Randle McMurphy is a convict, accused of statutory rape charges, who feigns mental illness in order to be relieved of his work detail. Once McMurphy is admitted into the asylum he befriends several other patients and becomes a hero figure to them through his rebellion towards Nurse Ratched and her strict order she has instilled into the asylum. He is a very social individual and free spirit who accepts the other patients as inmates. McMurphy is non judgmental and does not make the other patients feel like social outcasts. He is a foil to the character of Nurse Ratched, who tries to create order by playing on the weaknesses of the inmates in an attempt to get them to conform to social norms.
Both characters however are entrapped mentally to some extent, by their own minds and exhibit signs of madness. Madness is presented to some extent as constructed in both ‘Hamlet’ and ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’- although Othello’s madness seems slightly real. Foucault’s theory of mental illness and institutions is that mental illness does not exist (This extract is seen in A general introduction to psychoanalysis) - it is rather a social construct and used to control
Endurance of Socio-Religious Persecution William Butler Yeats once wrote “But I, being poor, have only my dreams/I have spread my dreams under your feet/Tread softly because you tread on my dreams” (Yeats 6-8). This quotation by the famous poet reflects the theme of the play, Saint Joan. Both exhibit how proletariats being beleaguered by the bourgeoisie escape their confines through their dreams. In Saint Joan, George Bernand Shaw demonstrates that any society that places stress on segregation based on sex will also elevate certain personages above others. This will force its citizens to find serenity through various coping mechanisms such as maligning the people in power and seeking solace through dreams, memories and voices.
This essay will deal with the truth in terms of it being the message the playwright is trying to convey to the audience, and how many playwrights choose to abandon the realms of realistic theatre in order to portray this message. ‘The Glass Menagerie’ by Tennessee Williams is set in a small apartment in St Louis in 1937, and follows the story of a rather eccentric working class family called the Wingfields. Williams shies from following realistic theatre from the start, by introducing the play through Tom who acts as both a central character and as a narrator. Williams appears to speak through Tom to admit to the audience that the play would not be following the normal conventions of theatre, but instead would be portrayed as a memory, Tom’s memory, and so makes no pretence that the play will hold realism. He goes as far to say he gives ‘the truth in the appearance of an illusion’, insinuating that if the audience understands that the play is looking back into the past from Tom’s memory in the future, aided by Tom’s narration, they will better understand the significance of the events that took place and their impact.
Check your notes; below is a succinct synopsis of that introductory discussion: “Waiting for Conventions” In Waiting for Godot, Beckett implements broken conventions of traditional theatre in order to successfully satirize the detrimental nature of the human condition symbolized throughout this absurdist play (which seems to have no plot). A certain level of tension is created by this plays lack of plot which leaves the audience expecting something to happen that never comes. This lack of plot to some overshadows the reasoning behind why Beckett does this. Although these broken conventions can act as a looking glass into the true meaning of the play, they require the audience to do a certain amount of searching to crack the nut which is Waiting for Godot. Waiting for Godot, unlike many plays follows no specific plot, a concept in which most conventional plays ought to have in order to rope in an audience member to the contents and morals of the play.
The Fool is one of the most alluring characters in Shakespeare’s King Lear. He is a choric commentator whose lines reveal thematic motifs within the play, as well as a character that strategically uses humorous language as comic relief to Lear, but does not diminish the intensity of Lear’s misery. As he alleviates the intensity through humor, he equivocates because he says metaphors that speak the truth like the three witches in Macbeth, but the opposite. The Fool’s role is essential because he is aligned with Cordelia. Like Cordelia, the Fool is honest, but his comical language masks his honesty.
Rita is desperate to aquire the knowledge that Frank has from his highly educated background. However, she is unable to see how unhappy Frank actually is in his world, using alcohol to escape. Frank “you should be careful with that stuff; it kills your brain cells, y’know”, Russell portrays Rita initically as a ditsy sterotypical working class woman. However, deep down she clearly has more underlying understanding than first thought as she is able to visualise the danger of substance abuse. Ironically Frank being the well educated half of the comic duo he is slowly killing his knowledge with the drink, as this creates a humorous effect for the audience as they are able to see that Rita longs for the intellegence that Frank has.
Professor Dan Rebellato states that: “we laugh at something because we feel superior to it”. This is valid as the audience laugh at Frank not understanding the joke. However, we may also laugh at Rita not understanding Frank’s references. People in the audience may understand Frank’s references if read well which would be typical of people who attend the theatre. Andrew Edwards, a set designer for a production of ‘Educating Rita’ claimed that: ‘a lot of
Willy Russell uses superiority theory to engage the audience by creating comedy through the misfortune of others. The character of Frank is very cynical as he fails to see the good in anybody for a majority of the play and he believes that other people are motivated purely by self-interest. However, some people may argue that cruelty and cynicism are not at the heart of the comedy in the play and that the play could still be successful without these themes. One theme that could be seen as superior to cruelty and cynicism is culture and class because this theme causes confusion and misunderstanding between the two characters which as a result produces comedy. In the play ‘Educating Rita’ cruelty and cynicism feature a great deal.
Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession is a socially introspective and morally thought-provoking play that was written by George Bernard Shaw in 1898. The play reflects on several important themes concerning life in Victorian society. Through the characters of Mrs. Warren, whose fortune turns out throughout the story to be found on the management of high-class brothels, and her daughter Vivie, whose rejection of the gender standards of the Victorian era make her 'unfeminine' by society's standards, one comes to comprehend the gender and economical class structure of this era better. As Shaw himself stated with regard to the play, prostitution is not caused by the depravation of the female or the lust of the male, but simply by "underpaying, undervaluing, and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together" (Powell 229). In short, Mrs. Warren's Profession is a reflection, through the main characters, on the era's class, gender, and economical structure that together fuel corruption and immorality in society.