Athol Fugard’s play, The road to Mecca introduces a character, Elsa Barlow. She is a complex character with strong opinions. She comes across as confused and troubled throughout the play. Her mood changes from being desperate to openly resistant and then from annoyed to remorseful. She battles with her own depression while also trying to help her old friend miss Helen with her troubles. Within this essay I am going to discuss how the confinement of time, the year 1974, and space, which is Miss Helen’s home, helps readers see deeper into the nature of Elsa’s character. I will discuss how her character unfolds through her perceptions of Nieu Bethesda, how her attitudes and disclosures further reveal the nature of her character and what effects …show more content…
She said the phrase “God without mankind” sums up the way she feels about the Karoo. Furthermore, Elsa’s perceptions about the community in Nieu Bethesda reveal her own personal views and are not the same as Helen’s, Elsa questions Helen if anybody has bothered to ask what the Coloured people think about Getruida wanting to open a liquor store? Helen asked: “Are we going to have that argument again?” (Fugard 1992: 29) Elsa clearly has been talking about the way the village is doing things before. She does not agree with their way of life and her foil character reveals the contrast in opinions between her and Helen …show more content…
Elsa opposes the Afrikaner system; this was made clear when she gave a lift to an African woman, outside Graaf –Reinet walking with her baby to find a place to live. The woman said the baas told her that she had to leave the farm shortly after her husband died. Elsa referred to this incident as: “...a good old South African story. “ (Fugard 1992:25). Elsa is also facing a disciplinary hearing for what she believes in; she gave her coloured class homework to write a letter to the State President about racial inequality. Elsa said: “…I’d give anything to be able to walk in and tell that School Board exactly what I think of them and their educational system.” She then exclaimed, “… for as long as I’m in the classroom a little subversion is possible. Rebellion starts, Miss Helen, with just one man or woman standing up and saying, “No. Enough!” Albert Camus. French writer.” (Fugard 1992:31). Elsa holds the Afrikaaner and their religion accountable for the lack of freedom in society, one example is her view of marriage, Katrina is a 17 year old mother, married to a drunk who apparently beats her. Elsa said to Helen that Katrina has a few rights and that she should divorce Koos. Helen said she can’t just leave Koos, because they are married, but Elsa snaps back by saying: “…There’s the Afrikaner
The unwanting desire to face reality and confront the isolation in which one is living is a struggle that both Gabriel and a little boy encounter. Jame Joyce’s works portray his characters to display both inner struggles and difficulty being socially accepted. During the party, Gabriel is anxious and nervous because he wants to uphold this reputation of a confident man. Therefore, he creates a script allowing him to have a sense control and comfort which he lacks. In Contrast, the little boy perceives himself to be self-assured and sociable when in reality these ideas are inflicted by his imagination. James Joyce’s “The Dead” and “Araby” features characters who struggle with internal emotions, revealing their alienation, separation with
James Joyce’s short fiction, “Araby”, speaks of the loss of innocence when one enters adulthood. The narrator of “Araby” reflects back to his childhood and the defining moment when he reached clarity on the world he stood before. The young boy, living in a world lifeless and religious influence, becomes consumed with the lust of a neighbouring girl. The girl, Mangan, is symbolically the narrator’s childhood obsession with growing up. As she resembles the desire to become an adult, the Araby is the enchanted vision of adulthood. By the end of the short story, he realizes the bareness of everyday life. In fact, the disappointment that is Araby awakens the boy to the fact that his immature dreams have blinded him to the cold and stagnant
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.
Joyce’s “Araby” and Bambara’s “Lesson” pose surprising similarities to each other. Despite the narrators’ strikingly clear differences, such as time period, ethnicity, social class, and gender the characters have important similarities. Both narrators are at crucial developmental stages in their lives, are faced with severe adversities, and have a point of clarity that affects their future.
At first glance, Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, and Henrik Isben’s A Doll House seem to have nothing in common. However, the short story and plays have many similarities. Particularly, five women from these tales— Louise Mallard, Minnie Wright, Mrs. Peters, Mrs. Hale, and Nora Helmer—make drastic decisions that appear to be motiveless. Without context, any reader could be confused by Louise’s death, Nora’s departure, and Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale’s unanimous effort to cover up the murder that Minnie Wright committed, which also seems to lack serious motive. However, all of these women’s settings, situations, and lives have connections that make their motives similar. Emotion motivates all five women—not just
The stories of James Joyce’s “Araby” and John Updike’s “A&P” share identical literary traits from each character which are the protagonist. The main point of the two is that they revolve around a young male who is pressured by his conscience to untangle the difference between the harsh reality and the fantasies of romance that play in his head. The young man does indeed recognize the difference is what turns him in the direction of an emotional catastrophe.
“Araby,” a complex short story by James Joyce is narrated by a mature man who reflects upon an adolescent boy’s transition into adulthood. The story focuses on the events that brought the main character to face his disconnect of reality. Love plays a distinct role in the boy’s delusion of reality, which Joyce relays from the beginning of the story. Minor characters, such as Mangan’s sister, The priest, Mrs. Mercer, and his uncle hold a vital role in the boy’s shattered innocence. Joyce uses these characters to introduce to the boy the hypocrisy, vanity and illusion of adulthood by highlighting their faults and later linking them to his reality.
The speaker in James Joyce’s “Araby” has an epiphany that changes his view on the world around him. The short story is about a boy that travels to a bazaar to buy a present for a girl he has a crush on. The journey doesn’t go the way he expected it to go and he has becomes upset and frustrated. The speaker of “Araby” starts out as youth that is ignorant of the world around him and then he has an epiphany that is heightened by irony and presents a universal theme about life.
A major turning point in Anne’s life was when she heard of the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who had allegedly whistled at a White woman. She was tremendously bothered by the murder and was unable to sleep or work for days. She realizes that she has been greatly unaware of the racial inequality and violence going on around her. When she was younger, she struggled to figure out the difference between the races and she gains no more insight or understanding of why there was such inequality, as she grew older. This causes her to wonder if there any true differences between Blacks and Whites, other than the fact that the Whites typically employed the Blacks. She now fears being murdered simply for being Black.
A large component of the psychoanalytical theory is the three-part psyche which breaks the brain into essentially three parts; The ego, the superego, and the id. The id is the largest part and instinctive component of the personality which seeks pleasure and its primary focus are wants and desires. The superego is the practical component which is more set on the morals and values set by others they know, meanwhile, the ego is the weak mediator of the two. The strength of the id is an overbearing topic in Araby by James Joyce and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The 1914 short story, Araby, follows a young boy going through his preteen years with a growing obsession for Mangan’s sister. Despite the fact that she is much
When Emir, a Bosnian refugee who lived in Atlanta as a teenager, according to the life story he tells, first attended a “horrific” public school and an essay he plagiarized gained notice from a student teacher named Ms. Ames, he was able to attend a lucrative private high school. Because of a plagiarized essay Emir submits, in Emir’s eyes, he is able to attend a prestigious private school, which helps him eventually go to Harvard, allowing him to receive the future opportunities that come along with an Ivy League education. Although, according Ms. Ames, when interviewed later on, Emir’s plagiarized essay and the private school opportunity she gave him probably did little to help Emir. Ms. Ames believed that Emir was such a genius that even without the essay and private school he still would have become successful. However, instead of being flattered by Ms. Ames’s compliments, as Ms. Ames tells him the truth by saying that the way he views his life story is wrong, Emir is stubborn and refuses to believe anything she tell him. Emir sighs at Ms. Ames’s remarks and say statements like, “That's certainly not my recollection”. (Act 3) The life story of Emir, in his eyes, a narrative including a turning point which lies within a plagiarized essay and a private school, is held dear to him. Amir states that, “I wouldn't enjoy telling the story about the essay” if he cannot tell it the way he has always seen in. (Act 3) By refusing to believe what Ms. Ames tells him, it is proved that Emir’s story, which he has been telling his whole life, has become a part of his identity. Because of the way in which Emir views his story, he is the happiest person his wife knows because he is comfortable in the randomness of life and how he got lucky by encountering a woman who,
The relations between art and life is explored throughout Martin McDonagh’s play, The Pillowman and Muriel Spark’s Loitering With Intent. They explore these relations through discussing the stylistic features of their characters and how these characters are perceived in real life. Both authors explore how the preconceived ideas of what a character should be is dismantled and the line which distinguishes between art and life is becoming less clear. Another way in which these authors explore the link between art and life is through the act of storytelling. This suggests that life is a form of art. Both texts deal with the argument of whether it is life that influences art or art that influences life. Some literary critics such as Henry James
The main issue that this play revolved around was the struggles of women trying to balance the ambitions of their lives, in this case science and then the societal pressures of being a woman as well. The play focuses on the lives of three women living in different time periods but encountering similar problems. The first
The story “Araby” as told by James Joyce is about a young boy that is fascinated with the girl across the street. But deeper down the story is about a very lonely boy lusting for her love and affection. Throughout the story, we see how the frustration of first love, isolation and high expectations breaks the main character emotionally and physically. James Joyce uses the first-person viewpoint to tell this story which helps influence the plot, characterization, themes, and understanding of the main character.
“Araby,” is a story of emotional passion carefully articulated by the author, James Joyce, to mark the end of childhood and the start of adolescence. It is told from the perspective of a young boy who is filled with lust for his friend, Mangan’s, sister. He lives in a cheerless town on a street hosting simply complacent families who own brown faced houses that stare vacantly into one another. The boy temporarily detaches himself from this gloomy atmosphere and dwells on the keeper of his affection. Only when he journeys to a festival titled Araby, does he realize that his attempt at winning the heart of Mangan’s sister has been done in an act of vanity. Joyce takes advantage of literary elements such as diction and imagery to convey an at times dreary and foolishly optimistic tone.