At the beginning of the play, Lewis wants to put on a play by Bertolt Brecht, something he thinks has values which are important in “These days, you know, the Vietnam War.” (Lewis, Act I Sc (i), p 9). Lewis initially sees the Italian opera Cosi Fan Tutte trivial, as “Love is not so important nowadays.” (Lewis, Act I Sc (i), p 10). Further into the play, Julie asks “What would you do if that happened to you, Lewis? If your friend Nick fell for your girlfriend?” (Julie, Act II Sc (i,) p 67), to which Lewis responds “And she fell for him? Feel Betrayed, I guess.” (Lewis, Act II Sc (i) p 67).
Lewis, a young and naive graduate who freshly took up the job of being the director for this play of mental patients replies by suggesting, ‘Love is not so important nowadays,’ and Roy questions him if he is ‘from another planet’. Throughout spending time with the mental patients and helping them get the play together, Lewis begins unravelling the stories and views of love from the other patients. For Julie love is about being ‘foolish’ and on the ‘edge’ it is important as it lets us be ourselves and brings happiness. Nowra placed Julie and Roy in the play to persuade Lewis to change his mind and from that we can see that Cosi does not support Lewis’s original view on the importance of love. However some characters such as Doug believe in the concept of ‘free love’ and that having is ‘solitude’ is better than
However as he works with the patients, he develops a new perspective and insight into certain matters and himself. When Nick and Lucy denounce him for doing a play about love, by declaring that ‘only mad people in this day and age would do a work about love and infidelity’, Lewis is able to realise that love and friendship is more important than politics. He learns about the importance of friendship, clearly evident, that he attends the moratorium, helping the patients prepare for their performance with an additional rehearsal. Lewis also finds strength later in the play, which he was devoid of to begin with . At the start, he is overwhelmed by the patients such as Cherry, Doug and Roy by their 'crazy' behaviour.
It is seen when Lewis is introduced, his views on love are very similar to that of his girlfriend Lucy and best friend Nick. He does not hold much value on fidelity due to the importance of the Vietnam War in his life. Lewis expresses to the patients that “love is not so important nowadays.” It is through the play itself, “Cosi Fan Tutte: Women are like that”, a play about “test[ing]..girls fidelity”, that Lewis reevaluates his opinions and values and learns to form his own. Lewis changes to having a more traditional view on romance and is able to accept that it is important in relationships. This change in Lewis is apparent when he describes the opera as being about “important things, like love and fidelity” and when he reacts genuinely hurt to when he discovers that his girlfriend Lucy has been having sex with Nick.
From the beginning of Cosi Nick and Lucy seem to shape Lewis’ views politically as well as his moral beliefs surrounding “free love.” Working with the patients changes Lewis’ outlook on fidelity and pulls him away from his friend’s mentalities. As a result Nick and Lucy attempt to pressure Lewis to go to “moratorium meetings,” to do a “piece of theatre that is meaningful such as Brecht” and to choose between “the funny farm” or their “radicalisation of the nation.”This highlights how Roy is not the only manipulator in the play. When Lucy questions Lewis’ priorities and his choice to do an opera about love, “an emotional indulgence for the privileged few,” Lewis highlights how “love and fidelity are important things.” His rejection of Nick and Lucy’s beliefs, further strengthens how their manipulations of Lewis have been ultimately unsuccessful. Therefore Nowra shows the audience how even though a person may try to manipulate other characters in Cosi depending on the matter they are passionate about, it may not always
Back in the 1600s Shakespeare wrote plays that would specifically please the Monarch, as there was more pressure to gain acceptance; his comical plays would restore Social Class in the form of marriage. Abigail's Party fails to follow this structure that is used even in modern plays and films, which is why I refer to it as a Social Tragedy, where the social class was broken. Like in Shakespeare's Tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet' the two lovers are married, then torn apart by death as a consequence of a conflicting social class, this can be loosely mirrored in Abigail's Party. A typical example within the play of an unhappy marriage would involve Beverly and Lawrence. Though they are married, which implies a certain amount of love and a strong relationship, they seem to fail at every part of the stereotypical marriage.
She followed him to NYC, she went to the same school with him in nyc and etc. R-The reason they broke up was because, they never go on dates,he got her a stupid gift,he wanted to go tostupid stuff. S- Scott is the boy brooke love and i wants to be with but they are going to date but they are going to break up cause brooke said they are not how she pictured it. They are not happy. T-They went to the theme park and thats when she told john she liked him.
In search of love and approval from her father, the speaker remembers choosing to live in a world of fantasy rather than accept her father’s lie and the reality that she was unloved. Through her use of descriptive language and simile in the poem, Olds reveals the speaker’s deep desire for her father’s love as she tries to convince herself of its reality. Olds takes nine lines of her poem to describe, “Hink’s, the dark department store with a balcony and/ mahogany rail around the balcony,” where you “could stare down into the rows and rows of camisoles/ petticoats, bras, as of looking down/ into the lives of women”. The sexual imagery, used in this section of the poem, creates a vivid illusion of her father’s affection for her as the speaker compares his “braving that place for me” to “the way he had entered my mother once to get me out”. The simile depicts, what the speaker believes, are demonstrative acts of love, with her own conception in her mother’s womb as the most genuine.
This is a representation of their modern beliefs that mix around the politics and the war. When the lights are turned on by Lewis, Roy (Trevor Stewart) is then present, demonstrating the symbolism that the patients of the mental institution are the source for Lewis’ changing perspective throughout the play. Lewis final act is to then turn out the lights at the end of the play. Everyone would have love to have seen Julie and Lewis to become a couple in the end, for Roy to become more compassionate to Lewis, but these things don’t happen after all. Instead, Lewis begins to narrate, he announces the death of Julie and Henry and that Roy goes from ward to ward, changing his bed numerous times.
Pastels connotes a fairytale, ephemeral quality, this represents the unreality of the Buchanans’ lifestyle and what they have, relationship wise won’t last for a long time and will eventually wither away. The fairytale connotation suggests that the characters are living in a dreamlike world and nothing is as it seems. This is shown with Gatsby’s chauffeur whose uniform was “robin’s egg blue”, this shows that nothing is as it seems because it is clear that Gatsby’s lifestyle is all a show to impress Daisy. The colour grey is also used throughout the novel. Grey symbolises waste, decay and desolation.