“We’re going to put him on trial, Gerardo, this doctor. Right here. Today. You and me.” (p.26) This is a quote from the play Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman. The play is set in Chile, just after the dictatorship. However, although this is somewhat important to the story, it is not the main focus of the play. The play actually focuses on a women named Paulina who captures a man claiming he was a doctor who had tortured and raped her in the past. However, the man, whose name is Roberto, claims that he is not the doctor. This is essentially the whole play, except for at the end, it leaves us on a cliff hanger. The play never actually says if Paulina let Roberto free or killed him. If I were to come up with my own ending, I would say Paulina …show more content…
Paulina’s past was very scarring for her. She was kidnapped and claims that she had been tortured and raped, more specifically by a doctor she calls “The doctor who played Schubert.” (p.22) This doctor apparently would play Schubert for the captured people to “soothe” them and that’s why she calls him that. All this has caused Paulina to be very traumatized by these events, to the point where even fifteen years after this had happened, she still is affected by it. For example, she cannot listen to Schubert even if “[…] he’s still [her] favorite composer […].” (p.21) She is physically repulsed by his music, because of all that the doctor had done to her. However, in the text she says that she will be able to listen to him again. Though, it is inferred that she would need some sort of closure on the situation, whether that be a confession from Roberto, who she thinks is “the doctor who played Schubert”, or her killing Roberto. “[…] one thing I need to make this day really truly perfect? To kill you. So I can listen to my Schubert without thinking that you’ll also be listening to it, soiling my day and my Schubert […].” (p.63) After the play leaves you on a cliff hanger, it shows Paulina and Gerardo at a Schubert concert. It also says that Paulina see’s Roberto at the concert, but “He could be real or he could be an illusion in …show more content…
In this case, I believe that the “thing” that gets in between them is the fact that Gerardo would most likely go to authorities to tell them about Paulina shooting Roberto, since Gerardo represents justice in the story. Gerardo represents justice, because he works for a Commission trying to get justice to those who had committed crimes during the dictatorship, because he was supposed to be Roberto’s lawyer while he was captures and because he strictly follows the laws. Nevertheless, Paulina would not allow Gerardo to go to the authorities, because she had just been freed of all those painful memories of her past and she could finally start living her life like a normal person. Hence, I believe the only thing that would stop Gerardo from going to the authorities is killing him. However, this is not the only reason why I feel that Paulina shot Gerardo. I believe there were some things that helped motivate her a bit more into killing Gerardo. For one, I think Gerardo would remind Paulina of the time he cheated on her. He would constantly remind her of that mistrust and that time he hurt her. “How many times did you fuck her?” (p.54) I also believe that she was fed up with always being the one to make sacrifices. She was always the one
Night's Dream, one will notice an immense difference in the way that a noble woman compared
Mercutio, the joker and comic relief of the play, dies first and foremost. Tybalt spies Romeo at Lord Capulet’s extravaganza and vows to continue his fighting match by saying:
Mercutio was to blame, though only partially, for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The Nurse was also responsible for the tragic ending of the play. When Romeo and Juliet met, the Nurse became their messenger. She helped them be together even though she knew Romeo was a Montague and that Juliet's family would disapprove. The Nurse brought news to Juliet from Romeo telling her to sneak out so they could get married.
In the plays Antigone by Sophocles and Macbeth by Shakespeare, the lead feminine protagonists Antigone and Lady Macbeth are two women with strong beliefs, ambition, and personalities. They are both female characters with underlying power, and must fight the feminine social stereotypes in order to succeed. These women live in a time where men are ultimately superior, but end up having more mentality then any of the men in their plays anyway. These characters are both willing to do anything to achieve what they want, even if it is turning against the rules of society that have been built around strong feminine stereotypes. While these two women are trying to achieve two completely different tasks for two very different reasons, their ambition and motivation is rooted from similar places due to their personalities, similar situations, strong wills, and sense of determination. One could argue that Antigone and Lady Macbeth are both strong women who have contrasting beliefs and views, often causing the ambition for their actions to be analogous.
Comparison Between the Play and Movie Versions of Death and the Maiden There is a significant difference between the play and movie versions of Death and the Maiden. The movie version emphasizes visual and sound effects, while the play highlights the importance of language. The movie version starts by playing a section from Schubert’s quartet Death and the Maiden. After the melodious music, viewers immediately see and hear lightening outside a small house as well as ocean waves clash against rocks. This contrast not only shocks the viewers, it also prepares them for the upcoming “action” in the movie.
"She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd, and I loved her that she did pity them" (Othello, I.iii 166-167). William Shakespeare’s tragedy "Othello," is pervaded by a dominant theme, one of love. Othello, the Moor of Venice falls madly in love with a woman named Desdemona. They marry and are very happy together. Othello and Desdemona face many trials during the course of their nine-month marriage. The most notable one occurs when Barbanzio, Desdemona’s father accuses Othello of getting his daughter with witchcraft. During a court hearing, Desdemona confesses her love for Othello and Barbanzio is forced to let her go.
who will become king, he will be the father to kings. This confuses them and they head back to the to meet with King Duncan. When they get there they find out that the Thane of Cawdor had sided with the enemy and was killed and that due to his great job in battle Macbeth would be named Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth then realized what the witches had said was true and he begins to think of ways to become king. In Throne of Blood, Washizu, and Miki, Washizu’s best friend that he later ends up killing, meet an evil spirit weaving silk like a spider. The spider-like spirit is singing a song before Washizu and Miki finally talk to him. The spirit tells Washizu that he will be given a section of the fortress for him to control and protect. The spirit also told him that he would soon become lord of the whole fortress. The spirit also told Miki that he would be assigned a section of the fortress to control and that his son will
There was a common saying, “Behind every great man there's a great woman”. The men, Macbeth and Winston Smith in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and George Orwell’s 1984 may not be considered as the “great man” however, both Lady Macbeth and Julia are good examples that can be presented as the “great woman” behind the men. Both Lady Macbeth and Julia do an excellent job of pretending to be someone who they are not, they are not only affecting the men in their lives to rethink their previous position but also have a bad ending accompanied with physical and psychological issues.
The play Othello, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragic play that goes over a variety of topics, from love to death. Othello is a tragic play due to its many aspects of death throughout it. One character that falls to the hands of death is one of the main characters, Othello, and another being his wife Desdemona. Each of these deaths are a direct cause of another character’s actions, Iago. Within the play there are scenes of manipulation, betrayal, jealousy, lust, deceit, and murder. This play, Othello, contains many characters that have important roles to the development of the play and the plots that occur. These characters are the ones that make the play what it is and create the various moods and themes throughout the play. The characters
In the play The Tragedy of Mariam by Elizabeth Cary, we see how society functions under Herod’s tyrannical rule. The character of Herod displays tyrannical traits of controlling his society and having hubris. For example, Herod’s disappearance gives Pheroras a token to marry his lover Graphina, Constabarus the chance to set Babas’ sons free, and Mariam the chance to live since no one is there to kill her. However, this freedom is countered by the fears that these characters manifest. Tyranny seeps into the public conscience, so that even when the physical tyrant is absent, the people’s ingrained fears and obedience limit their freedom.
Life and death, everyone thinks about it at some point in their lives. Questions like, what could’ve been different, or what was done wrong and how could it be fixed. These questions are usually what come to mind when a person is at their final moments of his/her lives. Most of the time, he/she believes there was so much more than what he/she has been through whether for better or worse. Every human goes through this in some form, which leads to the creation of clinical teachings like the 5 stages of dying. These 5 stages consist of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The medieval play, Everyman displays this kind of questioning of life and death. The main character, Everyman, struggles with accepting the fact there is nothing he can do to keep everything he’s built up, which is mostly worldly possessions. Everyman, the play, is a prime example of when faced with death himself, one must come to the realization that worldly
Do you like magical and fictional characters? One of the most Magical stories is A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This play is a contrast of the real world and a world inhabited by fairies and other magical sources and elements. This play takes place during Elizabethan time period. The Play was performed at The Globe Theatre. The play was written in 1590.
In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare does an excellent job describing his characters and their settings. Throughout the play Shakespeare connects several different situations to things that are happening with the characters. Shakespeare uses his characters to represent things, such as good and evil, and also to describe their surroundings at that time by adding details about the characters environmental settings in the act and scene. Macbeth, Macduff, Banquo, and King Duncan are the main characters in the play and Shakespeare uses them to get his good vs. evil point across even more.
The descriptions in the story foreshadow the tragedy that ends the story. The author believed unexpected things happen often. In the case of this story, Louise Mallard believed her husband to be dead, having been told this by her sister, Josephine. However, when it is revealed that her husband had been alive the whole time, she is unhappy to see him and suffers a fatal heart attack. While she did have heart trouble, Richards and Josephine thought that the news of her husband’s death, not her seeing him again would be detrimental to her health, possibly even fatal. Chopin succeeded in getting this message across.
William Shakespeare successfully used two contrasting places to emphasize the meaning of the story. The meaning of the story is that the course of love never runs smooth, but you if you really love somebody you will find your way to them. Using contrasting places represents opposing forces or point of views, allows the reader to get a better idea of what the theme of the story is. In William Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream the two contrasting places used were the City of Athens and a enchanted Forest located on the outskirts of the city. In the City of Athens there are laws, organization, everything is governed well. In the Forest there are no laws, nothing is organized, or governed. The Forest stands chaos and the hardships of love in the story, and the city stands for laws and strict living. The Forest shows us what nature or self-government can offer compared to the harsh laws of living in this case Athens.