How Effective is the Ending of

"Occasionally an anti-climax can be surprisingly effective" - Andrew Crocker Harris How Effective is the Ending of Terence Rattigan's 'The Browning Version'? A darkening room, a darkening marriage - these appear to be the settings for the end of Terence Rattigan's public school tragedy; but are things turning for the brighter? The way the script cuts off whilst casserole is being served, leaves the audience speculating over Arthur and Millie's future. But does leaving questions unanswered benefit the play as a whole? Does the anticlimax and lack of 'happily ever after' leave the audience feeling unfulfilled, confused, or even annoyed? Just how effective is the ending of the play? As already stated, the play leaves questions open. One of the effects of this is the creation of a hunger for more amongst the audience or reader. The play that has gripped them for the last hour has just 'vanished' at a rather mundane point of the assumed plot. There is an element of catharsis: Will he swallow his old-fashioned pride and stand up for himself? The telephone conversation with Frobisher suggests a renewed in confidence in Andrew and give us hope: "........ I will now speak after Fletcher as is my right........." - Andrew One hopes that his speech will not be an anti-climax and that he will leave a better legacy behind him, yet he seems to have more faith in his ability now.

  • Word count: 1685
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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"By the end of the play, Eliza has benefited from her relationship with Higgins. Discuss."

"By the end of the play, Eliza has benefited from her relationship with Higgins. Discuss." The word 'benefit' is defined as; 'a favourable or helpful factor or circumstance'. Many benefits are not immediately recognised, as they can be the result of something bad. In the play 'Pygmalion', by Bernard Shaw, Liza gains many benefits, but also disadvantages from her relationship with Higgins. Looking at benefits, she receives some beautiful clothes; 'I'm to have fashionable clothes' (p. 63), a good place to stay and financial ease. She meets other friends such as Freddy; 'I'll marry Freddy, I will' (p. 131), and she has permanent companions. However, though she has learned good speech with Higgins, she has not learnt manners, and is treated almost like an animal. She is unhappy for a while, and is used by Higgins greatly. But was it worth it for Eliza to have spent any time with Higgins? Do the benefits outweigh the disadvantages? Throughout her time with Higgins, Eliza immediately became financially viable. She has all the clothes she could ever need, and has her jewellery hired for her. She is always supplied with ten pounds; 'the Colonel thinks you should never go out without ten pounds' (p. 110). This enables her to get taxis when she likes, and to do things without worrying that she hasn't enough money. Her association with Higgins also provided Eliza with a place to stay.

  • Word count: 1106
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Blue Remembered Hills. Dennis Potter took the poem and turned it in to a play about a group of children who were on there school holidays in the forest of dean in Gloucester. Potter is asking if childhood is such a land of lost content and is children so

Blue Remembered Hills A.E. Houseman's poem looks back at childhood as a "land of lost content" meaning that when you are a child you are innocent and you don't have a care in the world. Also he says that childhood is a "happy highway where I went / and cannot come again" meaning that they are the best years of your life but you can never go back there. Dennis Potter took the poem and turned it in to a play about a group of children who were on there school holidays in the forest of dean in Gloucester. Potter is asking if childhood is such a land of lost content and is children so innocent. The poem was set in the summer of 1943 and there were 5 boys and 2 girls who were played by adults. The first person we meet is Willie who is playing at being a spitfire. Next we meet peter who is a bit of a bully. There is Audrey who is a bit of an ugly tag-along and then there is Angela who is a pretty girl who orders Audrey about. There is also Raymond who has a stutter and John he is a bit of a hero and is number 2 last there is Donald he is a bit of a pyromaniac. In the play the behaviour is realistic because that is what they would really do if they were in the forest of dean. They do things that only children do for example in scene 5 Donald, Angela and Audrey are fanaticising about being adults and are playing houses. Also they laugh about knickers being made out of silk.

  • Word count: 782
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparison of 'Desiree's baby' and 'The story of an hour'

Comparison of 'Desiree's baby' and 'The story of an hour' By Kate Chopin Essay written by Gareth Flowers For my coursework I will compare both short story's whom where written by a woman which was very unusual for that day and age. The author's pen name was Kate Chopin. Kate Chopin was in fact born Katherine O'Flaherty to a prominent St. Louis family. People assume she wrote 'Desiree's baby' somewhere around the end of the eighteen hundreds as the exact date is not known. It is largely agreed that 'The story of an hour' was written in 1899. Both story's have a theme of racism and carry a clear lable of the thaught of what a woman's place in society in the antebellum period was. The Antebellum Period is often considered to have begun with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, though it is sometimes argued to stretch back as early as 1812. I also have noticed some irony in the story a recurring theme in the writing style. Desiree's baby The story was written during an era when racism was everywhere.It is thought that out of the two this story was written first. It tells a tail of a wedding of a woman who's backround surrounded in a shruod of mist to a wealthy slave owner who's name has a long and solid history of prestige. When the couple has a child, contravercy erupts when it becomes apparent that the baby has a different colour skin to the parents. The mystery of the

  • Word count: 1173
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Analysis of A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol We have been analysing the classic story, Christmas carol from Charles Dickens, which involves the personality transformation of the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge. This novel was first published in 1843 and set in Victorian London. This story had a variety of different genres within the book. Some believe the story is a ghost story, thriller or a social document London at that time. Within Victoria Britain, 1830-1899 there was no laws that controlled employment and employees. Men, Women and children were worked to their maximum capacity due to the absence of legal constraints normally expected of government. Charles Dickens attempts to portray a negative image of employers within the story, through Scrooge and his attitude towards his employees. One of the main themes of this story is for employers to increase generosity to support the life of the poor and employees and in doing so help to decrease poverty throughout the world. This is shown through Bob Cratchit's life and families health that correlates to the generosity of Scrooge. The bilateral relationship between employer and employee is far from apparent in the beginning of the novel with Scrooge pushing Cratchit hard at work for a meagre wage. Dickens continues with this theme of social justice throughout and attempts to demonstrate that Christmas is a time for giving and sharing. Fred illustrates

  • Word count: 2067
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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20th Century Modern Play Coursework: Whose Life Is It Anyway?

20th Century Modern Play Coursework: Whose Life Is It Anyway? "Whose Life Is It Anyway " is a Powerful Play Which Has A Dramatic Impact on an Audience. Discuss. "Whose life is it anyway" is a powerful play, about the rights of ICU patients and their influence over their own lives. The play carefully portrays the idea of euthanasia and the controversy it entails. The play was first published in 1978, around a time when laws around euthanasia and suicide were profoundly unclear. The supposed simplicity of the story line, of one simple wish, the right to die as you would live is extremely developed and complex. For something so simple, this play demonstrates entirely the fact that around the medical profession, there are many grey areas, to do with morals and ethics because of the nature of the work; intervening with Gods choice: to live or to die. This provokes the audience to consider both sides to the story and to consider how they could be feeling, and what you'd say if it was you. The play actively portrays both sides of the characters, through language and movement, and within symbolism itself. The difference with this play, is that unlike many others, it presents the medical profession as almost monstrous, forbidding and unrelenting, in its passion to save life. This is the kind of "bad" in this story; however in reality it's simply good. It only causes us to think in

  • Word count: 1631
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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In Amadeus, by Peter Shaffer, Peter Shaffer writes a play about the story of two very well known composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri.

In Amadeus, by Peter Shaffer, Peter Shaffer writes a play about the story of two very well known composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. One who was naturally very talented in music and another who recognized the talents of others but dreamed of a talent of music of his own. Amadeus was and still is today a very famous music composer who's known all around the world. He learned how to read and write music at a very young age. Amadeus had a very young personality, he was always very playful and he had a very playful laugh. He was loved and respected by everyone. Salieri claimed that he killed Amadeus "Mozart". Salieri was always very jealous of Mozart. He claimed that Mozart was his role model, he wanted to be Mozart. At one point Salieri made a pact with God himself. He asked God to grant him the gift of artistic inspiration in his compositions and return he would "live with virtue". Salieri also promised to honor Him with music all the days of his life. When Mozart plays, he confesses that he hears the "voice of God," and he responds with such delight that it makes him tremble. Salieri appreciated and loved music since he was a little boy. To his unfortunate, his father never allowed him to express his music. Salieri's father didn't want to, what he claims, "parade him around" like a trained monkey. Salieri envied

  • Word count: 1499
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Ralph says "Things are breaking up I don't understand why. We began well. We were happy" Explain what went wrong on the island and how Golding explores the themes of good and evil.

Ralph says "Things are breaking up I don't understand why. We began well. We were happy" Explain what went wrong on the island and how Golding explores the themes of good and evil. In William Golding's novel 'Lord Of The Flies' he tells the story of a group of boys who are being evacuated from the cities in a fictional nuclear war. Their plane crashes and they find themselves stranded on an island with no adults. Golding weaves many themes into his novel, but the main theme is that of good and evil and the way that evil takes over the boys. He tracks their gradual transformation from well-mannered schoolboys to vicious, ritualistic savages. Early on in the novel there is not much describing the evil of the island but more on the good side, as the boys are much more innocent at the beginning. The island is seen as a paradise, a tropical island for fun and games. "The shore was fledged with palm trees", this quote relates to society's idea of paradise as does the following quote "Clouds of birds rose from the tree-tops". The island is seen as a microcosm of the outside world as it shows the boys' decline into evil as the outside world is in the middle of a war. The boys are on the island because the plane that was evacuating them from Britain during a fictional nuclear war was attacked. Piggy reminds Ralph: "Didn't you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They're all

  • Word count: 3038
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Lorraine Hansberry, showed readers how Walter lee younger matured into a man. Walter has changed through

Walter Lee's Metamorphosis People eventually mature as time passes on and events occur in their lives. The rate of their maturity is also affected by their attitudes and view on life. Lorraine Hansberry, showed readers how Walter lee younger matured into a man. Walter has changed through the story as an immature, idealistic brat to a responsible and un-materialistic young man, through events and circumstances throughout the play. In the beginning, Walter talked about his dreams. Walter was rather materialistic and had no regard for his family. Walter stated," Yeah you see this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand dollars...nothing happen for you in this world 'less you pay somebody off...Man says I got a dream."(Hansberry pg.11). Walter dreams of owning a liquor store, but with out the support of his wife he becomes angry and makes fun of her, in an immature childish way. Moreover, Walter thinks only of himself and possessions. He thinks of he might have proving that he is small-minded. Walter's previous actions have obviously left his wife in doubt. Unmoved by his new dream, Ruth reacts by telling Walter, "Honey you never say something new..." (Hansberry pg.12). Walter is idealistic, but can no longer back up his dreams. Through his actions he has lost respect from his family. Walter hasn't tried to comfort any of his members; instead, he is selfish

  • Word count: 518
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Examine how the aspects of good and evil are presented in the film 'Bram Strokes' 'Dracula' portrayed.

Examine how the aspects of good and evil are presented in the film 'Bram Strokes' 'Dracula' portrayed. 'Dracula' could be seen as the world's most famous horror story and definitely the world's most well-known example of the fascination that grew with monsters and demons such as vampires. It was written by Bram Strokes in 1887 and radically changed the view of demonic figures during the 1800's. The video is based on the book 'Dracula' written by Abraham Stroker in the 1800's. During this time England was fascinated by the gothic idea of 'the beast within man' and you could say Bram Stroker's 'Dracula' was inspired by theorists such as Charles Darwin. Darwin was a theorist, who was greatly influenced by the geologist Adam Sedgwick and the naturalist John Henslow in his development of the theory of natural selection, which was to become the foundation concept supporting the theory of evolution. Darwin's theory holds that environmental effects lead to varying degrees of reproductive success in individuals and groups of organisms. Natural selection tends to promote adaptation in organisms when necessary for survival. This revolutionary theory was published in 1859 in Darwin's now famous treatise on the "Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection". This theory can be seen through the certain scene in the film for example, when Dracula changes/turns into the Beast which

  • Word count: 3149
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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