Structure and characterisation
The structure of the play
The Shoe-Horn Sonata is divided into two acts: the longer Act One, with eight scenes, and a shorter Act Two, with six scenes.
It follows theatrical custom by providing a major climax before the final curtain of Act One, which resolves some of the suspense and mystery, but leaves the audience to wonder what direction the play will take after the interval. The action cuts between two settings: a television studio and a Melbourne motel room.
The opening scene, with Bridie demonstrating the deep, subservient bow, the kow-tow, demanded of the prisoners by their Japanese guards during tenko, takes the audience straight into the action. As the interviewer, Rick, poses questions, music and images from the war period flash on the screen behind Bridie, and the audience realises they are watching the filming of a television documentary. The time is now, and Bridie is being asked to recall the events of fifty years earlier.
This scene establishes who Bridie is, and introduces the audience to the situation: the recall and in a sense the re-living of memories of the years of imprisonment. This and the following scene carry out the function of exposition.
The extreme danger the prisoners faced is indicated by Bridie during this exposition: over-crowded ships sailing towards an enemy fleet, the unpreparedness of the British garrison in Singapore for the invasion, the fear of rape for the women. Misto thus sets up some of the issues to be confronted during the course of the play between the Australian Bridie and the former English schoolgirl Sheila. Sheila appears in Scene Two, and the major conflict of the play begins to simmer.
Sheila’s arrival at the motel from Perth introduces immediately one source of friction between the two: they clearly have not been in touch with one another for many decades. Each is just finding out such basic information as whether the other ever married or had children. The audience sees, too, that the warmth of Bridie’s greeting: “Gee it’s good to see you” is not reciprocated by Sheila. The audience wonders why not. The revelations by the end of Act One will finally show the reason. The body language described on page 26 indicates the deep underlying tension between the two--yet the scene ends with their lifting the suitcase as they used to lift the coffins of the dead: to the cries of Ichi, ni, san---Ya-ta! Their shared experiences are a strong bond.
The first half of the play concerns a celebration - twins Girlie Delaney and Dibs Hamilton are celebrating their 80th birthdays, and with the gathering of their families comes the eruption of simmering resentments and anxieties about the future of Dibs and Farley Hamilton's farm, Allandale. The second half starts with a funeral and portrays the shattering of the tenuous links that held the family together.
I’m convinced that much learning has occurred in this course, both on your part and on mine. So I’m most interested in your telling me what you have learned, rather than asking questions on this exam that require you to demonstrate your learning. So, look back over the course and compose a page each on what you have learned about each of these course objectives.
Changing society is hard. It takes years for it to change. Art is one of the best ways to change society. Writing is best, art form, at changing society. Night and Antigone are both very effective at changing society. While it may seem to others that Antigone is more effective at changing society because it is a tragedy, it is actually true that Night is more effective at changing society because it is shocking and it exposes major flaws in society.
audience is left in suspense at the end of Act One, this is done so
the main theme of the play. With out this scene in the play I don’t
At the start the playwright creates slight allusions that produce tension; Sheila wondered ‘half seriously what had happened to Gerald previous summer when Gerald never went near Sheila’. Lady Croft and Sir George have not come to the engagement feast and Eric is behaving quite anxiously. Eric’s strange behaviour on the cheerful occasion creates trepidation and foreshadows a rather surprising event which interests the audience.
and changes in mood and atmosphere are all very effective when preparing us for the tragedy. I will be focusing on Act 3 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 5 but I will be referring to other incidents that take place at different times in the play. The prologue is a very strong and effective way of preparing us. audience, for the tragic end of the play.
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structure. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society. Writing based on their own experiences, had it not been for the works of Susan Glaspell, Kate Chopin, and similar feminist authors of their time, we may not have seen a reform movement to improve gender roles in a culture in which women had been overshadowed by men.
The pointedness of the play is created through a distinct plot path. The observer is lead through the story, seeing first how greatly Amanda Wingfield influences her children. Secondly, the play-goer notes how Tom Wingfield desperately struggles and writhes emotionally in his role of provider- he wants more than just to be at home, taking care of his all-too-reminiscent mother and emotionally stunted sister. Tom wants to get out from under his mother’s wing; his distinct ambitions prevent him from being comfortable with his station in life. Lastly, Laura struggles inside herself; doing battle against her shyness, Laura begins to unfurl a bit with Jim, but collapses once again after Jim announces his engagement and leaves her, again. Each character struggles and thrashes against their places in life, but none of them achieve true freedom. This plot attests to the fact that true change and freedom can only come through the saving power of God Almighty and Jesus Christ, and by letting go of the past.
It was good setting to get the attention from the audience and also a way to move around or change settings of the play. Although I love this play my small critic for this play was the players. Some others actors had understandable accents but others didn’t. For example, the brother of the servant his accent was confusing because he kept switching his accent from different country languages. This play was really nice it had a little of bit of everything drama, comedy, romance, betrayal. What like about this play it was how they used the dramatic structure the inciting incident and the climax. The inciting incident for this play of musical comedy murders of 1940 was guessing who the killer of the play was because there was tension building up not knowing who the murder was. The climax for this play would be for me finding out who was the murder and just being in shock how everything had change into a new scenario. Overall it was amazing show how it developed and how well an organized transition the play
Erin Gruwell is horrified when she realized what going on and makes a lesson about its similarity to the propaganda of the Nazis. This scene experience the racism and violence due to racial profiling caused by the human society. This relates to the conflict theory because there are some tension and struggle between the students in the Gruwell’s class. The students struggle to get along because of their race, ethnic, etc. and after the incident on the racist image of Jamal, Ms. Gruwell sends a message to her classroom that their lives are not that bad as she does it harshly by related it to the lives of the Jews in the holocaust. In one of the class discussion we had this semester, we talk about the stereotypes, ethnicity, racial profiling etc. and how it label specific groups and how it used today. Back to the scene where the image of Jamal, all the different type of students except the students that associated with the ethnic or race thought it was funny. This scene is an example of stereotype as it shows Jamal as black guy with fat
Without Act 2 Scene 2 the whole play makes no sense. This is the scene
On overall, Priestley has presented the two characters, Arthur and Sheila Birling as completely differently. He wanted to match the story to the historical context of the 1910’s, but he has done this differently with Sheila. This is because the play was written in 1946 and the world had two wars and has started to comprehend the strength of community. She is the young generation of the 1910’s this means in a few years down the line, a war is going to break out and if they keep making the same mistake over and over again, it’s not going to turn out any better, by this, we see what happens in the second world war. This is why Sheila has been presented so that she understands consequences of what might happen if we don’t pull ourselves together.
Act 1 Scene 1 is the opening scene to the play, it starts with a
To what extent can literature have an affect on the way we judge society? Humans are naturally able to make a first impression on countries, religions, and people based upon their own beliefs. Writers are grown up in different societies and express their own beliefs on countries, religion and people through their own life experiences. Writers have enough power to change the reader’s preconceived ideas by the writers sharing of their own perspective on their beliefs. Through analyzing different forms of literature such as White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, Joseph Brodsky’s “A commencement Address,” and watching Chimamanda Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” I have realized that reading literature has the ability to change our thinking which in return affects the we judge different society. There have been controversies that media is a huge factor in altering the mind of humans. Literature can be also viewed as a type of media because literature helps the readers understand the conditions of certain societies.