of every individual, and eventually, due to America’s “melting pot” culture, the language itself became individual. The unique language of American dramatic characters represents not only the diversity of the American people, but also the diversity of all human beings. These dramatically dissimilar differences were not typical of older plays when they were written, but now, they are what make American drama so valuable. Our acceptance and love for characters with different values than ours is representative of the love we can develop for those who are different from us. It represents the worldview that our current culture idealizes and strives to achieve: acceptance for all.
In this essay I shall be writing about why I agree that with the play,
Characters in the play show a great difficult finding who they are due to the fact that they have never been given an opportunity to be anything more than just slaves; because of this we the audience sees how different characters relate to this problem: " Each Character has their own way of dealing with their self-identity issue..some look for lost love o...
The archetypal tragedy of two star-crossed lovers, separated by familial hate, is a recurring theme, which never fails to capture the minds of the audience. It is only at great cost, through the death of the central characters that these feuding families finally find peace. This is an intriguing idea, one antithetical. I have chosen to analyze both Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet and Laurent 's West Side Story. The purpose of this essay is showing how the spoken language is utilized in these different plays to meet differing objectives. The chosen scenes to further aid comparison and contrast are the balcony scenes.
Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, depicts an ancient feud ended by a pair of star-crossed lovers’ deaths. A lord and lady from warring families seek a forbidden love with guidance from a friar and nurse. Due to a tragic course of mischances and fateful errors, their attempt of eloping led the lovers to a tragic end. Because of rash decisions, the four characters are torn apart by miscalculating events and misunderstandings. Ultimately, the four characters encounter a heartbreaking ending, as a result of their hastiness.
In the tremendous play of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Shakespeare’s ways engages the audience straight away. The astounding methods he uses hooks the audience into the play and allows them to read on, wondering what will happen. The tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet, as mentioned in the prologue, sets a variety of themes throughout Act 1 Scene 5. Many of the recognisable themes are: youth and age, revenge, forbidden love, fate, action and hate. The main idea of the play is a feud that had been going on between two families, The ‘Montagues and Capulets’, the son of the Montagues and the daughter of the Capulets fall in love and the story tells us how tragic, death, happiness and revenge find them throughout the play.
This play shows the importance of the staging, gestures, and props making the atmosphere of a play. Without the development of these things through directions from the author, the whole point of the play will be missed. The dialog in this play only complements the unspoken. Words definitely do not tell the whole story.
Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer is a one-act play with a cast of colourful characters ranging from the eccentric Violet to the troubled Catherine. One individual, George Holly, is more minor than others, and as such might get overlooked. However, the Fictional World method of analysis uncovers new insight into his nature. By analysing George’s character in the Social World of the play specifically, we get a better understanding of how traumatic and powerful the climax really is.
Another theme based on time that is consistent throughout Chekhovian plays is the struggle over Memory. Chekhov often uses Memory as a source of personal identity for his characters, as a burden on them, stopping them from achieving contentment. This idea of his characters being stuck in the past and not moving with the time was a symbol for t...
The plot structure in The Cherry Orchard is not as meaningful as the impact of events on the inner sensibilities of the characters. Chekhov divides his characters in The Cherry Orchard in a variety of ways so that the orchard and its sale take on different meaning for each of them. It is necessary then to examine the loss of the cherry through some of the major character; Yermolai Alexeyitch Lopakhin, Peter Trophimot, and Madame Ranevsky. When writing TCO he us...
Matlaw, Ralph E. Anton Chekhov¡¦s Short Stories: Texts of the Stories Bachgrounds Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1979.