Into The Mind Of Machinal

In the play “Grand Concourse,” the talented playwriter and actress Heidi Schreck develops a plot based on the natural human conflict about the forgiveness toward unintentional actions. Heidi Schreck is a recognized writer who has been awarded with one-year residency by New York's Playwrights Horizons (Silk Road Rising 17,18). Named after the main street of the Bronx in New York City, the play shows the conflict that its characters face in the internal war between goodness and evil. The opposition between the actions of Emma (antagonist) and Shelley (protagonist) shows the complexity of human compassion towards the evil (sometimes unintentional) actions. Looking at the main actions of Emma in the play she egotistically seems to manipulate all the characters to feel better about herself. However, a deeper glazing indicates that her depression leads her to hurt people around her unintentionally; she tries to get forgiveness, but she realizes that the solution it is more complex that just an apologize.

In today's society, we generally view upon everyone as equal beings who deserve equal rights. At the turn of the 20th century, this particular view didn?t exist. Men clearly dominated almost every aspect of life and women were often left with little importance. The Wright?s embody this view of roles in Susan Glaspell?s play Trifles. Mrs. Wright was a typical woman who suffered the mental abuse from her husband and was caged from life. In Trifles, a mixture of symbolism of oppression illustrates Mrs. Minnie Wright?s motives to kill her husband and to escape from imprisonment.

“A Sorrowful Woman” features a superficially simple narration style. “Now the days were too short. She was always busy,” Stylistically clipped, with a clear passive, detached, voice the narration style seems to be a banal, unimportant feature of the text. Yet the exact mendacity that prompts this description actually serves as a prerequisite to developing an understanding for the principal character’s mindset, and consequently the theme of the text. The last passage contains numerous examples of detached narration but the clearest occurs when “She was always busy. She woke with the first bird. Worked till the sun set. No time for hair brushing. Her fingers raced the hours.” The concise, third person narration in this segment allows the reader to experience the slightly off viewpoint of ‘the mother.’ Specifically, given the lack of motivation present through the text coupled with the concluding suicide it becomes evident in the text that ‘the mother’ is suffering from depression. Given the societal stigma surrounding mental illness authors generally face an uphill

Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal is a strangely riveting play so filled with unlikable characters that it makes one want to scream and throttle which ever one is closest to hand without prejudice as to which persona it might be as they are all equally detestable in their own way. Unfortunately, the infuriating characters are exactly what make the play so fascinating. Each of the characters in the play, originally intended to display that life is an inescapable machine, exhibits many disturbing psychological qualities, and the main character suffers a slew of near textbook psychological misfortune. Whether Sophie Treadwell created her play with this facet intentionally or not is unknown, but the examples are so perfect it is difficult to think

Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal was loosely based and inspired by the murder trial of Ruth Snyder and Judd Gray, her lover. Together they conspired

‘So many women make such a big deal out of these things. But you're stronger than that’” (Walls 184). Sexual assault is dangerous and potentially traumatic. When Jeannette tries to confide in her mother after this incident, however, Rose Mary fails to address the issue directly. Instead of fulfilling her parental role by confronting Stanley, she tells Jeannette that she is “probably imagining it” and that she should not make it a “big deal.” By avoiding this responsibility, Rose Mary is neglecting her child—in a traumatic situation where Jeannette needs help, her mother downplays the danger. When she asks if Jeannette is okay, she simply “shrugged and nodded” (Walls 184). The indifference of her reaction suggests that she feels unable to genuinely confide in her mother. Jeannette’s relationship with Rose Mary has deteriorated due to her neglect of the situation’s severity. Later, Rex’s irresponsibility forces his daughter into a similar

Murder, torture, and mayhem are merely three of the unique problems that can be found throughout the one act play Trifles by Susan Glaspell. The writer opens up the story by explaining the situation of Mrs. Wright, a middle aged woman who is being accused of murdering her husband. The crime scene is a mess. A sheriff, the prosecuting attorney and their wives are looking in to the gruesome death that occurred upstairs in the Wright household. It is immediately found that the men focus their attention to the area around the body of Mr. Wright in search of evidence. However, it is the women begin to stumble across the clues that may lead to Mrs. Wright’s persecution. As more evidence is found we are lead to believe that Mrs. Wright did, in fact, kill her husband. By the end of the play the reader is still left wondering, why? Was it a case of self-defense, or is there something much deeper going on? Once a full understanding is reached, it becomes apparent that the only basis that should be used for dropping the charges of this case should be built on the notion of mental insanity. Mrs. Wright clearly demonstrates psychological tendencies that are symptomatic of Dissociative Disorders (Ben-Zvi, 145). With an evaluation of her past life, her behavior immediately after killing her husband, and evidence that is later found by the women, it becomes clear that Mrs. Wright was stricken with a Dissociative Disorder.

People experience different emotions that can drastically change within seconds and, cannot remain controlled. During the course of “The Most Dangerous Game”, “Scarlet Ibis” and “The Use of Force”, the author demonstrates how a person can change from calm and collected to an assailant. Sickness comes in many forms, both physical and mental. Together both can affect emotions, actions which those two then lead into flaws and faults being revealed. All humans have flaws and the authors are attempting to aid the reader in understanding flaws and that can be embraced or overpower a person. The narrators and characters of these stories have many flaws these faults which are both extremely subtle and obvious.

While the book demonstrates Helen’s mother as the dominant figure of the family and against special education for Helen due to her above-average intelligence, DeClement portrays Helen’s father in a passive manner.

Much has been has been discussed of Hamlet’s madness and insanity. There have been endless arguments of whether his madness is feigned or unfeigned. Although, minimal arguments have been made about Hamlet’s pessimism. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare 's most pessimistic plays, and as such it delivers the message that in a fallen world, reality often fails to match the ideal. The human experiences held up for pessimistic contemplation in Hamlet includes death, grief, loneliness, insanity, loss of meaning in life, breakdown of relationships, and the corruption of the basic institutions of life. Hamlet, as the main character, is the embodiment of such pessimism throughout the play.

The theme of suffering can come in numerous varieties; under categories both physical and emotional. Suffering is presented as a key concept in ‘Othello’, ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. All three texts explore many aspects of suffering in parts, however the most obvious and concentrated facet leans towards the psychological aspect rather then the physical side. In the three chosen texts many of the characters suffer from some sort of emotional trauma. Psychological suffering and distress is a major topic in all three chosen texts as the authors use this ailment in order to drive the storyline forward,

In the plays “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen and “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, we can optically discern that the characters decided to act to solve a crisis in their lives. Through the analysis of both “A Doll House” and “Trifles”, we can visually perceive the roles of women have been inhibited which led to Nora and Mrs. Wright acting out to feel in control of their own lives. Through the characters of Nora and Mrs. Wright, we can optically discern that the rebellious nature of leading characters that led to the circumstances that asserted their positions. The women did not have to make the cull they did, Mrs. Wright by taking a life and Nora by forging her father’s signature. Nora and Mrs. Wright were not prevalent in the circumstance of their own lives, women have been edified to do and verbalize as their

‘Machinal’ is a piece of expressionistic theatre (Reesman, 1997) that was written by American journalist Sophie Treadwell, in 1928. ‘Machinal’ is based on the life of convicted murderer Ruth Snyder who was executed in January 1928 for the murder of her husband, which is similar to what happens to the character of ‘Young Woman’ as the piece progresses. ‘Machinal’ follows a young woman who lives with her mother who marries her boss. The young woman has a baby with her husband, and then she has an affair with another man. The young woman then murders her husband and is executed after she is convicted of the murder. ‘Machinal’ was first performed on Broadway in 1928 at the Plymouth Theatre with the cast including Clark Gable and Zita Johann. The production was a success and it ran for 91 performances. However, in 1931 the production ran in London and it received mixed reviews. The different opinions were formed due to the violent and sexual themes that featured within the piece. The greatest success came from Russia at Moscow’s Kamerny Theatre. Treadwell worked as a court reporter first for the San Francisco Bulletin and the New York Herald Tribune. (Reesman, 1997. p176) Treadwell, however, did not report on Snyder’s case but she took an interest in the case.

In Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn creates a world full of distasteful characters to show how their manipulating behaviour is a result of their dissatisfaction. Each time one of the characters try to lie and manipulate others or even themselves, it reflects on how unhappy they are with their situation thins. And it is because of this that the more dissatisfied you are, the more inclined you are to hurt and try to control your environment.

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the world’s most renowned plays, one which has stood the test of time over the course of 400 years, finding relevance even today. A complex and sophisticated work, Hamlet is a masterful weaving of the myriad of components that make up the human experience; it delicately touches upon such topics as death, romance, vengeance, and mania, among several others. Being so intricate and involuted, Hamlet has been interpreted in countless fashions since its conception, with each reader construing it through their own subjectivity. Some of the most popular and accredited methods of analyzing the work are the Traditional Revenge Tragedy, Existentialist, Psychoanalytic, Romantic, and Act of Mourning approaches.