A Man of No Importance is a musical that takes place in Dublin in the 1960’s. It follows the story of a young man, Alfie. Alfie is the director of a theater group, and also a bus conductor. Throughout the musical, he is directing his latest musical, while doing so, he not only uncovers new things about his actors and acrtresses, but himself as well. He is constantly struggling with his inner demons, which Oscar Wilde, the writer of the play Alfie is producing, helps Alfie sort through. Wilde is displayed as a figure of Alfie’s mind, helps him uncover. The first character I will be analyzing is Alfie. In many aspects, Alfie doesn’t live true to his authentic self. Throughout the musical he is clearly struggling with the fact that he does not like women. His sister often encourages girls, and questions why he doesn’t seem interested. He never explains to her that it’s because he likes men, he simply brushes it off, or claims it’s because he is too focused on his plays. His best friend is the man who drives his bus, yet will barely admit to himself that he loves him. Based on Alfie’s circumstances, he feels that he must conceal his true identity, this leaves him essentially living a lie. The society in this early time period played a large role in Alfie concealing the gender that he likes. Most weren’t accepting of gay people at this time, this is demonstrated when Alfie later gets beaten up for openly showing his affection or another male. His religion also plays a role in
These two characters showed significant psychological work in hopes of changing their “problematic” social identity. Both of these characters were conscious of the stigmas that surrounded their identities, each, however, had distinct ways in which they dealt with those stigmas and changing their meanings as they grew older. Many would say that the way in which they were able to transform their identities meant either embracing it or denying one’s own identity fully as the film progressed and new societal pressures arose.
While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” tells a twisted story of a typical family going about a road trip embedded with ethical pit stops along the way. The story revolves around a cynical grandmother and how her unconventional attitude and habits set the stage for an interesting turn of events. Through manipulative antics, a prejudice character and an ironic story line, author Flannery O’Conner creates a captivating tale that shines a lights on readers’ own moral codes. The author does this by making an example of a woman completely unaware of her own immoral acts.
The boys go through the same kind of situations teenagers endure nowadays, and their reactions are as expected. Their internal journey runs parallel to their emotional growth, as well as their language changes at the same time as they mature. The events narrated are true to life. Sexual identity is not longer a taboo, and teenagers are more susceptible than any other age group to challenges and doubts about it. The boys' journey into adulthood is entertaining, sweet, and sometimes emotional. Young readers will easily identify with the theme of the story: family life, friendship, love, and quest for self-identity. The author's style is fresh, simple, and straightforward. There are many pages of pure dialogue that contrast with others filled with narrative, which produces a nice balance the reader will surely appreciate. Even though homosexuality is an important factor in the story (Ari and Dante, Aunt Ophelia and her partner), the author avoids all kinds of stereotyping and presents his characters as real people with real problems. Nevertheless, this is an element to take into consideration when recommending this
Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is the story of a family’s vacation tragically ended by The Misfit and his gang. On the way to their vacation spot in Florida, the Grandmother remembers a plantation in Georgia she used to visit when she was a young lady and desperately wants to see it. She tells her son, Bailey, what road it is on and everyone is excited to see it. After a while, the grandmother realizes that she was wrong about where the plantation was and becomes so upset at herself that she knocks things over in the car which causes a car accident. A passing car stops to help the family but the Grandmother realizes that one of the men is a murderer, nicknamed, The Misfit. While one of
The theme of gender is presented to the audience as dramatic irony as well, since this play was written in 1912, the play shows how women were in that certain period of time, they didn’t have as many rights, they weren’t treated equally with men, in fact they were seen to be lower than men. However in the time that this play was written which is 1945 women had a lot more rights due to the fact that when men left the country for war, which according to Mr.Birling wasn’t supposed to happen, all the women were the people who looked after the country and kept it going, women became more interdependent and the society just grew and became a lot more open minded with their thoughts. JB Priestly has tried to show the importance of women in the play as well in the play as well at some places but very indirectly, like in that part where the inspector says, “There are a lot of young women living that sort of existence in every city and big towns in this
changing attitudes toward life and the other characters in the play, particularly the women; and his reflection on the
When writing fiction, there are certain rules that authors need to follow in order to create good fiction. Good fiction would be one that follows these 3 rules: character’s behavior is consistent, character’s words and actions spring from motivation, and characters are plausible or lifelike. For a character to be lifelike or plausible it means that the character in the story is presented as someone who you could meet in the real world. In good fiction, the reader will be able to immerse themselves into the book so well that the reader will forget that they are even reading a story. An example of good fiction would be “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright. Wright’s main character Dave possesses the three necessities that would
The idea of double consciousness, termed by W.E.B. Du Bois, for African Americans deals with the notion that one’s self has duality in being black and American. It is the attempt to reconcile two cultures that make up the identity of black men and women. One can only see through the eyes of another. A veil exists in this idea, where one has limits in how he or she can see or be seen. This individual is invisible to the onlookers of the veil, and those onlookers may be invisible to the individual. This then alters how one can truly interpret their conscious. This concept is one that has been explored in various themes of literature,
To get us started, how do the roles and identities of women in this play compare to that of the male figures?
In 1953, Flannery O'Connor published her famous short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” In this story, a family of four members is the Grandmother, Bailey, the children's mother, John Wesley, June Star and the baby. The family is on their way for the vacation after the Grandmother complaints about going to Tennessee instead of Florida; the Grandmother mistakenly brings the family to a dirt road by lying about a secret panel house (the house is actually in Tennessee, not Georgia). A car accident happens, unfortunately, they get help from the Misfit and are shot by the Misfit.
“The Boys in the Band”, is a play about male homosexual relationships and the revealing truths of being gay in the 1960s. The play gives audiences a distinct perspective of homosexuality on the stage up until that time. The setting is in a New York City apartment that is owned by Michael. He and his gay friends are preparing a birthday party for Harold. Alan McCarthy, a former college roommate of Michael, also shows up at the party unexpectedly. In this paper, we will focus on Alan and Harold and their behaviors and impacts in the play.
Gender identity and its roles in 17th and 19th century England were regarded as rigid fact — definite and unyielding. The adherence to these social protocols was of utmost importance. Masculinity was viewed as being dominant, assertive, and bold, whereas femininity involved beauty, obedience, and chastity. The theatre became a method of challenging this rigid social concept. Both William Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest explore these public values through their characters. Wilde and Shakespeare’s use of gender reversals satirize the traditions of social order, marriage, and gender responsibilities at the time, thereby revealing that gender is not absolute.
In 'Twelfth Night’, gender and sexuality in many ways add to the play’s themes of madness. 'Twelfth Night ' is a reflection of renaissance thought and culture, the renaissance was a transitional period from the medieval to the radical Elizabethan era. The culture of the time was a contradictory one, as from one aspect it was influenced by the patriarchal medieval time, where women were under the rule of men and seen as needing the protection of men, however, from another perspective, the culture was a changing one as women were starting to receive education and many humanists believed that women should be given more rights. The play reflects these attitudes and often challenges the social hierarchy and establishes ideas on gender roles, sexuality and cross-dressing. These factors indeed undermine the expectations of male and female behaviour, and in turn further the play 's theme of madness which has a comedic effect on the audience due to the shock humour it provides.
This theme was conveyed by the play being both a comedy and a musical. These two forms of drama brought with it both wittiness and purity, both of which are a direct correlation youthfulness. And the character’s ability to sing with clarity helped boost such a message. The role such clarity played is relevant to American culture, today. In order for people to listen, in a society with so much information, a message must be clear and transparent. Although it is not necessary