James Barrie, the playwright, has many characteristics of giftedness. He is imaginative and creative with the ability to see everyday life circumstances from unusual and unique viewpoints, which reveal his visual/spatial intelligence.The movie, Finding Neverland, repeatedly manifests Barrie interchanging real life with fantasy as situations or events trigger moments of inspiration. For example, when the grandmother is reprimanding the children, Barrie visualizes a new character in the form of Captain Hook. In spite of his incredible creativity, Barrie is highly self-critical and always of the mindset that he can do better. Case in point in the movie is when Barrie forces the theatre worker to say his play is “shite.” Even when given praise …show more content…
Having a keen sense of humor, Barrie has an uncanny ability to find comedy in situations that may appear bizarre, inappropriate, or irreverent to others. For example, in the dinner table scene of the movie, Barrie places a spoon on his nose to break the intensity of an uncomfortable situation. This is only one of many acts of nonconformity. Barrie’s hypersensitive imagination and ability to sense every part of his fantasies exemplify abilities of synesthesia as described in our textbook (Clark, 2002). Evidence of synesthesia occurs at the beginning of the movie when Barrie visualizes the impact and emotion of his failure in a metaphorical depiction of rain falling on the audience. It is a totally sensory moment and the imagery is quite telling of his state of mind. As a result of his creative giftedness, Barrie has a difficult time in his relationships. His idealistic notions lead him to believe that he and his wife would marry and go off and have great adventures together. On the contrary, Barrie often isolates himself from his wife by being physically present but not emotionally invested in their marriage, which eventually leads to his physical absence. His wife recounts his unavailability by describing him as ‘sitting in his parlor staring off into other worlds like she doesn’t exist,’ His wife reacts with disdain at his obsession with writing and ‘getting lost’ in his own
For example, the passage takes place in Giovanni’s room, which is a small, crowded room. When David describes the room, he describes it as messy and with trash everywhere. Sensory image is used to amplify how messy Giovanni’s room is. David says, “The table was loaded with yellowing newspapers and empty bottles and it held a single brown and wrinkled potato in which even the sprouting eyes were rotten” (Baldwin 87). David later admits, “I examined the contents of the innumerable boxes and suitcases and disposed of them” (Baldwin 88). Sight imagery is described with the yellowing newspapers, empty bottles, boxes and suitcases which emphasize how disorganized Giovanni’s room was. The description of Giovanni’s room foreshadows how messy David’s and Giovanni’s relationship is. David admits, “Each day he invited me to witness how he changed, how love had changed him, how he worked and sang and cherished me. I was in terrible confusion.” David does not know how to feel about Giovanni, his thoughts and emotions about him are all over the place like the newspapers, suitcases and empty bottles in the room, but at the same time he likes being in Giovanni’s room because it allows him to feel safe and makes him feel appreciated. Giovanni’s appreciation for David is shown when David reveals how Giovanni is grateful when David is in his company, he says, “…Giovanni smiled his humble,
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, there are many characters who feel trapped or scared. Billy Bibbit is one of them. Billy was voluntarily put into the mental health ward, but feels he can never leave due to what the people in the ward made him think of the outside world. Billy’s fear of the world stems from how he is treated inside the ward by his peers. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, Billy shows it is necessary to have control over life to be happy. This is shown through Billy’s interactions with Nurse Ratched, his mother, and the men in the ward.
Tod Clifton's dancing Sambo dolls are the most striking example of doll imagery. This small tissue paper doll has the capability to completely change the Invisible Man. When he sees that the powerful and enigmatic Clifton is the one hawking the abominable dolls, the narrator is so filled with humiliation and rage that he spits upon the dancing figure. But what is it that has caused this surging of fury? It is Tod Clifton and not the narrator who has degraded himself to such a base level. However, it is our narrator's sudden comprehension of his own situation that causes his wrath. The line "For a second our eyes met and he gave me a contemptuous smile" (433) illustrates this moment of realization for our narrator. It shows the reader that Tod Clifton was aware of his position as a puppet all along and chooses to enlighten the narrator at this particular point in the novel.
Thoughtful laughter is a technique used frequently in satirical pieces in literature. It allows for the audience to enjoy the wittiness of a work, later ponder on the meaning, and then apply the message to reality. Thoughtful laughter is often an inner experience that can only be achieved by authors who write meticulously. Two examples of satirical works in literature that display this concept explicitly are Voltaire’s Candide and C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. Both authors explore the depths of satire and simultaneously deliver an important message to readers through skillful technique.
Alan Bennett presents his characters in Talking Heads by writing the plays in the form of monologue. By employing this technique he has managed to create a rich and detailed World in which his stories unfold but, he only allows us to see it through the eyes of a single narrator. When reading a play that is presented in this manner it is possible to lose sight of the fact that you are only getting one person’s version of events and you may start to believe that you are having conversations reported to you verbatim. This is a clever mechanism because the narrators can often be unreliable and lead the reader to form opinions and draw conclusions that quite often turn out to be unfounded and false. The term “Talking heads is a synonym in television for boredom” (Bennett, 2007, p, 10) yet, these talking heads are certainly not boring, the settings may be drab and ordinary, the characters are not exciting or inspiring yet, the gossipy way in which the stories are told hooks the reader in. Fitting neatly into the genre of tragicomedy it is perhaps fitting that the ‘tragic’ comes before the ‘comedy’, certainly the dramatist infuses the plays with a rich dose of humour but the melancholy subject matter and the often quite sad and lonely characters always counter balances the laughs with a tinge of sadness.
‘If you find your mothers,’ he said darkly, ‘I hope you will like them.” (135) Desperately in need of nurturing, Peter pursues Wendy for himself and the lost boys, aligning with the need to find a spouse to take care of you. At the end of the novel, Barrie describes Mr. Darling as “quite a simple man; indeed he might have passed for a boy again if he had been able to take his baldness off; but he had also a noble sense of justice and a lion courage to do what seemed right to him...” (184), which coincides with Peter’s immature and childish character traits. By playing a father figure to the lost boys, defeating Captain Hook and the pirates, serving as a strong leader, measuring hollow trees for hiding places, building Wendy a house, and saving Wendy, Peter fulfills his role as a dominant male figure in the novel.
Josh Shipp says that “you either get bitter or you get better. It's that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you.” This is true for Bob Sheldon from the novel “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton. Bob Sheldon is a 18 boy who lives with only the struggle of his spoiling parents. Bob’s coping of this physical conflict shape him into a spoiled and reckless individual who his two-faced.
To explain, he says, “A man, running along the street, stumbles and falls; the passers-by burst out laughing. They would not laugh at him, I imagine, could they suppose that the whim had suddenly seized him to sit down on the ground. They laugh because his sitting down is involuntary” (Bergson). It is the same reason why in Noises Off, when the director tells Timothy not to fall because they don’t have insurance for him and he goes on to fall anyways, it is so funny. It is funny because it was not planned, it was clearly an accident. Another example that the movie offers is that Frederick always gets nose bleeds. The fact alone that his nose bleeds is not overly funny. On the other hand, when tied in to the fact that he is always getting them and they are accidents, like when Brooke flips her head up while looking for her contact lens, makes his nose bleeds funny. The accidents that Noises Off displays proves that accidents make a comedy more of a
“This passage describes the narrator’s spiritual nadir, and may be said to represent her transition from conscious struggle against the daylight world to her immersion in the nocturnal world of unconscious-or, in other terms, from idle fancy to empowering imagination” (Johnson 525). Which was supported when Jane attempted to fight the urge to engage in her unconscious state. “And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit. I wonder – I begin to think- I wish John would take me away from here!” (Gilman 92). This exhibits the struggle Jane was facing while trying to maintain her conscious state of mind. However, John felt that if she was taken out of her environment she would go crazy, which ironically led to her slow decline into the unconscious mind. “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (Gilman 89). It was here that Jane began giving human characteristics to inanimate objects. As Gilman’s story continues, Jane gradually becomes more entranced by her imagination. “There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes” (Gilman 94). Displaying the idea that Jane was immersed in her unconscious world, validating the Johnson’s argument that Jane progressively develops into her unconscious mind throughout the
“It was a large, beautiful room, rich and picturesque in the soft, dim light which the maid had turned low. She went and stood at an open window and looked out upon the deep tangle of the garden below. All the mystery and witchery of the night seemed to have gathered there amid the perfumes and the dusky and tortuous outlines of flowers and foliage. She was seeking herself and finding herself in just such sweet half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars. They jeered and sounded mourning notes without promise, devoid even of hope. She turned back into the room and began to walk to and fro, down its whole length, without stopping, without resting. She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the glittering circlet.
The husband describes the moment by saying, "I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything" (357). The previous information of how he saw the world to be and how he sees it now gives him a feeling of a connection with a higher being, more than just Robert. Yet he describes himself being separated (unconnected) from his body, free from this cage that has him materialistic and prejudice to the not-normal. The husband finally sees the world in a more liberal way than what he thought it to be, than what the stereotypes of society told him it was.
M Barrie in 1911. Peter Pan is the protagonist in Barrie’s fiction novel. To explain Peter Pan’s life in the novel, let’s begin with the setting known as Neverland which is where Peter Pan lived. In Neverland, kids who never want to grow up live there, and Peter Pan as well as a group of kids known as the “lost boys” lived there happily. That being said, we will derive some characteristics Barrie illustrates in his original text to describe Peter Pan. Peter Pan is portrayed as a young boy, according to Barrie’s text, Peter Pan replies to Wendy’s question regarding his age as “I don’t know… I’m quite young… I ran away the day I was born” (Barrie, Chapter 3), therefore it can be assumed Peter Pan is a young boy, with no parents in Neverland. Peter’s intention is to never grow up and have fun. In Neverland, Peter is the captain of the lost boys, and they only look forward to having a great time together in the forests of Neverland. Peter’s description by Barrie implies that he is nice and an innocent young child that does not believe in aging or becoming an adult. Thus he encourages other young children to pertain a childhood perception. The author gives the audience enough detail about Peter’s character and ideology, although, the author does not mention much physical composition. This is to give the reader the liberty to picture Peter Pan’s physical persona in our imagination, therefore letting our imagination create
Just as Harry Potter was compelled to use his magical powers that he was given for the good of the world, so was John Coffey. Both were given their gifts without choice and subjected to choose how they were to use it. Neither of them thought about the consequences that some of their actions may cause themselves. Harry could have joined the dark lord’s army and together they would have been unstoppable. Just as John Coffey could have used his gift to heal only the individuals who would help him use his powers to rise to the top.
All of the stories he tells the lost boys, and the mermaids are about him. Barrie expresses the nature of children very bluntly in this play. Especially with all of the violence and bloodshed. The kids do not realize what they are doing is wrong, so they take joy, in hurting and killing things.
The clown contributes towards the humourous entertainment of this play through his numerous puns and jokes. He is a source of laughter, not because we are humoured by his "foolery"; for he proves to be no fool at all; but rather because he amuses us with his brilliant wit. Having mastered the art of jesting, Feste is sensitive of his profession, always aware of the circumstances he is in and the appropriateness of this folly.