Oleanna Essay Example

Oleanna Essay Example Oleanna Paper Oleanna Paper Essay Topic: Literature Oleanna is in short one of the most complex plays of the 20th century. Oleanna is a particularly virulent battle in the war between women and men. Oleanna is deceptively simple in plot and only becomes complicated when you try to figure out exactly what happened. A lot is said, but a lot more is insinuated and even more is to be discussed about. (one on onethe best womens monologues for the nineties edited by jack Temchin.) Oleanna is a duologue, it is written in three acts, in which it manages to enrage the full audience. Men in the first act and women in the second, the third act is totally open-ended and is left to the audiences interpretation. This is why Mamet wants the dialogue to be kept exactly the same. He wants the audience to see his own views rather than the directors interpretation. Mamet has, with Oleanna written a polarising play. He lets the audiences past experiences determine their view of they play. Oleanna is a realistic piece of drama and like Stanislavski Mamet wants the audience to watch what is being presented to them and decide what their view is on the issues presented. In this case the issues would be the breakdown of relationships, political correctness, power and control, misunderstanding, intellectual freedom and the cynicism of education. Mamets play touches on many issues; but at heart is a despair over society that seems to deny intellectual freedom and resorts instead to ideological jargon and the force of law (The Life and Work of Harold Pinter by Michael Billington) The three acts of the play constitute the exposition, the development and the denouement. The end of act one is the end of the exposition yet the end of the development is less clear-cut. Some may say it is the end of Act two yet others may argue that because the end of Oleanna is not really a conclusion then the development does not end, the story is still developing. I think the third Act is the denouement with the climax where John holds up the chair to hit her and calls Carol a cunt. I wouldnt touch you with a ten foot pole. You little cunt. The anti climax is Carol saying thats right. The play starts with John, a college lecturer on the phone to his wife grace, whilst carol a student in his class waits to speak to him. Carol and John speak about how she is failing his class. She explains to him that she finds it difficult and blames it on being from a different social background and asks him for help. Act one is loaded with dialogue that can be interpreted differently by different people and it seems that Carol takes them the wrong way. In the middle of Act one John tells Carol that he likes her and that if she visits him more she will get an A in his class. Some people will think John is taking advantage because he knows she has to pass the class, I have to pass it. I have to pass this course. Yet some people will acknowledge he is only trying to help her. Another example of this is where he reminds her that Theres no one here but you and me During Act One Carol gets very frustrated about her lack of knowledge only to be comforted by John who calms her down only to be told that she doesnt understand him. The line sums up one of the main themes in the play, they dont understand each other and so their relationship breaks down. This is due to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. David Mamet has said that most of his plays are centred around people trying to connect with each other. My plays are about people trying to become connected. People who are confused trying to do good but no one knows how. (Changing stages) This quote sums up Oleanna perfectly. Depending on your view of the play you view either one of the character trying to do good, yet ultimately failing. If you empathise with Carol you believe she is doing good by speaking out about John and is confused about how he treats her about why he needs power. If you empathise with John you believe he is only trying to help and is confused by how she treats him in return. At the end of Act one Carol is trying to tell him, and the audience something about herself yet they are, once again interrupted by the telephone, a symbol of the outside world. At the beginning of Act Two Carol is much more confident after joining a new group. She accuses John of harassment, which gives her power over him, and she seems to enjoy this. John seems to be very hurt by the report and doesnt understand why she is doing this to him. From the beginning of the play John has said Carol behaves the way she does due to her anger. As they discuss the accusations they are once again interrupted by the telephone. John tells her that he is only trying to save her and she gets angry and tries to leave the room. Instead of letting her go John gets up and restrains her. In Act Three John has asked Carol to his office to speak about her further accusations, yet she is unreasonable because she knows she has power over him. I have you think, power over you It is the power that you hate She knows he hates his loss of power and plays on this by trying to bargain with him. She says that if he excludes his book from the University then she will drop the accusations. This seems to incriminate carol yet, at the same time makes her seem reasonable for not ruining his life, all she wants is understanding. You think I want revenge. I dont want revenge. At the end of the play Carol pushes John over the edge by telling him not to call his wife baby. John pushes Carol to the floor and picks up a chair as if to hit her, yet he changes his mind (whilst probably changing some of the audiences minds) and puts it down. The end of the act is not necessarily the end of the story, as we do not know what happens to the characters, Mamet wants the audience to decide about the play, how they view it and therefore the denouement of the play. The super- objectives of the play are the breakdown of relationships and the cynicism of education. The subplots are political correctness, power and control, and the interruption from the outside world. With Oleanna Mamet follows Pinters style No one has taken up the Pinter style with more adroitness, or extended it further, than David Mamet. His plays like Pinters are notated like musical scores with pauses capitals and italics for emphasis, dashes and dots for overlapping and interruption You can delineate the intention by correctly delineating the rhythm of the speech And like a composer Mamet demands that the actor study the score fastidiously and perform it without the intrusion of personality (Changing Stages pg 231) The play is structured using units and objectives. The unit objectives are linked together by the through line of action, which, in this case is misunderstanding. The unit objectives in the first Act are to show the interruption from the outside world via the telephone, to show the exposition, to alienate Carol and to establish a link between the characters. The unit objectives in the second act are to show Carols frustration at her lack of understanding, to show that Carol has brought charges of harassment against John, to show Johns lack of understanding as to why she has done this (maybe it was her aim to make him understand how she feels when she doesnt understand?) and to show that it is Carol who is now in control. Although Mamet has given Carol a little more power he never fully lets her takes control as he shows when he strips her of power at the end of the play. Also, she doesnt actually have a lot of power because it is her group who have power over her yet she doesnt seem to realise this. The unit objectives of the last Act are to show Johns frustration at Carol, to show that Carol only wants to be understood and to make the audience question whether John did it or not, to think about their view of the play. When Mamet wrote Oleanna Carol was a no hoper and John a caring professor. Carol takes revenge on John who lifts up a chair to hit her yet he doesnt. The play ends with him looking at her in a confused state. This was met with members of the audience shouting, Hit the bitch. When Pinter did Oleanna he used Mamets real ending where john hits Carol and she forces him to say, I have failed in my responsibilities to the young Both endings are hard hitting and you can argue that one is better than the other yet both have strengths and weaknesses. Mamets first ending makes it a drama of recantation in the line of Galileo and The Crucible; the version he staged in New York left you feeling as if you had witnessed a human tragedy. (The life and work of Harold Pinter) Oleanna is, in some ways a comedy of errors and although it is not funny it can be almost farcical depending on how you view the play. If you feel that John is saying one thing and Carol takes this in a completely different context then the play becomes almost farcical. Oleanna is a microcosm for the whole world, what we see when watching Oleanna happens everywhere, it is just another misunderstanding. It is also a microcosm about claustrophobia. The feeling of claustrophobia John has in his life is the same as what everyone else will feel in their own lives sometimes. What makes Oleanna so different as a play is that although Mamet is prescriptive so the director may follow some of Stanislavskis system to access realism he perhaps wouldnt use emotion memory There are no characters only lines on a page (changing stages) Because it will change the audiences perception of the play, you cannot play the character with your own emotion you have to BE the character. Another thing, which makes the play so endearing, is that we dont actually know the characters intentions. This means that the smallest thing can change the audiences perception. Another thing is that in the 20th century when Brecht wrote his list of differences between dramatic theatre and epic theatre he said that dramatic theatre has a beginning, middle and end whereas epic doesnt, this is not the case with Oleanna which doesnt have a specific beginning or end, also we are not sure if the issues brought forward are resolved.

Why America Lost the Vietnam W essays

Why America Lost the Vietnam W essays Comm 111 Assessment 1 Crafted Writing Nigel Good evening, I am Nigel Billing and welcome to Historys Hallmarks. Vietnam was Americas most unpopular and protracted war, extending two decades and symbolising the rivalry between the superpowers, anti-Communist America and Communist Russia. At its height more than 500,000 American troops were engaged in the conflict, and in excess of 58,000 Americans were killed on the battlefields. The American withdrawal in 1973, saw people question how the most powerful country in the world was defeated. Secretary of State, Dean Rusk claimed; President Kennedy should have put in a hundred thousand troops immediately. General Westmoreland, commander of the US military in the early stages of the conflict, blamed President Johnson for not consenting to Americas attack of North Vietnam, arguing that the South Vietnamese lacked fighting spirit. Keegan, another American General stated that the Americans had equipped the South Vietnamese Army with the wrong equipment, wrong tactics and maybe even the wrong doctrines. North Vietnamese chief, General Van Tein Dung a lleged American soldiers failed to become accustomed to guerrilla warfare stating; They applied a lot of new strategies such as Special War, Local War and Vietnamisation, but the result of it all was the biggest failure in the history of the United States. Todays program features a glimpse into the haunting truisms of the Vietnam War as told by historian and Vietnam veteran Kenneth Ballard. Good evening Kenneth. Kenneth Good evening. Nigel When did you tour of duty in Vietnam occur? Kenneth I was sent to Phu Cat Province in Vietnam in October 1968, stationed with the 7th Battalion, 15 Artillery. Nigel &...

Coco Channel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Coco Channel - Essay Example Chanel's tweezed jacket and skirt, two-toned graceful expression level, dark dress, ensemble adornments and knitted sack with chain strap remain staples in the design pantheon, and contemporary marks present emphases of them season after season. She started Chanel No. 5, denoting the first run through a style creator had forayed into scent. Professional Growth From her first millinery shop which opened its doors from 1912 - 1920, she rose to turn into one of the chief form planners in Paris, France. Swapping the girdle with solace and cool polish, her design topics incorporated straightforward suits and dresses, ladies' trousers, ensemble gems, scent and materials. She received the name Coco throughout a concise vocation as a boutique and show artist 1905-1908 (Chaney 3). First and foremost a fancy woman of an affluent military officer then of an English industrialist, Coco Chanel drew on the assets of these supporters in setting up a millinery shop in Paris in 1910, developing to De auville and Biarritz. The two men additionally helped her find clients around ladies of social order, and her basic caps came to be mainstream. Before long Coco was stretching to couture, working in pullover, a first in the French manner planet. By the 1920s, her design house had stretched extensively, and her chemise set a style incline with its "son" look. Her loose designs, short skirts, and easy look were in sharp differentiation to the undergarment molds prevalent in the past decades. Chanel herself wearing manly garments, and adjusts these more agreeable designs which other ladies likewise considered freeing (Simmons 21). In 1922 Chanel presented a scent, Chanel No. 5, which came to be and remained mainstream, and remains a gainful result of Chanel's organization. Pierre Wertheimer turned into her accomplice in the fragrance business in 1924. Wertheimer claimed 70% of the organization; Chanel appropriated 10% and her companion Bader 20%. The Wertheimer's proceed to control the fragrance organization today. Chanel presented her signature cardigan coat in 1925 and mark dark dress design during 1926. A lot of her designs incorporated a backbone, and didn't change much from year to year or even era to generation. Chanel's own particular lifestyle powered her thoughts of how advanced ladies all around may as well look, act, and dress. Her own particular thin boyish figure and edited hair turned into a perfect, as did her tanned skin, animated lifestyle, and monetary autonomy. All around her profession, Chanel succeeded in bundling and advertising her own particular individual demeanor and style, making he r a key judge of ladies' taste all around the twentieth century. Chanel proceeded to make fruitful searches for ladies through the 1920s and '30s. In 1926, American Vogue compared Chanel's dark dress to that of the Ford dress, suggesting its practical widespread popularity as a design essential. Actually, the notion of the dress suitable for day and night did come to be both a staple for Chanel all around consequent seasons and an exemplary bit of twentieth-century ladies' wear. The fashioner likewise utilized vivid female printed chiffons within her daywear plans (Feifei 16). Night groups accompanied the long thin line for which the planner was known, additionally fused tulle, trim, and beautifying components that mellow and romanticize the by and large