Please read the collection: Without Feathers by Woody Allen. Information about Woody Allen is posted on the link on the side of the blog.
Much of Allen's humor requires a little knowledge about form, content, or knowing a little bit about his life (or the life of a Jewish New Yorker intellectual). To help you, please refer to this page for explanation of the allusion and humor in Woody Allen's book.
The title: Refers to Emily Dickenson’s poem: “Hope is a thing with feathers.” Ergo, if you have no feathers, you have no hope.
Selections from the Allen Notebooks & The Early Essays: Both these essays parody the publishing industry’s love affair with memoir, creative non-fiction, and publishing a well-known author’s private writings after they have died. Hence, the humor of these weird insights into the famous “Woody Allen” journals. Traditionally, creative essay form always used the same form: the word “ON” and then the subject of the essay.
Examining Psychic Phenomena: The supernatural is always a good subject to parody. In this case, a review of a newly published “non-fiction” book on Psychic Phenomena. Look up Psychic Phenomena on the internet to see the sort of thing Allen is parodying.
The Guide to Some of the Lesser Ballets: When you attend an opera or ballet, inside your program you often get the story synopsis. Since opera is usually in another language, and ballet is hard to follow if you don’t know the story, these sorts of program notes are helpful in interpreting the performance. Allen, of course, is poking fun.
The Scrolls: A few years before the book was published, the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered. In the early 70’s this sort of thing caused a lot of controversy between religious scholars and scientists. They wondered if these scrolls were part of the Bible. Allen is also Jewish, so the humor relates to this fact as well.
Lovborg’s Women Considered: The playwright Henrick Ibsen is the bane and love of many literary scholars and theatre students. Woody Allen is poking fun of the field of literary criticism (scholars who write about books, authors, and their “private” lives).
The Whore of Mensa: Allen is parodying the hardboiled detective novel made popular by writers like Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon). Think of Humphrey Bogart as the narrator and you’ll have the idea. Mensa is a national program/club – entry into which is based on I.Q. The idea then of whores who intellectually stimulate their johns is a very funny idea.
Death, A Play: Allen was a philosophy major in college. He is also interested in psychology. The two main philosophical ideas this play refers to are existentialism and Nihilism. Existentialism is a type of writing or the study of answering the question: what is the meaning of life? Existentialism tries to explain what the meaning of life is. Some people believe we are alive for a reason, others are Nihilistic and say that there is no point in our existence, that there is no purpose to our lives. Kleinman is representative of everyman. He represents all of us. We sometimes don't know what our purpose in life is (Kleinman doesn't know his purpose in the play, for example). By the way, we are all being "stalked" by death, just as Kleinman is being stalked by the maniac. Death is the great equalizer. All living beings are going to die. Along with LOVE, DEATH is one of the most common themes in literature.
A Brief, yet Helpful, Guide to Civil Disobedience: People were protesting the Vietnam War when Woody Allen wrote this book. Even this serious topic is humor-fodder for writers. The allusion to The Trojan Women is referring to a Greek Tragedy (see: God) about the women of Troy banding together to protest the Trojan War.
Match Wits with Inspector Ford: In the 70’s books such as 5-Minute Mysteries were very popular. The idea was that the author gave you a very short mystery or crime. The answer to the “riddle” was in the back of the book. A fan of whodunits will enjoy this parody.
The Irish Genius: This is a parody (similar to Lovborg) but dealing with the poet William Butler Yeats. Yeats was an Irish culture fanatic and wrote “Irish” lyrics celebrating Gaelic and Irish legends. His poems drip with allusion and Allen plays around with this idea by providing fake “footnotes.”
God, a Play: Poking fun at Greek Theatre, Allen is also joking about writers and the process of writing a play and the challenges of performing it. Allen was a playwright before he became a film writer. So you can assume the Writer character is partly autobiographical. Of course, the character of “Woody” is also Allen’s alter-ego in the play. Enjoy the absurdist ideas of the piece. By the way, the machine reference in the play is a reference to: Deus Ex Machina (or God from the machine) referring to a contrived ending of a play (a God comes down and fixes the characters’ problems).
Fabulous Tales and Mythical Beasts: Bestiaries were an old fashion (Medieval) form of the nature guide. They were all the rage in the 1500’s.
But Soft, Real Soft: There is a scholarly debate over who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays. Many critics say that Marlowe (another Elizabethan playwright) wrote Shakespeare’s work. Others say Queen Elizabeth or Francis Bacon wrote the plays. Probably, odd as it may seem, Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare’s plays. The title refers to a line from Romeo and Juliet.
If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists: The Impressionist painter Van Gogh kept close correspondence with his brother Theo. Later a song and a movie were made from Van Gogh’s private letters. The title tells the rest of the joke.
No Kaddish for Weinstein: Kaddish is a Hebrew prayer of mourning usually recited at a person’s grave. Woody Allen often jokes about Freudian Psychoanalysis or therapy. He is using a comic technique of the non-sequiter (or surprising a reader by saying something unrelated to its subject or something that makes no sense or is nonsensical.)
Fine Times: An Oral Memoir: Another parody of a book review and autobiography of a fictional character. This one is about Flo Guinness, a speakeasy owner in the 1920’s. Alcohol was prohibited (illegal) in the early 1920’s and later repealed. Guinness is the name of a popular beer. Allen references many famous 1920’s musicians and people.
Slang Origins: The English language has so many weird expressions and sayings. Allen pokes fun at them in this “essay.”
Monday, January 26, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
GeVa Play Contest - Final project
To illustrate your understanding of the play form, you will write a "10-minute" play. This play will be submitted to the GeVa Young Playwriting contest as well as count as your "final exam" for our playwriting unit.
Rules:
1. Your play should be formatted correctly in standard playwriting format. (I will give you a handout/example of the form next class.)
2. Your play should be somewhere between 5 and 10 pages in length. GeVa does not want plays longer than 10 pages. Conclude your plays so that they are 10 pages or less.
3. Plays should be performable. Do not include more than six actors. Minor characters should be considered carefully before including them in the script.
4. Your play should have a clear protagonist(s) and a clear antagonist(s). You may have more than one protagonist/antagonist, particularly if your characters are important, necessary, and well developed.
5. Your script should be free of grammar and punctuation errors. To win contests, you want to present your best work. Shoddy grammar indicates carelessness or stupidity.
6. Give your protagonist and antagonist at least 1 monologue or soliloquy.
7. Your play should be unified (use the unities of time, place, and action) and remain in one setting, if possible.
8. Write a clever, creative play. Use the literary devices you have been taught. Refer to the notes and advice on this website (including poetry/fiction). I will be grading you on your understanding and ability to craft an effective "contest-winning" play.
9. All play drafts should be completed by Thursday, Jan. 22.
Rules:
1. Your play should be formatted correctly in standard playwriting format. (I will give you a handout/example of the form next class.)
2. Your play should be somewhere between 5 and 10 pages in length. GeVa does not want plays longer than 10 pages. Conclude your plays so that they are 10 pages or less.
3. Plays should be performable. Do not include more than six actors. Minor characters should be considered carefully before including them in the script.
4. Your play should have a clear protagonist(s) and a clear antagonist(s). You may have more than one protagonist/antagonist, particularly if your characters are important, necessary, and well developed.
5. Your script should be free of grammar and punctuation errors. To win contests, you want to present your best work. Shoddy grammar indicates carelessness or stupidity.
6. Give your protagonist and antagonist at least 1 monologue or soliloquy.
7. Your play should be unified (use the unities of time, place, and action) and remain in one setting, if possible.
8. Write a clever, creative play. Use the literary devices you have been taught. Refer to the notes and advice on this website (including poetry/fiction). I will be grading you on your understanding and ability to craft an effective "contest-winning" play.
9. All play drafts should be completed by Thursday, Jan. 22.
Character is Key
Plays, fiction, non-fiction, poetry. What do they all have in common?
Character.
Character is key. As you noted in Streetcar Named Desire, if Blanche and Stanley weren't interesting characters (as well as Stella, Mitch, etc.) the play would not have been as significant. The action of the play revolves around their conflict and thier goals!
Character and plot work together.
Plays that involve characters in CONFLICT are better plays than ones that do not.
As you know from Fiction (see the Fiction lectures and notes on this website from the beginning of the year), characterization is necessary to develop character. Characterization includes the actions a character performs (a necessary element in Playwriting), what the character says about him/herself (often through dialogue, soliloquy or monologue), and what other characters say about the character in question (through dialogue - often when that character is not "on-stage", almost like gossip happens in real life.)
Characters are often products of their internal (inside/personal) life and thier external lives (their occupations, interaction with other people, their economic or social environment, etc.). These external and internal elements are used to create CONFLICT.
Characters have a need to speak in a play. Without dialogue, plays don't work right.
You should be intimately familiar with the following types of characters:
Protagonist
Antagonist
Secondary characters (minor characters)
Dynamic characters (characters who change during the story)
All characters in a play need to be there for a reason. It is your job as a writer to give them a reason!
Character.
Character is key. As you noted in Streetcar Named Desire, if Blanche and Stanley weren't interesting characters (as well as Stella, Mitch, etc.) the play would not have been as significant. The action of the play revolves around their conflict and thier goals!
Character and plot work together.
Plays that involve characters in CONFLICT are better plays than ones that do not.
As you know from Fiction (see the Fiction lectures and notes on this website from the beginning of the year), characterization is necessary to develop character. Characterization includes the actions a character performs (a necessary element in Playwriting), what the character says about him/herself (often through dialogue, soliloquy or monologue), and what other characters say about the character in question (through dialogue - often when that character is not "on-stage", almost like gossip happens in real life.)
Characters are often products of their internal (inside/personal) life and thier external lives (their occupations, interaction with other people, their economic or social environment, etc.). These external and internal elements are used to create CONFLICT.
Characters have a need to speak in a play. Without dialogue, plays don't work right.
You should be intimately familiar with the following types of characters:
Protagonist
Antagonist
Secondary characters (minor characters)
Dynamic characters (characters who change during the story)
All characters in a play need to be there for a reason. It is your job as a writer to give them a reason!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
A Playwright Named After a State...
Tennessee Williams "was born Thomas Lanier Williams III in Columbus, Mississippi, in 1911. His friends began calling him Tennessee in college, in honor of his Southern accent and his father's home state. Williams's father, C.C. Williams, was a traveling salesman and a heavy drinker. Williams's mother, Edwina, was a Mississippi clergyman's daughter prone to hysterical attacks. Until Williams was seven, he, his parents, his older sister, Rose, and his younger brother, Dakin, lived with Edwina's parents in Mississippi.
In 1918, the Williams family moved to St. Louis, marking the start of the family's deterioration. C.C.'s drinking increased, the family moved sixteen times in ten years, and the young Williams, always shy and fragile, was ostracized and taunted at school. During these years, he and Rose became extremely close. Edwina and Williams's maternal grandparents also offered the emotional support he required throughout his childhood. Williams loathed his father but grew to appreciate him somewhat after deciding in therapy as an adult that his father had given him his tough survival instinct.
After being bedridden for two years as a child due to severe illness, Williams grew into a withdrawn, effeminate adolescent whose chief solace was writing. At sixteen, Williams won a prize in a national competition that asked for essays answering the question “Can a good wife be a good sport?” His answer was published in Smart Set magazine. The following year, he published a horror story in a magazine called Weird Tales, and the year after that he entered the University of Missouri to study journalism. While in college, he wrote his first plays, which were influenced by members of the southern literary renaissance such as Robert Penn Warren, William Faulkner, Allen Tate, and Thomas Wolfe. Before Williams could receive his degree, however, his father forced him to withdraw from school. Outraged because Williams had failed a required ROTC program course, C.C. Williams made his son go to work at the same shoe company where he himself worked.
After three years at the shoe factory, Williams had a minor nervous breakdown. He then returned to college, this time at Washington University in St. Louis. While he was studying there, a St. Louis theater group produced two of his plays, The Fugitive Kind and Candles to the Sun. Further personal problems led Williams to drop out of Washington University and enroll in the University of Iowa. While he was in Iowa, Rose, who had begun suffering from mental illness later in life, underwent a prefrontal lobotomy (an intensive brain surgery). The event greatly upset Williams, and it left his sister institutionalized for the rest of her life. Despite this trauma, Williams finally managed to graduate in 1938.
In the years following his graduation, Williams lived a bohemian life, working menial jobs and wandering from city to city. He continued to work on drama, however, receiving a Rockefeller grant and studying playwriting at the New School in New York. His literary influences were evolving to include the playwright Anton Chekhov and Williams's lifelong hero, the poet Hart Crane. He officially changed his name to Tennessee Williams upon the publication of his short story “The Field of Blue Children” in 1939. During the early years of World War II, Williams worked in Hollywood as a scriptwriter and also prepared material for what would become The Glass Menagerie.
In 1944, The Glass Menagerie opened in New York and won the prestigious New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, catapulting Williams into the upper echelon of American playwrights. A Streetcar Named Desire premiered three years later at the Barrymore Theater in New York City. The play, set in contemporary times, describes the decline and fall of a fading Southern belle named Blanche DuBois. A Streetcar Named Desire cemented Williams's reputation, garnering another Drama Critics' Circle Award and also a Pulitzer Prize. Williams went on to win another Drama Critics' Circle Award and Pulitzer for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955.
Much of the pathos found in Williams's drama was mined from the playwright's own life. Alcoholism, depression, thwarted desire, loneliness, and insanity were all part of Williams's world. His experience as a known homosexual in an era unfriendly to homosexuality also informed his work. Williams's most memorable characters, many of them female, contain recognizable elements of their author, Edwina, and Rose. His vulgar, irresponsible male characters, such as Stanley Kowalski, were likely modeled on Williams's own father and other males who tormented Williams during his childhood.
Williams's early plays also connected with the new American taste for realism that emerged following the Depression and World War II. The characters in A Streetcar Named Desire are trying to rebuild their lives in postwar America: Stanley and Mitch served in the military, while Blanche had affairs with young soldiers based near her home.
Williams set his plays in the South, but the compelling manner in which he rendered his themes made them universal, winning him an international audience and worldwide acclaim. However, most critics agree that the quality of Williams's work diminished as he grew older. He suffered a long period of depression following the death of his longtime partner, Frank Merlo, in 1963. His popularity during these years also declined due to changed interests in the theater world. During the radical 1960s and 1970s, nostalgia no longer drew crowds, and Williams's explorations of sexual mores came across as tired and old-fashioned.
Williams died in 1983 when he choked on a medicine-bottle cap in an alcohol-related incident at the Elysée Hotel in New York City. He was one month short of his seventy-second birthday. In his long career he wrote twenty-five full-length plays (five made into movies), five screenplays, over seventy one-act plays, hundreds of short stories, two novels, poetry, and a memoir. The mark he left on the tradition of realism in American drama is incredible.
In 1918, the Williams family moved to St. Louis, marking the start of the family's deterioration. C.C.'s drinking increased, the family moved sixteen times in ten years, and the young Williams, always shy and fragile, was ostracized and taunted at school. During these years, he and Rose became extremely close. Edwina and Williams's maternal grandparents also offered the emotional support he required throughout his childhood. Williams loathed his father but grew to appreciate him somewhat after deciding in therapy as an adult that his father had given him his tough survival instinct.
After being bedridden for two years as a child due to severe illness, Williams grew into a withdrawn, effeminate adolescent whose chief solace was writing. At sixteen, Williams won a prize in a national competition that asked for essays answering the question “Can a good wife be a good sport?” His answer was published in Smart Set magazine. The following year, he published a horror story in a magazine called Weird Tales, and the year after that he entered the University of Missouri to study journalism. While in college, he wrote his first plays, which were influenced by members of the southern literary renaissance such as Robert Penn Warren, William Faulkner, Allen Tate, and Thomas Wolfe. Before Williams could receive his degree, however, his father forced him to withdraw from school. Outraged because Williams had failed a required ROTC program course, C.C. Williams made his son go to work at the same shoe company where he himself worked.
After three years at the shoe factory, Williams had a minor nervous breakdown. He then returned to college, this time at Washington University in St. Louis. While he was studying there, a St. Louis theater group produced two of his plays, The Fugitive Kind and Candles to the Sun. Further personal problems led Williams to drop out of Washington University and enroll in the University of Iowa. While he was in Iowa, Rose, who had begun suffering from mental illness later in life, underwent a prefrontal lobotomy (an intensive brain surgery). The event greatly upset Williams, and it left his sister institutionalized for the rest of her life. Despite this trauma, Williams finally managed to graduate in 1938.
In the years following his graduation, Williams lived a bohemian life, working menial jobs and wandering from city to city. He continued to work on drama, however, receiving a Rockefeller grant and studying playwriting at the New School in New York. His literary influences were evolving to include the playwright Anton Chekhov and Williams's lifelong hero, the poet Hart Crane. He officially changed his name to Tennessee Williams upon the publication of his short story “The Field of Blue Children” in 1939. During the early years of World War II, Williams worked in Hollywood as a scriptwriter and also prepared material for what would become The Glass Menagerie.
In 1944, The Glass Menagerie opened in New York and won the prestigious New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, catapulting Williams into the upper echelon of American playwrights. A Streetcar Named Desire premiered three years later at the Barrymore Theater in New York City. The play, set in contemporary times, describes the decline and fall of a fading Southern belle named Blanche DuBois. A Streetcar Named Desire cemented Williams's reputation, garnering another Drama Critics' Circle Award and also a Pulitzer Prize. Williams went on to win another Drama Critics' Circle Award and Pulitzer for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955.
Much of the pathos found in Williams's drama was mined from the playwright's own life. Alcoholism, depression, thwarted desire, loneliness, and insanity were all part of Williams's world. His experience as a known homosexual in an era unfriendly to homosexuality also informed his work. Williams's most memorable characters, many of them female, contain recognizable elements of their author, Edwina, and Rose. His vulgar, irresponsible male characters, such as Stanley Kowalski, were likely modeled on Williams's own father and other males who tormented Williams during his childhood.
Williams's early plays also connected with the new American taste for realism that emerged following the Depression and World War II. The characters in A Streetcar Named Desire are trying to rebuild their lives in postwar America: Stanley and Mitch served in the military, while Blanche had affairs with young soldiers based near her home.
Williams set his plays in the South, but the compelling manner in which he rendered his themes made them universal, winning him an international audience and worldwide acclaim. However, most critics agree that the quality of Williams's work diminished as he grew older. He suffered a long period of depression following the death of his longtime partner, Frank Merlo, in 1963. His popularity during these years also declined due to changed interests in the theater world. During the radical 1960s and 1970s, nostalgia no longer drew crowds, and Williams's explorations of sexual mores came across as tired and old-fashioned.
Williams died in 1983 when he choked on a medicine-bottle cap in an alcohol-related incident at the Elysée Hotel in New York City. He was one month short of his seventy-second birthday. In his long career he wrote twenty-five full-length plays (five made into movies), five screenplays, over seventy one-act plays, hundreds of short stories, two novels, poetry, and a memoir. The mark he left on the tradition of realism in American drama is incredible.
Streetcar Named...
Complete your reading of Streetcar Named Desire. This is one of those standard classics that you can use on a Regents exam, as well as learn good playwriting from Williams. What follows is a little help in unlocking the enigma of the play.
A Streetcar Named Desire can be described as an elegy, or poetic expression of mourning, for an Old South that died in the first part of the twentieth century.
The plot of A Streetcar Named Desire is driven by the dueling personalities of Blanche and Stanley (protagonist and antagonist).
1. Light is used as a motif and symbol in the play. Consider what its presence or absence indicates. Particularly, what does it mean as a personal symbol for Blanche?
2. Williams uses sound as a dramatic device. When and what does Blanche hear music? Look for this sort of symbolism throughout the play. Music helps create tone, as well.
3. Mitch is different from the other men in the play. He is a contrast to Stanley's brutishness. Williams uses Mitch as a complication for Blanche, and a contrast to Stanley.
4. Likewise Stella contrasts her sister Blanche.
The two most complex characters in the play are Blanche and Stanley.
Blanche DuBois
"When the play begins, Blanche is already a fallen woman in society's eyes. Her family fortune and estate are gone, she lost her young husband to suicide years earlier, and she is a social pariah due to her indiscrete sexual behavior. She also has a bad drinking problem, which she covers up poorly. Behind her veneer of social snobbery and sexual propriety, Blanche is an insecure, dislocated individual. She is an aging Southern belle who lives in a state of perpetual panic about her fading beauty. She does not want to belong in this setting, but she fits in quite nicely to our image of New Orleans as a cesspit and ancient behemoth. Stanley quickly sees through Blanche's act and seeks out information about her past.
In the Kowalski household, Blanche pretends to be a woman who has never known indignity. Her false propriety is not simply snobbery, however; it constitutes a calculated attempt to make herself appear attractive to new male suitors. Blanche depends on male sexual admiration for her sense of self-esteem, which means that she has often succumbed to passion. By marrying, Blanche hopes to escape poverty and the bad reputation that haunts her. But because the chivalric Southern gentleman savior and caretaker (represented by the ideal Shep Huntleigh) she hopes will rescue her is extinct, Blanche is left with no realistic possibility of future happiness. As Blanche sees it, Mitch is her only chance for contentment, even though he is far from her ideal.
Stanley's relentless persecution of Blanche foils her pursuit of Mitch as well as her attempts to shield herself from the harsh truth of her situation. The play chronicles the subsequent crumbling of Blanche's self-image and sanity. Stanley himself takes the final stabs at Blanche, destroying the remainder of her sexual and mental esteem by raping her and then committing her to an insane asylum. In the end, Blanche blindly allows herself to be led away by a kind doctor, ignoring her sister's cries. This final image is the sad culmination of Blanche's vanity and total dependence upon men for happiness."
Stanley Kowalski
"Audience members may well see Stanley as an egalitarian hero at the play's start. He is loyal to his friends and passionate to his wife. Stanley possesses an animalistic physical vigor that is evident in his love of work, of fighting, and of sex. His family is from Poland, and several times he expresses his outrage at being called “Polack” and other derogatory names. When Blanche calls him a “Polack,” he makes her look old-fashioned and ignorant by asserting that he was born in America, is an American, and can only be called “Polish.” Stanley represents the new, heterogeneous America to which Blanche doesn't belong, because she is a relic from a defunct social hierarchy. He sees himself as a social leveler, as he tells Stella in Scene Eight.
Stanley's intense hatred of Blanche is motivated in part by the aristocratic past Blanche represents. He also (rightly) sees her as untrustworthy and does not appreciate the way she attempts to fool him and his friends into thinking she is better than they are. Stanley's animosity toward Blanche manifests itself in all of his actions toward her—his investigations of her past, his birthday gift to her, his sabotage of her relationship with Mitch.
In the end, Stanley's down-to-earth character proves harmfully crude and brutish. His chief amusements are gambling, bowling, sex, and drinking, and he lacks ideals and imagination. His disturbing, degenerate nature, first hinted at when he beats his wife, is fully evident after he rapes his sister-in-law. Stanley shows no remorse for his brutal actions. The play ends with an image of Stanley as the ideal family man, comforting his wife as she holds their newborn child. The wrongfulness of this representation, given what we have learned about him in the play, ironically calls into question society's decision to ostracize Blanche." (both taken from Sparknotes)
Mitch and Stella provide Stanley and Blanche with appropriate foils. They complete the possible futures for Stanley/Stella and Blanche/Mitch.
There is a lot in this play (as in all Tenessee Williams' work). Characters are complex, plot is driven by the desires of its characters, conflict is nicely supported through characterization, setting is significant, and literary devices such as symbolism run rampant through its pages. No wonder the world knows this play. It is fine play writing.
A Streetcar Named Desire can be described as an elegy, or poetic expression of mourning, for an Old South that died in the first part of the twentieth century.
The plot of A Streetcar Named Desire is driven by the dueling personalities of Blanche and Stanley (protagonist and antagonist).
1. Light is used as a motif and symbol in the play. Consider what its presence or absence indicates. Particularly, what does it mean as a personal symbol for Blanche?
2. Williams uses sound as a dramatic device. When and what does Blanche hear music? Look for this sort of symbolism throughout the play. Music helps create tone, as well.
3. Mitch is different from the other men in the play. He is a contrast to Stanley's brutishness. Williams uses Mitch as a complication for Blanche, and a contrast to Stanley.
4. Likewise Stella contrasts her sister Blanche.
The two most complex characters in the play are Blanche and Stanley.
Blanche DuBois
"When the play begins, Blanche is already a fallen woman in society's eyes. Her family fortune and estate are gone, she lost her young husband to suicide years earlier, and she is a social pariah due to her indiscrete sexual behavior. She also has a bad drinking problem, which she covers up poorly. Behind her veneer of social snobbery and sexual propriety, Blanche is an insecure, dislocated individual. She is an aging Southern belle who lives in a state of perpetual panic about her fading beauty. She does not want to belong in this setting, but she fits in quite nicely to our image of New Orleans as a cesspit and ancient behemoth. Stanley quickly sees through Blanche's act and seeks out information about her past.
In the Kowalski household, Blanche pretends to be a woman who has never known indignity. Her false propriety is not simply snobbery, however; it constitutes a calculated attempt to make herself appear attractive to new male suitors. Blanche depends on male sexual admiration for her sense of self-esteem, which means that she has often succumbed to passion. By marrying, Blanche hopes to escape poverty and the bad reputation that haunts her. But because the chivalric Southern gentleman savior and caretaker (represented by the ideal Shep Huntleigh) she hopes will rescue her is extinct, Blanche is left with no realistic possibility of future happiness. As Blanche sees it, Mitch is her only chance for contentment, even though he is far from her ideal.
Stanley's relentless persecution of Blanche foils her pursuit of Mitch as well as her attempts to shield herself from the harsh truth of her situation. The play chronicles the subsequent crumbling of Blanche's self-image and sanity. Stanley himself takes the final stabs at Blanche, destroying the remainder of her sexual and mental esteem by raping her and then committing her to an insane asylum. In the end, Blanche blindly allows herself to be led away by a kind doctor, ignoring her sister's cries. This final image is the sad culmination of Blanche's vanity and total dependence upon men for happiness."
Stanley Kowalski
"Audience members may well see Stanley as an egalitarian hero at the play's start. He is loyal to his friends and passionate to his wife. Stanley possesses an animalistic physical vigor that is evident in his love of work, of fighting, and of sex. His family is from Poland, and several times he expresses his outrage at being called “Polack” and other derogatory names. When Blanche calls him a “Polack,” he makes her look old-fashioned and ignorant by asserting that he was born in America, is an American, and can only be called “Polish.” Stanley represents the new, heterogeneous America to which Blanche doesn't belong, because she is a relic from a defunct social hierarchy. He sees himself as a social leveler, as he tells Stella in Scene Eight.
Stanley's intense hatred of Blanche is motivated in part by the aristocratic past Blanche represents. He also (rightly) sees her as untrustworthy and does not appreciate the way she attempts to fool him and his friends into thinking she is better than they are. Stanley's animosity toward Blanche manifests itself in all of his actions toward her—his investigations of her past, his birthday gift to her, his sabotage of her relationship with Mitch.
In the end, Stanley's down-to-earth character proves harmfully crude and brutish. His chief amusements are gambling, bowling, sex, and drinking, and he lacks ideals and imagination. His disturbing, degenerate nature, first hinted at when he beats his wife, is fully evident after he rapes his sister-in-law. Stanley shows no remorse for his brutal actions. The play ends with an image of Stanley as the ideal family man, comforting his wife as she holds their newborn child. The wrongfulness of this representation, given what we have learned about him in the play, ironically calls into question society's decision to ostracize Blanche." (both taken from Sparknotes)
Mitch and Stella provide Stanley and Blanche with appropriate foils. They complete the possible futures for Stanley/Stella and Blanche/Mitch.
There is a lot in this play (as in all Tenessee Williams' work). Characters are complex, plot is driven by the desires of its characters, conflict is nicely supported through characterization, setting is significant, and literary devices such as symbolism run rampant through its pages. No wonder the world knows this play. It is fine play writing.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Jeepers, creepers, Where did you get those ideas?
“Creativity is 1/10 inspiration, 9/10 perspiration.”
Your writing doesn’t just spring up from the ground;
No muse waves a magic wand and inspires you--
Writing is work. Period.
How to start
1. Start with a situation.
Describe an event, an action, or thing happening. Plays require that you start just before the most interesting event and go from there.
Ask the question “What if…?” or “What happens when…?”
Think of a setting, and an action or happening in that setting. Complicate the simple action with a problem (a but, whoops, suddenly, or uh oh!)
Take the time to brainstorm. Think about the situation and how it started, how it continued, how it ended. Take notes in your journal. Outline your situation.
As you think about your situation, you will also find you are thinking about character and what the action means (theme). Jot those ideas down!
2. Start with a character.
Begin with a fictional, real, or historical person. Envision who this person is and what this person WANTS (their goal). It is essential in all writing (poetry, fiction, plays) that a character has a goal or motivation to act in your story. Give your characters a purpose!
Steal a composite of various people you know, have read about, even yourself.
Create situations and/or other characters to STOP your character from achieving their goal – this is your conflict.
In your journal jot down overheard conversations, quotes, and what you imagine your character saying and doing.
3. Start with a theme.
Some plays start with a germinal idea.
Pick a personal belief about the world, or an issue that you are interested in finding more about – jot down your feelings and thoughts about the topic.
Start with a statement… “This I believe__________”
Research your theme so that you confirm or deepen your understanding of the subject.
Think about characters who might share your vision. Write about them and what opposes them.
4. Cheat
Borrow ideas from other writers, books, newspapers, etc. Read interviews or biographies of writers. Look for writing advice on line. Find out what advice the professionals give. You might be able to use this advice to your advantage -- it might even lead to an idea for a play!
A few DON’T’s
--Don’t judge your play until it’s written and/or performed.
--Don’t search for originality. Shakespeare stole his ideas, you can too! What’s important is CHARACTER!
--Don’t forget to use your notes and journal as a starting place to brainstorm.
Your writing doesn’t just spring up from the ground;
No muse waves a magic wand and inspires you--
Writing is work. Period.
How to start
1. Start with a situation.
Describe an event, an action, or thing happening. Plays require that you start just before the most interesting event and go from there.
Ask the question “What if…?” or “What happens when…?”
Think of a setting, and an action or happening in that setting. Complicate the simple action with a problem (a but, whoops, suddenly, or uh oh!)
Take the time to brainstorm. Think about the situation and how it started, how it continued, how it ended. Take notes in your journal. Outline your situation.
As you think about your situation, you will also find you are thinking about character and what the action means (theme). Jot those ideas down!
2. Start with a character.
Begin with a fictional, real, or historical person. Envision who this person is and what this person WANTS (their goal). It is essential in all writing (poetry, fiction, plays) that a character has a goal or motivation to act in your story. Give your characters a purpose!
Steal a composite of various people you know, have read about, even yourself.
Create situations and/or other characters to STOP your character from achieving their goal – this is your conflict.
In your journal jot down overheard conversations, quotes, and what you imagine your character saying and doing.
3. Start with a theme.
Some plays start with a germinal idea.
Pick a personal belief about the world, or an issue that you are interested in finding more about – jot down your feelings and thoughts about the topic.
Start with a statement… “This I believe__________”
Research your theme so that you confirm or deepen your understanding of the subject.
Think about characters who might share your vision. Write about them and what opposes them.
4. Cheat
Borrow ideas from other writers, books, newspapers, etc. Read interviews or biographies of writers. Look for writing advice on line. Find out what advice the professionals give. You might be able to use this advice to your advantage -- it might even lead to an idea for a play!
A few DON’T’s
--Don’t judge your play until it’s written and/or performed.
--Don’t search for originality. Shakespeare stole his ideas, you can too! What’s important is CHARACTER!
--Don’t forget to use your notes and journal as a starting place to brainstorm.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
5-Minute Cooperative Script
Choose a partner for this exercise.
Using the character (WHO), places (WHERE), and situations (WHAT) from the journal exercises you have been completing (in class and those at the end of the chapter reading), select a character, place, and situation.
Your partner should do the same.
Agree with your partner which of the selected places and situations are most interesting for a play. Once you have agreed to a situation and a setting, write this down on your computer screen so both of you know where and what is going on as the scene begins.
Now you must select your character.
Without discussing it, each of you pick a character you would like to "play". You will write the dialogue for this character only. Before you begin writing the dialogue, write the name of the character, what he/she is doing at the location selected, and a little general information about the nature of the character so your partner knows what kind of person he/she is dealing with.
Once you have selected a character, setting, and situation, work with your partner to complete a draft of a 3-5 page play. Alternate the typing responsibility as you type what you want your character to say. Please use the standard playwriting format.
Complete this scene by the end of class. If you finish early, choose a second character and try a different scenario for extra credit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)