Juxtaposition In Arcadia

Geraldine Cousin’s Playing for Time presents a unique argument in her work. She talks about Arcadia and another play Copenhagen and their use of time within it’s work. With Arcadia especially Cousin goes straight to the point. She

“Beneath the gore and smoke and loam, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow. In the end it is a story of the ineluctable conflict between good and evil, daylight and darkness, the White City and the Black.” (xi) This shows the contrast between the White City and the Black City. One, perfect, beautiful, magical, the other dark, filthy, evil. The two work together yet against each other in the battle to win over the hearts of the people who visit, and those who decide to stay

Ruth’s character reminds us that the process of producing the play within the play is about finding a deeper, more real reality. For characters such as Ruth and Roy, the play is about creating an escape from their reality within the institution, such as characters like Zac whom “can’t stand real things”. For other characters such as Julie, the mental institution surrounds them, but performing the play allows them to break free from reality. Through producing the play, Lewis explores what is ‘real’ and what is ‘normal’, Nowra introduces the concept that the two concepts contrast with each other. Nowra concluded the play with Lewis’ narration. Turning off the lights sets the realisation of the brief tails of their lives given by Lewis, which are powered by reality and not a pristine ending, as life continues to happen.

William Faulkner’s novel, The Sound and the Fury, exemplifies the very meaning of an internal conflict between order and chaos through the forlorn and tragic character, Quentin Compson. Although Quentin is displayed with an outward appearance that can be described as orderly, it is apparent through his chaotic thoughts that he is overwhelmed by his ardent views on the Compson family’s honor, which was destroyed when Caddy lost her virginity.

On more than one occasion, the play previews the dreams and hopes of the characters and how life sent one of its adversaries to snatch it. Beginning with Troy and his dream of becoming a baseball player which was the play’s symbol for

As one develops, the values that he/she support mature in sync with mental, physical, and emotional developments. With this maturation, individuals create a moral code that is based on the values and beliefs that are deemed most important. Whether the creation of this code of conduct is intentional or not, it nonetheless serves as a guide for the way in which one behaves. These moral codes ensure the maintenance of order within one’s own life. By token of consideration, Raymond Chandler’s “Red Wind” follows Philip Marlowe as he subscribes to a moral code of chaotic good, wherein he behaves in a seemingly unprincipled manner. However, he does so as a mode of ultimately serving the common good. Comparatively, society as a whole also creates regulations to live by with the intention of maintaining order amongst the masses. The court of law, for example, ensures that individuals behave ethically and in favour of the common good. Without these general regulations, society succumbs to chaos. With reference to the text, the world that Marlowe lives in is one that supports moral systems that are in opposition to his own. The interaction between one’s personal values (moral code) and social sanctions (e.g. the law and societal ideals), may result in a shift in an individual’s belief system. The following essay will explore the ‘world’ that Chandler has created for the characters, Marlowe’s moral code in response to the world in which he lives, and finally, the state that Marlowe

Emily Dickinson, a highly coveted American poet, once wrote “Much madness is divinest Sense-To a discerning Eye-“. Our perception of viewing a circumstance in which insanity is present is heavily impacted on whether it is our own or another individual’s madness. Characters within the Shakespearean play, Hamlet, have expressed the true essence of madness in different levels by behaving a variety of ways which may or may not be reasonable for the situation at hand. Not only does the conduct of the characters provide a more in depth understanding of them, it further adds to the work as a whole.

The recurring theme of insanity and madness in William Shakespeare's Hamlet causes characters` minds to become skewed, and this impacts the way each person thinks and ultimately the way decisions are made. There is not only the mad as in angry, but also the mental state (insanity). The fact that almost all characters are mad at some point shows how madness driven this play really is, and how much emotions can control everyone regardless of their normal mental state.

In Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, love is a violent, consuming, overpowering force that overrules all other values, loyalties and emotions. There cannot be an epic romance without rebellion, as rebellion cannot exist without love – of power, a person, money. Literary techniques, such as a sonnet, and captivating metaphors relating love to religion and magic; describe their passion but cannot capture the entirety of it. Juliet states: “But my true love is grown to such excess / I cannot sum up some of half my wealth” (3.i.33–34).

Sarah Ruhl is well known for her existential writing style, with many of her plays consisting of uncommon, and often unrealistic, circumstances that wander into the realms of vivid imagery, myth, and realized metaphors. Her characters are faced with the battle of finding themselves in an unstable and abstract world, struggling to discover their place as the foundations of their lives are shifted under their feet. This paper pursues to address the question: How does one find realistic and beneficial meaning for today’s world behind the messages written into Ruhl’s whimsical approach to life through her plot structure? To answer this I will examine the dramatic structure within the plays Melancholy Play, Eurydice, and Passion Play. I chose

Within the play, supernatural forces are a common occurrence and often transpire into woeful and tragic happenings, acting as a warning to viewers. Throughout various scenes, the prophecies of

Arcadia refers to a Utopian ideal: the idea of harmony with nature and the entire world. The term is derived from a Greek province, which bears the same name. The Province’s mountainous landscape and history of containing a sparse population of farmers later caused the word “Arcadia” to develop into a poetic byword for an idyllic vision of unspoiled natural beauty. The inhabitants are regarded as living without pride and avarice that corrupted other regions of the world. The inhabitants of Arcadia are regarded as living close to nature, uncorrupted by civilization, and being virtuous. In other words they live in a place that many people would consider a paradise.

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett's existential masterpiece, for some odd reason has captured the minds of millions of readers, artists, and critics worldwide, joining them all in an attempt to interpret the play. Beckett has told them not to read anything into his work, yet he does not stop them. Perhaps he recognizes the human quality of bringing personal experiences and such to the piece of art, and interpreting it through such colored lenses. Hundreds of theories are expounded, all of them right and none of them wrong. A play is only what you bring to it, in a subconscious connection between you and the playwright.

The late nineteenth century ushered in an era of questioning in an attempt to understand the rational and irrational aspects of human existence. Intellects during the fin-de-siècle confront their earlier faith in science and reason and place a new emphasis on the irrational and consciousness. Two influential intellects at this time, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, recognized the influence and role of the irrational on human behavior and society’s effect on irrationality. Nietzsche is crucial in the “dethronement of reason” and illustrates how the rational and irrational work together while glorifying the irrational in his book, The Birth of Tragedy, by using Greek tragedy. Freud on the other hand did believe that the rational and irrational worked together, but did not celebrate the irrational.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet and King Lear are not only exhibitions of human experience but also studies in the spiritual life of man. Through these two plays Shakespeare has elaborately attempted to get a meaning out of life, and not to show its mystery or madness despite the fact that madness as simulation has been a source of fascination in these two tragedies. In Shakespeare’s Madness and Music, Kendra Preston Leonard says that Hamlet and King Lear ultimately focus on crises of family and power and involve a recurring early modern trope: madness (1). Concerning madness, Foucault says in Madness and Civilization, that it constitutes the knot more than the denouement, the peripety rather than the final release (32). Foucault sheds light on the