Effective Use of Irony and Satire in Unveiling
Unveiling, by Vclav Havel, is an almost satirical view of societal behavior in the modern day world. The unusual props located throughout the apartment as well as the characters involved in the play come together to form an ironic tale wrought with realistic themes and an extremist view of modern society.
The main characters are Vera, Michael, and Ferdinand Vanek. The play begins with Ferdinand entering the party of Vera and Michael. As the story line progresses, Vera and Michael continue describing their many material possessions and showing off their supposed glamour. All throughout the commentary on their accolades, they also openly criticize Ferdinand in every aspect of his life. They claim to do so only because they like him and because he is their best friend. In the end, Ferdinand begins inching towards the door, and Vera and Michael start to go hysterical at the thought of Ferdinand leaving. Finally, when he sits back down, Vera and Michael resume their "normal" chatter.
The characterization in Unveiling is consistent in that each character is generally stagnant. Vera is a flat character. She starts out as a needy woman who is almost grandiloquent when she speaks of her belongings. Her husband Michael is no different. His pretentious behavior is only heightened by the accessory of his wife. In the end, they are still the same albeit not as composed as in the beginning. Ferdinand is really just a minor, speaking character in the play. There is not much depth to his character. He is essentially flat because there is no change in his character or lack thereof.
Though Unveiling does contain many themes, the principle one that is prevalent throughout is social pretensions. Vera and Michael pretend that everything is fine in their life though it clearly is not. They hold themselves to a materialistic standard that they feel they must uphold. The slick veneer that they like to hide behind is actually rather brittle and transparent. Their loneliness is apparent. For their "unveiling" party, there is only one guest, Ferdinand. That points to the fact that they do not have many friends, thus the reality which is that they are alone. Along these same lines, societal pressures and social conformity are also major themes. They feel they must uphold such pretenses because that is the social standard.
Arthur Miller, one of America's greatest playwrights, living or dead, is a master of verbal irony. An examination of three strong examples of verbal irony in Millers play, The Crucible, will prove this out. While Miller started the genre of the tragedy of the common man, and is also know for his thoughtful and decisive plot lines, much of his fame, possibly can be attributed to his brilliant use of language generally, and his use of verbal irony in particular.
The play consisted of five characters: Marty, James, Schultz, Theresa, and Lauren. Marty and James are a couple; they knew each other through a wedding, Theresa is a former actress who ran away from the competitive New York, Schultz is an awkward carpenter who just got divorced, and Lauren is a sixteen year old girl who dreamed of becoming an actress. Marty who is the teacher started the class, but the students participated in the class’s activities
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is a satire on the state of world affairs in the 1960's. Vonnegut made a commentary in this book on the tendency of humans to be warlike, belligerent, and shortsighted. The main character of the book, the narrator, is certainly not a protagonist, although the modern reader craves a hero in every story and the narrator in this one is the most likely candidate. Through the narrator's eyes, Vonnegut created a story of black humor ending in the destruction of the earth.
While we all may be shown different faces and persona’s each day, it never becomes clear which a true personality is and which is just a mask. Joyce Carol Oates demonstrates the need for her characters to disguise themselves from the rest of society in order to either be accepted by others or to be seen in a more pleasant manner. However, these characters who conceals themselves are ultimately hurt because of their inability to shed their false fronts and accept who they truly are.
Who are the main characters in the play? How are the characters related through the plot of the play?
There is a large cast of characters including the priest Sarastro (a very serious, proselytizing basso), the Queen of the Night (a mean, angry, scheming coloratura), and her daughter, the beautiful and courageous Pamina. There is the handsome hero, Tamino, on the quintessential road trip, and his cohort in misadventure, the bird seller, Papageno. Papageno ultimately finds his Papagena (who starts out disguised as a crone), Tamino ultimately wins Pamina, Sarastro presumably wins a passle of converts, and everyone goes home humming the catchy Mozart melodies. It is all presented in a plot complicated by a dragon, a threesome of warbling ladies in service to the Queen of the Night, another threesome of boy-angels, even a bully - Monostatos, guard for the Queen. It is lightened by such elements as locked lips, charmed animals, and, of course, a magic flute.
When a human kills another human being, they forfeit all of their basic human rights. We kill, burn, cripple, or poison over 100 million animals each year in the United States alone. These animals are innocent, but are having their quality of life either ruined or taken from them for the benefit of humans. Ninety-two percent of the drugs that were found to be safe on animals after experiments, ended up failing in human trials because they were not safe for humans (11 Facts About Animal Testing). There is an easy way to find out what drugs will work on humans without making innocent animals suffer through the torture of being tested on. The solution to this would be to use inmates who are sitting on death row, waiting to die, as test subjects for products instead of animals. These inmates are going to die anyway, so humankind might as well get some benefit from them before they die. The average death row inmate sits on death row for at least a decade, but some can sit on death row for over twenty years (Babcock, Sandra). It makes no sen...
Kurt Vonnegut uses a combination of dark humor and irony in Slaughterhouse-Five. As a result, the novel enables the reader to realize the horrors of war while simultaneously laughing at some of the absurd situations it can generate. Mostly, Vonnegut wants the reader to recognize the fact that one has to accept things as they happen because no one can change the inevitable.
The three family members are adults at the time of this play, struggling to be individuals, and yet, very enmeshed and codependent with one another. The overbearing and domineering mother, Amanda, spends much of her time reliving the past; her days as a southern belle. She desperately hopes her daughter, Laura, will marry. Laura suffers from an inferiority complex partially due to a minor disability that she perceives as a major one. She has difficulty coping with life outside of the apartment, her cherished glass animal collection, and her Victrola. Tom, Amanda's son, resents his role as provider for the family, yearns to be free from him mother's constant nagging, and longs to pursue his own dreams. A futile attempt is made to match Laura with Jim, an old high school acquaintance and one of Tom's work mates.
Preziosi, D., 2009. Narrativity and the museological myths of nationality. In: B.M. Carbonell,, 2012. Museum Studies: An anthology of contexts. Oxford: Blackwell publishing. pp. 82-91
The play’s major conflict is the loneliness experienced by the two elderly sisters, after outliving most of their relatives. The minor conflict is the sisters setting up a tea party for the newspaper boy who is supposed to collect his pay, but instead skips over their house. The sisters also have another minor conflict about the name of a ship from their father’s voyage. Because both sisters are elderly, they cannot exactly remember the ships name or exact details, and both sisters believe their version of the story is the right one. Although it is a short drama narration, Betty Keller depicts the two sisters in great detail, introduces a few conflicts, and with the use of dialogue,
In general, the discrepancy between appearances and reality is ironic. Irony is encountered throughout our daily activities and comes in many forms; verbal, situational. and the cosmic. Verbal irony is the most familiar kind, this occurs when we understand that.
Data collection and processing in the aviation industry is a very important tool for the companies in this industry to conduct the internal evaluation of the company’s Safety Management System (SMS). Through such evaluations, the company is able to determine whether SMS is in line with its expectations and objectives. The company should take into account the findings of the evaluations performed on a previous date. Furthermore, there is a need to use the data carefully to ensure that the safety criticality of the program under evaluation is put into account. A well guided data collection, processing and trending in the aviation industry can bring revolution in the evaluations defined in aviation companies (Vinshnu, 2014).
The action the audience is forced to recognize in Six Characters is subtly broached in Chekhov's play. It is discussion, and it is real discussion. People are different, and people are unpredictable. Reality is tragically inane, and that is what the theatre shows best.
To conclude, I believe that the characters do reveal themselves through disguise but not entirely. The personality of Rosalind was revealed through the way she enjoyed to trick people, the personality of the courtiers was revealed by their playful attitude in the forest and the personality of Orlando was shown by the fact that he did not disguise. To him everything is in the open and he has no secrets. Love is the only disguise. However, by looking at the different aspects of the characters’ personalities in their different roles, their behaviour is fully revealed.