Sheilagh Delaney's Presentation of Jo in A Taste of Honey In a taste of honey Helen is the mother of Jo. Helen and Jo both live together and they have just moved into a small bed-sit. Helen often argues with Jo. Jo, Later on in the play, has a black boyfriend, who, in the play, is only known as boy In a taste of honey all the characters experience a little bit of pleasure in their life. Helen marrying Peter, Jo and the black boy. However they all have to pay for this pleasure. Jo gets pregnant and the black boy leaves. Helen leaves Jo for peter and when this doesn’t work out Helen comes back to Jo. In the play Jo is subject to neglect. This is because her mother, Helen, leaves her alone at 15 to fend for herself. “I’ll be seeing you. Hey! If he doesn’t show up I’ll be back” This is the start of the period when Helen leaves Jo. At this stage in the play the readers don’t know if Jo will survive for long without Helen. Peter however se this and gives Jo a pound to have so she could buy food to eat. Jo’s role in the play is to show what it would be like in those times to be a single expectant mother. She also has the purpose of showing us how parents have influences on their children: for example Jo was created after Helen and Jo’s dad had a one-night stand. “I didn’t do it on purpose. How was I supposed to know that you’d materialize out of a little love affair that lasted 5 minutes?” this shows that Jo was a mistake and that Helen was an unmarried mother. However no matter how hard she tried Jo made that same mistake as Helen. In the 1950’s and 1960’s Jo would be called illegitimate because Helen wasn’t married when Jo was conceived. However in today’s times Jo would not be called illegitimate because there are lots of people who have children before they get married.
In his most recent album, Kanye West raps, “Now if I fuck this model/ And she just bleached her asshole/ And I get bleach on my T-shirt/ I 'mma feel like an asshole.” He suggests that it is the girl’s fault for getting bleach on his tee shirt, which she only did to make herself more sexually appealing. This misogyny in hip-hop culture is recognized to bring about problems. For instance, the women around these rappers believe they can only do well in life if they submit themselves to the men and allow themselves to be cared for in exchange for physical pleasure. In her essay, “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hoes”, Joan Morgan argues that the same rap music that dehumanizes women can be a powerful platform for gender equality if implemented correctly.
She allows her mother to control her and make decisions for her. During their conversation, she asks her mom if she should marry Mr. Jones even if she does not love him. Her mother does not seem to care until Helen mentions that he is Vice-President of the company. Her mother says that she should marry him whether she loves him or not because he will be able to take care of her and Helen. They continue to discuss how Helen can marry this man that she doesn’t like so she will never have to work again and he can support her mother, or she can say no at the risk of losing her job and not being able to support her mother anymore. Helen ties in how life is making her “feel like I’m stifling!” (591). Again, I feel this is another representation of Helen not being able to handle the pressures of society. Helen can’t talk about important decisions she has to make without feeling claustrophobic and blowing up by saying things like “I’ll kill you!” (592). I think she blows up because her mother is always nagging her and she can’t handle it in that moment anymore, especially since it is a conversation about
project of the play, of which is touched upon in Act One. It is this
made this play to show people in those days what it would be like if
To realize the vision of the play, the script, set-up, costumes, stagecraft, sound design, and acting have to communicate a unified message with which the audience will relate. The script will be tailored to ensure that the audience can understand the play as it proceeds. This is in terms of the language and terms used. Though the language will not be modern, it will be English that can be understood by the audience. This will be English of antique England as it will give the play a feeling of ancient times. The scriptwriter will carry out research on the level of understanding the local people will have of ancient English so as to ascertain that the script matches this level. Although many plays of that era were sung and accompanied by dance, this play will be acted out with spoken word rather than songs. This is because speaking will ensure the audience hears the conversations as they go on and that they understand. This is ...
The role of Jocasta in Oedipus the King is crucial. Jocasta sees the reality of the situation before Oedipus and the chorus do. The prophecies made themselves known long ago, and Jocasta believed that they would come true. Jocasta did have faith in the oracles, but only enough faith to suit her own purpose. She worked to suppress much of the faith Oedipus had in them, in the interest of keeping the city, herself, and Oedipus in a powerful yet strong position. Jocasta's role in the story influenced Oedipus to think back to Laius' death and begin to try to solve the Sphinx's riddle.
them is the elderly mistress of Josiah and the other one is Helen Jean who went
This play was about a royal family in Thebes where the king named Laius and queen named Jocasta abandoned their baby. Later on king Laius was killed who was believed to be by their abandoned child. His name was Oedipus. Soon he met Jocasta and married her to become the new king of Thebes. Their relationship of being mother and child was unknown. As the king, Oedipus is responsible of preventing the disease of Plague to quit expanding throughout his kingdom. As Oedipus is seeking to discover his past, Jocasta prevents him from discovering the truth and tells him a different story. Her goal was unsuccessful due to his stubbornness. Jocasta then finds out Oedipus is her son, and kills herself. Soon after that happened, Oedipus finds out what he has been looking for and he gouges his eyes out and is exiled from
changing attitudes toward life and the other characters in the play, particularly the women; and his reflection on the
The two writers in tragedy showed what many writers couldn’t throughout the Greek tragedian era. Sophocles, who wrote “Oedipus Rex”, portrayed Jocasta as a caring mother who soon turned into a wife of her own son, while Shakespeare, who wrote “Hamlet”, used the same Greek tragedian tools and portrayed Gertrude as a naïve mother who made one decision that separated her son, Hamlet, from her. Gertrude was similar to Jocasta in that both were naïve but protective of their own sons. However Jocasta was more aware of the actions she took, even after the prophecy was told.
love aspect. The whole play is based in a week of typical lives of the
about act 1 scene 5. I am going to consider the dramatic events of the
Throughout the historical literary periods, many writers underrepresented and undervalued the role of women in society, even more, they did not choose to yield the benefits of the numerous uses of the female character concerning the roles which women could accomplish as plot devices and literary tools. William Shakespeare was one playwright who found several uses for female characters in his works. Despite the fact that in Shakespeare's history play, Richard II, he did not use women in order to implement the facts regarding the historical events. Instead, he focused the use of women roles by making it clear that female characters significantly enriched the literary and theatrical facets of his work. Furthermore in Shakespeare’s history play, King Richard II, many critics have debated the role that women play, especially the queen. One of the arguments is that Shakespeare uses the queen’s role as every women’s role to show domestic life and emotion. Jo McMurtry explains the role of all women in his book, Understanding Shakespeare’s England A Companion for the American Reader, he states, “Women were seen, legally and socially, as wives. Marriage was a permanent state” (5). McMurtry argues that every woman’s role in the Elizabethan society is understood to be a legal permanent state that is socially correct as wives and mothers. Other critics believe that the role of the queen was to soften King Richard II’s personality for the nobles and commoners opinion of him. Shakespeare gives the queen only a few speaking scenes with limited lines in Acts two, four, and five through-out the play. Also, she is mentioned only a few times by several other of the characters of the play and is in multiple scenes wit...
Jocasta’s compliance to the demands of the men around her is revealed through her constant role as a nurturing mother, one who provides emotional connections, but cannot make decisions. This role spans throughout the entire prophecy, throughout her entire life, and throughout her roles as Oedipus’ mother and then his wife. With the arrival of the prophecy that her and Laios’ son is destined to kill his own father and marry his own mother, Jocasta had to leave her child to essentially die in order to evade the prophecy. A mother’s first instinct is typically to protect her child at all costs; however, Jocasta goes against this by actually putting her child in danger in order to protect her husband. This instance proves that the husband seems to be the main focus. Every action seems to be to p...
As the roles were essentially cemented into the culture, manipulations such as crossovers provide a source of conflict and intrigue into the narrative of the plays. Two of Shakespea...