Don't You Remember?

The last few years have been an inspiration to me. The people I’ve gotten close to, the things I got to do and the things that I can’t imagine living without anymore are all an inspiration for me to never forget that amazing things can happen. We’re about to graduate and leave a huge and important part of our lives behind but I don’t think any of us will forget the moments we’ve spent here, in InCrEdIbLe InDiA (douchey…). We take all of this for granted and now when it’s the end of something so big like our childhood, we realize all the things we haven’t done yet, are reminded of all the things that we missed out on. If there’s something I don’t want to leave with, it’s regrets. I think I consider myself sometimes as someone who lives the moment even though I only do that when things come to an end. That’s when I realize I can’t leave knowing that I didn’t do or say what I wanted to. This one time my mom sent me to Ireland to learn English… awkward pause… and I realized I hadn’t said goodbye to some people from a different language course that were about to leave, so I woke up early and ran to the bus station to then run around the surroundings of Cork to find some church that they were supposed to leave at. There are SO many churches in Cork. All because I felt like I was a spontaneous person who does crazy things just to not have regrets. I must admit I sound like a complete freak who doesn’t know what she’s talking about and who obviously doesn’t have a very big life experience. So this story of running to a bus seems really useless right now but I’m going to leave it in for the LOLS. So India. One of the things I’m most grateful for is that I’ve discovered so many flaws on me here. That sounds weird but it’s a good thing. I’m so impatient, I can be so grumpy and I have too high expectations of everything. But whatever, let’s talk about the good times. I’ve spent nights just driving around in Tuk Tuks with my friends in ‘cold’ winter nights, being surprised by a huge troop of cows blocking the way. Finding taxis or Tuk Tuks in general has been a big part of living in India… and I realize that’s a weird thing to say but I’m considering this to be a creative stream of thoughts so… TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT. But seriously, so many good things happened. And maybe senior year wasn’t the best, or as good as I expected but it doesn’t matter because everything that did happen made me stronger (douchey reference to Kelly Clarkson…). One of the hardest things I had to do this year was say goodbye to people that mattered the most to me last year. It’s always hard to let go of a best friend, not knowing if or when you’ll see them again. SINCE I AM AN OPTIMISTIC PERSON I believe that you always meet people twice in your life (once counting as in India obviously…). So I would like to invite you all to my wedding so I can see you all again. And this is probably the stupidest thing that has ever been written BROS, but I’m going to miss you and I like you all a lot. 

Themes in Oleanna

In Oleanna, there are several themes. Oleanna focuses on education and the conflict between people that are highly educated and those that are still striving to be educated. Money and gender also play a big role in this play. If it wasn't for these differences, the conflict in education would be minor. The fact that Carol had a poor upbringing and the fact that she is a girl living in a world where the ideas of feminism sneak into everyone's lives enhance the conflict there is between Carol and her teacher.
Oleanna also deals with communication. Communication plays a tremendous role in the play. Because education and upbringing hinder Carol from having the same understanding of vocabulary and the same sense of expressing herself, the communication between Carol and John is hindered.
Another theme is the idea of power. Carol and John constantly fight for the power in their relationship, which ends in the disastrous ending. 

RESEARCH

The Article ‘Authorizing History: Victimization in A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Anca Vlasopolos is a very interesting reflection on the play A Streetcar Named Desire. It talks about the fact that if A Streetcar Named Desire had been written by Shakespeare, it would have been called a problem play. The problem comes from the strategies that these plays deploy to implicate the viewer in their violent processes of historiography – the processes of constructing a narrative of the character’s pasts – instead of purging the viewer of emotions associated with crises.

The article points out that the play has been critizised as being a failure in achieving a unified generic tone or the main character as separately functioning unit of the performance, but I don’t agree with that. I don’t think that there is a ‘failure’ at hand at all. If Blanche was consistent throughout the play, there wouldn’t be a story. The changing tone is what makes the play interesting in the first play.

Another idea suggested in this article is that the course of history makes the main character’s displacement inevitable and that her violation and expulsion are natural, which I would rather agree with than with the idea that the play is typical of the failure of tragedy in the modern age. There is just the right amount of drama in this play and the audience is taken by surprise over and over again. If anything, the dramatic effects and actions of the characters enhances the idea of a successful tragedy, even though one doesn’t necessarily feel sad or disappointed when done seeing or reading the play. The play has just the right amount of comedy mixed with dramatic elements. 

Authorizing History: Victimization in "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Anca Vlasopolos

Theatre Journal , Vol. 38, No. 3, Performance of Textual History (Oct., 1986), pp. 322-338

Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3208047

Where Have You Been

Hedda Gabler, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Heidi Chronicles all have significant literary devices that are employed to develop theme. Setting is an important literary devices that the authors focus on.

Setting in The Heidi Chronicles

Shows how the social expectation of women doesn't change. Still expected to be either a working woman or a housewife, and those who focus on a career are criticized by others for not ‘fulfilling’ the role of women at the time period. Also there is the idea of desperation, as women cannot actively pursue men they are interested in as it is considered an act of desperation which the women feel as though is an extremely negative quality. Within the setting Heidi often is removed from the others in the scene.

In summary Wasserstein uses setting to show how the role of women did not change dramatically despite a change in time period and location.

The change in time period is also significant because the characters that once believed in feminist ideals are now no longer important to them. They have been changed with the times.

The fact that the setting always returns to the university after scenes, displays the notion of a lack of change. Time goes on but it seems as though everything is still stuck in one place.

Setting in Hedda Gabler

The time period marks the women’s movement in Norway. It was a Patriarchal society at the time. The background of the play plays a big role in understanding the social differences between aristocracy and the rest. The action itself is mostly set in the drawing room, acting as a gilded cage for Hedda. The Ssde room is Hedda’s sanctuary with her father’s portrait, her guns, etc. Hedda closes the curtains often, masking herself from the rest of the world. She changes the scenery, moves the objects out of the room and so everything’s changing.

Setting in A Streetcar Named Desire

•                New Orleans 1950’s. The Southern United States during this time treated women much differently from different eras, as seen by the actions of Heidi and Hedda.

The setting in the Streetcar is New Orleans LA after WII. The setting influences the characters, the values, and the music that you hear in the play. In the Blanche is no longer on a plantation she is in the city so she is learning the reality of being a modern woman in an urban setting. This is the trend that America was heading to.

Ole, Oleanna

The title ‘Oleanna’ is said to be an allusion to a 19^th century society in Pennsylvania. This society called Oleanna was named after a Norwegian called Ole Bull, a famous violinist and founder of this utopian society. Some say that it was his wife, but according to the website Why Oleanna (http://www.oleannaonbroadway.com/why-oleanna.html) it was his mother that was called Anna, together creating the name Ole-Anna. This man, Ole Bull, wanted to leave his print in America and so he bought 11000 acres of land in Pennsylvania for Norwegian immigrants to settle, in 1852. On this specific land, four fiefdoms were developed and one of them was called Oleanna. Hence, people came in masses to claim the new and free land. Ironically, the land was located in a valley between thick forests, making it unsuitable for farming. The community failed to exist and by the middle of the 1850s the colonists all returned home or settled somewhere else in America.

Shortly after the failure of the community of Oleanna, a satirical folk-song was written in Norwegian about this crisis. It was later translated to English and performed by Pete Seeger, which went a little like this:

The first verse:


Oh to be in Oleanna,

That's where I'd like to be


Than to be in Norway


And bear the chains of slavery.

In the drama itself, David Mamet included this verse as an epigraph to the play, creating an ironic and sarcastic comment about people’s goals in life and their need for more. In striving for something, people loose themselves in ambition and don’t get to be satisfied when they got what they wanted. This can be interpreted into the last line of the play spoken by Carol ‘Yeah… that’s right’. 

Take A Bow

The production of Oleanna that we saw in class was a huge success in terms of direction, staging and characters chosen.

Every little detail and movement made sense in terms of the dialogue. A lot was minor but very significant in terms of interpretation of the script. Considering that the author himself directed this movie, it is no surprise that a lot of thought was put into directing this movie. Sometimes, the camera zooms in on only Carol or John’s face, creating an additive effect to the impact of the lines. Action performed with papers lying around, books in shelves, couches and chairs enhanced the effect of the dialogue. For example when John picks up a chair to throw it at Carol, but holds it in a pose that is at the same time terrifying and exciting because the play has reached its climax and is about to come to a final resolution. Another example of a well directed action is when Carol goes to the shelf to pick up his book and stands behind the movable stairs attached to his small library, which creates some interesting shades and a sense of mystery on her face.

Since the whole play is in dialogue and set in John’s office, the director made a good choice in having intervals of people walking through hallways or throwing in a widescreen shot of the university because it kept the action interesting and versatile. Even the office itself varies throughout the movie. It isn’t that the office gets a renovation or anything like that, but the conversation shifts into different parts and corners of the office that allows the audience to feel like there is movement and progression in the plot and action. The office is well equipped, which, on a stage might not work out this well. On a stage, too many stage props and scenery can distract from the action itself happening on stage.

The casting for the characters was pretty effective. Carol was casted by a young woman with big eyes and round glasses, enhancing the sense of stupidity that relates to her character, especially in the first Act. She is dressed in simple clothes, nothing fancy. Her costume suggests her coming from a less wealthy family, provoking pity and empathy within the audience. Her whole appearance in the first act is perfectly adapted to the impression one gets from reading the first act. She is clearly the student that finds herself in a tricky situation because she doesn’t understand what her professor is talking about in class, something everyone can relate to. In the second act, she adopts a businesswoman-like attitude and appearance. The shift of power is highlighted by the switch in costumes in the second act, that has been well interpreted by the director, even though John’s costume doesn’t significantly change. The difference in age between the two characters is well distinguishable even though it is good that it isn’t too dramatic, so that the sexual references that Carol appears to understand aren’t too absurd coming from her professor.

Overall, the adaptation of the play was good and represented what I had imagined while reading it. 

In Saumya’s blog about the movie and play of Oleanna, she said that she had mixed feelings about the beating at the end and that made me want to talk about it as well. Surprisingly, I felt like the beating was well deserved. When finishing watching the movie I actually felt relieved that it happened because I got so annoyed with her attitude throughout the movie. I realize now that I shouldn’t wish for someone, even if it’s a movie character, to be beaten and I’m a bit ashamed that I feel that way. Maybe that’s an intended effect by the director, that people think about their own feelings in response to watching the movie, which is why I thought it was good that Saumya brought that conflict up. 

MASKS

In drama, masks can be used to characterize the actors on stage. While some are physically present, as in traditions like LeCoq’s mask theatre, most are metaphorical. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen use metaphorical masks to characterize the main characters, Blanche Dubois and Hedda Tesman. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche slips into different roles by hiding behind her many masks and in Hedda Gabler, Hedda reveals her personality with her masks, which is portrayed through the stage props, symbols and manipulative diction.