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What are willy russells main styles and techniques of a playwright
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In the 1980s, women were thought to be the conventional uneducated house keepers of the household and throughout the play, Educating Rita; Rita is constantly battling this set image of a typical Woman in the 80s. Willy Russell has used many dramatic devices efficiently to show the different phases and changes in Rita. In so doing, there have been many impacts on the audience.
In Act 1, Willy Russell introduces the main characters, Rita and Frank; and provides crucial background information about the characters and their relationship with each other. Russell introduces some of the main themes of the play such as; journey of discovery and class clash. He also informs the audience when and where the play is set- time and site.
In Act 2 scene 1 of Educating Rita, Rita walks into Frank’s study with second-hand clothes. The audience knows that she has a particular idea about clothes when in Act 1 scene 1, she says 'I won’t be buying any new clothes til I am an educated woman'. This shows that she is in a new phase in her life, but the change is not complete. The dramatic device and sc...
The audience will understand that Mrs Johnstone is more capable and has a better understanding of the fact that young boys are sexually curious, and she does not suppress them. As the play continues, we see Mrs Johnston as a more approachable mother, rather than viewing her cruel mother. We tend to sympathise with the difficulty. We see her handle her house full of children with continuous forbearance and with tolerance.
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.
Nora and Mrs. Wright’s social standing when compared to the men in each play is inferior. Both works expose their respective male characters’ sexist view of women diminishing the women’s social standing. Each work features egotistical men who have a severely inflated view of their self-worth when compared to their female counterparts. The men’s actions and words indicate they believe women are not capable of thinking intelligently. This is demonstrated in “Trifles” when Mr. Hale makes the statement about women only worrying about mere trifles. It is also apparent in “A Dollhouse” when Torvalds thinks his wife is not capable of thinking with any complexity (Mazur 17). Another common attribute is of the women’s social standing is displayed as both women finally get tired of feeling like second class citizens and stand up to the repressive people in the women’s lives (Mulry 294). Although both women share much in common in their social standing there subtle differences. Torvald’s sexist view of Nora is more on a personal level in “A Dollhouse” while the male characters’ sexist views in “Trifles” seem to be more of a social view that women are not very smart and their opinions are of little value. This attitude is apparent in “Trifles” as Mr. Hale and Mr. Henderson’s comments about Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping (Mulry 293). As the women in both works reach their emotional
Margaret is an intelligent, articulate, and ambitious woman who desires to rise up in social status by marrying a man of higher social rank. She attends to those above her, in hopes of elevating her status as she becomes closer to the upper-class. As a minor character, she plays a small yet crucial role in advancing Don John’s plot to slander Hero and spoil her wedding. As a lower-class character, Margaret serves as a foil to the rich girls, particularly Hero, who embodies every attitude and mindset Margaret does not. But she also offers an alternative perspective on the upper-class characters in the play. Because Margaret is victimized because of her social ambitions, punished for wanting to rise above her ...
Russell creates personality changes in certain characters further on in the play, as we shall see later. The author is skilful in making the audience alter their opinions. For example, in the scene where Mrs Kay tells of the deprivation of sweets and lemonade, we feel sorry for the children. However we are equally appalled at the behaviour of the children, in other scenes, particularly when they are stealing in the café.
In the play Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House, Ibsen tackles sociological issues that were troubling in the 19th century. The main problem both Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House refer to is the position of women in society. This issue is represented by the main characters of both plays: Nora Helmer and Hedda Gabler. At first glance, Nora Helmer and Hedda Gabler are complete opposites, but both women are actually quite similar in how they coped with their very limited life opportunities, and in the way they were victims of being women in the 19th century. In this essay, the first thing discussed will reflect how Nora and Hedda are different. The second topic discussed will present how these women both use their fantasies to entertain themselves. The final topic discussed will be the similar restrictions put on both women because of their gender.
The women in Susan Glaspell's “Trifles” and Henrik Ibsen's “A Doll's House” creates a complex picture of male-female relationships and their effects on women's views about reality. Nora Helmer, the main character of Ibsen's play, seems totally happy with her family and social life: she is constantly pampered and patronized by her husband and plays the role of a trivial, small girl who cannot take pertinent choices. In a similar manner, Minnie Foster, the central character of Susan Glaspell's “Trifles”, spends her life in separation and rejection, banned by her husband from realizing her purpose and aspirations. Nora and Minnie are two strong females in a male-dominated world, who choose different ways to cope with gender inequalities and protest against gendered standards and expectations of female performance.
In conclusion, Russell uses many devices to invite his audience to sympathise with Shirley. He relates to the society’s concept on different aspects of people’s life and most of the audiences could relate to situations in the screenplay. Russell’s own life has influenced a lot of things that went on in the play. Russell’s working class background has helped a lot of Shirley’s problems look realistic as he himself had experienced many of these problems that Shirley faced. This has made the text very effective and that really helped gain sympathy from the audience towards Shirley.
At the start of the play, in Act 1 Scene 1, there is a theme of
In Act One, Scene One when Rita is first introduced, she’s a hairdresser and part of the working class. Russell introduced Rita as an audacious, ambitious but egoistic character. She isn’t scared to express her opinion, which generally amuses the audience, such as when she describes her opinion on the painting in Frank’s office she interprets it differently to what majority of the population would. The reason for her different interpretation is that she’s not educated to the degree that she would be familiar with that style of painting, this also becomes obvious when Frank and Rita discuss challenging death and disease: Rita refers to a poem that people in her class are more likely to read (later she describes this kind of poetry as ‘the sort of poetry you can understand’ and assumes that Frank won‘t like it as it’s simple and doesn’t have any hidden meanings) when Frank thought she was referring to a more sophisticated poem by Dylan Thomas. Throughout the scene we learn that Rita wants to understand ‘everything’ so she can enjoy things like ballet or opera, and that’s the reason why she enrolled on the course in the first place. She explains that she didn’t believe the University would accept her and the audience can see that she’s scared of what it might mean.
In the play we get to read about the white superior boy Hally and their two helpers who are Sam and Willy, who in many instances engage in debates or dialogue with the young boy. They relates their topic by referring to certain events or historic happenings that took place and are consider to have shaped the world in a positive sense or could be used to help everyday life to be lived better by all people.
After reading “The Doll House” and “Trifles”, the idea of females being inferior to men is portrayed. Both plays, are in a much older time period. But from a feminist view, females are still sometimes given the doubtful role in today’s society. Both plays, are very different, but much alike in the ways the females are treated, never taken seriously, nor are they appreciated.
For the duration of the entire play the reader is constantly being reminded by Willy th...
She has many options now and can do what ever she wants with her life.
Some of the most important themes of the play are shown in Act 1 Scene