"Long Day's Journey Into Night" a play by Eugene O'Neill portrays the actions of a dysfunctional family.
"Long Day's Journey Into Night" a play by Eugene O'Neill portrays the actions of a dysfunctional family and brings us on a reflective journey from when the fledgling family had started, devoted to one another with high hopes for the future, to what it is today, a family engulfed in turmoil. Each character caught up in their own cycle of self-destruction and method of escaping their reality that they do not realize that they are making their present situation that much worse. Mary, Tyrone, Jamie and Edmund have all mastered the art of denial, but have failed to understand the concept of responsibility and forgiveness. Throughout the play, O'Neill's theme is one of a disclosure into the life of a seemingly normal family on the outside yet convoluted with bitterness on the inside, bringing O'Neill's premise of illusion and truth into the whole story. Mary Tyrone, a once beautiful girl who dreamed about becoming a nun or perhaps a pianist, has become terribly unsatisfied with the turn of events of her life and the person she has become, tries to flee the self proclaimed world of evils she is living in mainly through her morphine use. She blames her addiction to morphine on the stinginess of her husband, who hired a slip-shod doctor to prescribe her pain killers for the pain giving birth had caused her. Though she blames her husband it is Mary's own anguish and guilt that caused
"Look again at Faustus' opening soliloquy, from 'Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin' to 'Here tire, my brains to get a deity'. What aspects of Faustus, revealed here, are important to our understanding of him later in the play?
"Look again at Faustus' opening soliloquy, from 'Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin' to 'Here tire, my brains to get a deity', paying special attention to what he says and how he says it. What aspects of Faustus, revealed here, are important to our understanding of him later in the play?" .From the opening soliloquy, the reader is given a great insight into how Faustus' mind works, how he uses logic and his intellect to draw up conclusions, and it is possible for one to forecast future events and occurrences involving Faustus on the basis of this initial passage. The opening two lines of his soliloquy indicate that he is often quick at making decisions. (However, later on, usually under the influence of other characters or sources, he rethinks whether his decision was the correct one to make). An example of his rush to decision is seen in the opening where Faustus initially states that he is about to "begin to sound the depth of that thou wilt profess". I believe that using the word 'wilt' may suggest that he has finalised his decision, and he is certain that he is going to take this path. However, this is not the case. Later on in the text, he may make a statement as if it has been finalised, yet go on to reconsider his actions. In the soliloquy, he initially claims that he will follow this path, then goes on to consider if it was the right choice, trying to seek
"Macbeth's ambition caused him to commit the crimes - Nobody else influenced him" - Discuss.
"Macbeth's ambition caused him to commit the crimes. Nobody else influenced him." Discuss. Throughout the play Macbeth commits a number of crimes. This is due to a number of reasons; some when other characters in the play influenced him, however they are only reflecting his own secret desires, and some when his "ambition caused him to commit the crimes". Macbeth is first perceived as courageous, strong and a good general. He is co-leader of Duncan's army along with Banquo. He is described as "brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name" and "Noble Macbeth" and even "Bellona's bridegroom" - a fit husband for the Roman goddess of war. All hold him in high regard. He is rewarded with the title of Thane of Cawdor, although Macbeth is unaware of this yet. In Act 1, Scene 3, the three witches meet with Macbeth for the first time, whilst Banquo accompanied him. He is initially shocked by their appearance and is stunned by their prophecies that he will become Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland. "Second witch: All hail, Macbeth! Thane of Cawdor! Third witch: All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter!" Macbeth questions their prophecies but the witches vanish. Soon after, Ross and Angus arrive and tell Macbeth that he has become Thane of Cawdor. He then chooses to see this as a sign that he is also destined to become king of Scotland and for the first time we see his
"The British are bad news to the Irish" - "Explore critical views and explain your own viewpoint as to whether this is the point Brian Friel is making in his play Translations."
"Translations" By Brian Friel "The British are bad news to the Irish" "Explore critical views and explain your own viewpoint as to whether this is the point Brian Friel is making in his play Translations." The quote "The British are bad news to the Irish" is taken from the article "What's On in London" and it was the writer Kenneth Hurren who wrote the column. Kenneth Hurren also wrote in this column, "With Translations it transpires that Friel is not at all foolish and has shrewdly cottoned on to where he was making this mistake in pressing for the withdrawal of Britain and her troops from his country. Fundamentally he is still making the same points, he is still saying that the British are bad news to the Irish; but he is saying it subtly and persuasively in terms of a marvellously eloquent and ostensibly fair - minded play, full of humour and humanity, instinct with grace and understanding." Brian Friel was born in 1929 and has had a successful career as a play-writer he is known for his famous plays "Philadelphia here I come", "Lovers", "Freedom of the city", "Faith Healer" and many more excellent plays. All of Friel's work has had something to do with Ireland and Irish themes. Brian Friel's "Translations" is a play, which is an interpretation of Ireland in the 1830s and the play shows a great change in the society at that time. At the time "Translations" was
Long Days Journey into night - Analysing a scene The place of the scene is the dramatic resolution of the play, to be more exact, the end of it. In this scene, the conflict
Long Days Journey into night - Analysing a scene The place of the scene is the dramatic resolution of the play, to be more exact, the end of it. In this scene, the conflict completely revealed, the reader knows the past and the conflict as well. All the four characters has been there. Jamie and Edmund are in the room, Jamie is sleeping and simultaneously James is coming into the room. He wanted not to speak to Jamie, however the drunken Jamie woke up and started to say poetic sentences and cite from different works in order to make his father furious and start an argument. Edmund is the one who makes them to stop that before Mary comes from her room with full of morphine. Jamie starts to make comments on his mother and creates another conflict with Edmund and James. Mary starts to speak to herself ignoring everyone in the room while the others are staring at her. They are trying to make contact with Mary, without any result. The men start to drink and ignore her; Mary is still speaking to herself. The tensions are very obvious, because in that part of the plot everyone knows what happened to Mary and what is the relationship among the family members. Like in the beginning James Tyrone doesn't want to be with Jamie in the same room, and later their conversation full of anger and hatred, these acts are revealing that they don't like each other. Later on, when Mary comes into
Long Days Journey into Night: Character Analysis
Long Days Journey into Night: Character Analysis In this essay I shall be examining two characters and their actions and roles in the book I shall also be comparing the two characters and examining their relationship with one another. I have chosen to examine Jamie and Edmund. Jamie is considered a failure by our standards; he was neglected as a child by his parents and never loved. He has become an alcoholic, like his father, and has no prospects for the future. He is often described as a 'whoremonger' as he resorts to brothels to make up for the lack of love he receives at home. He is blamed for killing his brother Eugene who died as a baby from illness. Edmund has been ill since he was born and this is often blamed on Jamie. He is the child born after Eugene and is mollycoddled by his mother, Mary who is afraid to let him go. He is beginning to become an alcoholic through his brother's bad influence. He is Eugene O'Neill's double in the play, and has sailed around the world but is now sick with consumption, even though he has no more lines than anyone else the play tends to revolve around him with it climaxing at the forgiveness of his father and brother for all the bad things he has done to him. Both Jamie and Edmund are deeply aware of their mother's drug problem. The first point I am addressing with Jamie is his role as a 'failure'. During the book Jamie is always
Choose three significant scenes during the course of Romeo and Juliet to illustrate Juliet's character - Looking closely at Juliet's words, behaviours and responses indicate how she develops as the play progresses towards its tragic conclusion.
Choose three significant scenes during the course of Romeo and Juliet to illustrate Juliet's character. Looking closely at Juliet's words, behaviours and responses indicate how she develops as the play progresses towards its tragic conclusion. Juliet's character is dramatically portrayed in this play. The two main characters, Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague both change and mature over the progress of the play but Juliet changes from what could be seen as 'girl to woman' in just under a week. There is a definite difference in her personality from the meeting of Romeo to her marriage to him. As the play progresses, we see Juliet maturing and developing into an independent young woman, which is quite different from the beginning of the play when Juliet never thought of marriage or of defying her parents and family. In Scene 1 Act 3 Juliet enters the play alongside Lady Capulet and the Nurse, who approach her to talk about a forthcoming marriage that Lady Capulet and her husband have planned. They want her to marry Paris at the age of thirteen, however with Juliet being so young and unsure of herself, and of what marriage entails, she does not really have anything to say on the issue. Before they start to talk about this subject, the Nurse and Lady Capulet talk about Juliet's age, and Shakespeare seems to make sure that the point she is only thirteen stand out among all other
"The Changeling" is a striking illustration of how the genius of a great dramatist can transform the most unpromising melodrama into the subject matter of a memorable and harrowing psychological tragedy.
THE CHANGELING: "...Beware of off'ring the first-fruits to sin..." "Women Beware Women"- Thomas Middleton "The Changeling" is a striking illustration of how the genius of a great dramatist can transform the most unpromising melodrama into the subject matter of a memorable and harrowing psychological tragedy. Una Ellis- Fermor, in "The Jacobean Drama: An Interpretation", describes the tragedy as the "most compact and pitiless in this drama", containing "elements of great beauty and subsequent action", resulting in their disintegration by the "spiritual evil set at work within them". Belonging to the decadent period of Jacobean tragedy, it is a key study in the history of post- Elizabethan drama- one that is psychological and realistic. It portrays a sombre and disturbing world, where driven by impulses and passions they can scarcely comprehend, leave alone master, Middleton's and Rowley's characters gradually disintegrate as moral beings. As T. S. Eliot has commented, it is the "tragedy of the not naturally bad but irresponsible and undeveloped nature, caught in the consequences of its own action." The play deals with complex ideas and feelings in such a way that the whole structure appears to rely on a sustained sureness and quickness of mind. It offers us a picture of the operation of folly and madness within the mind, and in doing so it explores 'abnormal' mental states;
A Detailed Analysis of the Dramatic Qualities of the Duologue between Krogstad and Nora and the End of Act One
A Detailed Analysis of the Dramatic Qualities of the Duologue between Krogstad and Nora and the End of Act One The very start of the duologue, when Krogstad silently enters the Helmer household, disturbing Nora's innocent game with the children strongly draws on themes from Victorian melodrama, that is to say the 'villain' coming in to disturb the 'perfect family'. This theme of the family being threatened by some external force at first encourages the audience to sympathise with Nora, however as the duologue goes on and more information is revealed, smudging the boundary between the 'evil villain Krogstad' and 'innocent heroin Nora', Ibsen challenges the conventions of Victorian melodrama by allowing the characters to develop, hence reaching a level of complexity where they can no longer be categorised as simply good or bad. Nora greets Krogstad with great hostility, feeling authoritative in the given situation as he has entered her ground, and taking on a rather rude tenor with her first words to Krogstad being: 'Oh! What do you want?' Nora clearly registers surprise at Krogstad's unexpected appearance shown by her exclamation 'Oh!', and doesn't feel she has to hide her disappointment in seeing him as she doesn't believe that Krogstad poses a threat to her. Nora's extensive use of interrogative sentences such as 'You want to speak to me' further proves that she feels
How far is Hamlet dominated by a Christian worldview? Does its Worldview have any relevance for a modern day audience?
'There are more things dreamt of in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy' HOW FAR IS HAMLET DOMINATED BY A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW? DOES ITS WORLDVIEW HAVE ANY RELEVANCE FOR A MODERN DAY AUDIENCE? England during the 17th century was a Christian society and country. All Children would most certainly have been baptised shortly after birth and once at a suitable age capable of understanding religion would be taught the essentials of Christian faith. Attendance at church was compulsory; failure to do so without a good medical reason or otherwise would lead to a hefty fine. During the 16th century in England those of Christian faith subsequently despised other races against that of Protestantism, and any other religion or paranormal existence that they did not understand. The persecution of Jews within Elizabethan England meant the state forbade them the rights to ownership of land or to engage in trade. Shakespeare showed an incredible understanding and knowledge of issues and crises of his time, introducing burning issues of today into his deeply Christian country that showed an inability of understanding and respecting other faiths and religions. Within the pre-Elizabethan period and onwards society was influenced heavily by the head of state, religion and new theoretician's ideas. A Theocentric world view stated that everything was circled around God,
