Our Country is Good is set in the late 1700s in Australia. The play is about Royal Marines who were sent to colonize the country and the convicts sent there also to spend out their sentencing. The play focuses on how the group of convicts, along with Second Lieutenant Clark, put on a play for the King because he was suffering from an illness during that time. Second Lieutenant Clark decides to put on a play called the Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar, which was a very popular play in the time period.
Many things come into play after the announcement of the play being put on by convicts. There are several themes in the play, such as the judicial system and punishment, and sexuality. The underlining theme, the one with the repeating patterns and symbol, was redemption and theater as a humanizing experience. The judicial system used in Australia during that time period was during the Georgian era, which was the system used in England. This was the harshest system of Europe, and possibly the world during the era. Any crime, especially crimes that were minute, was punishable by hanging. The public usually gave punishments for crimes to the criminals. In that era, the public was more concerned about crimes such as theft and less concerned about crimes such as murder. The judicial system and its way of giving punishments mostly did not fit the crimes; criminals would be hanged for stealing food or money. Equality in sexes is another evident theme of the play. The convict
Theatre is not only presented as a piece of art, but as a tool of social reform to express the feelings of humans and contemporary notions of society. Plays are designed to reflect significant issues of a society, on which they were created. The play Black Diggers by Tom Wright, uses certain devices and forms of symbolism to emphasise not only the historical relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, but to link ideas to contemporary issues to provoke ideas of empathy. Wright creates a series of character encounters, to express how an Indigenous racial identity is perceived by society and compare a period of discrimination and infringement of rights to how it is expressed at war during World War 1. This provokes ideas of repentance
A major theme in this play would be pain and injuries. This happens many times throughout the play and in each scene either
Throughout the play there are many themes leading up to and causing the chief event.
The U.S. Marine Corps’ is thought to be one of the five free standing military departments, but in all actuality there is only three departments. The U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy are the only branches of the military that are correctly recognized as their own departments. There are two other Branches of the military that are under the U.S. Navy, one is the United States Marine Corps’. They were created to protect, but now they need protecting from budget cuts and disbanding. In order to protect the Corps’, they need to become their own U.S. Department, with their own funding and supplies.
Derrick ‘Big Hutch’ Hutchinson, who plays Horatio in the production, describes various interpretations of the play. The first being his theory of the hierarchy of characters and how they relate to the types of inmate in prison. Making an analogy
‘Australia is at War’ is a primary source from the year 1939 and is a speech by renowned Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies (1894 – 1978). This speech was delivered at the beginning of World War II declaring Australia’s participation and assistance to its “Mother Land”, Great Britain. World War II was developed and initiated by the infamous Adolf Hitler, a notorious German leader and the head of the Nazis. German’s invasion of Poland initiated Great Britain’s move towards force rather than their original approach of negotiations and peace, as stated in Prime Minister Menzies’ speech, “they [Great Britain] have kept the door of negotiations open; they have given no cause for provocation.” So the purpose of this source, Menzies speech,
Throughout history, there has been many different times, all with different highs and lows. However, no matter which Era, certain problems always seem to shine through the cracks. This problem is usually caused by the sole culprit of crime. Crime is the largest problem in most times. Every time has its own crime; and therefore, every generation deals with crime differently, each using their own type of punishment and order. Also, each Era has had its own way to carry out the punishments. Oftentimes it had been through officials of crime. Though different generations have had it’s own special ways of dealing with this problem of law and order, one stands alone with its majesty and uniqueness: The Elizabethan Era. This Era had a very particular, somewhat violent, way to deal with it’s crime and terrors. The strange crimes, the frightening punishments, and the peculiar officials of crime from the Elizabethan Era were very different from the ones of today.
Throughout history, there are lesser-known occurrences in which Historians can make assertions about the society in that time period as a whole. The conviction, execution and alleged resurrection of William Cragh is one such occurrence. In The Hanged Man, Robert Bartlett writes of a man who was executed, but allegedly rose from the dead in the Middle Ages. The story of William Cragh is not only a riveting anecdote, but also, an insightful look at the legal system of the Middle Ages. The Hanged Man helps to explain the relationship between England and Wales, the legal process that led to hanging, as well as societal perceptions of criminals and outlaws in the Medieval Period. Robert Bartlett is able to present a complicated historical event through the language of an everyday person. The Hanged Man is a great example of accessible historical nonfiction, bringing an understanding of the Middle Ages to a broad audience.
The first element, thought/theme/ideas, encompasses what the play means. Although they don’t directly state any themes there are two clear meanings to this play. The first theme or meaning is you have to stand up for what you believe in or what you believe is not right. For example, Juror 8 believes the kid on trial did not murder his father while all other eleven jurors did believe so. As he talked, using hard evidence, he slowly persuaded everyone until they believed the kid was innocent although one of them was racially biased and others strongly believed what they said. Another theme is you can’t make immense decisions based on opinions or prior judgements but rather on what is genuinely true whether it affects your life.
shall firstly do a summery of the play and give a basic image of what
Theme – the reason behind why the playwright wrote the play. “Patterns of life”, a slice of reality.
The opening establishes and embodies the world of the justice system, “the man’s world”, accompanied by its seriousness, organisation and harshness in its outlook on reality, the depiction of a typical arrest, identification and trial of a convicted criminal. However, this “world”, according to Wood is threatened, stating that it is somewhat disrupted by the protagonist’s “frivolousness, selfishness, and triviality” (272).
Such as, Marriage, class discrimination, manners and sincerity. Those themes are presented with the Lady Bracknell’s help. Wilde has created, with Augusta Bracknell, a memorable instrument of his satiric wit, questioning all he sees in Victorian upper-class society. With her power and weakness shown, she, as an upper class lady, connects and presents the themes in the play.
According to Harold Bloom, Arthur Miller’s play there is a theme of an individual struggling to fit in a society. Such need is often exhibited by way of guilt of the characters, a sense of responsibility or lack of a sense of responsibility (Bloom 131).
In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, one recurring pattern is male fixation with law and justice.