Children of the Poor:
- Brechtian play
- Written by Mervyn Thompson based on book by John A. Lee
- Set in Dunedin
- Strong presentation of messages
- Addresses the - corruption and hypocrisy of the Church, value of money, treatment and condemnation of the poor, objectification of women
- Character foils: the Porcello children are all very different
- Repetition of words and lines, narration, multiple characters, song. A collage of different events, times and perspectives to offer a rounded insight.
- Irony of this 'rounded insight' is that it's sneakily all pointing towards the same attitude. Rather than sympathy to characters, we have sympathy toward the idea.
- Become active observers in the play
- Written in Greece in 44_ BC
- Classic Grecian tragedy. But is it that of Antigone or Creon?
- Women are sympathised with here and act in the way that is 'right' by the gods
- Law of nature and the gods wins out over the arrogant laws of man
- Presence of a chorus narrates
- Opposites used (attitude, character foils, role of the young man and the young woman reversed)
- Knitting symbol of Eurydice - the docile matriarch, she stabs herself with her knitting needles. The life-string is spun out only to be cut short by Fate.
- British realism, almost Stanislavsky
- Satirical and witty
- Presents paradoxes and hypocrisies of societal life. Mocks the things that are important in society and passes the play off as a "celebration of the trivialities of life" since the things we hold in such high esteem really don't mean much at all.
- Deception and deceit are made ironic in puns such as Ernest never being earnest seeing as he doesn't exist.
- Typical comedy, young couples, old woman. A conflict between tradition and progress are presented.
- Disguise and concealment of self is also made apparant
- Nature of marriage as either "business" or "pleasure". Algernon is cynical till he meets Cecily whereas Jack is the true romantic.
- Inventiveness versus hypocrisy is explored in the play. Algernon is the real reflection of Wilde in wit, attitude and his joy for turning life into a harmless art. Jack however, recreates himself to enjoy two forms of life in themselves. His hypocritical attitude to Algernon's "bunburying" is notable.
- Dramatic irony keeps us actively involved in the play, our knowledge of the deception makes us look on with entertainment how the other characters react to such lies.
- There's lots already here on this but...
- Elizabethan Theatre form
- Law of nature and God versus man. Law of nature always wins. Shown through contrast of setting, demise of a "black Moor", then seen to be only a slave.
- Black/white, heaven/hell, animal imagery all point out Othello's difference and enhance his insecurities
- Dramatic irony in Iago's soliloquy: we are able to get a look into the twisted mind of Iago. We are much more involved in the story as it unfolds before our eyes. We know what will happen and yet we are powerless to stop it. The tragedy is in our inaction as well as Othello's susceptibility to Iago and his jealousy/insecurity/overzealous emotion/too-easily won trust
- Retelling events rather than acting them out: due to simple staging
- Tragedy befalls a character due to his hamartia, through a delineation of self, becoming an anti-thesis, final act of "losing it", then recovering standing to some degree in our eyes
- Othello is a balance of super ego and ego. His strong emotions combined with a love of the law don't end well where Desdemona is concerned.
- Elizabethan theatre form
- Dedicated to the 12th Night celebration: everything is turned upside down, there is a Master of Misrule, lots of dressing out of station and all sorts of crazy things happen
- Music imagery used to be the food of love. Puns and double imagery is used to emphasise the fact that Viola/Sebastian are twins.
- Actually is NOT a feminist text. Viola must dress as a man to achieve anything (even if she did have the guts to do it no one else knows she's a man!), she is not satisfied until she is married to the Duke (depends on male for happiness), context of everything proper and good being turned upside-down (Olivia is mistress of her house, Viola is the protagonist)
- Dramatic irony again involves the audience actively
- Love is not always bliss: it is pain and Shakespeare knows this. Despite it being a comedy, the characters all experience rejection and unrequited love. The happy twist is that the truth comes out and they all live happily ever after. But the lies and secrecy are what keep them apart. Shakespeare is promoting honesty.
- The folly of ambition: Malvlio anyone??
Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
- 5 Narrators - Post-structuralist and gives men no voice
- Often said to be a "re-read of Heart of Darkness" (Pamela Demory)
- Promotes a stream-of-consciousness within the characters. We are given characters whose thoughts we see unedited. The events are then a perspective of reality. The collage of characters gives us an illusion that we see the whole reality, but really we see the individual truths and perspectives of Western society (innocence = Ruth May, materialism = Rachel, discovery and artistic wonderment = Adah, liberation and independence = Orleanna, religious rediscovery and compassion = Leah)
- Nathan Price is not given a voice. He is the truth that the women give him.
- Pastiche of styles from Heart of Darkness (Framed narrative, black/white imagery, Congo, colonialism) and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (POV of those being colonised, manipulation of language)
- Intertextuality of poetry
- Bird and red imagery. The idea that "hope is a thing with feathers" (from Emily Dickinson too)
- Extremities of religion do not lead to salvation but rather condemnation.
- There is no such thing as an uncivilised culture. But rather that there are different kinds of civilisation and culture.
- Liberation and discovery come through rebellion
- Empowerment of women
- Structuralist
- Framed narrative (Marlow on Thames telling story of Kurtz and his journey down the Congo to drinking buddies, whilst the narrator also makes occasional comment on Marlow. Second-perspective narration of two to three different stories. A story within a story within a story)
- The darkness of an uncivilised area can corrupt and destroy a man's integrity and sense of self.
- Order cannot be created amongst disorder without a sacrifice.
- Women are not given a voice here but rather are seen as "out of touch with the truth"
- Nature vs civilisation. We must accept the natural law, we cannot bend it or shape it. But rather it shapes us and who we are
- Contrast of setting. Thames versus the Congo. Linked by the river.
- Kurtz is seen to represent the greedy and power-hungry capitalist society that wished expand and exploit. Correct me if I'm wrong but this is around about the time of the publicity of Karl Marx's ideas.
- Joseph Conrad is seen to have made Marlow his fictional alter-ego. He comes up in other works of Conrad's.
- Confessional poetry. The love of personal pronouns and reinvention of self to catharsise all negative and yukky emotions.
- Empowering women
- Criticising society's workings to the highest degree. This is in terms of society's treatment of women, the individual and its function in the world as a control of ideas and views on reality
- Written at the time Freud's ideas on psycho-sexuality were coming into fashion.
- Pours out an emotional autobiography through persona. The persona is NOT Plath but is rather a persona with the "control and manipulate[d] experiences" of Plath to add potency to her emotions and - in the nature of true confessional poetry - honestly bare her soul.
- Imagery and symbols: holocaust, nursery rhyme, fairytale, body, entertainment imagery, phoenix allusion.
- The "manic purging of the soul".
Films
Pan's Labyrinth:
- Post-modernist Gothic fairytale, magical realism
- Questions the truths of our world and the accepted view within a society.
- Idea that "rebellion and disobedience are necessary" to self-discovery (del Toro). Shown by going against normal 'rules' of lighting, with a surrealist take to reality via colour filter. Rebellious acts, guided to sympathise with rebels (symmetry, aesthetically pleasing cinematography)
- Sacrifice is necessary to achieve success. Shown through the acts of sacrifice, abandonment of modern day fairytale for the risky and darker side of folklore.
- Imagination and reality need to be intertwined in order to survive the evils presented in either. The parallels between the real and fantasy world show this.
- This is an escapist film. The fairytale allusions, lullaby being connecting Ofelia to the alternate world, moon symbolism, doors motifs.
- Dystopia that deals with social and political issues. A parable.
- Hope in humanity is found in new life. God rays on Theo and baby almost always cast with back-lighting or light on face.
- Biblical allusions to the story of Jesus' birth (but also if you look closely to the story of Noah). Animals in almost every shot, Kee's pregnancy joke about being a virgin, water, a boat being the hope for "Tomorrow".
- Oranges allusion to The Godfather series. Their presence foreshadows tragic events (to be played out almost immediately after the orange makes it into the shot)
- Womb envy: a neo-Freudian concept by Karen Horney that suggests that because men need to carry on their legacy and preserve their presence in the future but can't reproduce like women, they have the need to distinguish themselves in other ways. Some involve technical progress, the gaining of power, oppression of women, a male heir etc etc. However, in Children of Men, women can't reproduce, so men feel no need to compete with women for 'immortality'. A regression of technology has taken place. See this in lack of new cars, futuristic technology, no 'new' songs, they're all nostalgia ones. Only way they have progressed is in violence (releasing frustrations, part of the "id" taking over).
- Post-structuralist and Post-modern
- We see the film played out in reverse sequence
- Like the story of Sisyphus. He was forever condemned by the gods to the pointless and arduous task of rolling a massive rock up a mountain, but before he reached the top, it rolled down and he'd have to start again. This was his punishment for all eternity. Like Leonard is condemned to have to start a new memory and before he can retain it, it slips away and he has to work back from the start again.
- Main colour - blue. Black and white in present, and colour in reverse sequence. Shows the difference between memory and real event. Problem for Leonard is that the real event never becomes memory, so the black and white is reversed to, to the real event. He can "change the colour of a car" with his memory of events.
- Self-deception, the creation and construction of one's world is key to this film. The question is, how much of this world can we trust? We learn that not every truth is THE truth. It is merely an interpretation.
- Parallel between Sammy Jankis and Leonard Shelby. Shown through motif of bars and framing.
- Redemption is found in violence here. Revenge.
- A fictional lie is created to discern a societal truth (both within the film, and the film itself)
- Political allegory - dystopic to a point
- Disguise keeps us from seeing the man, but rather seeing the idea (this and previous points can all be backed up with quotes)
- Colours of red in mise en scene, blood and costume are all rich and unrealistic in comparison to the other dull colours in the film (note Evey never wears any bright colours save in the brief flashforward where she is tending to her scarlet carson roses). Highlights the glory in violence and bloodletting. It's cathartic and the slow motion spurts of blood artistically flying helter skelter provide us with a release for our inner darkness that thirsts after the blood of the evil.
- Television motif and the media have control of everything. Adds impersonality to the government. We hate it because we do not know it. The people are given personality and we see them all without the obstruction of another screen. It's ironic then that the man who represents all these people with faces, hides his. We "know nothing about [him]" and yet we trust him more than the face of Adam Sutler's on a television screen. It all depends on how much we see of them and their actions. This obstruction of face is able to show us that it is the battle of ideas rather than people. Gives more power to this film.
- Triumphant music is associated with attack. One man's "terrorist" is another man's freedom fighter I guess.
- Unveiling of victims at the end are all the united and rebelling victims of an oppressive and totalitarian government.
- Allusions to Guy Fawkes and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Funny how the main character Viola has her name begin with a "V" as well. Ironic yes?
- Drama and adventure film. Based on the true story of Christopher McCandless.
- Freedom of nature vs constriction of man. Wild untamed beauty in preference to the harsh materialism of "this sick society". Is in contention with the materialistic function of humanity
- Huge wide shots of nature take centre stage whilst McCandless is usually positioned to the extreme left or right of a shot. He is secondary, taking refuge in the wild.
- Framed by nature. It is powerful enough to engulf him. Yet it is the cityscape that finds itself framed by car windows, mountains and hills.
- Friendly people are in the country. Sean Penn makes sure that nobody particularly nice is living in the city here. It enhances both McCandless' view of the country and stays true to the idea that "happiness is only real when shared".
- The organic guitar music is always in conjunction with movement in the country. Feeling of freedom and untamed wonder.
- Human relationships are essential as it is natural. The materialism that sometimes show us that aren't. We all need love. This is what underpins the whole tale from start to finish and we can trace it back from the lack of love Chris feels to the cooling relationship of Rainey and Jan. After a while, the broken heartedness of his parents brings them closer. This is reflected in the hippie's new-found love (helped along in both instances by either McCandless' presence or absence). McCandless rejects it all (Tracy and Ron). But then right at the last instant sees that love of nature cannot overcome the need for the love of fellow mankind.
- All you need is love :)
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