How do performance elements such as CASTING and STAGING (incl. scenery,
set design, etc.) change interpretations of the play? Consider all these
Text, stage and screen categories
1. play area
2. scenery
3. properties
4. light
5. sound effects
6. music
7. physical constitution
8. mimicry
9. kinesics (gestures, movements)
10. proxemics (stage positions)
11. make-up (incl. hair)
12. costume
13. paralinguistic signs
14. linguistic signs
We also discussed the woman question, and
started discussing the New Woman
Notes on how to improve journal writing:
Content: Do you support your intepretations with close analysis of the
text, and concrete examples?
This sentence lack any kind of textual evidence: Nora "is very
irresponsible and runs away from her problems."
These sentences use specific evidence to support its interpretation: "Ibsen
uses the words exchange and serious together to signify a
relationship between two people. A relationship of depth or solidity
would involve communication, understanding and respect. This
relationship or serious exchange is lacking in the Helmer household."
Style: A key to my shorthand is here: http://chss.montclair.edu/%7Enielsenw/correction.html
p[unctuation] + frag[ment]: "She
basically implies that she has felt doll-like her whole life; played
with by others and always told what to feel."
w[rong] w[ord]: " . . . in the past, women knew there place and would
accept it."
Instructor's preference: With the exception of
long-term absences
that need further discussion, I prefer NOT to be notified via email
when you cannot come to class.
Student
Questions
- NR: On p. 256, what is Hedda referring to when she says
that life is absurd/ludicrous?
- SH: Why does she kill herself? Is she afraid of people
finding out about her burning the manuscript? JV: Is it her final act
of complete control? VP: Is it shocking for audiences?
- KW: Why is the play called Hedda Gabler?
- RF: What does the play's introduction show about her
personality? her treatment of George's slippers? Do we see her suicide
coming?
- James: In what ways does Lovborg's impending success
threaten every character's stability or ambition?
- CR: Why does Hedda seem to have an obsession with
having power over others?
- MM: Why does she burn
the m.s.?
- MR: What does lighting or absence of it symbolize in
HG?
- EC: Is Hedda's
role one of empowerment or weakness?
- ECic.: What's the
significance of the phrase "free from everything ugly" in this play
(279) and other of Ibsen's?
FW: In what
ways is Hedda similar to the New Woman? And Nora? Why or why not?
"One of the primary factors
motivating the typical New Woman is
rebellion against the 'old woman,' described by one member of an 1890s
women's club as 'bounded on the north by servants, on the south by
children, on the east by ailments and on the west by clothes.' The
conventional Victorian woman is accustomed to self-sacrifice; the New
Woman pursues self-fulfillment and independence, often choosing to work
for a living. She typically strives for equality in her relationships
with men, seeking to eliminate the double standard that shaped the
sexual mores of the time, and is in general much more frank about
sexuality than the old woman. Dismayed by male attitudes or by the
difficulty of combining marriage and a career, she often chooses to
remain single; concomitantly, she comes to place increasing value on
relationships with other women (This new literary emphasis on female
solidarity paralleled the actual growth of women's clubs.) Furthermore,
the New Woman tends to be well-educated and to read a great deal.
Although not necessarily a woman suffragist, she is likely to be more
interested in politics than the conventional woman. Finally, the New
Woman is physically vigorous and energetic, preferring comfortable
clothes to the restrictive garb usually worn by women of the era. She
often has short hair, rides a bicycle, and smokes cigarettes--all
considered quite daring for women at the turn of the century.
Significantly, however, the ultimate fate of the fictional New Woman is
frequently hysteria or some other nervous disorder, physical illness,
or even death, often by suicide, her unhappy end reflecting the fact
that society was simply not yet ready to accommodate her new ways"
(Finney 195-96).
Work Cited
Finney, Gail. Women in Modern Drama:
Freud, Feminism, and European Theater at the Turn of the Century.
Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1989.
Student
Questions--The Father
- Why are the parents constantly bickering over their
child? Why do they only talk about the legalities of child raising, not
love? (cf. p. 34)
- Why does the Captain refer to his wife as the enemy?
What relevance to the myth of Omphale have in relation to the Capt. and
his wife?
- Does the Captain hate women because they treat him as a
child, allowing him never to become a man (therefore making him less
superior to women)?
- Is Bertha really not the Captain's daughter, or does
Laura just say that to gain control over him?
- When the Nurse claims that a mother only has her child
(17), does this undermine or support the idea of the New Woman?
- Why does the Captain want his daughter to be a teacher?
Is Laura trying to do what's best for B., or is she just trying to
control something in a society that doesn't give women control? What
does the Pastor's characterization of Laura on p.7 foreshadow/
characterize about her? See also p. 14 (characteristics Laura
attributes to her husband)
- In p. 14, it discusses psychology. In what ways is this
influenced by Freudian theory?
- In Act II, sc. 3, p. 41: the pastor refers to fire and
water exploding. What does this (akward) metaphor mean?
Strindberg presents Laura and the Captain’s conflict as a
gender battle (sometimes literally). What are each of their complaints
against the other?
Laura vs. the Captain:
- no decision-making authority in household
- Capt. hypocritical about own spending habits
- 6: women considered "guilty" for sexuality
- 6: no matter what she does, Capt. considers himself
"saddled" with wife and kids
- law gives her no say her raising of own child
- 21: calls her "satanic power"
- threatens to kill Bertha
- 39: domestic violence
- willing to compromise; he'll only use force
Captain vs. Laura:
- 7: doesn't want to "pimp" B. to marriage
- has reason to doubt wife's interests b/c she questions
paternity
- 39: letter about insanity
- hiding his mail
- deterred his scientific career
- 10: main breadwinner (therefore should have say over
daughter)
- 35: child = immortality
- 31: victim of her manipulations with doctor
Student
Ques. Miss Julie
- MR: Do Julie's "sadistic" ways stem from her mother?
- VP: Why does Strindberg use the motif of Jean climbing
up, and Julie climbing/falling down?
- KW: What is meant by the slaughtering of her bird,
Serine?
- SH: What's the author's motive behind the power shifts
between Miss Julie and Jean? Who has the power in the relationship?
- CR: Why does Miss Julie say that she needs Jean to
order her to do something at the end?
- EC: Does Julie seem to feel like she's in a guilded
cage? Why does she feel that she is trapped?
- JG: What are the similarities between the Capt. and
Miss Julie, and between Laura and Jean?
- What's the reference to Jean being a Joseph on p. 81?
Other ques.:
AA: Why is Miss Julie attracted to Jean?
CR: Why does Strindberg seem to hate women?
HC: Is Miss Julie representative of the New Woman? How is she
both independent and dependent on men?
Brecht, Epic
Theater
- actors detach themselves from the character so that
audiences can critique the character; actors separate themselves from
character
- actors might wear masks
- actors acknowledge fourth wall
- Brecht wants his audience to react with alienation to
characters
- didactic theater: wants to teach audiences to think
- screens to announce the plot of scenes or projections
that announce keywords
Artaud, Theater of
Cruelty
- spectator is in the center of the spectacle
- come up with new masterpieces, or unknown plays --
wants plays that respond to modern audiences
- wants the audience to be active and not passive
- wants actors to use GESTURE and physicality; actors use
original gestures
- no more "psychologically real" characters and plays
- violence
- magic and ritual
Student Questions -- Spring Awakening
- Why does Moritz want to commit suicide?
- Why is Melchior so nihilistic? Why is he so
knowledgeable about sex, but not its consequences?
- Why is religion such a negative force in the play?
e.g., the abortion/murder, suicide
- Are the children's problems specific to children, or
also to adults in the time period?
- How do Ilse's trials speak to the progression of the
New Woman?
- Who or what is the masked man (religious presence, or
the helping hand the parents never seem to give the children)? What is
the scene at the end--a dream, a hallucination?
Many: What does Melchior's beating of
Wendla mean?
STUDENT
QUESTIONS
- What happens between the stepdaughter and the father?
- Is the author saying that the reality is the character,
and the illusion is the actors?
- What is the distinction about what the father says
about what is real and true on p. 12?
- What does P. seem to think in general about the
theater? How much of his personal thoughts did he put in the play?
- Why does the stepdaughter laugh so much at the end of
the play?
- Why does P. create the characters of the child and the
boy? They don't have lines in the play. Are they actually dead at the
end of the play?
- Why are the characters able to appear, except Mme.
Pace?
Many: What modern values of theater
(Brecht/Artaud) does Pirandello's play illustrate?
[Synthesized from written responses]: Does Pirandello's aesthetics draw
audiences closer into family trauma, or distance them away from it? Why
or why not?
STUDENT
QUESTIONS --
The Maids
- Why does Claire refer to herself in third person at the
beginning of the play?
- What's the point of their role playing?
- Do the sisters really love each other?
- Why do the sisters want to kill Madame?
- Why does Claire want to bring God into it (84)?
- Is Claire alive at the end of the play?
- Is beauty considered powerful? What role does it have
in the play?
- How do the setting and structure contribute to the mood
of the play?