Les Miserables known in English as “The Terrible” is a musical portrayal of the French Revolution. It is a musical tragedy, which served as a major powerhouse competitor for Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals in the early eighties and nineties. When first debuting on Broadway in 1987 it traveled a long hard road to compete with musicals of the decade. However, in time many well-known performers were proud to associate themselves with this wonderful work of art. The musical play begins with its lead character named Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean was released on parole after 19 years on the chain gang. In this initial scene the audience can almost immediately feel the tonality of the play with the constant reference to the number 24601. 24601 were the prison number that became Jean Valjean’s identity for 19 years. The dark and dreary ambiance set the tone for the first song of the libretto, “Look Down. The lyrics to look down coincide with the chain gang, overseen by brutal wanders, working in the hot sun. It is this series of songs in Act one that take the audience through many turns of feelings and emotions. These emotional songs are used to portray poor men and women working in low class factories, women selling their bodies and more importantly a class of people struggling to scrape by. The most vivid songs used to identify the various themes of poverty and prostitution are Lovely Ladies, A Heart Full of Love, and Master of The House. Moreover, it is a song titled Do You Hear the People Sing? That prepares the audience for the ending of Act one. Most if not all of Act one uses song, tonality, character, pitch and tone to depict the various themes of the play while the story is beginning to unravel. Throughout the second and final act the musical content within the play acts as a story of it’s own through theme and variation. Each separate song represents a feeling and or mood and is enhanced as it is varied throughout the act. Like the first act, the songs are used to portray poverty, suffering, hardships, and even death. However, unlike the first act, there is also a theme of love and happiness. Closure is brought about with a sense of warmth and this is often heard through the display of the tempo. When the times were tough the tempo decreased and was often slow and morbid like.
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Show MoreAlthough some critics may say Hester understood her sin, her love for Pearl and Dimmesdale keep her from this. Hester takes Pearl with her to the Governor’s mansion to demand she keep guardianship of Pearl, “the mother herself...lavishing many hours of morbid ingenuity, to create an analogy between the object of her affection, and the emblem of her guilt and torture” (Hawthorne 59). Hester has dressed Pearl up in scarlet as an act of rebellion out of pride. Hester has pride in Pearl and for this reason is blindsided to her sin. Though her reason for staying in the Puritan community over leaving was suffering punishment and repentance, this act of defyment is contradictory showing she is simply proud of Pearl and does not care for repentance. After Hester makes the decision with Dimmesdale to leave their community, Hester casts away her scarlet letter, Pearl brings Hester
The music and sound effects are in the same pont with what the author nedded to say in that play. In the smok and sword fight on the first act we thought will be a play where every body is confusing and fight each other. The phone ringing all the time and this help the actors to play around in the hury and action come up with rehearsal process. The purposes of the phone is any time we heart that something is going to happen, so we expectin to change the sequence in the play. Ringing the phone open a problem, hanging up the phone close the problem. Opening and shoutting the door of dressing room as a slamming it create for the audience understanding the flow of the show and leaves the flexibility as we see white and black to the performance. Crying with tears make the player dramatic, but afraid of discover which it trying to keep things together laughting and
Emily Augusta Patmore, née Andrews, was the inspiration for Coventry Patmore's iconic poem "The Angel in the House," both renowned and reviled for its depiction of the ideal Victorian woman. Some telling lines in the poem include "Man must be pleased; but him to please/Is woman's pleasure" and "she, too gentle even to force/His penitence by kind replies." Published in 1854, the poem paints a rosy picture of domestic Victorian life. It gained immense popularity in the years to follow, but became increasingly more controversial as western civilization uncertainly transitioned into an era of feminism and women's rights. Virginia Woolf, a 20th century English writer, notably mocked the poem by publishing her own work, a collection of essays entitled Killing the Angel in the House. Though the sentiments in the poem may be outdated now, it serves as a landmark, a reminder of how life was like for women during the Victorian era. Various other literary works published during the time also reflect similar themes, including Charles Dickens's bildungsroman Great Expectations, which charts the development of its main character but also follows women like Biddy and Estella, foils that seem like polar opposites at first but eventually both settle into their destined roles as domestic, inferior, Victorian women. Dickens's characterization of the alpha female Estella and the beta female Biddy in the novel Great Expectations reveals his misogyny and illustrates the Victorian theme that women are ultimately meant to be dominated.
A predominant feature within this theatrical element is the incorporation of lyrical movement within the acting scenes. A group of lyrical dancers move in and out within the scenes and are used as a foreshadowing method to emphasize situations that hold a current or upcoming significance to the overall theme of the play. For example, in the beginning of the play, the dancers along with Onya are represented through an apparent dream that Elgeba, Onya’s young neighbor, has about Onya being swept away by the currents of the water. The dancers impressively portrayed this concept as the silent waves that were holding Onya up and taking her away. This foreshadowing dream shows Onya’s ultimate destiny and fall from her increasing hardships. Also, the humming and singing from the the actors and dancers throughout the play play a significant role in adding an emotional element to the overall overview of the play. The seemingly sad humming at the beginning of the play was a beautiful introduction that set an overall serious tone to the underlying issues that were at hand. Without the use of words, both of the elements of the lyrical dancers and the humming from the actors expressed meaningful emotions that continuously paved the way for the difficult situations that Onya had to
In his book, Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, “In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages” (1). Emerson was an avid nature lover who lived, for most of his life, in beautiful wilderness. Many of Emerson’s works vividly document his magnificent, breath-taking experiences. This book leaves the reader desiring the feel of nature that Emerson felt and yearning for nature’s peaceful effect on one’s life.
In conclusion, to analyse this essay I have scrutinized the melody, harmony and rhythm as these are elements that make this piece so popular. Included with the dynamics, articulation and use of texture, they all successfully work with each other to create a effective piece. The style and the social and cultural contexts are incredibly important to appreciating this piece and I feel I have examined the musical elements in a way that is essential to understanding the song, and its place in West Side Story.
The epic movie Les Misérables, directed by Billie August, tells the tale of life and exploits of a man named Jean Valjean. Valjean was convicted of stealing food at young age, but after being released from prison and rising through the ranks to become the mayor of Vigo, he finds himself being constantly pursued by one of his ex-prison guards. This man, Javert, is determined to have Valjean locked up once again. During this intense struggle, it becomes easy to see that different people from this time period decide to follow the law in different ways. Throughout this film, Jean Valjean repeatedly chooses to abide by the spirit of the law, while his sworn enemy, Javert, mercilessly enforces the letter of the law.
A Greek tragedy, streaked with a failing romance and a duty fueled search for the oblivious truth; it felt necessary to heighten the scenes chosen with the chosen songs. The overall soundtrack theme is one of dramatic foreshadow and irony. Moreover, this theme deemed necessary because while reading over the text the foreshadow hidden in the subtext became more evident and dynamic towards the end.
In the musical Les Miserables there are some correlations between the time period and the
...l” (Cambridge). He explains that nature respects Transcendentalism by the belief that humankind, nature, and God are all interconnected. Emerson’s amazing work, Nature, is a small book of his intellectual thoughts and expressions of Transcendentalism.
Emerson explains that nature has a great deal of influence on our minds and bodies, it's a resource that's in abundance and untouched, it has no beginning and no ending. We need to understand that there is a direct connection between spirit and nature. Both revolve and exist in neutral space, and until we open our mind and allow it to influence us that's where it will stay. The thought that spirit and nature exist in each one of us is somewhat perplexing. I feel that the old ...
Great Expectations Josh Billings once said "to bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while". There are few things as important in the development of youth as the influence of the adults that surround them. The example of influential adults will almost always dictate, in some way, the behaviour of children. Young people look for role models and examples in the adults they meet. In Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations (1860), vivid adult characters such as the eccentric Miss Havisham, the enigmatic lawyer Jaggers, the simple but kind blacksmith Joe and the mysterious convict Magwitch have fundamental influences over the development of the story's protagonist, Pip.
“We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it” (Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?). People do bad things - it’s human nature. It is how these wrongs are fixed that make a person truly remarkable. People have strived to make themselves better and are always searching for ways to fix the things they did wrong. This idea of redemption is especially evident in Victor Hugo’s classic, Les Miserables. Les Miserables, is based in the post French Revolutionary period and through the events in the story, characters such as Jean Valjean and Javert are tried and tested. Many characters within this French epic commit their lives to redeeming themselves, Jean Valjean and Javert are only two examples of those who seek redemption. In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo uses symbolism, characterization, and archetypes to develop the theme of redemption.
All the names; the sun, the moon, the stars, the rivers, the mountains, the trees, the flowers, the scholars and the time on Earth are all ranked under nature by Emerson. (Nature, 1836) and scholars look for answers from nature because of which nature and men are interconnected but in contrast to this Thoreau points out that nature and man are not interlinked and that Men and Nature are two different entities and this is why both Ralph Waldo Emerson in ‘The American Scholar’ and Henry David Thoreau in ‘Walden; or, Life in The Woods’ talks about man and nature. Emerson was born on the 25th of May in 1803 and died after 79 years in April 27th, 1882 (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wikipedia). Emerson led the movement of the Transcendentalist which happened in the mid-19th century and this movement was a protest against the spirituality (Transcendentalism, Wikipedia). Thoreau was well known for his outspoken nature against slavery in the United States and for this he was influenced by his wife Cynthia, who was a member of the Concord Women’s Anti-Slavery Society (A brief biography). Thoreau was born on 12th July, 1817 and died on 6th May, 1862. According to Emerson in “The American Scholar’ man is a mere puppet in the midst of people although he is a man thinking when alone but whatever his state of mind is, it is man that derives ideas from nature and most importantly nature has the answer to all the questions of men. In Thoreau’s ‘Walden; or, Life in The Woods’ what he thinks is that men are confused about the creation of nature and man because if both men and nature were creations of God then how can both good and evil be together. Thoreau tries to show the greed of man and the inadequate resource of nature and at what pace man is consumin...
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume A. Ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2012. 214. Print.