The Others, directed, written and scored by Alejandro Amenabar, is a 2001 Spanish-American supernatural gothic horror film, which depicts the isolated life of Grace, her two children, and their ominous servants. Following the conventions associated with many supernatural movies, The Others appears to be merely another commonplace horror film as it contains no special elements that would set it apart from the rest, upon first sight. However, the viewers’ expectations of a stereotypical movie are startlingly shattered when the true nature of the film is revealed at the end. While, throughout the film, it seems as though the family is being hunted by evil spirits, the truth is that the family and the servants are actually the intruders haunting …show more content…
Right away, the viewers’ radars go up as they contemplate the real purpose for which the “servants” showed up at the family’s doorsteps in the first place. What makes this scene even more suspenseful is Mrs. Mills’ claim that, “[they] just came by on the off chance” and that “[they] in fact used to work here” (The Others). Not only are the servants somehow linked to the house, but they also turned up at the house’s doorstep exactly when Grace was in need of servants. This makes it seem like the servants have been somehow watching the family for a long time, waiting to creep into their lives at the right moment in order to fulfill their purpose, whatever it may be. Here, a small hint is dropped and the viewers are left to figure out the true identity of the “servants” on their own, which fills their minds with a suspenseful feeling of what will happen next. Furthermore, when asked about the reason for Lydia’s muteness, Mrs. Mills avoids the question in two occasions. This reveals to the viewers that Lydia’s muteness is due to a mystery that the servants are keeping from Grace. This revelation, once again, creates tension in the viewers’ mind as …show more content…
At the beginning of the film, the kids argue about whether “it” really happened on “that day.” Later, Charles, the father, asks grace about what actually happened on “that day” and then Anne tells Nicholas that, “[Grace] went mad and hit [her]” (The Others). These scenes appear at different parts of the movies, which is technique used to increase the tension at different intervals, creating a sense of suspense as the viewers wait for the next clue to be revealed. The viewers can already make out that Grace has done something abominable to her children, but do not know what. In addition, at one point, Mrs. Mills tells Grace, “sometimes the grief of the loss of a loved one can lead people to do the strangest things” (The Others). Although seemingly meaningless, this statement refers to Grace’s killing her children when the sadness of the loss of her husband overwhelms her. This foreshadowing is so subtle and clever that the viewers suspect nothing when hearing it upon first encounter. Only after watching the film a second time, can the viewers relate the clue to the conclusion that it refers to: the fact that on “that day, [Grace] went mad, smothered her children, and then shot herself” (The Others). All the different hints combined could possibly lead a quick-witted viewer to perceive the truth. However, the feeling of knowing
It is first seen when she convinces March to teach a young slave named Prudence, which is strictly prohibited by Mr. Clement and illegal. Although March fully understands that teaching slaves is not allowed, he tries to take the “heroic” path and do it anyways since it is the right thing under his principles. His idealistic views on life allow him take lofty and over-ambitious actions that ultimately lead to his misery, as shown when he watches Grace get whipped for his wrongdoing. When he meets Grace again after he is married with 4 children 30 years later, he allows himself almost cheat on Marmee to fulfill his desperate need for care. Her strong character stops him from doing so, leading them to only hug, but causes him to be forced out of the military unit and into a plantation where he educates freed slaves. After he is dangerously injured and ends up on the military ship, he meets Grace again as she tends to him and nurses him back to life. While doing so, she yet again catches his attention and love, seen by Marmee. When Marmee leaves and he decides whether to go back to his family, she tells him to pay more attention to real life: his wife, his sick daughter, Beth, and his duty to be reverend with his people in Concord. Grace’s character constantly tempts March, although she always tries to stop him from making rash
When they met it was very awkward for the both of them. Maya´s family was obviously very wealthy and Grace´s parents were even shocked. The moment Grace saw her sister, she was so excited because they looked so alike. They had the same exact hair and smile. Once she started seeing Maya more often Grace´s whole mindset of things changed because she realized that her mother did not give her away because she did not want her, it was because she could not give her a stable life. Grace did the same thing with her newborn daughter and realized that adoption is a beautiful thing. Grace became more open to her foster family about everything from how she felt about her childhood and what she wanted to do next. To add to that, Grace and Maya then figure out they have a brother named Juaquin. They both set up a email and he agrees to meet them. Grace then became terrified because there weren't just two of them now, it was three. Grace decided she wanted to find their birth mother. Maya and Juaquin did not agree at all. Grace started to search for her mother by herself. She then started to feel lonely all over again. She felt like Maya and Juaquin were complete strangers to
A turn of events comes about in the story when Gary Hazen and his two sons, Gary David and Kevin, go with him on a hunting trip and Gary accidentally shoots and kills Gary David. After this, he feels so badly about the incident that he shoots himself. Kevin finds his father lying in the woods and saves him from dying. Kevin rethinks his feelings toward his father by realizing all that his father has done for him and taught him which leads him to show grace to his father in this difficult situation. Towards the end of the story, Gary extends grace toward both Kevin and himself. The meaning of The Grace that Keeps This World is that humans need the presence of grace in their lives to keep on living, and this is shown through Bailey’s use of the themes of forgiveness and redemption throughout the novel, which is especially evident in the lives of Kevin and Gary Hazen.
“I thought that I had worked it all out in the book, “ she says. “But seeing this play has had a cathartic effect.” The skeletons no doubt, are out of the closet.”
After going through a tragic event in life, Graham doesn't have any faith and his children see that and they have a resentment towards him. Morgan states “I hate you, You let mom die”, Graham responds and says” I am not wasting one more minute of my life on prayer. Not one more minute. Understood?” the Hess children blame their dad for their mom's accident and because he doesn't want to pray anymore they don't lose their faith as well.
...of the ghosts will forever be a mystery, as well as the idea that James wanted to create a subliminal satire, mocking the fact that society saw all servants as one big chunk of lower class, comparable to animals and even ghosts in this case, yet the servants themselves created a hierarchy amongst themselves, ranking some servants higher than others. Everything is basically relative and is what each separate person perceives it to be, just as the answers to the infinite questions posed by The Turn of the Screw.
He was sent to jail when she was young because of all the abuse. Now years later, she is notified that her father is being released from jail and Grace’s world comes crashing down around her. She struggles with her pregnancy and she also struggles with the adolescents at the group home. Specifically, Jessica, because she can relate to her the most. Because she never had proper counseling and didn’t address how she was feeling, it proved to be too much for her.
The motif of silence is also used to explore theme of injustice when Wesley, Gail and David are driving home silently from the ranch. The silence foreshadows major role reversal as Gail argues for the law and Wes answers that God will punish Frank. Gale is outraged and upset. She argues “sins – crimes – are not supposed to go unpunished” (p 85). Wes argues that Frank will stop and prosecuting Fra...
Mrs. Peters suggests that over the course, she has discovered a different aspect of herself that ties more closely to her experience as a woman than to her marriage to Mr. Peters. Mrs. Hale concludes, all women go through the same things at different times. For Mrs. Hale, Minnie Wright's murder of her husband was the ultimate rejection of her husband's identity in memory of the person Mrs. Foster used to be. The play Trifles, in the murder mystery in which the women decide to hide the evidence of the crime and thus end by aiding the murderer, the story leaves this question open of the meaning of duty and justice.... ... middle of paper ...
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 ...
After surgery Grace just lied in bed in so much pain. She cried out “help me…. I’m so cold, I’m so frightened” (654)! This is when the reader notices the shift in Graces attitude. Her attitude shifts into a tone that can practically be heard by the reader. As many times as Grace cried out for help the reader could tell she was desperate.
Although the dialogues have basically been unchanged from the dramatic version to the prose fiction version, Glaspell has passed her message more effectively in the narrative. While Glaspell uses the characters or actors to vocalize the emotions of the story from the play “Trifles”, she makes the reader feel the emotions in “A Jury of Her Peers” by including descriptive passages to accompany the dialogue in her narration. The opening paragraph of the story was a description of Mrs. Hale’s unkempt kitchen “… which will later serve as a point of comparison with the major scene of the story, Mrs. Wright’s kitchen” (Mustazza). This opening description helps readers foreshadow why Mrs. Hale could easily identify with Mrs. Wright. “Through her brief opening description of the landscape Glaspell establishes the physical context for the loneliness and isolation, an isolation Minnie inherited from and shared with generations of pioneer and farm women before her” (Hedges). The description of the road to Mr. Wright’s farm also helps reveal to readers Mrs. Wright’s “geographical isolation” (Hedges). Glaspell provides the short story v...
She is stating that she knows she is far from perfect, but she wants to be remembered for her accomplishments and good. She wants her husband to move on. but to keep her children happy and taken care of, if a tragedy is to come because of one of her
Most of the actions take place in the kitchen setting which demonstrates the author’s deliberate move to show the important details about the wifely role. The women hold their conversation in the unkempt kitchen, a domestic sphere that reveals everything about the lives of women. While the men were busy searching for clues around the farmhouse, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale see some evidence in the trifle that Mrs. Wright had left in the kitchen. The women can deduce that the messy kitchen with dirty pans gives a signal of incomplete work. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter spend most of their time in the messy kitchen that significantly reveal Mrs. Wright’s state of confusion (Manuel 61). Mrs. Hale understands Mrs. Wright’s experiences of loneliness and desperation from the male-dominated circumstances. The female characters sympathize with her situation by acknowledging the forces in her life that made her take the roles including that of murdering her husband. The men overlook the evidence that the women can trace in the house, and their dialogue suggests lack of sympathy towards women as noted from their humiliation and sarcasm towards women. For example, the women can relate the death of the canary to the murder scene. The attorney shows how woman’s concerns are unimportant, instead of sympathizing with Mrs. Wright for what has befallen her, they portray their women
The Conjuring is a “real” Hollywood horror film based on possession of the human kind by demonic figures. There's a dog that ends up doing the usual thing dogs do in horror films (they act scared and bark constantly or end up dying unknowingly). There's a doll that end up doing what dolls usually do in horror films (taunt the human body). There's some doors banging, some ghost hunters with motion detectors and UV lights, eerie TV static, and some creepy ghosts who appear out of the blue when you expect to least expect them, and to top it off they add creepy music and the spooky makeup that all ghosts wear so you can identify them or recognize them.