How Willy Russell Uses Dramatic Devices to Allow the Audience to See Many Different Sides of Shirley Valentine's Personality
Willy Russell is the playwright of Shirley Valentine. The play
develops around one central character, Shirley, a housewife from
Liverpool. The audience first meet Shirley sadly reflecting on her
life. The play shows how the leading character changes dramatically
throughout the course of the play. The first half of the play sees
Shirley as a lonely but cynical, dependent human being. As the play
progresses, the audience hears about Shirley's dream. Shortly after
her dream becomes reality. In the second half of the play, Shirley
finds herself on a Greek island, away from her husband, Joe. Shirley's
character begins to change as she meets Costas. She becomes
independent and confident.
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Willy Russell uses many dramatic devices in this story to develop the
character of Shirley Valentine. Perhaps the most obvious one, which is
shown all the way through the story, is the use of monologue to tell
the story and all the characters and their personalities are
introduced through Shirley Valentine. This technique of writing is
used to highlight the fact that she is a very bored, lonely housewife.
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The Liverpudlian accent chosen deliberately by the author represents a
working class middle aged housewife. This is another dramatic device
to show that there is nothing ‘high status’ about her lifestyle; she
is very ordinary.
Another major dramatic device used by Willy Russell, is that in the
monologue, Shirley talks to the wall, which highlights her utter
loneliness and maybe even lack of self worth, the only thing that is
interested in her is the wall. This is pointed out when she says “ I
like a glass of wine when I’m doin’ the cookin’. Don’t I wall? Don’t I
like a glass of wine when im preparing the evening meal?” These lines
are deliberately placed at the beginning of the story – they are the
first words that Shirley says as she enters her kitchen. This is
Although, for her, she has nothing more to focus on she trusts her imagination to pass the time. Over time she becomes more and more obsessed with the yellow wallpaper, which leaves her in shock. “The wallpaper becomes a projection screen of the narrator growing fright.” (Berman, p.47) This means that the narrator goes to herself on the wall. The isolated woman in the yellow paper is her own reflection. Something that the narrator still does not realize, she only feels the need to release the woman trapped in the wall. She refers to her room as a prison continuously. As she begins to feel isolated she projects her feelings on the yellow wallpaper, but the idea that the room is her prison goes from figurative to reality as insulation deepens her need to escape in some way. “Every time the narrator speaks, she is interrupted and contradicted until she begins to interrupt and contradict herself.” (Berman, p.55) She has her own plan for recovery. But unfortunately, her husband does not listen. For him, the only
... morals and personality towards his goals and at the same time trying to pass those values onto his sons, making him lose their respect, which is one of the many reasons that ended up taking his life. For the most part one can see that issues like Willys cannot only be seen or heard of in a play but also in the real world. Everybody in general wants to conform and be liked in today's competitive society, which is one of the reasons why many people don't get to accomplish the things they want to accomplish because they are either to scared or don't have the courage to step out of the social norms and achieve what they what to achieve. If anyone learns anything from this tragic character, one can say that truly knowing ones-self can really help in the long run because if one doesn't know who they are, they can end up leading a miserable life, in a miserable world.
Comedy in Our Day Out by Russell In this assignment I am going to look at the ways in which Willy Russell has created humour within the play 'Our Day Out'. I will pay particular attention to the characters, their dialogue and the events that take place Willy Russell was born in a town near Liverpool, he left school at fifteen with no idea what he wanted to do and nothing but an O'level in English. ' Our Day Out', 'Blood Brothers' and 'Educating Rita' are a reflection of Russell's own experience of education.
A description of the wall is necessary in order to provide a base for comparison with the rest of the story. Because we only get the narrator s point of view, descriptions of the wall become more important as a way of judging her deteriorating mental state. When first mentioned, she sees the wall as a sprawling, flamboyant pattern committing every artistic sin, (Gilman 693) once again emphasizing her present intellectual capacity. Additionally, the w...
Willy is a Multifaceted character who portrayed a deep problem with sociological and psychological causes and done so with disturbing reality.
The film Wendy and Lucy, directed by Kelly Reichardt, presents a sparse narrative. The film has been criticised for its lack of background story, and as a short film, much of the story is left to the viewer to infer from what is presented in the plot. However, Wendy and Lucy is able to depict the intimate relationship between Wendy and her dog as well as reflecting more broadly on the everyday, and commenting on the current economic state of the film’s setting in America. This essay will examine how film form contributes to the viewer’s awareness of the story in Wendy and Lucy and allows a deeper understanding of the themes presented. The aspects of mise-en-scene, shot and editing and sound in the film will be explored.
Willy Russell’s uses dramatic techniques such as speech directions in order to help the actor impersonate the character and send the right message across so the audience would react the way he planned. Russell uses speech directions to shows Rita’s personality, according to the speech directions Rita moves around quite a lot which some might think shows Rita’s diffidence as she doesn’t exactly know where she’s heading. On the other hand, other might interpret this as a...
Disrespectfulness is the cause of personal tension in this play. There are many occurrences where a character is being disrespectful, which triggers emotional and physical conflicts. Throughout the movie, Willy is extremely disrespectful to his wife Linda. He loses his patience every time she talks during a conversation that he is having. When he talks to Biff at the table about his new job opportunities, Linda adds some remarks like, “I’ll make breakfast,” (1853) and Willy loses his control. He turns to her quickly and tells her to shut up. Sometimes he even puts his finger angrily to her face, screaming at her to shut her mouth, even though she is just adding relative comments.
...lor that made the woman despise it so very much. By being able to understand the various meanings behind the wallpaper the reader is able to fully comprehend the narrative behind the entire story and why her mental health keeps diminishing. The ending of the story reveals that the woman no longer only saw the woman in the walls at night; she began to believe that she actually was said woman.
Willy is a multi-faceted character which Miller has portrayed a deep problem with sociological and psychological causes and done so with disturbing reality. In another time or another place Willy might have been successful and kept his Sanity, but as he grew up, society's values changed and he was left out in the cold. His foolish pride, bad judgment and his disloyalty are also at fault for his tragic end and the fact that he did not die the death of a salesman.
...but as Willy slowly slips farther into his illusions, the stage directions signal “The Woman’s laugh is heard” (40). Willy is completely immersed in this slight flashback of The Woman, but then is confused and yells at everyone around him. This chaos ensues directly as a result of Willy’s confusion between what is reality and what is his imagination. During the intense argument at the restaurant between Biff and Willy, the stage direction directs “The Woman laughs, off left” (113). Not only does this laugh symbolize turmoil and bad times in Willy’s life, but it also triggers Willy’s fall into another of his many occurring flashbacks. Without this theme of illusion and reality, the atmosphere of these flashbacks would not have such a withstanding effect on the play.
Dramatic Techniques in Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell How do the dramatic techniques use in the play help the audience to understand the importance of Shirley’s transformation? You should refer to the significance of the play’s social and historical (settings, attitudes to women SHIRLEY VALENTINE Task: How do the dramatic techniques use in the play help the audience to understand the importance of Shirley’s transformation? You should refer to the significance of the play’s social and historical (settings, attitudes to women, attitudes to marriage, expectations of life, etc) context and the literary context (kitchen-sink drama, comedy, tragedy, drama, etc). The play ‘Shirley Valentine’ was written by Willy Russell.
Willy Loman is the stable center point of the story. Willy spends most of his time on stage in dialogues with multiple characters. During this century households were still focused on “stay -at -home wives” while the men w...
Still, Willy's self-respect stands in the way of common sense and good judgement. This is evident when Willy's wife Linda asks Willy to ask his company for a transfer to New York. Willy declines and continues living his charade, believing he is too important to the company's success in the New England area. My reaction to this event is that Willy knows he is truly unsuccessful. But with little self confidence and low self esteem, he develops a microcosm of success, wealth, pride and importance....
Of these two characters, Willy holds the most illusions, and therefore is the most devastated by the destruction of these fantasies. Miller uses several i...