What is Oleanna?
What is Oleanna ? Is it a perfect world, or is it a world… The play
Olenna by David Mamet gives us a real perspective on our modern
education system and society. John the white male college professor is the
victim in this play. And Carol the female student is the fascist. John is an
exceptional teacher that love to teach and refuse to let the fascist takeover
the academic freedom of our education.
Early in the play, both John and Carol are distracted by their personal
interests. John is buying a new house to go with his tenure announcement.
However, the house has not gone through, and the tenure committee has not
Signed. Therefore, John is rushed, and unable to focus his attention on his
student Carol. On the other hand, Carol is distracted by her grades, job as a
student, and future. She could not understand any thing in John's class. In
addition, she is confused of her self-identity. Carol believes she is stupid,
and the fact that she comes from a different economic background; therefore
cannot learn!
John feels responsible to her failure. Moreover, to John teaching is
more imperative than his other problems. John tries to give Carol his
personal experiences to relate to her difficulties. He talks about how he was
raised to think himself stupid, how much he hated school, teachers, and
education. He says: " Why was I born to be the laughingstock of a world in
which everyone is better than I? In which I am entitled to nothing. Where I
can not learn." At that point, John feels he has problems that are similar to
Carols. John believes in order to help Carol, he must get personal, and brake
d...
... middle of paper ...
...ountry burn books, trash
new papers, and violent threats against those who speak up. The Racial
McCarthyism on College Campuses is driven by the lust of for power. Just
like William Pfaff have put it " no objective truth or value exists, nor
disinterested scholarship, only power relationships. Power determines
"truth" and intellectual life and scholarship are form of political struggle."
We have come a long way to enjoy today's rights a freedom. Many people
Have either died of put their lives on the line for the basic freedom we enjoy
today. But now in the 21st century we not only we have abused those rights
in a prejudice way. But we have set many new intellectual barriers. I do not
believe this what Martin Luther King and all other freedom fighter fought
for! Are we not just humans who are all very unique individually?
The play shows how Eva Smith is a victim of the attitude of society in
The play takes place around a rundown monastery named St. Veronicas during the 1960’s, in a time of social turmoil. The
John Proctor is an honest, though harsh, man who is clearly the protagonist of The Crucible. Before the beginning of the play, John had an affair with Abigail Williams, a girl who worked in his household, which was abruptly ended when Elizabeth Proctor, John's wife, fired her. This event causes Abigail to desire revenge against Elizabeth while she still pines for John. Once the trials are well underway, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of being a witch, which leads to her arrest. John goes to the court in defense of his wife, where he reveals that he did indeed committed adultery with Abigail in an attempt to expose her as a fraud and a liar. Unfortunately, John's appeal falls on deaf ears and he is arrested as well. While his wife manages to get a temporary stay of execution, due to the fact that she is pregnant at the time of the trials, which in the end saves her by insuring her life until the chaos, hysteria, and persecution comes to an end, John is sentenced to death. The play ends with his hanging, but his death puts an end to the trials.
Also important to the play is how Arthur Miller depicts how one selfish, evil person like Abigail Williams can bring others down and make others follow her to commit evil acts. These evil acts affect even the most honest people in the town like John and Elizabeth Proctor, and Rebecca Nurse who cannot fight the accusations made against them by those following Abigail. Those following Abigail are considered to be holy men that are full of honesty and justice, but the play shows that even those who are thought to be respectable and right, like people of government or community leaders can bring death to innocent people if they are driven by something wrong. II. Plot: The plot begins with the inciting incident where Rev. Parris finds his niece Abigail Williams and his daughter Betty along with his slave Tituba doing some dance in the forest.
“The Crucible”, is a play that tells a real life phenomenon, set in 17oo’s Salem, Massachusetts where a town of Puritans were settled. When a slave woman and a group of young, trouble-making girls begin to act out, the town becomes suspicious and the madness of the witch trials begin. The play serves as an allegory for “The Red Scare” an era in U.S. history that unforgivingly persecuted communists. There are multiple parallels that can be drawn between both of these stories. One major difference is who can be named responsible for each event. In “The Red Scare”, the U.S government is mainly to blame, but in The Crucible we can pinpoint specific characters that greatly contributed to the horror of the witch trials. These characters are John
Lack of chemistry and trust, John's self-hate and guilt, and the uncertainty of how to speak to each other creates the gap between the two in the first stage presented to the audience.
The play opens in a scene of chaos; Betty Parris, daughter of Reverend Parris, has slipped into what is now known as a coma. When Betty does not awaken, the townspeople immediately turn to witchcraft as the concern. Jealousy, caused by theocracy of the times, causes many of the people to accuse others of witchcraft. Debates over property lines occur; neighbors are at each others’ throats. Centering now upon John Proctor, and his wife, Elizabeth, the story takes a turn. Elizabeth is accused by Abigail Williams of witchcraft. When Elizabeth is standing trial, Abigail now accuses John of the same crime; he is now to stand trial, also. At the story’s end, John is hanged, and it becomes apparent to the town of Salem that there is no such thing as witchcraft. As a result of these occurrences, theocracy came to an end in Salem.
always a lot to be done John manages not to do anything to help as he
"- But John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad."
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 narrator in the story is the protagonist and her disease is the main antagonist. Although John can be seen as antagonistic, his motives mean well when he treats his wife. Society also plays a role as an antagonist because she is a woman that has a sickness and everyone believes that rest will heal her. Unfortunately, having social contact and interactions with people might have helped cure her. She is a dynamic character and continues to change throughout the story as her mind erodes. This can be seen when she starts examining the wallpaper more in detail and becoming hostile when others look at it.
He is talking to a woman and she is telling him how his father has been to the clinic three times that month and there is nothing they can do about it any longer. He ask to speak with her supervisor which she is the supervisor. Once the woman states that her name is Shaniqua he makes a rude comment and she automatically hung up in his face. After this happens John has a negative impression of all African American women. He is discriminating against all African American women just because what happened with Shaniqua not giving his dad medical assistance. “Discrimination is a hurtful action toward a particular group of people because they belong to that group.” In another scene John is with his partner Hansen and they pull over the Thayer’s who look to be doing some type of sexual intercourse. He doesn’t pull them over, because they are performing sexual intercourse in the car but because they happen to be a part of the particular group he doesn’t like. Since his views of all African American women are changed as negative he forcefully takes his anger out on Christine by sexually harassing her in front of her husband. Her husband wants to react, but he is in a position to where he can’t do anything. Ryan knows what his partner is doing is wrong, but he has to be obedient seeing how he is a police officer. Obedience is following the demands of an authority. He talk’s his partner into letting them go rather than saying that he’s wrong and needs to
By the end of the play Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters found the dead canary in Mrs. Wright’s sewing kit. The canary had marks around its neck inferring that it had been strangled just like Mr. Wright, but they faced a dilemma on whether or not to turn in the evidence. In the end they decided to withhold the evidence from their husbands. By keeping this evidence from their husbands the two women chose to defend not only Mrs. Wright, but all women during this time period. They felt that the prejudices and discriminatory acts of men during this time period towards women were not acceptable. Men of this time belittled their wives and these women tried to challenge that philosophy. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale help show the audience what women in this time period had to endure in order to get back their freedom.
who is a patient in the hospital, in which the play is set. The play