The play Miss Julie was written by August Strindberg in 1888 and is his most famous work. The play is a naturalistic play because it is realistic and really captures human behaviour and psychology and shows the motivations and dreams of the characters. What also makes the play a naturalistic play is that the conflicts in the play are life-altering and purposeful. August Strindberg, the playwright, full name was Johan August Strindberg and he was born born Jan. 22, 1849 in Stockholm, Sweden, and died on May 14th , 1912 in Stockholm. Strindberg did not finish university and in his early career he worked as a journalist and librarian before becoming a naturalistic playwright. Strindberg was born into a family of 10 his father worked as a shipping …show more content…
The play was written during the time the industrial revolution hit Sweden. The play, Miss Julie, takes place in Sweden at a Counts estate on a midsummers eve in the eighties. The play features three main characters, Miss Julie aged 25 who is a the Count's daughter, Jean aged 30 who is the valet for the Count, and Kristen aged 35 who is the cook. The play begins in the large kitchen of the swedish manor house with Jean and Kristin. Kristen is cooking and Jean enters the kitchen having just danced with Miss Julie and exclaiming that “Miss Julie’s crazy again tonight, absolutely crazy”. Kristen says that it's because she recently had her engagement broken off. Miss Julie now enters the scene and asks Jean to dance with her, he instantly become polite and advises Julie against it warning her that if she is seen dancing with him gossip could spread. However, he ends up going to dance with her anyway. Once Jean and Julie finish dancing they go back to the kitchen flirting and Julie commands Jean to kiss her foot which he ends up doing. After that Julie states a dream saying the she is descending in social position, however, Jean says that he had a dream where he was trying to improve his social …show more content…
He then tells her a story about him when he was a boy and how he saw her walking once on a rose terrace, and then the next Sunday he went to church so that he could see Julie again after that he tries to commit suicide because he thought he would never get her. Julie, who is moved by the story, asks if Jean would go with her to the lake but he refuses warning her of the danger it could cause her reputation. The guests are then heard coming towards the kitchen who Jean says are singing filthy songs about them. Jean and Julie now go to Jean’s room and it is suggested that they had sex. Jean then starts telling Julie that they should run away and start a hotel, but Julie begs that Jean says that he loves her, it is evident that at this point Julie is in love with Jean. However, Jeans true motives now begin to really show and tells Julie to pretend that nothing happened. Julie then points out that she has no money and Jean cancels the plans. Julie then starts acting hysterical and Jean does not comfort but instead insults her. Jean reopens the idea of running away together but Julie begins to take about her early
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night examines patterns of love and courtship through a twisting of gender roles. The play centers on the lead female role and protagonist, Viola, who
Paul begins to make frequent visits to the university library in an attempt to discover more about Keller's past. Incidentally, he discovers a couple having sex on the floor and decides to watch on. In his mind, this makes Paul thing about having sex himself. And in turn having sex with his first crush at his new school Megan Murray whom he admits to the sexual dreams he has had about her and despite her appreciation, she rejects him. After returning back to school Paul meets new student Rosie Zollo, who falls for Paul however he initially finds her annoying. After the advent of Pauls newfound sexual maturity, Paul will fall for Rosie. "Each day my eyes seemed to be opened just a little wider, and more of that sun-drenched town of lush garden, scents, and sexuality seemed to cram itself in. Nothing I heard in that dark, humid room in the Swam had much place in my new world.." later on the couple share their first sexual experiences with each other. Megan, who Paul later has sex with, regrets it and realizes his love for Rosie. This shows Megan who is a symbol of Pauls sexual adolescence and was really only a depiction of physical attraction. Pauls maturity then blossoms when being around Rosie who he learns to love and care for her in a way that he had never cared about Megan. His love for Rosie grows so deep he then begins to sadly ignore keller and begins to miss lessons to be with
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.
Torvald would never have thought she were capable of it, since during that era it was unrealistic of women to leave their houses but rather put up with the difficulties they faced. Ibsen highlights society's domineering outlooks of marriage and the interactions of two people naïvely pretending to be in love. Throughout the play Ibsen reveals the fragile attributes of his characters to help enhance the play-like nature of their relationship, the role of women, and Nora's course of self-discovery.
Joe ends up becoming the Mayor, Post Master, storekeeper, and the biggest landlord in the town. Although this is all fine for him, Janie in the mean time is not happy with the relationship and struggles to deal with it. Over the years Janie places all of her old dreams into the corner of her soul. She submits to Jody's need for control on the outside but on the inside she hides her real feelings and her real self. At one of the town meetings someone asks for a “few words uh encouragement from Mrs. Mayor Starks” and Joe replies buy saying, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home”(41) After hearing this from Joe, Janie feels as though, “that took the bloom off of things”(41). She is no longer truly in love with him anymore. After Joe dies, Janie feels free for the first time in years. Janie is in the room when Joe dies and soon after, she walks across the room to the mirror and tells herself that she, “The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place”(83). Janie becomes a more independently thinking woman after his death because she doesn’t have the restriction that Joe forced on her. She is free from Joes dominant self and can now do what she pleases, which ends up being a very good thing for her.
She meets another man named Jody visiting the town where she stayed at. After two weeks with the Jody, she falls in love with him because of the promises that he told Janie and said things needed to hear. After hearing it she quickly leaves Logan thing that running away with Jody then will she accomplish her dream. She is sadly mistaken by Jody’s words and looks. She realizes that Jody is very controlling and with this trait, it would be hard for Janie to complete an aspiration of being free to say and do what she wanted. He was almost as bad as Logan was and she suffered this for twenty years until Jody was on his deathbed where she finally speaks her mind after feeling like her words have been trapped inside her all along. After Jody dies she meets her a man named Tea Cake who had what Janie needed to accomplish her dreams. Marrying Tea CAke she finds that he really is the one but he sadly passes away. Janie still accomplished her dream even though the man that made it happen.
The play itself is set in a large house owned by a rich factory owner, Mr. Birling. Mr. Birling has a wife and two children, Sheila and Eric. The family are having a small party because they are celebrating the engagement of Sheila, Birlings daughter, to Gerald Croft. Gerald is the son of a great man who also owns a factory and Mr. Birling sees this as a chance to get into the big
It is Christmas time when the play begins and with a larger income starting after the New Year, Nora is excited for a arrival of a new life. Yet, this ideal life for her begins to change when an old friend by the name of Mrs. Linde pays a visit to the Helmer household. Mrs. Linde, looking for a job has come to Nora looking for help
the first act, she admits to Christine that she will "dance and dress up and
Written in the late 19th century, Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House addresses flaws within Norwegian society. Ibsen specifically highlights the symbiotic relationship between social oppression and deception. Many groups within the 19th century Norwegian culture felt social oppression, but women were among the most heavily judged. In this time period, it was illegal for a married woman to be employed, so she was forced to the monotony of home making and child bearing. This law has a central role in the play as Nora struggles to break free from her stagnant lifestyle of following social expectations. Like Nora, many people felt obliged to lie and deceive people to seem as though they were following the rules of society. Ibsen’s negative depiction of social oppression and deception throughout different scenarios within the play contribute to the play’s major themes. Ibsen utilizes Torvald’s study, the masquerade ball, and Nora’s dress change to symbolize and develop the overarching themes of social oppression and deception in A Doll’s House.
In 'Twelfth Night’, gender and sexuality in many ways add to the play’s themes of madness. 'Twelfth Night ' is a reflection of renaissance thought and culture, the renaissance was a transitional period from the medieval to the radical Elizabethan era. The culture of the time was a contradictory one, as from one aspect it was influenced by the patriarchal medieval time, where women were under the rule of men and seen as needing the protection of men, however, from another perspective, the culture was a changing one as women were starting to receive education and many humanists believed that women should be given more rights. The play reflects these attitudes and often challenges the social hierarchy and establishes ideas on gender roles, sexuality and cross-dressing. These factors indeed undermine the expectations of male and female behaviour, and in turn further the play 's theme of madness which has a comedic effect on the audience due to the shock humour it provides.
Margaret Atwood creates a haunting and beautiful piece describing the experience a sad child goes through. She structures her poem by using five stanzas; two stanzas consisting of five lines, then one stanza with ten lines, and ending with two stanzas consisting of five lines. She uses simple yet powerful diction, tone, metaphors, similes, symbolism, and imagery to show the unknown speaker giving advice to a sad child. Her message/theme is sadness is a part of life and there are different ways to deal with it, but when death comes the thing that one is being sad about doesn’t matter.
Author, Kate Chopin, presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. Finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow: "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." In her soul, the dark clouds are disappearing because she is illuminated. All the memories of her husband are now of the past. She is living in the present. At this point, she is no longer "Mrs.Mallard." She is Louise and is ready to welcome a new horizon of freedom : "Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own." Overwhelmed with a new sense of herself, she feels as if she
What this actually meant in the culture’s sexual economy is perhaps more accurately suggested by meta-theatrical references in plays’ prologues and epilogues. The actress playing Flirt in Wycheley’s The Gentleman Dancing