Maryam Syeda Afzal
Blood Relations Essay Outline
Sharon Pollock Dr. A. Rohland-Lê
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014
I. Introduction: The play, Blood Relations by Sharon Pollock is about a thirty-four-year-old woman, Lizzie Borden, who feels trapped in a late nineteenth century society she feels she does not belong to. Lizzie has been acquitted of the murders of her father, Mr. Borden, and step-mother, Mrs. Borden. The majority of the play takes place through flashbacks as the future Lizzie and her friend, the actress, are acting out scenes from before the acquitting.
Thesis: In Sharon Pollock’s play, Blood Relations, the patriarchal society
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Lizzie also tries suggesting to Mr. Borden that she could work in his office. Mr. Borden replies, “For God’s sake, talk sensible”, meaning that it is completely taboo and insensible for woman of Lizzie’s status to be working (Pollock, 40). It would also cause a threat to Mr. Borden’s reputation if he is too cheap to hire someone else and instead, keeps his daughter an employee.
d. Lizzie does not want to live the life that her father is trying to convince her to live. She says: “I want out of all of this” (Pollock, 40). Lizzie “wants out” from the society she lives in, part of which includes her father’s expectations of her marriage.
e. Lizzie tells Mr. Borden: “I’m supposed to be a mirror. I’m supposed to reflect what you want to see” (Pollock, 39). The literary technique used here is symbolism, because Mr. Borden represents society since Lizzie is “supposed to” do or “reflect” what society wants so that she can fit into it.
f. When Lizzie does not cooperate with her father and refuses to meet with Johnny MacLeod, Mr. Borden “shoves her to the floor to gain a clear exit from the room” (Pollock, 41). This shows that he will not listen to her and will keep demanding things of her, just as society does.
III. Because Emma does not speak her mind, Lizzie feels that she has no choice, but to stand up for the both of
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After Lizzie has committed the murders, she still does not receive the freedom she had desired, because even though she got rid of Mr. and Mrs. Borden, she still has not changed the society.
a. Even after being acquitted, people around Lizzie, such as Emma and the actress, still ask her, “Lizzie, did you?”, showing their suspicion that even the court ruling could not take away (Pollock, 19).
b. The actress tells Lizzie about the kids playing outside the theatre and singing the rhyme: “Lizzie Borden took an axe. Gave her mother forty wacks. When the job was nicely done, she gave her father forty-one.” (Pollock, 16). The fact that Lizzie has gained publicity due to her crime and a rhyme was even created because of her shows that she will have to live with people suspecting her as a criminal entire life.
c. After Emma forbids the actress from entering their home, Lizzie says, “Do you?” to which Emma replies after “backing down, softly”, “It’s…disgraceful” (Pollock, 69). Emma sudden change tone shows how even though she is not sure if Lizzie committed the murders, she will still be scared of her due to suspicion. The literary device used here is dynamic characterization, because of Lizzie went from being someone people would not give special attention to, to the one everyone is afraid
Imagine being wrongfully trialled for the murders of your father and stepmother. Well, this was Lizzie Borden’s reality in the notorious 19th century case. In August, 1892, the gruesome murders of Andrew and Abby Borden took place in a small town named Fall River. Because Lizzie Borden was believed to have a lot to gain with the murders of her parents, she was the only one accused of being the murder. With this case, I believe the council was right for pleading Lizzie as innocent. The public and police tried to use theories against her in court to prove she was guilty. With the whole public against her, Lizzie still stood strong and was proven innocent for the murders.
The case of Lizzie Borden is still one of the most talked about mysteries ever. The crime happened during the 1800s and to this day no one has ever been convicted for the murders of Lizzie’s father and stepmother. There have been many theories to what happened on that day. Lizzie Borden was the obvious suspect, but was never charged with murder. The Lizzie Borden case may remain a mystery forever.
In Source #3, the text states, “In the week before the murder, following an apparent family argument, Lizzie and her sister Emma left by coach for New Bedford. When Lizzie returned, she chose to stay in a rooming house for four days, rather than in her own room in the family residence.”Already having a tense relationship with her mother, an argument like this may have made Lizzie so angry that she would kill her step mother. Lizzie also had problems with her father. One of the problems she had with him was when she built a roost for pigeons and her father beheaded all of the pigeons because he thought that it attracted boys. Maybe just like her stepmother, this argument pushed Lizzie over the edge and killed her father as well. This is the first reason why I believe that lizzie is
It has been one hundred and twenty-two years since "Lizzie Borden took an axe..", in accordance to the folk rhyme, and Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered in their home; but still today it remains one of America's most famous, or infamous, unsolved crimes. Although Lizzie was acquitted and no one was ever proved guilty of committing the crime; it is still the popular opinion that Lizzie was, in fact, the murderer. Not many people have in doubts in their mind about Lizzie's guilt, although there is no one alive today who could witness to what happened. The eventful day in August was followed by a very short trial. There are many reasons she could have been proven guilty but also an abundance of rationalities for her acquittal; and it makes sense that it is discussed and talked about in the year 2014.
Lizzie was well aware of the disadvantages of being a woman condemned to a narrow societal image and used her unrecognized intelligence to her advantage. By murdering her father and stepfather she was able to gain everything she could have wanted; a large house on the hill, tremendous wealth, and rid herself of a detested stepmother. Although it is a morbid circumstance, Lizzie Borden proved herself to be a clever women of her era. She played the male system, knowing that regardless of what the facts say, the male ego was much more powerful. To question moral, innocent Lizzie meant the men in power must question their ways of thinking and everything they had worked so hard to create, the perfect woman.
The Lizzie Borden case has mystified and fascinated those interested in crime forover on hundred years. Very few cases in American history have attracted as much attention as the hatchet murders of Andrew J. Borden and his wife, Abby Borden. The bloodiness of the acts in an otherwise respectable late nineteenth century domestic setting is startling. Along with the gruesome nature of the crimes is the unexpected character of the accused, not a hatchet-wielding maniac, but a church-going, Sunday-school-teaching, respectable, spinster-
Olivia Butler writes in the afterword of “Bloodchild” that it’s not a story of slavery, and evidence from close reading can be used to support this statement. Butler uses the human form as a vehicle for defamiliarization to show the mechanical functions readers serve themselves and others. Furthermore, this process is able to reveal their passive nature and ultimately highlight the human allowance for manipulation. She brings light to these behaviors by showing a lack of respect for human life, an unbalanced power relationship between the Tlic and the humans, and Gan’s stripped cognitive process.
On a hot morning on august 4, 1892, Mr. Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby Borden, were brutally murdered. A daughter of the victims, Lizzie Borden was arrested, tried and acquitted of the crime. “ She was a woman of spotless character and reputation, and more than that she was educated, refined and prominently connected with the work of the Christian church in the Fall River”(Gates 2).The town and the country were divided in their opinions of who could commit such horrifying murders. Many theories have been made to explain that day; the finger has been pointed in every direction- even a Chinese Sunday school student of Lizzies. To this day people are unsure as to weather or not Lizzie brutally murdered her parents.
Bad blood is a book that was written James H. Jones who is an associate professor of History. The book narrates on how the government through the department of Public Health service (PHS) authorized and financed a program that did not protect human values and rights. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment which was conducted between 1932 and 1972 where four hundred illiterate and semi-illiterate black sharecroppers in Alabama recently diagnosed with syphilis were sampled for an experiment that was funded by the U.S Health Service to prove that the effect of untreated syphilis are different in blacks as opposed to whites. The blacks in Macon County, Alabama were turned into laboratory animals without their knowledge and the purpose of the experiment
In her final letter to her mother, Eliza admits her wrong doings. She tells her mother she ignored all the things she was told. All their advice fell on her deaf ears. She explains that she had fallen victim to her own indiscretion. She had become the latest conquest of “a designing libertine,” (Foster 894). She knew about Sanford’s reputation, she knew his intentions, and she knew that he was married, yet she still started a relationship with him. And her blatant disregard for facts and common sense caused her unwed pregnancy and premature demise. Eliza Wharton had nobody to blame for her situation but herself. She ignored warnings, advice, common sense, and other options available to her. She chose her ill fated path and had to suffer the consequences.
The play by Meg Braem entitled Blood:A Scientific Romance, presents a cautionary tale about the negative effects of human experimentation. Dr.Glass researches on the bond between the sisters, Angélique and Poubelle. He provides them with the essentials for their survival but not for their well being. Dr.Glass’ science experiment does not pursue the ethical principles of research, which brings upon dangers to the twins. Dr.Glass’s vigorous studying on the twins leads hims to ignore his morals and the safety for them. Additionally, the outside influence of Dr.Street brings dire consequences to the twins and inevitably leads a tragedy.
"Was this what it all meant--utter, intact separateness, obscured by the heat of living?" Elizabeth is questioning the reason for living. Particularly, she is wondering at her own existence. Her life seems to have no meaning and she does not connect with any one, especially her husband.
Madame Bovary offers a scathing indictment of the oppression of females in the nineteenth century. Emma Bovary's life is used as an example to illustrate how women's lives were circumscribed and dictated to by the men surrounding them. Emma is presented as an average woman with fantasies of love and luxury in her heart. These fantasies are never fulfilled due to her early marriage (dictated by her father) and her middle-class lifestyle (dictated by her husband). Her dreams are trapped between the wills of the two men in her life and though she tries, in her own way, to break free from them, she does not find fulfilment in her life, leading to her eventual unhappiness and demise.
to abide by it. In the novel, Emma meets a pitiful doctor named Charles Bovary.
Caryl Phillips' The Nature of Blood. On its most immediate level, Caryl Phillips’ The Nature of Blood narrates several stories of the Jewish Diaspora, using the familiar Shakespearean character Othello to provide a counterpoint to the others’ experiences of displacement. The Nature of Blood thus initially seems to fit awkwardly among texts by other West Indian authors who use the Caribbean as the setting of their work or incorporate West Indian characters into their work. Through his multi-stranded narrative, however, Phillips creates a geographical setting that mirrors the multi-regional influence of the Caribbean.