What is a hero? In this essay I will be discussing three short stories - Half Brothers and The Sexton's Hero, both by Elizabeth Gaskell, and also Werewolf, which is written by Angela Carter.
Charlotte Squires 11KBO 30th January 2003 What is a hero? In this essay I will be discussing three short stories - Half Brothers and The Sexton's Hero, both by Elizabeth Gaskell, and also Werewolf, which is written by Angela Carter. I will compare them, and discuss the overall question 'What is a hero', and see how and if the stories address this subject. Elizabeth Gaskell was a writer who looked deeply at the grim reality of life, something that no writers before her had dared to do. She created books that told what a struggle it was to survive, and this earned her the friendship of writers such as Charles Dickens. Her novels, among them being 'Mary Barton', were extremely controversial and allowed the previously 'sheltered' middle-class to see what life was really like in the depths of the city. Angela Carter is a writer whose work nearly always falls within the fantasy genre. In particular, she is known for ' her attempts to deconstruct fairytales in terms of adult meaning, and to bring out an underlying subtext.' (Quote from fortunecity.com) The first short story that I shall be discussing is Werewolf, by Angela Carter. In folklore and legend, a werewolf is a person that changes into a wolf by the light of the full moon, but it is not a clear cut as that in this particular tale. As soon as the story
'Street Scene' was written by Elmer Rice and exploits the values of a Catholic family in New York, America. A powerful drama, 'Street Scene' deals with eternal issues: love, hate, racism and prejudice via several sets of families.
Drama Coursework: 'Street Scene.' Sophie Chapman 25th September 02 Response 'Street Scene' was written by Elmer Rice and exploits the values of a Catholic family in New York, America. A powerful drama, 'Street Scene' deals with eternal issues: love, hate, racism and prejudice via several sets of families. I have explored the aspects covered in this play primarily by role - play. Role - play is the art of taking on a character - without a script - and then being that character in a prescribed situation. Most of 'Street Scene' is set upon a stoop, therefore to create different levels; parts of the rostra were used to construct a platform with stairs for the actors to stand upon. 'Street Scene' is about a tragic family and in particular the torments of a middle - aged man called Frank Maurant. Mr. Maurant is a gruff, aggressive and hard man who cannot accept change and always employs the importance of family. His major qualm throughout the play is the concept of his daughter Rose going out with a Jewish boy. Mrs. Maurant is a concealed character who brings about much speculation amongst the local gossips over her close relationship with Sankey the milkman. She never admits to her adultery but suspicion amongst others leads to tragedy in the end. With a group of people, I devised a scenario that might have happened before Mr. Maurant's death. The scene is set in the
My Mother Said I Never Should - response.
MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER SHOULD - PAPER 1: UNIT 2 My Mother Said I Never Should follows the story of four generations of women, a great-grand-daughter a daughter, a mother and a grandmother, grappling with social forces that threaten to split them apart as the twentieth century grows older. Widely studied on Drama syllabuses the play moves back and forth through the lives of the women, it sets the enormous social changes of this century against the needs of the individual. After reading the play mentioned, my initial sentiments on it were that I highly enjoyed it because I found it highly engaging and very original and abstract by its use of different time frames and using the 'waste-ground scenes' as a type of limbo where time is of no consequence and causes the reader to primarily focus on the relationships between each woman. Nonetheless, I found myself becoming highly confused whilst reading the play due to the constant switching between time frames. In my opinion, I think the playwright is trying to convey the hidden relationships between women within the same family. She tries to show how each of the women interact with each other and how the role of women in society can change within each generation. Keatley tries to focus primarily on women and I feel that the men within the play were portrayed as the draw-backs of the women, for example, in the play Margaret becomes
In 'Blood Brothers' we discussed how the narrator affects the play and how the narrator can change the plays direction, place and time. We used the narrator in a scene from the play to act out what we thought the narrator would do.
Blood Brothers, Paper 1b 'Blood Brothers' is about a poor lower class mother who sells one of her twin sons. She sells her child to a rich upper class family and you see the two brothers become blood brothers. Unaware that they are brothers they go through their lives with emphasis on being 7, a teenager, at university and then in their adult life. The superstition is, is that if they find out they both will die. Narration In 'Blood Brothers' we discussed how the narrator affects the play and how the narrator can change the plays direction, place and time. We used the narrator in a scene from the play to act out what we thought the narrator would do. Prejudice Whilst studying 'Blood Brothers' we discussed different forms of prejudice, racism, ageism, sexism, facial disfigurement and disability and class are the different forms of prejudice we discussed. We discussed why people take a dislike without even knowing the person their taking a dislike to. Exploring the character's attitudes and intentions We discussed what the motives of the characters were, why they carried out their actions etc. The discussion included why Mrs Johnstone sold one of her twins, how Mickey's life got in such a bad state and why Edward's and Mickey's life got separated. The monologue The monologue is a technique for a character within the play to perform a dialogue to tell the
Response phase - as part of our Drama Portfolio we were asked to study the play 'Blood Brothers' and re-enact parts of the production.
RESPONSE PHASE As part of our Drama Portfolio we were asked to study the play 'Blood Brothers' and re-enact parts of the production. Firstly, as a class we read the play/novel of Blood Brothers written by Willy Russell. The play is basically about two brothers, both separated from birth. One child was given away to a middle/upper class family and the other was kept in the natural family of a lower class. The two brothers meet up and become 'blood brothers' by the joining of their blood, both not knowing they are real brothers. Numerous encounters put the boys in trouble and bring them closer together until an event whereupon they become estranged. Mickey Johnstone(the poorer of the pair) shoots Eddie Lyons (the richer man) following an argument about the woman, Linda, who is married to Mickey. Mickey discovers that Linda and Eddie have been conducting an affair without him knowing. The play is set in the heart of Liverpool. Mickey is a typical Liverpudlian and is attracted to the upper class lifestyle that Eddie leads. Eddie is also attracted to Mickey by the 'cool' words and funny nature of the boy. Eddie likes the funny stories that Mickey tells and when they first meet he laughs for hours after listening to the witty but not always true tales. I enjoyed the play as it was enthralling and exciting in most places and therefore gave us the opportunity to
How might a director show how Mickey and Edward's relationship changes in Blood Brothers? How would this link to Willy Russell's intentions?
GCSE Drama Coursework Blood Brothers How might a director show how Mickey and Edward's relationship changes in Blood Brothers? How would this link to Willy Russell's intentions? There! In a flash the whole course of your life has been decided, will you succeed or will you fail? It is not for you to decide, you have had your freedom taken away from you and you will never realise until the last moments of your frustrated, or enjoyable life and by then it will be too late. This is Blood Brothers in a nutshell; a musical which tears through the walls of social ethics exposing the obvious truth, injustice and social inequalities roam our Country and the devices which Russell uses brings this to the audience in a mixture of speech, song and show. In this piece of drama coursework focusing on Blood Brothers there will be several different aspects of the play which will be focused on. The characters, particularly the main two, will be the fundamental building blocks of answering the question because once we know everything about Mickey and Edward we can then go on to look at their relationship changes. Another important issue to look at is the dramatic devices used by the director and how this will link to the structure of the play. Also it would be useful to look at the language used as this can give a good insight into the author and on this note, reach into the ideas and
Willy Russell's "Blood Brothers" Review
Willy Russell's "Blood Brothers" Review Tell me it's not true Say it's just a story These words echoed in my head as I entered the Phoenix Theatre. I had had past experience with "Blood Brothers" by singing the heartbreaking ballad "Tell Me It's Not True" in a past show. Therefore I anticipated that the performance I was about to watch was going to be a roller coaster of emotions, with bitter consequences. I expected a first class show with strong, slick performances from the cast and fantastic musical numbers. This expectation of "Blood Brothers" was partly due to it being in the reputable West End of London and had been running at the Phoenix Theatre since 1991. This made me think that a musical that could still have large audiences coming to see it in the highly competitive London Theatre scene, must have something exceptional. I also has background knowledge about "Blood Brothers" from reading the script in parts in class. However, some parts of the play were still patchy to me, so I was looking forward to having the entire story acted out from start to finish. It was interesting for me as well because I was familiar with other plays Willy Russell had written. Having seen Shirley Valentine and read "A Grand Day Out" I enjoyed his of simple, uncluttered style of writing. "Blood Brothers" is set in Liverpool 1962. Its story stems from an impoverished single mother
Willy Russell's Blood Brothers - The Grand Theatre Leeds.
Willy Russell's Blood Brothers. The Grand Theatre Leeds The set design for Blood Brothers was very effective and set the scene really well at the beginning of the performance. The props which were on stage at the beginning were; props designed to look like houses, these were particularly effective because they were realistic in the way that they were quite old and looked like they were old dishevelled council houses. They portrayed the image of the rough area that was 1960's Liverpool. There were two rows of houses of about three and these were both situated at an angle on the far side of stage left and stage right. As the backdrop of the design a city style painting was used and in front of this was a bridge. Through the railings on the bridge you could seethe city backdrop. The set design was very detailed, the houses looked extremely real and the bridge, covered in graffiti really looked as though it was from Liverpool in the 1960's. The set design for the Lyons house was very effective because it was fairly simple (often only had the table as the piece of furniture) and this helped it look like the large house it was by creating space. When Eddie, Mickey and Linda are seventeen they go into town, the setting for the town is changed by putting a lamp post on set. This is effective and makes the set look like a town area. The lighting used throughout the play was
Blood Brothers
Blood Brothers Willy Russell writes a tragic story about two twins who were separated at birth but were reunited and became best friends as youngsters at the age of seven. However their different backgrounds took them to opposite stages in life. Edward who had an upper-class lifestyle became a councillor and Mickey on the other hand got fired from a factory where he was working and was sent to prison. They both fell in love with the same girl called Linda. However Linda was Mickey's wife and was going to be a mother to his child when Edward fell in love with her. When Mickey had come out of prison he had been taken tablets to help his depression. Linda needed love and comfort, but also in order to get Mickey a job and both of them a house of their own she kept on meeting Edward in order to get this. While the pair of them kept on secretly meeting, they had an affair which led to a fatal conclusion. In the end both the twins die after knowing that they were brothers. Mickey shoots Edward and a policeman shoots Mickey. This refers to what Mrs Lyons had told Mrs Johnston 'they will both die at the moment they are told that they are brothers'. The important character that pushed Edward and Mickey to death was their mother Mrs Johnston. This is because it was Mrs Johnston who told them that they were brothers. This left Mickey with mixed emotions of anger and jealousy. He
Explore how the theme of different social worlds is presented in "Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell. What comments might Russell be making about his twins
Explore how the theme of different social worlds is presented in "Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell. What comments might Russell be making about his twins You should write about * Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons * Edward and Mickey * The Policeman * The Narrator This essay is about the play Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. I will be discussing the two main female characters in the play, Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons and how they take part in the important events of the play. I am also going to look at other aspects, like their social statuses and how each receive different treatment altogether from others surrounding them. This will help me evaluate how Willy Russell has presented different social worlds to the audience, and how they are seen. Also I am going to be seeing how Willy Russell's background could possibly affect his views. Blood Brothers is the tale of two twin brothers who are secretly separated at birth and are forced to live very different lives apart from each other. Upon growing up these two brothers, upon chance, meet each other and strike up a friendship together, while all along being totally ignorant to their fraternity. This can only end in tragedy, as this terrible secret being kept from them cannot stay hidden for ever, so in the end both brothers end up dying together in an inevitable blood bath, upon finding out about the hidden secret. Because the