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The analysis of les miserables
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The analysis of les miserables
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Les Miserables known in English as “The Terrible” is a musical portrayal of the French Revolution. It is a musical tragedy, which served as a major powerhouse competitor for Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals in the early eighties and nineties. When first debuting on Broadway in 1987 it traveled a long hard road to compete with musicals of the decade. However, in time many well-known performers were proud to associate themselves with this wonderful work of art.
The musical play begins with its lead character named Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean was released on parole after 19 years on the chain gang. In this initial scene the audience can almost immediately feel the tonality of the play with the constant reference to the number 24601. 24601 were the prison number that became Jean Valjean’s identity for 19 years. The dark and dreary ambiance set the tone for the first song of the libretto, “Look Down. The lyrics to look down coincide with the chain gang, overseen by brutal wanders, working in the hot sun. It is this series of songs in Act one that take the audience through many turns of feelings and emotions. These emotional songs are used to portray poor men and women working in low class factories, women selling their bodies and more importantly a class of people struggling to scrape by. The most vivid songs used to identify the various themes of poverty and prostitution are Lovely Ladies, A Heart Full of Love, and Master of The House. Moreover, it is a song titled Do You Hear the People Sing? That prepares the audience for the ending of Act one. Most if not all of Act one uses song, tonality, character, pitch and tone to depict the various themes of the play while the story is beginning to unravel.
Throughout the second and final act the musical content within the play acts as a story of it’s own through theme and variation. Each separate song represents a feeling and or mood and is enhanced as it is varied throughout the act. Like the first act, the songs are used to portray poverty, suffering, hardships, and even death. However, unlike the first act, there is also a theme of love and happiness. Closure is brought about with a sense of warmth and this is often heard through the display of the tempo. When the times were tough the tempo decreased and was often slow and morbid like.
The beat and resonance of the music is very slow and soothing. It immediately sets up a sad mood. The music also manages to create a lonely and sympathetic atmosphere, which carries on throughout the play. The music only plays at significant times in the monologue as the tone of music needs to fit the mood and subject of which Doris is talking about at that moment, i.e. when Doris reminisces on the good times the music becomes lighter; but when she talks about the death of John the pace of the music slows and becomes duller. The use of music alone can form an overwhelming sympathy if appropriately used.
The musical score proficiently provides the viewers with a sense of what is happening in the scene which could not be communicated through text. Dramatic music is played for Creon’s entrance; this immediately communicates to us that he is a man of great importance and power. When Antigone enters after being arrested, the music is dynamic and tense. This conveys the seriousness and desperate atmosphere of the scene. The score is also a representation of the varying moods of the characters. An example of this is when Antigone is anxiously trying to appeal her sentence. The music makes the audience drawn is drawn to feel sympathy and pity her when she is preaching her views on death. For instance, a solemn melody is played when Haemon’s dead corpse is brought to King Creon. Creon grieves by himself as he is overcome with devastation caused by his foolish actions; his emotions are intensified by the sorrowful and sombre background music. The music is able to complement the play, while accentuating the more significant events.
Although some critics may say Hester understood her sin, her love for Pearl and Dimmesdale keep her from this. Hester takes Pearl with her to the Governor’s mansion to demand she keep guardianship of Pearl, “the mother herself...lavishing many hours of morbid ingenuity, to create an analogy between the object of her affection, and the emblem of her guilt and torture” (Hawthorne 59). Hester has dressed Pearl up in scarlet as an act of rebellion out of pride. Hester has pride in Pearl and for this reason is blindsided to her sin. Though her reason for staying in the Puritan community over leaving was suffering punishment and repentance, this act of defyment is contradictory showing she is simply proud of Pearl and does not care for repentance. After Hester makes the decision with Dimmesdale to leave their community, Hester casts away her scarlet letter, Pearl brings Hester
The epic movie Les Misérables, directed by Billie August, tells the tale of life and exploits of a man named Jean Valjean. Valjean was convicted of stealing food at young age, but after being released from prison and rising through the ranks to become the mayor of Vigo, he finds himself being constantly pursued by one of his ex-prison guards. This man, Javert, is determined to have Valjean locked up once again. During this intense struggle, it becomes easy to see that different people from this time period decide to follow the law in different ways. Throughout this film, Jean Valjean repeatedly chooses to abide by the spirit of the law, while his sworn enemy, Javert, mercilessly enforces the letter of the law.
It was good setting to get the attention from the audience and also a way to move around or change settings of the play. Although I love this play my small critic for this play was the players. Some others actors had understandable accents but others didn’t. For example, the brother of the servant his accent was confusing because he kept switching his accent from different country languages. This play was really nice it had a little of bit of everything drama, comedy, romance, betrayal. What like about this play it was how they used the dramatic structure the inciting incident and the climax. The inciting incident for this play of musical comedy murders of 1940 was guessing who the killer of the play was because there was tension building up not knowing who the murder was. The climax for this play would be for me finding out who was the murder and just being in shock how everything had change into a new scenario. Overall it was amazing show how it developed and how well an organized transition the play
A Greek tragedy, streaked with a failing romance and a duty fueled search for the oblivious truth; it felt necessary to heighten the scenes chosen with the chosen songs. The overall soundtrack theme is one of dramatic foreshadow and irony. Moreover, this theme deemed necessary because while reading over the text the foreshadow hidden in the subtext became more evident and dynamic towards the end.
...l” (Cambridge). He explains that nature respects Transcendentalism by the belief that humankind, nature, and God are all interconnected. Emerson’s amazing work, Nature, is a small book of his intellectual thoughts and expressions of Transcendentalism.
Emerson explains that nature has a great deal of influence on our minds and bodies, it's a resource that's in abundance and untouched, it has no beginning and no ending. We need to understand that there is a direct connection between spirit and nature. Both revolve and exist in neutral space, and until we open our mind and allow it to influence us that's where it will stay. The thought that spirit and nature exist in each one of us is somewhat perplexing. I feel that the old ...
In conclusion, to analyse this essay I have scrutinized the melody, harmony and rhythm as these are elements that make this piece so popular. Included with the dynamics, articulation and use of texture, they all successfully work with each other to create a effective piece. The style and the social and cultural contexts are incredibly important to appreciating this piece and I feel I have examined the musical elements in a way that is essential to understanding the song, and its place in West Side Story.
In his book, Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, “In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages” (1). Emerson was an avid nature lover who lived, for most of his life, in beautiful wilderness. Many of Emerson’s works vividly document his magnificent, breath-taking experiences. This book leaves the reader desiring the feel of nature that Emerson felt and yearning for nature’s peaceful effect on one’s life.
In the musical Les Miserables there are some correlations between the time period and the
All the names; the sun, the moon, the stars, the rivers, the mountains, the trees, the flowers, the scholars and the time on Earth are all ranked under nature by Emerson. (Nature, 1836) and scholars look for answers from nature because of which nature and men are interconnected but in contrast to this Thoreau points out that nature and man are not interlinked and that Men and Nature are two different entities and this is why both Ralph Waldo Emerson in ‘The American Scholar’ and Henry David Thoreau in ‘Walden; or, Life in The Woods’ talks about man and nature. Emerson was born on the 25th of May in 1803 and died after 79 years in April 27th, 1882 (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wikipedia). Emerson led the movement of the Transcendentalist which happened in the mid-19th century and this movement was a protest against the spirituality (Transcendentalism, Wikipedia). Thoreau was well known for his outspoken nature against slavery in the United States and for this he was influenced by his wife Cynthia, who was a member of the Concord Women’s Anti-Slavery Society (A brief biography). Thoreau was born on 12th July, 1817 and died on 6th May, 1862. According to Emerson in “The American Scholar’ man is a mere puppet in the midst of people although he is a man thinking when alone but whatever his state of mind is, it is man that derives ideas from nature and most importantly nature has the answer to all the questions of men. In Thoreau’s ‘Walden; or, Life in The Woods’ what he thinks is that men are confused about the creation of nature and man because if both men and nature were creations of God then how can both good and evil be together. Thoreau tries to show the greed of man and the inadequate resource of nature and at what pace man is consumin...
Emily Augusta Patmore, née Andrews, was the inspiration for Coventry Patmore's iconic poem "The Angel in the House," both renowned and reviled for its depiction of the ideal Victorian woman. Some telling lines in the poem include "Man must be pleased; but him to please/Is woman's pleasure" and "she, too gentle even to force/His penitence by kind replies." Published in 1854, the poem paints a rosy picture of domestic Victorian life. It gained immense popularity in the years to follow, but became increasingly more controversial as western civilization uncertainly transitioned into an era of feminism and women's rights. Virginia Woolf, a 20th century English writer, notably mocked the poem by publishing her own work, a collection of essays entitled Killing the Angel in the House. Though the sentiments in the poem may be outdated now, it serves as a landmark, a reminder of how life was like for women during the Victorian era. Various other literary works published during the time also reflect similar themes, including Charles Dickens's bildungsroman Great Expectations, which charts the development of its main character but also follows women like Biddy and Estella, foils that seem like polar opposites at first but eventually both settle into their destined roles as domestic, inferior, Victorian women. Dickens's characterization of the alpha female Estella and the beta female Biddy in the novel Great Expectations reveals his misogyny and illustrates the Victorian theme that women are ultimately meant to be dominated.
“We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it” (Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?). People do bad things - it’s human nature. It is how these wrongs are fixed that make a person truly remarkable. People have strived to make themselves better and are always searching for ways to fix the things they did wrong. This idea of redemption is especially evident in Victor Hugo’s classic, Les Miserables. Les Miserables, is based in the post French Revolutionary period and through the events in the story, characters such as Jean Valjean and Javert are tried and tested. Many characters within this French epic commit their lives to redeeming themselves, Jean Valjean and Javert are only two examples of those who seek redemption. In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo uses symbolism, characterization, and archetypes to develop the theme of redemption.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume A. Ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2012. 214. Print.