“Topdog / Underdog”
Power, Social Economics, and Greed between Brothers
Dramatic irony is a type of irony where the characters are unaware of the situation but the audience is not. For example, in the play “Topdog/ Underdog”, we know before the characters that the younger brother is going to kill the older brother. In real life, irony can be comical, bitter, or sometimes offensive. The playwright places ironic instances throughout the play and has the characters speak and act in a certain way so the audience or reader can see the greed, the struggle between power as well as the social economic difficulties the two brothers in this play have to endure.
“Topdog/ Underdog” by Suzane-Lori Parks is a play that has two main characters, Lincoln and
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There are several reasons why Lincoln has more power over Booth, First of all Lincoln, has given up the hustle and is no longer doing any illegal dealings, second, he has a steady 9 to 5 job and is paying for the brothers to live, and third he is better at and will always be better at 3- card than Booth. Booth does not have a job, and the only thing he is good at is larceny. “I walked in there and walked out and they didn’t as much as bat an eye. That’s how smooth lil bro be, Link.”(33) Booth is constantly trying to become better at 3-card Monte than his brother. Lincoln keeps telling Booth he will teach him how to throw the cards but has no intention of actually doing it. Link keeps letting Booth win, which makes Booth think he is getting better. All in all Lincoln is actually setting Booth up in order to win his inheritance. In the final scene, Lincoln beets Booth in 3-card and wins his inheritance. The final bit of irony is a repeat of history, when Booth shoots Lincoln as John Wilkes Booth did to Abraham Lincoln at the Ford Theater. Booth than realizes that he is not better than Lincoln and that he just killed the only one in his life that was actually important to him. He also has gained no power nor does he have any means other than the inheritance to pay for him to
John Wilkes Booth was a famous actor, and could have had many assassination chances, including Lincoln’s second inauguration. Wanting the South to win the war, he never wanted the punishment of assassinating the president of the United States. Being a supporter of the Confederate, Booth believed that he assassinated Lincoln the momentum would spark the Confederate troops to life and lead them to victory. This book is very vivid in detail and is a great educational tool if you would like to learn more about the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
“ Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer”, was written by James L. Swanson, a dedicated Lincoln scholar and attorney. He details in his book the incredible escape of John Wilkes Booth’s from authorities, with immaculate descriptions of little-known facts in the case of Lincoln’s Killer. Swanson’s nonfiction book dives into actual pieces of literature written at the time of Lincoln’s assassination by individuals who actually took part in the real-life drama, including John Wilkes Booth himself.April 14, 1865 is a day of infamy in United States history,it is the day that John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Swanson delves deep into the minds of Booth and his accomplices , analyzing their every move. Booth flees the scene of the crime with Davey Herold, who has been a willing participant in Booth's secret plots to kill Secretary of State William Seward, Abraham Lincoln, and Vice President Andrew Johnson.
Booth had got the news that the president would be at the Ford’s theatre. This was great news for john both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln will be there in the same place. “Booth heard the big news: in just eight hours the man who was the subject of all his hating and plotting would stand on the very stone steps here he now sat. “Booth began to plain his assassination without having to hunt for Lincoln. John had a deep hatred for Lincoln, he had hated the state that our country had been in.
In Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, by James L. Swanson, the main characters were; John Wilkes Booth, Dr. Leale, Abraham Lincoln (even though he dies.) When John Wilkes Booth (a.k.a Booth) found out that the North had won the Civil War, he felt anger and disgust but he could do nothing. Booth had one plot that the book talked about and that was to kidnap the president and sell him to the leaders of the South but that plot never got put into action. When booth went to Ford's theatre got a letter, Booth worked at the theatre, the letter that said that the President of the United states would be visiting ford's theatre quickly he put a plot into works. First he went to get accomplices and they too would kill someone that night. When the time had come to Booth snuck into the President’s box, not even noticed he pulled out a gun and shot a bullet into the left side and under the left ear of the President's head. That didn’t kill the President, yet. When Booth tried to leave he was stopped by General Henry Rathbone, they had a knife fight while trying to stop both of them from leaving, although Booth got away jumping from the President's box and onto the stage shouting "Sic Semper Tyrannis" (Chasing Lincoln's Killer, by James L. Swanson.)
Killing Lincoln Book Review The mystery of how John Wilkes Booth pulled off the most influential and notorious assassination in history is revealed in Killing Lincoln. The author of this book, Bill O’Reilly, built up the plot of the story through vivid historical details and pieced them together like a thriller. He tries to explain all of what happened on one of the most interesting and sad days in American history. Many conspiracies and Civil War ideals are on full display in the book. I agree with most of O’Reilly’s ideas, but there are some that I am not really sure about because of his point of view, like many of the conspiracy theories.
On their way to find Death, the three rioters stumble upon an old sorrowful man in a shack. The old man hears the three men ranting on about their quest to find death and tells them he has been waiting for Death to come get him, for Death has traveled all over the world. Hearing the old man bring up death, the three men demand the old man to tell them where they can find death so they can kill it. The old man tells them they can find death under the oak tree, the rioters run to find the oak tree and find nothing but a bag full of gold coins. Confused because they did not find death where the old man said they could, they forget about why they were looking for and think about how their lives will become better with the golden coins they have found also they think about not being able to walk back to town with the gold coins or they would all be taken as thieves. There is several examples of irony in the story as well. Example one would be when they all agreed that know matter what they will not become greedy and turn their back on one another because they are like
John Wilkes Booth infamously known for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln was himself an interesting personality. The man was a well-known American stage actor at the Ford’s theatre, Washington. Booth believed slavery was a part of the American way of life and strongly opposed president Lincoln’s view on abolition of slavery in the United States.
The short story “Good Country People,” uses irony in many ways. But the clear use of irony is portrayed in the story through O’Connors use of character names. The use of irony is presented when characters names contradict what the character represents. In “Good Country People,” O’Connor uses these names to figuratively and literally describe the four main character’s and their flaws.
This book would be a good way for other students to learn about this time period. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer explains everything with great detail, from the end of the Civil War to the killing of Booth and his partners in crime. The book did not trail on forever and become boring. James L. Swanson, the author, made the topic of Lincoln and Booth very interesting and easy to follow. The book also includes some visuals of newspapers, posters, and pictures of people. These visuals gave a better understanding of the characters and places.
Booth and Lincoln both search for an identity in their assertions of power. Booth tries emulating his brother’s power by aspiring to “throw the cards” and master the hustle in an attempt to establish his identity, as the “topdog” with power. Maley and Michael LeMahieu discuss the significance of Booth’s self-naming, dubbing himself “3-Card” as he embarks on his endeavor to unseat Lincoln from the position of the “topdog.” However, LeMahieu emphasizes the importance of Lincoln’s struggle to determine “what is,” to separate himself from the legacy of the Abraham Lincoln, the man he is named after and the man he impersonates for an honest living, an identity Link relies on to procure the salary that provides him with control and keeps him in the position of the “topdog.” Maley mentions that “Lincoln always retains power and control” by earning “the salary they share and, more importantly for this relationship, he [still] has the skill to run a successful three-card monte hustle” (187). At the beginning of Topdog/Underdog, on the surface level of the play, Lincoln has completely abandoned the hustle, yielding the control he possessed in tricking others through
Booth lived an exciting life as an actor and a secret agent, but he wanted more. So he joined a conspiracy to kidnap the United States president, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was an abolitionist and supported the north, so when he was elected president, it sent the confederates into rages of anger. They did not like Lincoln.
Molière’s play “Tartuffe and Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” both demonstrate a comical portrait of hypocrisy. In “Tartuffe”, the main character Tartuffe is seen as a religious hypocrite who takes advantage of Orgon’s wealth and agrees to marry his daughter, Mariane against her wishes. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Jack and Algernon both lie about their identity to get the woman of their dreams. The authors use the concept of double personalities in the play to reveal the deceit and lies to represent the theme of hypocrisy. In fact, hypocrisy is not only displayed in the characters but in the play as a whole. Additionally, the plays are both hypocrital in ways that they do not follow the structure of comedy.
Despite Booth's initial dreams of a reinvigorated Confederacy, only great sympathy was held for Lincoln's death. Even other Confederate sympathizers were disappointed in Booth's actions, as the killing was unconscious to the president. Overall, Booth's lifelong goal failed to spark any sort of newfound resentment for the Union, and more or less just only unified the country further.
The second type of irony used in this short story is dramatic irony which irony is when the characters do not know and the people reading the story or watching the play does know. Fortunato appears with an ill-looking “He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted but the conical cap and bells.”(1200) He dresses like a jester, and there are a big joke on him soon.
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two lovers who are from two disputing families, and their eventual suicides. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play to create tension for the audience and foreshadow the ending. Dramatic irony is when the words or actions of characters in a story have a different meaning to the reader than to the characters. This is because the reader knows something that the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet’s death could have been prevented if the characters in the story weren’t so ignorant of their situations, and often times the reader recognizes this.