The Beast.

Chapter 1 The moonlight trickled though the bare, twisted tree tops, inviting shadows to dance playfully on the wintry ground below. As she made her way through the park she saw him, watching, waiting for her, half hidden under the darkness of the great oak tree, and she smiled. Emerging from the shadows he moved towards her. "You're finally here then!" He joked as he drew her into his arms. "I came as soon as I could. It's been way too long," she whispered before pressing her lips against his. "I've missed you so much." He spoke softly. "Not as much as I've missed you!" Perched up high on a naked branch of the tree, the beast watched the two human bodies in the freshly fallen snow. He slowly raised his head as he anticipated the flavour of their ripe young blood. An evil grin spread his snout, the tips of his sharpened fangs glinting in the moonlight. He made his decent along the heaving mass of tangled branches and stopped directly above the couple, who were blissfully oblivious that they were about to become dinner. "What was that?" She sat up looking up in to the tree but all she could see was the darkness of the shadows. "What was what?" He laughed, gently kissing the back of her neck. "I didn't hear anything." "I thought I heard something. Up there in the trees." She pointed her finger up to the tree. "It was properly just a bird!" He placed his hands firmly on her

  • Word count: 12671
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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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

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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'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

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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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

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Educating Rita: How does Willy Russell present the development of Frank and of Rita in Educating Rita?

How does Willy Russell present the development of Frank and of Rita in 'Educating Rita'? Educating Rita, a play written by Willy Russell focuses predominantly on the lives of two people: Frank and Rita. In this essay, we - as an audience - will explore the many ways in which Frank and Rita develop or change as the play progresses. At the beginning of the play, the audience react to seeing Frank in a sort of intrigued way. The fact that Frank is looking at the bookshelf leaves the audience wanting to find out what will happen next. Frank, at this point, begins talking to himself "Where the hell...? Eliot?" and from this, his intentions of looking for a book are revealed. However, all is not as it seems as Frank pulls out the books from the author he was contemplating over and pulls out a bottle of whisky behind them. Suddenly, the impression we have of him dramatically changes from a guy who is interested in reading or a quote in a book to someone who likes to drink and this is humorous due to the dramatic change in how we perceive him to be. At the same time, we also find out that Frank is somewhat scared or reluctant in losing his job as he is forced to conceal his bottle in order to keep it. Using this, it can be said that Frank loves his drink as he goes through the effort of hiding it, after which he must endeavour to find it. As the scene progresses, Frank is in some

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Educating Rita

Educating Rita Katy-Leigh Bogin Recently, I have been studying a play called 'Educating Rita', by Willy Russell. The comedy was first produced at the Liverpool Playhouse in February 1981 and was made into a film, produced by Lewis Gilbert in 1983, starring Michael Caine (Dr. Frank Bryant) and Julie Walters (Rita White). It was revised and re-written by Willy Russell in March 2003 for the reason that it is used for examinations. In this essay, in order to answer the question successfully, Examine Franks growing sense of unease as Rita becomes more educated, I am going to focus closely on; the characters, the structure of the play, the language used, and the relationships shared between characters, especially between Frank and Rita. Willy Russell originally wrote the play in 1981, just a few years after The Pill was introduced. The Pill, also known as the combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), or the birth-control pill, was one of the first forms of contraception that allowed women to have sexual freedom and control pregnancies. The Pill is a tablet containing two female hormones, oestrogen, and progestogen. These two hormones stop a woman from ovulating (producing an egg) each month, therefore they wouldn't get pregnant. Today, about 100 million women worldwide, 3.5 million women in the UK

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relationship between frank and rita in educating rita

How Does Willy Russell Present the Development of Frank and of Rita in 'Educating Rita'? Educating Rita, written by Willy Russell is a witty, humorous play with only two characters, Frank and Rita. Rita is twenty-six years old and a hairdresser from Liverpool. She longs to break away from her daily routine and not follow the mould of a lower class Liverpudlian woman. She does this by taking a degree in English Literature from the Open University (O.U.). Rita teaches her tutor, Frank, more about life than she learns from him, about books. The development of Frank and Rita's characters is a central part to why the play works and is so successful, in the theatre and on the 'big screen'. On the one hand Frank starts out very much as a long-suffering cynic, who turns to alcohol for comfort. However by the end of the play Frank has a new perception on life and the lower class. He also acquires a greater respect for his pupils and for literature in general. Rita is very much unlike Frank she is very abrupt and energetic, but still very friendly. She has a very positive attitude towards the course and wanting to learn, however she lacks much confidence in her own abilities and intellect. However by the end of the play she is almost the opposite she is far more laid back and confident. She is far less abrupt, but still with a thirst for knowledge. At the very beginning of

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Through Detailed Reference To the Text Make Clear What We Learn About Mr Briggs and Mrs Kay and Show How Willy Russel Uses a Range of Dramatic Techniques To Manipulate Our Responses To Them At Key Points In the Play

Through detailed reference to the text make clear what we learn about Mr Briggs and Mrs Kay and show how Willy Russel uses a range of dramatic techniques to manipulate our responses to them at key points in the play Over the past few weeks our class has been studying "Our Day Out", a drama written by Willy Russell. It was first aired in December 1977 on the BBC. It is about a school trip to Wales for the 'progress class' of a Liverpool school accompanied by four teachers, two with very different ideas of how to teach the children. Mrs Kay, is one of the teachers on the trip is a liberal minded person who believes it is more important for the children to enjoy themselves on the trip, much to the annoyance of Mr Briggs. Mr Briggs is the complete opposite of Mrs Kay. He believes in strict discipline of children, because in his opinion they aren't capable of learning any other way. As the story progresses, the audience receives more clues as to each of the characters personalities and traits. The first character we get to see is Carol, a thirteen-year-old girl who attends the progress class. She is introduced to the audience as she attempts to cross the road. She is stopped by Les, the lollipop man. She explains to Les that everyone who is in the progress class is going on a trip. Les doesn't know what the progress class is so Carol explains it's for all the "backwards" kids. I

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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In this essay I am going to show my ideas for staging a production of 'Educating Rita', a play written by Willy Russell in 1979.

First Draft of Educating Rita by Willy Russell In this essay I am going to show my ideas for staging a production of 'Educating Rita', a play written by Willy Russell in 1979. It was performed particularly in the 1980s decade and was written to appeal to both middle class people and the working class. The most famous production of 'Educating Rita' was shown on TV and starred Julie Walters and Michael Caine. 'Educating Rita' stars two people and takes place in a university office in Liverpool. Rita is a working class hairdresser who is dissatisfied with the life that lies ahead for her and feels uncomfortable and cramped in her working class lifestyle. She has a dream to be educated and surpass all expectations other people have of her. She is so determined to fulfil this dream that she signs up for a course in English Literature as part of the Open University scheme. Here, Rita is given a tutor called Frank, a man unhappy with the stuffy middle class lifestyle. Frank feels the same way about his life as Rita does about hers-he feels cramped and dislikes doing what other people expect of him. This made him dependant on alcohol. The play follows their relationship and shows how they learn from each other. Another play similar to Educating Rita in many ways was written in 1914 and is called Pygmalion. This book was the basis for the musical 'My Fair Lady', first

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Educating Rita

Reader: "Educating Rita" The Author: Willy Rusell He was born in Whiston (near Liverpool). His dad worked in a factory, his mum in a warehouse. At primary school he read books, did a bit of gardening, played football, but didn't care much for being a good student. Secondary school in Huyton was tough, students were rude, he learnt to survive, hated his metalwork teacher, Mr. Anders, then he went to another school in Rainford, which was a paradise compared to Huyton. There, he started to enjoy reading and thought about becoming a writer, but he was a "D" level student so he had no chance to enter college, he applied to start a course to become an apprentice printer but failed; his mother suggested he should become a hairdresser and he did, but he had no abilities to succeed, even though he had his own salon, there he wrote songs and poetry in his spare time. He knew he wanted to write, so he left everything and decided to get the money to pay for the college fees, he got a well paid risky job until he earned enough money for the fees, then he went to college and felt old among 16-year-olds, however, he also felt at home. He was starting again. It was just the beginning of his career when "Educating Rita" became the best comedy of the year in 1980 when played by the Royal Shakespeare Company and in 1983 it was the 4th most popular in Britain. The story: It is a comedy

  • Word count: 5064
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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