I'm Going by Tristan Bernard

In Michael Gow’s play ‘Away’, a story of families in the 1960’s and how they come to embrace each other’s differences through gaining self-knowledge. Through identifying the context of act 3 scene 2, as well as the relationships between characters and the reasons behind them, as well as the stylistic devices used by Gow to share a message with his audiences that, even today, an audience can relate too. By analysing quotes from the scene to support conclusions, the purpose of this scene will be identified and a greater understanding the theme of self-knowledge in this scene will be formed.

Paul Newman once said, “People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked” (74). There is no such thing as the perfect relationship, however, being involved in a healthy relationship is essential for a person to feel valued, safe, and happy. Unfortunately, in the situation of Kelly Sundberg’s personal essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” and Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of An Hour,” include extreme examples of unhealthy relationships. The essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” shares painful experiences of Sundberg’s physical and emotional abusive relationship with her husband Caleb, while “The Story of an Hour,” shares a rare reaction of a married woman, Louise Mallard, who explores her emotions cautiously when hearing about the death of her husband. Each woman faces their own prison created by their husbands. The two marriages represent the figurative meaning of doors being locked in a marriage. Both pieces of literature convey the theme of confinement by using the literary devices of foreshadowing, imagery, and conflict.

‘Marital intimacy is dangerous, the very dream of it is a threat’ (Greenblatt). Compare Othello and Much Ado in light of this statement. To what extent does your study of these plays lead you to agree with this assessment of marriage in Shakespeare’s drama? What is revealed about the context in which the plays were written and how would the audiences’ responses differ over time?

In spite of the promise of three weddings to be celebrated, the play concludes on a sour note when Feste, the clown, depicts life as grim, "for the rain it raineth every day" (Act V Scene i). They play’s primary central theme is that of the comic relationships between men and women. Furthermore, it illustrates the traditional, societal notions of “interdependence, and the newly emerging attitudes towards individual choice and personal desire, or as the play puts it, ‘will’” (Malcolmson 163). Although Twelfth Night is a story of love and courtship, nevertheless, it is also a “comedy of gender,” because of its ability to override the traditional Elizabethan notions of the female role through the characters of Viola and Olivia.

The focus of this paper will be to compare and contrast the works of two playwrights. The works that will be considered are Molière’s The Would-Be Gentleman and Beaumarchais’s The Marriage of Figaro. Both considered comedies, Moliere’s is a short play that tells the tale of Monsieur Jourdain, a tradesman who desires to become a gentleman. Beaumarchais’s play, second in the Figaro trilogy, follows the series of event prior to Figaro’s wedding. Figaro and his companions scheme to ensure that his marriage occurs smoothly. Furthermore, the plays are dated 100 years apart from each other, and they deal with the representation of social hierarchy, social mobility, and gender roles in various ways. With that in mind, they become good sources to compare and contrast the changes in society that occurred within those 100 years. This paper will compare both plays to examine how Molière further endorses the social values and ideas of his time, while Beaumarchais’s presents a shift in attitude towards those values and challenges them.

In both Judy Brady’s “I want a wife” and Rebecca Curtis’s “Twenty Grand,” the reader is given a glimpse into the lives of two families living in different worlds but sharing many similar situations. Both families in the two-story show the environment that they are living in. Through the author’s use of irony, repetition, and tone, it becomes clear that I feel more sympathy for the mother in the story “Twenty Grand”.

In “The Other Paris,” two characters, Carol and Howard Mitchell are soon-to-be married young adults whose actions are completely influenced by the norms of society. The author, Mavis Gallant, provides clear social commentary on the societal influences on marriage through satirical uses of irony and mockery, the use of a omniscient narrator, and substantial characterization of the relationship between the couple to show the reader how ridiculous and formulaic the “pillars of marriage” can be, and how society ultimately determines which aspects of these pillars receive emphasis.

Though Madame Pernelle is a grouchy old lady who makes extremely uncouth remarks, her comments indicate that she has a strong sense of seniority and has the freedom to speak as she pleases. The maid, Dorine, demonstrates the power of defiance when she questions the motives of her boss as well as his daughter. She illustrates a strong fervent character who defies authority to obtain it. Lastly, Elmire reveals the influence of sharp thinking and women’s control in a marriage. Moliere’ has given us a feminist play where women ,that men and women can relate to, deal with modern problems in an 18th century time frame such as adjusting to change with the Madame Pernelle, dealing with inferiority with Dorine, and fighting for influence and trust in one’s spouse with Elmire. Though men have their parts in this play, the women most definitely step up to stimulate the action and prove that their influence is equal to men’s

Frequently, married couples value the stability of their relationship over the true pillars of marriage; trust, connection, compatibility, and most importantly, love. This leads to a desperate attempt to grow love in the relationship, which often fails. Such is the case in the short story, “The Other Paris,” by Mavis Gallant. Here, Gallant portrays her disagreement with this idea of love through her mocking tone and sarcastic characterization of Carol and Howard Mitchell.

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” examine the complex relationship between a husband and wife. The two works take two different approaches to convey the same message: Marriage is not a fairytale, it requires sacrifice and unselfish behavior in order to work. Relationships are difficult to begin and harder to maintain. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and Aylmer and Georgiana are two relationships that shatter the surreal perception of marriage and expose readers to the raw truth, marriage is not a fairytale.

In the Stories of Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” there are many themes the two works have in common. The main one is how the two stories revolve around tragedy. Other topics to discuss are the roles and expectations of women in marriage. The authors describe marriage as a role that prohibits women from being free to think for themselves . Another common theme in both stories is how the author shows us the the day to day life of a woman and how she should act. The helps us to see how women have experienced sexism.

Susan Glaspell’s one act play “Trifles” is based on an actual murder court trial that she remembered covering from her days as a newspaper reporter in Iowa. She wrote at a time when women were supposed to be submissive to men and especially to their husbands. This play takes a look at a common social problem during the early 1900s when Americans wanted to keep all of their relationship problems private. Many married couples would do anything to keep their lives free from scandal, and this murder mystery examines the necessity of appearances and reputation of having the perfect marriage that was typical during that time. This was done to protect the married couple from being scorned by family, friends and community if their secrets were ever turned into a scandal. It is an incredible play that may be better understood by those who have experienced the same situation at some time in their lives. This play/production is a good definition/example of a problem play because it aims to draw attention to a /the social problem, such as of emotional abuse.

But 50 years ago there wasn’t much talk of divorces. When people married they married for love and the difficulties that went along with it. In Tyler Perry’s play “Why Did I get Married” Sheila, one of the characters is faced with many obstacles during her journey to pursue acceptance from her husband. Sheila and Mike are invited to a couple’s retreat where Sheila strings alone her friend Trina. Mike was not in agreement, but after Trina was invited he decided to attend.

Modern literature is known for questioning society and its various conventions. One question that these works often ask is, “What is real?” Some modern authors explore this question by placing their characters within self-constructed illusions that are later shattered by the introduction of reality. Marriages are frequently at the center of this theme, with one spouse crafting an illusory impression of the other. Modern literature demonstrates that a marriage built upon illusion will falter when exposed to reality.

This paper critically analyses the theme of social mobility through marriage in Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’. In addition, the paper highlights how different characters in the play got into higher social classes or desired to be in higher social classes through marriage. This paper holds that in a highly stratified society such as that presented in the Shakespeare’s play; marriage plays a significant role in in social class mobility. As opposed to some traditional society where marriage was only permitted along an individual’s class, Shakespeare presents a literally liberal society with marriage and other relationships permitted along all the classes within the society. In fact, marriage is more of a person choice, contrary to the perception in the tradition society.