Cuba by Liz Lochhead

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Choose one moment from the play you think the dramatist makes especially memorable and show in detail why you feel that moment is so successful dramatically.

One of the moments I find most successful dramatically is the moment when Barbara Proctor, during a Poetry lesson, starts crying when she is told to read aloud the last stanza of the poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci”. The poem has such a powerful impact on her that she cannot contain her fear and anxiety about the situation the world is going through.

“La Belle Dame sans Merci” seems to affect Barbara more than anything else in the story. This may be because of several reasons but, above all, the fact is that the poem deals with a delicate issue: death. This may be the “powerful connection” which deeply affects her, death and the nuclear threat.

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One of the poem’s possible interpretations is that there is a knight who falls in love with a fairy but, against his hope that the woman loves him too, he is betrayed by her, causing his death. Placed in Barbara’s context, this may be thought as if Barbara really hopes that there is not going to be a war, but in the end her hopes are senseless and the war actually takes place; this is what might make her feel terribly scared and unable to control her fear.

Another interpretation of the story might be that the knight, lost in ...

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