The most constant happening in one’s life is change. People change their minds, their hearts, their careers with each passing season. However, it is one’s character that remains even after the changes in personality and personal progression and shines through. In Robert Redford’s 2010 film The Conspirator, Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) protects a mother enduring a military trial due to her son’s actions. Aiken, a fair and honest Union soldier and lawyer, is forced against his will to defend Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) a southerner accused of conspiring to assassinate President Lincoln. Even though Aiken loathes the task given to him and the woman he is forced to defend, he tries his best to give Surratt the fair trial she deserves. Throughout …show more content…
This scene establishes the fundamental element behind Aiken that will remain important throughout the film; Aiken will not betray a cause or person worth fighting for. Aiken was a caption of the Union Army, and he is beyond loyal. Upon learning of his president’s assassination, Aiken is devastated; he is enraged. He, like the rest of the nation, is shaken to the core and confused. During this time of fear and confusion, Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) spoke to Aiken about the Surratt trial. Aiken despised the woman Johnson spoke of; he believed her to be a traitor deserving of harsh punishment. After realizing that, as a southerner, he wouldn’t be taken seriously during the trial that Johnson handed the case over to the unprepared and infuriated Aiken. However, Frederick Aiken believed that Surratt was guilty and hated her with every fiber of his being, for in his mind, she was as atrocious as the assassin of Abraham …show more content…
Bitterly, he examined the evidence, and when put face-to-face with Surratt herself, Aiken was disgusted. The meeting between the two was one full of resentment, and Surratt went as far as telling Aiken that, “he was so blinded by hatred, he couldn’t even see the truth.” After hearing that statement, Aiken walked out of the prison cell. It was at some point throughout the process of going to court together and Surratt’s life relying on Aiken’s defense that Aiken began to see the injustice of the situation Mary Surratt was in. Perhaps it was the realization that Surratt is a fellow human being, or it was the sight of her daughter grieving over the situation her mother was placed in. Either way, Aiken opened his eyes to the foul play that put Mary Surratt behind bars, and he did everything in his power to stop that foul play from happening to her or anyone
The 1996 film of The Crucible is a historical drama inspired by the Salem witchcraft trials. The film has won a multitude of cinematic achievements and continuously blows audience members away with the accuracy of the historical events and portrayal of the characters by the actors and actresses. The profound work of Arthur Miller is also expressed within the written play of The Crucible. However, the film did the best job of portraying characters that were both historically accurate and believable to an audience member. One main character from The Crucible that is both historically accurate and extremely believable in the film is Abigail Williams. Winona Ryder, the actress of Abigail Williams, did an impeccable job portraying her character and became widely known for her work through several achievements and film reviews. The recognition that she and the rest of the cast received due to the characterization in this cinematic production is what made the film do the best job of portraying characters as historically accurate and believable to an audience member instead of the written play. Although the written play describes the actions and thoughts of the characters very precisely, the film did the best job of portraying characters as historically accurate and believable to an audience member through the achievements and film reviews received from actors and actresses such as Winona Ryder, the recognition the cast as a whole earned, and the actions and emotions the actors and
Mary Surratt should have been executed . She should have been executed because she lied about knowing people .
As Mary Surratt walked up the steps of the gallows, knowing that the low hanging noose was about to take her life, she whispered to the soldier “don’t let me fall’. Moments later the thick rope instantly brought Surratt to her last breath. Mary was accused for being involved in the association of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 15th, 1865. Mary Surratt deserved to be executed for holding her tongue during the assassination.
There are lots of reasons why Mary Surratt is guilty but,there are also reasons why she is not guilty. One of the reasons why she is guilty is her reaction. Mary’s reaction was suspicious when the police came and told her that Abraham has got assassinated she wasn’t crying or anything she acted like she already knew about it.Then the
Mary Surratt was guilty and deserved to be put in prison for helping assassinate the president. Mary Surratt lied when it came to talking about the kidnap/assassination plot to kidnap/assassinat Abraham Lincoln and frequently talked to John Wilkes Booth.
Less complex of a character than Perry Smith, Dick Hickock undoubtedly deals with conflict in the latter part of his life that causes his mental state of mind to become impaired. Hickock, unlike Smith, endures a fair childhood. He is born into a “semi-poor” home, in which his parents rarely fight (Capote 277). Indeed, he respects his parents, and in turn, they prove loving toward him throughout his life. Involved in copious sports and attaining mostly A’s, his future seems bright. However, with no real money to pursue a college education, he turns toward the workforce. At his second job, he is involved in a car accident, which leads to the ruin of his mental state. Left for several hours unconscious, and with a “serious head injury,” he was not, as his father stated, “the same boy” (Capote 166, 294).
Mary Surratt should have not been executed, but imprisoned. Mary Surratt was guilty because she was a part of Abraham Lincoln’s kidnapping plot along with being untruthful.
Mary Surratt was the defendant among the executed that received a punishment far out weighing her role in the crime. Mary Surratt was convicted of conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. She was sentenced to death and became the first woman to be executed by the U.S. government. Mary Surratt was the mother of John Surratt who was a conspirator that helped John Wilkes Booth plan Lincoln’s kidnap and later, his assassination. With the help of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, “Lincoln and the Writ of Liberty,” and the movie The Conspirator, it can be proven that Mary Surratt’s punishment was unjust. Mary Surratt received a punishment far worse than what she deserved because she was innocent, blamed for her son’s actions, and she did
In the play Hamlet Shakespeare teaches us a valuable lesson; namely, not to allow revenge to overcome us. Indeed, one should not be satisfied with a clear-cut division between the good and the bad, the successful and the rejected. Deception can be used as an instrument of convenience and a weapon of destruction leading us to conclude that the mere appearance of things may be deceiving. The murder episode described by Capote is a metaphor of the family’s estrangement. It removes the family from the domain of the reality and realism to transform it by means of the Gothic imagery into a powerful symbol of an average American family (Olsza, 2009). Meanwhile, Hamlet's behaviour becomes more erratic; his acting mad seems to cause Hamlet to become temporarily insane and lose his grip on reality. This proves that acting on psychotic impulses, even at the spur of moments, usually involves disastrous consequences. Hamlet and In Cold Blood are commonly recognized a classic play and a novel of human
I am doing my paper on the movie Conviction. The movie was from 2010 and portrays a working mother going to the extent to represent her brother for a crime he didn’t commit. Her hard working efforts broke her marriage apart and made her life quite difficult but despite all the speed bumps, she stayed true to her promise. Also, her brother Kennedy Waters inspired her to go to Law school to be his lawyer. This essay will foreshadow the process through law, process of getting arrested, and show how manipulation can make you second guess yourself or others. Also, this movie proves mistakes can be made in a case and Bethany proved the mistake being made. There were times Kennedy hated his life so bad, he did try to commit suicide. Through all the hard times, when he didn’t believe in himself, Bethany was there through thick and thin.
2016: Many works of literature contain a character who intentionally deceives others. The character’s dishonesty may be intended either to help or to hurt. Such a character, for example, may choose to mislead others for personal safety, to spare someone’s feelings, or to carry out a crime. Choose a novel or play in which a character deceives others. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the motives for that character’s deception and discuss how the deception contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Jefferson is a peculiar character in that the story is centred on his existence and, although his thoughts and opinions are seldom expressed, the lessons he learnt are completely unambiguous. As the tragic story goes, he is a very young black man unjustly condemned to death for a crime he did not commit. Furthermore, he is dehumanized in his defence when he is called a “hog” and this detrimentally affects his self esteem throughout a significant portion of the novel. However, this melancholic situation he is thrust into and his initial reaction to it is contrasted against his final moment which unashamedly reveals just how much he has learnt in his incarceration period. Jefferson, through the guidance of Grant, learns about the notion of dignity, a peculiarity that drives people towards the pinnacle of human
In the tragedy play “Hamlet” written by William Shakespeare, had an underlying theme of heroism. Throughout the entire play, Hamlet has proven himself to be a hero in disguise. He is a good representation of how an ordinary individual can be a hero. However, as we continue to read the play, we soon discover that he is incapable of certain things and carry traits that go against what a typical hero is believed to have. Hamlet is not the stereotypical hero you would expect. Instead, he is a flawed hero. Every time we look at Hamlet, he is different, unpredictable, but never cease to surprise us with his acts. Our relationship with Hamlet changes each time we read the play. The play offers a different standard than what is typical for what defines
This derives from the play as a recount of historical events with a known outcome and a medium for propaganda in support of the monarchy, an avid determinist. Nevertheless, the aforementioned tension is prevalent throughout and epitomised by the paradoxical pun ‘I am determined to prove a villain’. Uttered with a tone of poise and self-assuredness, the term ‘determined’ implies a conscious statement of purpose and a preordained villainy. Thus Richard is aligned with the stock character of the Vice, an instrument of predestination, and the innovative Machiavel, an advocator of humanism. Despite this, the ultimate decline of Richard is consequential of the reign of determinism. The directly antithetic correctio ‘I am a villain. Yet I lie, I am not’ yields an implicit self-doubt and acknowledgment of an inability to fulfil his humanist purpose. Providentialism thus displays precedence over self-determination. This is in direct contrast to Pacino’s docudrama, composed for a secular modern American audience disengaged with traditional notions of determinism. A greatly diminished and altered portrayal of Margaret, the primary instrument of determinism in the play, is expressive of this. Pacino devalues her curses by reducing her to a ‘sort of ghost of the past’. A frenzied montage of informative discourse and the activity of the play complete with
In Sarah Koenig’s podcast ‘Serial’ and Laura Ricchardi’s docudrama ‘Making a Murderer’, both use characterisation to influence the audience to determine whether the person on trial is innocent. However, in ‘Serial’ Koenig characterises Adnan in a positive way that suggest that he may be innocent, whereas in ‘Making a Murderer’ Ricchardi characterises Steven Avery in a negative way to doubt Stevens innocence. Through the use of a simile, Koenig characterises Adnan as harmless and a man of the community as she says, “…he has giant brown eyes like a dairy cow.” This influences the audience by appealing to their emotions and leading them to consider how someone that looks innocent could possibly kill someone. In addition to this simile used, an interview with Adnan’s