Write an essay on one of the following topics. Your essay should include both textual and comparative analysis of TWO of the following plays. Compare differing structures and conceptions of authority or power in the plays.
In Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of Anarchist and John Hodge’s Collaborators, authority and its inherent power appear in similar structures, both formal and informal, such as the police force and collaborations between civilians and state authorities. These civilians and statesmen often act as authorities in another way by authoring versions of events and constructing conceptions of power through performance and written works. Simon Nye’s translation of Accidental Death of Anarchist also includes an explicit, sexual power, embodied by the Journalist character. Similarly, women undertake sexual roles in order to maintain or gain power in Collaborators, although they remain subordinate to male roles in the power structure of each work. In addition, both plays emphasize the power of language structure. Finally, while Fo underscores the weakness of the state power structure by setting the author against the state; Hodge ultimately concludes the resilience of state structures, able to manipulate and incorporate authors like Bulgakov.
Most obviously, the plays incorporate formal power structures. Here, power derives from legal authority over others, rooted in political systems. For example, Vladimir and Stalin’s other officers in Collaborators and the police staff in Accidental Death of an Anarchist are authorities in formal, state structures. These structures have the power to control and enforce obedience. Vladimir kills anyone with “objective characteristics,” and the police staff arrests suspects, including t...
... middle of paper ...
... the corruption of the state power structure, but shows few weaknesses by allowing the state, Stalin, to triumph over the artist, Bolgakov.
In conclusion, both plays explore various power structures, including those of state, collaboration, authorship, gender, and language. They also examine conceptions of power, often created by performance and ambiguity. Ultimately, however, the plays diverge in their representations of authority and power. While Accidental Death of an Anarchist destabilizes the state’s power structure by pitting artist against state, the Collaborators strengthens the state’s power by subsuming the artist into its structure, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully.
Bibliography
Fo, Dario, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, trans. Simon Nye, ed. Joseph Pharrell (London:
Methuen Drama, 2003).
Hodge, John, Collaborators, (London: Faber, 2011).
The playwright explores the ideas of feminism and the role of men through the explorati...
In Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, the interconnection of people and events, that might ordinarily be viewed as disconnected or unrelated, is implicitly presented in the characters section. Dual roles are implemented by a playwright that has one actor portraying the roles of two or more characters, with or without thematic intentions. The use of “dual roles” in several scenes of this play can be viewed as a demonstration of Kushner’s effort in maintaining the interconnectedness between characters, communities (i.e. queer, heterosexual, AIDS and political communities) and events to which they are relative. This essay will argue that Kushner’s use of dual role’s effectively interconnects characters, events and their communities that may be seen as usually unrelated. Analysis of four specific characters, Antarctica, Oceania, Australia and Europa, in Act Five, Scene Five of “Perestroika”, will demonstrate the connection of each Act Five, Scene Five character, to the actors main character based on the implicit evidence presented in the actors “primary” and “secondary” roles, the scenes dialogue and the character interactions. As one will see, by implementing dual roles, Kushner is able to expand or preserve the concept of a major character while the actor portrays another character, keeping the audience from having to completely renegotiate their knowledge between what they physically see of new characters and actually use the new context to view triumphs and struggles for a major character.
III. Individual Dreams Vs. Family Responsibilities - A central conflict in the play arises when there is disparity between the individual's dreams and his/her familial responsibilities
In this essay we will be comparing two female characters from different texts and different time periods. We will be looking in depth at Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare's play 'Macbeth', and Sheila from J.B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls'. We will be looking at their roles in their respective plays, and how their characters develop over time.
There are numerous examples of how Miller presents and develops the theme of power and authority, but it only unveils itself gradually through the play, due to each character’s hidden physical attitudes. Firstly there is the religious authority, with the work of god that presides over the lives of the villagers. Next we soon come across the court’s legal authority that is run by Danforth who consumes most of the court’s say in every matter, but they still abide and depend on the strict Puritan’s religious authority. Then there is abusive empowerment that Ab...
From the displays of power that have been shown through out this essay, we see that this story is a story about power. Power is the story is primarily about peoples need for some small amount of power to survive in life and to feel that hey have a purpose within their society which every society it may be whether its is Gilead or Nazi Germany or modern day Britain.
...he destitution and demoralization of the citizens of Petrograd. Andrei, the character with the most honor and virtue, still finds ruin because of his affiliation with the immoral politic. All morality is beaten out of the characters with the most potential for it by the dire circumstances of their lives. An excellent, emotionally moving story, this novel leaves no doubt as to the author's feelings about the path of destruction down which socialism leads.
The two scenes that the essay will be focusing on are Act 1 Scene 1
Shakespeare, William, Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisaman Maus, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. Second ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. Print.
Paying particular attention to Act 3, scene 1, in which Polonius and others discuss keeping watch over Hamlet, write an essay which makes a case for why surveillance is so important in this play.
... a change in this image to a realization that Stalin’s suppression of dissidents and opposition had real effects on soviet society and can not be justified by Marxist and Leninist Ideology instead they were just Stalin looking to maintain his autocracy.
Aubrey, Bryan. “Critical Essay on ‘Romeo and Juliet’.” Drama for Students. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. Vol. 21. Detriot: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
Topic: How important are the witches to Macbeth? Discuss the effects of the witches on character, plot, themes and audience.
Equivocation, deception and fear play very important roles in the characters of the women to influence many of the other characters of the play. The topic used was about female protagonists exerting power over the other characters and all three points do talk about the ways and means used to influence the other main characters in both the plays.
On November 7th, our class had the opportunity to see The Accidental Death of an Anarchist at Stockton’s Experimental Theatre. Overall, I was very impressed with the show. I thought the acting was superb for a college-level production, and I found the scenery to be satisfactory in complimenting the actions of the show.