Realism as a dramatic art form dates back to 19th century – specifically to the plays of Ibsen. It started as a movement in theatre against Romanticism. The realists were interested in the physical than the spiritual. Henrik Ibsen is said to be the father of the realist movement of the 19th century. His realistic drama of ideas surpassed other such works because they blend together a complex plot, a detailed setting and middle-class emergence of ordinary people (Nora and Torvald).
Author Henrik Ibsen was one of the best and major writers and directors of the 19th Century. Many people consider him as the father of realism, and as one of the fathers of modernism in theatre. Some of his major work includes Hedda Gabler, A Doll House, The Master Builder and An Enemy of the People. After Shakespeare, the plays of Henrik Ibsen are most frequently performed by people all over the world. His writing was always based on some theme related to the society and its norms.
Opera in the Baroque Period Opera is an aesthetic art form of the highest quality because it incorporates music, literature, acting, dance, costumes and scenery all delivered through a performance. Opera was created to unify words and tones, play and music. But what are the origins of opera as we know it today? To answer this question one has to go deep into the roots of music history, specifically the baroque period (1600 – 1750). The setting of opera is credited to a group of intellectuals to whom history has given the name of the Camerata.
Jane Eyre was first published in 1847 and is the best and most known work by Charlotte Bronte. It deals with much of what was being discussed in those times, and it is a depiction of a very particular background, in which sexism and marriage represented pillars of English society. This paper aims at comparing and contrasting two of the most important male characters of the book, Edward Fairfax Rochester and St. John Rivers, as far as their elaboration was carried out, but also dealing with symbolism. Added to that, some superficial information about setting and plot is given, in order to support the ideas more concretely. The plot is simple, divided in five main parts.
Romanticism or the Romantic Era is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the eighteenth century in Germany and England. Romanticism is like a ferry that takes people’s minds to different lands. As Romanticism occurred during a time of strife, partially during the Black Plague, it was a get-away cruise to fantasy and the unrealistic. It became a very popular movement as by the nineteenth century, it had swept throughout Europe and was a voice of revolution and clashed with the rationalistic ideas of the Enlightenment from the seventeenth century. This literary movement had many unique aspects such as folklore and popular art, nature, and individualism and the imagination that shaped and influenced the ideas of the modern world.
Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus encompasses elements of the morality play so popular in the Elizabethan Era; however, its underlying Gothic themes are undoubtedly present in throughout the plot. This is especially true to Act 3, where audiences can note the presence of several key gothic elements such as the sublime and Faustus’ corruption or religious practices and sanctuaries. Firstly, Marlowe’s use of the sublime throughout Act 3 strengthens the Gothic genre of the play as a whole. In Act 1, the chorus uses the sublime to its advantage to allude to the power Faustus craves when he entails what he wants to perform: “Had I as many souls as there be stars/ I’d give them all for Mephistopheles… make a bridge through the moving air/ to pass the ocean with a band of men.” At this point, Faustus’ speech captures the triviality of his desires and his focus on the material goods, which suggests that Faustus still fails to recognise the importance of the human soul and the comparative lack of importance of power in the human world. Building upon this in Act 3, the Chorus notes that Faustus has gained the power he so craved in Act 1 by again applying the sublime to emphasise this: “Did mount himself to scale Olympus’ top/ Being seated in a chariot burning bright...” Faustus’ almost supernatural power here is reiterated by the sublime imagery of him elevated in the sky at the top of Mount Olympus, a place that accommodated the Gods of Greek mythology.
A New Historical Reading of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest Ali Wyman 4/26/12 In order to really appreciate Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, one must first consider the historical context in which the text was written, taking into account the world the author lived in, his personal experiences, and the discourses of the text. In the late 19th century Victorian society, in which The Importance of Being Earnest was written, culture was starting to shift from the traditional constructs under Queen Victoria that insisted on etiquette, propriety, and above all, knowing one’s place in society, to a more modern tone; a tone that was all but blasphemy to conventional Victorians. A look at the life of Oscar Wilde, for example, reveals a number of significant themes that can be found within his work, namely The Importance of Being Earnest, a production, as Wilde himself called it, that is “exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy, and it has its philosophy… that we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious and studied things of life with sincere and studied triviality.” Wilde challenged Victorian culture and supposed serious things like social standing, class, and identity throughout his life, with language in his plays portraying them as extremely trivial, as well as by pushing the envelope in his own personal life. The world in which Oscar Wilde grew up is very central to the themes represented in The Importance of Being Earnest. Victorian culture believed that social standing and class distinctions were up the utmost importance.
The School for Wives: Molière’s Obsession by Lawrence Henley Molière (a.k.a. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) was the preeminent writer of seventeenth century French stage comedy, acknowledged today as the prime force that advanced the genre beyond the unidimensional farce and commedia influences preceding him. Molière (1622–1673) brought his characters out of greyscale into full, living color. In his hands, the French stage became a vehicle for social commentary, examination of character (mostly flawed), and an intellectual look inside the shortcomings of human nature. Molière’s success vaulted French comedy to its apex.
The Victorians never tired of Shakespeare. Some of their most famous actors and directors, such as William Macready, Charles Kean, and Henry Irving, made their names in Shakespearean roles. There was a movement to restore the original texts after the distortions of the Georgian period, and to seek historical realism in presenting the plays. In the minor
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde The Victoria Era of England began in the 1800’s with the reign of Queen Victoria. During this era, English society established a way of life they deemed acceptable to public conformity (Anacondas). Satirist Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde wrote many plays, poems, and novels seeking to ridicule this popular trend. An Irish immigrant turned English writer, Oscar Wilde was a man of interesting gossip and humorous satire. One famous play Wilde wrote was The Importance of Being Earnest which is a widely known play for its sarcastic plot of Victorian life.