Hobson's Choice - With particular reference to Act 1, show how Brighouse presents a comic but honest view of family life, set in late 19th century Salford.
With particular reference to Act 1, show how Brighouse presents a comic but honest view of family life, set in late 19th century Salford. Hobson's choice is an interesting and enjoyable play, which uses a fair amount of comedy to keep the audience engaged. The audience can really connect with the characters, as they are very realistic and are placed in real-life situations. The comic element comes in regularly, in the form of just one-off, funny lines, or even complete comic situations and themes. Although the play is set in late 19th century, the themes are still relevant today, which shows that although some things may evolve over time, people and their opinions are still the same, and so the audience can relate to the play, which is another reason why Hobson's Choice is so enjoyable. "Hobson's Choice" is proverbial, stemming from the 17th century; to have "Hobson's choice" is to have no choice at all. I think that understanding this is a key element in understanding the play, as all of the themes of the play arise from one of the main five characters having "Hobson's choice". The play is set in late 19th century Salford, which although it does not tell you in the play, the audience can guess immediately, just from the setting. The play begins in Hobson's Boot Shop, which is a clue straight away, as boot shops are not very common today, and have been replaced by shoe
The Birthday Party. McCann is a complex character. An audience may respond to him in many ways.
McCann is a complex character. An audience may respond to him in many ways. The play 'The Birthday Party' is about an everyday, domestic lifestyle/ characters with mixed emotions. The whole play is based on a boarding house with one guest, Stanley. It starts off with the owners, Meg and Petey, leading a normal day with Stanley. Two men come to look at the house to stay and Stanley gets nervous. The two men, McCann and Goldberg hold Stanley's birthday party and make it a living hell! Throughout the play McCann shows signs of confusion and innocence at the task-in-hand. However this is not always the case, for example McCann, later on in the play, attempts to strike Stanley with a chair. When McCann and Goldberg arrive at the boarding house in Act 1, McCann states, 'what are we doing here Nat?' this gives off signals that McCann is there as Goldberg's aid and not a leading figure. As the play goes on, the audience may start to feel sorry for Stanley due to unfortunate circumstances and more hatred and dislike towards Goldberg and McCann for making him feel so negative. McCann: He killed his wife! Goldberg: Why did you kill your wife? Stanley: What wife? (Back turned, facing the audience) The above quote shows how McCann and Goldberg continue to bully Stanley. Pinter uses the language in the above quote as if McCann and Goldberg were 'pressing' Stanley for information and
How does George and Martha's entrance into the house establish an initial sense of their characters?
How does George and Martha's entrance into the house establish an initial sense of their characters? 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' by Edward Albee was written in 1962, Shirley Galloway, described it as his most 'disturbing and powerful work'. It is a play about a dysfunctional couple, George and Martha who are well into middle age. Martha is the daughter of the president of a university where George works as a history professor. They invite Nick and Honey, a new professor and his wife to their house after a party. Back at home Martha and George continue drinking and put on a show of relentless criticism of each other and at times physical abuse in front of their guests. When we are first introduced to Martha and George we get an insight into their dysfunctional relationship. Right at the beginning of the play there is name calling and accusation between the couple. Martha and George are both troubled and compulsive characters who are emotionally challenged. Martha and George are not your typical man and wife. Before the 1960s women were denied all the basic rights in most aspects of the society but the 1960s is when the woman liberation movement bought along many changes for women. It was thought that women could have a say in their government, that they could perhaps leave the home without feeling guilty about leaving their children alone, and that they could receive a
The Birthday Party, a comedy of menace (Pinter)
The Birthday Party: A "Comedy of Menace" How far do you agree with this description? "Comedy of menace" was a term first used to describe Harold Pinter's plays by the drama critic Irving Wardle. He borrowed the term from the subtitle of one of David Campton's plays, The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace. A comedy is a humorous play which contains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations and so on in order to amuse and make the audience laugh. A menace is something which threatens to cause harm, evil or injury which seems quite incompatible with the idea of a comedy. However, as The Birthday Party shows, it is quite possible for a playwright to create both humour and menace in the same play, and even at the same time, in order to produce certain effects and to transmit ideas to the audience. Comedy is present in The Birthday Party from the very first scene; it is a way of gently introducing the audience to the world which Pinter is trying to create. The humour is quite subtle at first, for example the exchange between Petey and Meg about whether Stanley is up or not plays on the words up and down: "Meg: "Is Stanley up yet? Petey: I don't know. Is he? Meg: I don't know. I haven't seen him down. Petey: Well then, he can't be up. Meg: Haven't you seen him down?". Although the repetitions in
What do we learn about everyday life in the trenches in Act 1 in Journeys End?
What do we learn about everyday life in the trenches in Act 1 in 'Journeys End'? In this essay, I am going to outline what we learn about everyday life in the trenches in Act 1 in the play 'Journey's End' (R.C. Sherriff). During the play, R.C. Sherriff really shines an intense light on the trenches of World War 1 to show and highlight exactly what they were like and the sort of conditions that soldiers were living in. Part of the reason for this is that the general public did not know a lot about the war as communication systems were not as advanced back then as they are now, this leading to people having a slightly wrong impression of what happened, even though, it was one of the biggest events that have ever happened. The play is quite a good eye-opener and really gets people thinking about the atrocities of war, especially seen as it is a firsthand account from Sherriff himself. From what we are told, life in the trenches was at the very least dim, dull and disgusting. There was the fear of biting rats, the constant soaking of feet on the muddy floors and then the thought of dying whilst on duty. The soldiers try and make the trenches as homely as possible, by having "a few tattered magazine pictures pinned to the wall of girls in flimsy costumes." When not on duty, soldiers would try and make the most out of their boring, life in the dark dugouts. When it came to
Mabel In Making History Contradicts Prevailing Attitudes Towards Women Shown In Top Girls
Mabel In Making History Contradicts Prevailing Attitudes Towards Women Shown In Top Girls. Discuss. Tom Roberts In Top Girls by Caryl Churchill, our protagonist is a hard working, hard living woman called Marlene, who gives up many aspects of her life in order to obtain a successful career. She gives up a real family life and even a social life in order to be a 'top girl'. In Making History by Brian Friel, the character of Mabel is also shown to do something similar; she leaves behind her family, who are from a different religion and belief system, in order to marry a man of power and to become powerful herself. These contradicting attitudes are interesting to the audience because although the characters both do the same thing, they have different reactions to it. In Top Girls, Marlene gives up a child, a mother, and her sister in order to pursue her ideal life choice of running an employment agency. She moves away from her family in their little out of town village, and seemingly does not regret this very much. More importantly, she gives up her own child in order to live out her dreams in a big city, and seems to forget about the fact that she has a mother, sister and child not so far away, and is surprised to find out that Joyce sees her mother every week. When she is in the city and doing her job, she blocks them out completely. This is opposite to the way Mabel feels
Protagonists in Top Girls (Caryl Churchill)
SCHILD Amber TS1 LE essay: Who is/are the protagonist(s) in Top Girls? A protagonist is a term used to refer to a figure or figures in literature whose intentions and character are the primary focus of a story, the protagonist can also be seen as being the most important character in terms of giving meaning to the story and transmitting the playwright's messages to the audience. In ancient Greek drama there could only ever be one protagonist, with other important characters given names in relation to the main character such as the foil, the antagonist etc. We can wonder whether the idea of a single protagonist holds true in Top Girls, if there is one at all. Indeed, the story of Top Girls is not particularly evident, and if the play has no real story then it is impossible for there to be a protagonist according to the definition. If, however, there is a protagonist then we can wonder what exactly the roles of the other "main" characters are. There is very little action in Top Girls; almost all of what we see is dialogueare conversations, through which Churchill presents her characters' attitudes to themselves and the world in which they '"lived'". Indeed, this dialogue, which doesn't contribute to any real plot development, means that in Top Girls there is an abundance of storytelling but very little else. Although we could see Marlene's promotion as being
Evoking the past is one of the most important strategies in the practice of West Indian Writers. Discuss with close reference to Dennis Scotts An Echo in the Bone.
Question 1 - "Evoking the past is one of the most important strategies in the practice of West Indian Writers." Discuss with close reference to Dennis Scott's An Echo in the Bone. When studying history one often learns that without knowledge of the past, understanding the present is indeed futile. According to Spanish philosopher George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This also resonates in West Indian Literature. It can be deduced that, it is a principle by which many West Indian writers abide, hence 'evoking the past' is an important strategy of West Indian writing. Dennis Scott is an esteemed Jamaican playwright, a founding father of Ritual Theatre, as well as a recipient of the Prime Minister's medal for service to the arts in Jamaica in 1983. Although Scott has achieved so much, one cannot overlook the fact that many of his works goes unnoticed and unrecognized towards an international audience. Nevertheless, Scott managed to create outstanding pieces, with fundamental messages to not only entertain but inform audiences of varying issues which were present in the past and still plague the present. An Echo in the Bone is Scott's revelation of the past, as it relates to Jamaica, specifically highlighting Slavery as a system of exploitation for the back race as well as a tool for mental enslavement. The play discloses various
Through the selection of three characters in 'Journey's End' examine how Sherriff presents human weakness in the play.
Through the selection of three characters in 'Journey's End' examine how Sherriff presents human weakness in the play. 'Journey's End' is an anti-war play written by R. C. Sherriff. It deals with the effects of war on a select group of officers and has a static setting: the dugout of these officers. The play explores the way war affects men, the concept of masculinity, the exploitation of youth during the war, as well as class differences and other themes. One overarching theme, which encompasses how war affects men and masculinity, is that of human weakness. Sherriff questions contemporary and modern views of human weakness, as well as asking whether mental disturbance is intrinsically tied to war and whether this can be avoided. Sherriff's decision to write 'Journey's End' as a play may simply be due to his own preferences; he may simply have wanted to write a play as opposed to a novel. However it allows an intimate atmosphere to be created between the audience and characters. In presenting human weakness Sherriff has the advantage of being able to force the audience to experience life in a dug-out - the noise, the claustrophobia, the constant threat of attack - thus sharing the stress of the environment between the characters and audience, and demanding that the audience empathise with the experiences of the characters through this. Sherriff's gender directly influences
Examine how Shaffer's use of stagecraft contributes to the themes and ideas of The Royal Hunt of the Sun
Examine how Shaffer’s use of stagecraft contributes to the themes and ideas of the play The title of the play “The Royal Hunt of the Sun”, instantly suggests a story about a thrilling quest or an epic adventure. To create a piece of drama that is compatible to it’s title, Shaffer includes many elements in the play, which are involved with the many complex themes that are threaded into a play that consists of only two acts. Shaffer incorporates many stage effects that appeal to almost all of the audience’s senses, to create a memorable performance. Most of them are visual, like his choice of props, lighting and costume. Music also plays a big part of this production. Shaffer cleverly uses all of these elements and combines it with some of the main themes he wants to convey and translates on to the stage for the audience to enjoy, and question the meanings behind the story. One of the central themes portrayed consistently throughout the play is religion. In the first scene, the unusually close relationship between religion and violence is already conveyed through the first prop shown on the “bare stage” – “four black crucifixes, sharpened to resemble swords”. The “bare stage” allows the audience’s attention to be immediately drawn to the contradicting prop placed on the “back wall”. Christianity is clearly and strictly against violence, yet the