Show and Tell: Puritan Addition

The Crucible! This is possibly my favorite play ever. Written my Arthur Milller, this play is about the Salem Witch Trials and the corrupt system of discerning witches from normal towns folk. The play is basically about the girls of the village trying to do witch craft and getting caught. Obviously their only option is to pin the blame on someone else or they would be hanged. The kicker with this way of thinking is that if you confessed, you would not be killed but simply known by the entire own as a witch and have your name blackened among the towns people, or tell them that you aren't a witch (aka the truth) and be accused of lying and ultimately hanged. John Proctor (my favorite) is one of the people in the village to refuse to sign his name stating that he is a witch. He said that he didn't want his name blackened. The stage directions in the Crucible really help understand exactly what is going on. In the course scene, for example, when Abigail is leading the girls in a ridiculous lie where spirits are flying around, the stage directions help by stating who is pointing where, who is speaking over one another, and where everyone is running/moving. Basically, this play is the bees knees. 

4000 Miles

I am so happy this post is about motifs, because there are so many in 4000 Miles! My favorite has to be when Leo says something intense or angrily, but on his face is a grin. The contrast between his physicall appearance and his mood never cease to amaze me and even amuse me. "Waddayacallit" Is another gem of 4000 Miles. This constant disconnect between Vera and the words she are looking for mirrors Leo and his being emotionally lost. He made out with his sister and saw his best friend die and now he is on a "break" at grandma's house. I just feel like Leo is sort of lost through out this entire play. I did notice a trend with Vera's hearing aie, whether is was her taking it out because of noise or forgetting to put is back in when she should be listening to Leo (that scene was awful for me to read.

Judith

Rather than "Does Judith kill Holofernes?" I think a good major dramatic question for Judith is "Will Judith get control of her country?" I believe that this question is answered, but what she has to go through to get there almost makes it not even worth is. The murders the man she fall in love with and attempts to have sex with his dead body. She may have come out of the exchange as a new person, even taking on Holofernes' commanding demeanor, but it all came at a steep price. I may just be a hopeless romantic, sue me.

Night, Mother

I don;t really think that "Will Jessie kill herself" is a good MDQ. For one, plays end once the MDQ is answered, but once Jessie kills herself, the play continues to progress. A good MDQ for Night, Mother would be "How will Mama react to Jessie killing herself?" or "Will Mama follow Jessie's list?" There would actually work because the play ends with Mama on the phone asking for Dawson. This answers how she will react because we see her picking up the phone and beginning to follow Jessie's list, which also answers "will she follow Jessie's list?" The MDQ "Will Jessie kill herself" is basically telling us that the play is about Jessie and her suicide. Night, Mother is actually about Mama and her having to deal with this as it is happening, which is why either of the two MDQ I have suggested would be sufficient.

Trifles

One act plays seem to be a hit or miss for me. Luckily, Trifles is a definite hit! I really like how the male/female dynamic was represented in this play. The men thought that they were doing all of the work and it wasn't the women's job to look for the murder motive, but in the end it was the women who discovered the motive. The scene where the bird is in one of teh women's pockets while the men are in the room is a great use of dramatic irony. We know that the bird is there, but the men don't. I was kept on edge because the bird could have been discovered any second seeing as it was only concealed by a piece of fabric.I'd definitely read it again.

Gerstenberg's Overtones

Overtones might be the funniest play I have ever read. In class, everyone talked about how the overtones and undertones in the play are reflected in women today. We put up false pretenses to hide what we are actually feeling. I agree with this but it wasn't what I was thinking while I was reading it. The entire time i pictured it as a sort of SNL skit. In my head the conversation flowed at a quick pace with Hetty and Maggie barely letting Margaret and Harriet finish their lined before interjecting with how they really felt. It seemed very comical to me. Writing about it made me realize that the play was funnier in my head. Something that really stood out to me in Overtones was the subtlety of the stage directions. For example, when Maggie grabs at the cake given to Margaret, the stage directions say that Margaret gracefully and nonchalantly takes the cake. Without these stage directions, we wouldn't know what was going on. We wouldn't see how desperate Maggie is for the cake or how much of a front Margaret puts up in order to look calm and unconcerned in front of Harriet. I think that its the small things like this in Overtones that made it seem humorous to me. All of the theatrics and drama was just too much(in an good way).