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Tonight west side story analyse
Tonight west side story analyse
West side story music significants
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Arthur Laurents was born to a middle-class Jewish family on July 14, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. He wrote a history of leftist, gender and gay politics after World War 2. He was famous for the musicals and plays he wrote, including Anastasia, Gypsy and his most famous West Side Story. West Side story is a musical about two gangs in the city of Manhattan, The Sharks (a group of recently immigrated Puerto Ricans, lead by Bernardo) and The Jets (lead by Riff), who are constantly fighting for turf and running into trouble with the police who undoubtedly favor The Jets. But problems arise when a former member of The Jets falls in love with a sister of the leader from the opposing gang. The musical starts when The Jets challenge The Sharks to a
rumble to settle who gets the turf left in the slums of Manhattan and The Sharks agree. the leader of The Sharks is uneasy about the idea, suggesting that The Jets might use other weapons. Seeking advice Riff turns to advice from Tony, a former member of The Jets. Riff encourages Tony to participate in the rumble, Tony agrees to meet at the dance where The Sharks and The Jets are planning to put forward his plan to The Sharks. Meanwhile Bernardo's sister, Maria is working on a dress with Bernardo's girlfriend Anita. Maria is complaining about the marriage that her brother has made with his friend, Chino. When it’s time for the dance tension arises, but in the tension, Tony and Marie meet and the love between them becomes apparent, and through the chaos Bruno catches on to what Maria and Tony are up to and quickly splits up the two. After the dance Riff and Bernardo agree to meet at the local drug store to discuss the terms of agreement of the rumble, where they decide weapons of any sort are prohibited
The “Monkey Trial” in 1925 was one of the most famous clashes in history between the Bible and evolution. The concept of the play was based on the Scopes Trial, but characters, actions, and words were altered. During the trial, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow went to court to try John Scopes for illegally teaching evolution, causing major complications in Dayton, Tennessee. In the play Inherit the Wind, the character, Henry Drummond, parallels his real-life counterpart, Clarence Darrow, through ¬his appearance, beliefs, and actions.
History is consistently used in films as a technique to teach the values and morals of events that occurred. But what’s the point in teaching history through films when they are terribly fictional? In films, the director finds the best scheme to intrigue their audience only by changing the actual event to satisfy their interest. This is true for Stanley Kramer when he made the history of John Scopes and his “monkey trial” into a film called Inherit the Wind. Kramer knew the exact stereotypical “Hollywood history” his audience enjoyed. The trial itself had a series of conflicts, the main one being evolution vs. religion. Yet there was also a series of tensions throughout the movie, including the argument between individual vs. society. The same themes from Inherit the Wind can also be seen from the actual “monkey trial” event in Dayton, Tennessee. It is sometimes said that truth is stranger than fiction and according to this film, truth is also stronger than fiction. Inherit the Wind ignored the true dramatic moment, which is essential to the actual trial that happened in Dayton, Tennessee. Kramer even portrayed his own opinion of this trial in this film. The truth was so distorted in the film so now the argument is not individual vs. society or evolution vs. religion but history vs. fiction. Inherit the Wind is set in the little town of Hillsboro when Bertram Cates (played by), a biology teacher, was thrown into prison for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Two famous lawyers were behind this case, Henry Drummond (played by) as the defender and Mathew Harrison Brady (played by), as the prosecutor. Mathew Harrison Brady who was “voted 3 times for a presidential candidate” was sent to Hillsboro is carry out the job as a prosecutor for this trial. As for Cates, a journalist from Baltimore Herald by the name of E.K. Horrbeck willingly provided a lawyer named Henry Drummond for him. Horrbeck was interested in the Cates, expecting to make big bucks from this big “media” case. The two opposing lawyers, Drummond and Brady, were Kramer’s two main characters, both with different opinions on how humans arrived on earth. Drummond supported the evolution theory, while Brady, the creation theory. In this film, Kramer distorted the facts of the actual trial to make this film more of a drama than a history documentary.
West Side Story tells the tale of a battle between two street gangs in New York, both competing to be the best, while also incorporating the impossible love between two people destined to hate each other, which ends in tragedy. The streets of New York are ran by an American gang
Context: This part of the text is included at the beginning of the drama, telling the audience about Salem and its people. The author explains how a theocracy would lead to a tragedy like the Salem witch-hunts. This is the initial setting and is based on the principle that some people should be included and some excluded from society, according to their religious beliefs and their actions. This is basically the idea that religious passion, taken to extremes, results in tragedy. Miller is saying that even today extremes end up bad- communism, like strict puritans, was restrictive and extreme. It only made people suffer.
likelihood of victory is small.” It is a person’s mental or moral strength to resist extreme
Persecution has been a round for sometime and can be traced historically from the time of Jesus to the present time. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith in the hands of the Jews. Many Christians have been persecuted in history for their allegiance to Christ and forced to denounce Christ and others have been persecuted for failing to follow the laws of the land. The act of persecution is on the basis of religion, gender, race, differing beliefs and sex orientation. Persecution is a cruel and inhumane act that should not be supported since people are tortured to death. In the crucible, people were persecuted because of alleged witchcraft.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that journey is not the same for every individual. Media often leads its viewers toward a “one size fits all” version of success that may help themselves, but will rarely help the viewers. This is seen in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller includes multiple instances of symbolism and personification to reveal to the reader the situational irony in Willy’s life, underlining the theme of self-deception in regard to the American Dream. This American Dream, fueled by money, is the main source of anxiety in Willy’s life. The anxiety of income is reflected today in the issue of minimum wage. James Sherk, a writer of the Tribune News Service, plots thoughtful points against raising the minimum wage. However, his use of over-exaggeration and odd comparisons leave his argument less than convincing.
Ironically, in the land of the free, one’s rights can be compromised if Congress feels there is any “clear and present danger.” In his essay, “The Trial of Arthur Miller”, John Steinbeck defends Arthur Miller, while criticizing the actions of Congress and the House of Un-American Activities Committee using various historical comparisons. In the 1950’s, when the threat of communism was spreading throughout the U.S., Congress charged Arthur Miller for refusing to state the names of people associated with communism, as they claimed he was hindering their investigation. Steinbeck, a famous writer in his own right, praised Miller for protecting the lives of innocent individuals under the unjust pressure of the government: “I do not know what I would
The story 'A View From The Bridge', is set in the 1940's in Red hook
The devil is defined as being a spirit or power of evil. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, numerous citizens of Salem Village are prosecuted and convicted for having made contact with the devil. While historically, the Salem Witch Trials were an effect of greed and vengeance and are said to be false, the devil was indeed present in the town of Salem; he takes the shape of a young girl named Abigail Williams. Abigail depicts her evil spirit and coalition with the devil though her deception of anyone willing to listen, her irrational behavior, and her immoral actions, which directly defy the Puritan church.
his family and how he is perceived in the public by his friends. He is
Arthur Miller, in his plays, deals with the injustice of society's moral values and the characters who are vulnerable to its cruelty. A good majority of these plays were very successful and earned numerous awards. According to Brooks Atkinson, a critic for the New York Times, Miller's play Death of a Salesman was successful because the play "is so simple in style and so inevitable in theme that it scarcely seems like a thing that has been written and acted. For Mr. Miller has looked with compassion into the hearts of some ordinary Americans and quietly transferred their hopes and anguish to the theater" (Babusci 1261). This play, in 1949, received the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Antoinette Perry Award, the Donaldson Award, and the Theater Club Award (A Brief Chronology of Arthur Miller's Life and Works, http://www.ibiblio.org/...). Miller has said that he could not have written The Crucible at any other time for it is said that a play cannot be successful unless it speaks to its own time; hence McCarthyism was widespread when this play was written. Everyone was afraid of Communists, just like everyone was afraid of witches during The Crucible. This play won the Antoinette Perry Award and the Donaldson Award (Bloom, Modern Critical Interpretations: Arthur Miller's The Crucible 55). His play All My Sons was concerned with a man, Joe Keller, selling defective cylinder heads to the Air Force during World War II, causing the death of twenty-one pilots, one of whom was his elder son. The play focuses around this act and the consequences that arise from it. The play won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. All of Miller's plays focus on one central idea, this idea being ...
Title The Berlin Stories written by Christopher Isherwood captures both the charming and repellent life of Berlin during the 1930’s. Isherwood uses the descriptive technique of narrating the story through the focal depth of a camera. He captures fleeting and evocative images of his surrounding environment and tries to mold his brain into an internal visual recorder. Isherwood uses the camera as a metaphor to portray his neutral stance as an author and the distance he creates between self and other.
A view from the Bridge was written by Arthur Miller in 1955 and set in
A View From The Bridge Essay-Arthur Miller “A View From The Bridge” is a story with many themes and aspects such as love, The American Dream, Justice, Law and Family Honour. The story “A View From The Bridge” is about an Italian American community living in Red Hook, New York. The Italian American community in Red Hook are mainly all immigrants living in the country unlawfully. I will briefly describe the play. Alfieri, an Italian-American lawyer in his fifties, enters the stage and sits in his office.