King Lear stands as an excellent example of one Shakespeare's tragedies, and in certain senses it is the most obviously "classical" in its sense of tragedy. The basic plot of the play involves Lear, who is the aging King, deciding to step down and d Continue Reading...
Per cio che, secondo che egli le mostrava, niun d' era che non-solamente una festa ma molte non-ne fossero, a reverenza delle quali per diverse cagioni mostrava l'uomo e la donna doversi abstenere da cos' fatti congiugnimenti, sopra questi aggiugnen Continue Reading...
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Homer in Hollywood: The Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? Could a Hollywood filmmaker adapt Homer's Odyssey for the screen in the same way that James Joyce did for the Modernist novel? The idea of a high-art film Continue Reading...
Scotland PA: Shakespeare ReimaginedBilly Morrissettes 2001 Scotland PA is a dark comedy adaptation of Shakespeares Tragedy of Macbeth. The film is set in small town USA in the 1970s; instead of a castle, the main stage is a diner; instead of a warrio Continue Reading...
Dante's Inferno The opening section of Dante's poetic series, which he wrote in the 1400s is called The Inferno, which means 'Hell' in Italian. The titles under the series christened the Divine Comedy are Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, and they Continue Reading...
Jack proceeds to let the audience know "…the vital importance of Being Earnest." Distortion, Moral Conduct, and Restoration Comedy Of course, deception and frivolity are part of a farce, and the way that Wilde has written the play characters Continue Reading...
These powers are unique to Keaton, who has been widely considered superior to Charlie Chaplin for his "gentle coolness" and "deadpan bewilderment," (MacDonald 6). Both in the General and Sherlock Jr., Keaton is at his best. However, the General is a Continue Reading...
The skene or 'tent' was the building that was directly behind the stage, and this was where the actors of the drama could enter or exit from. It would usually be decorated as a temple or a palace, and it would have at least one set of doors from whe Continue Reading...
Farce Midsummer Night's Dream is the quintessential romantic parody. Involving the use of magic potions and mythical creatures, Shakespeare portrays love as a potentially ridiculous pursuit and one totally devoid of reason. When Bottom states to Ti Continue Reading...
One study revealed Berry (2003) found that young children's retention of emotional information was greater in children viewing family sitcom than those who just watch an animated films or moppet program. This result justifies the fact that children Continue Reading...
Cinematography As with any film, what is captured by the eye of the camera in this film is done with skill, expertise, and a high level of perfection in direction. The locations are captured by the camera in a way that supports and adds to the fil Continue Reading...
South Park and Popular Culture South Park is an animated television show that has aired on Comedy Central for nearly 19 seasons, beginning in 1997. It began as an irreverent cartoon show about 3rd graders who used "adult language" and was meant to b Continue Reading...
Dante One of the great ironies of Dante's Inferno is the centrality of earth-bound fame, moral reputation, praise and blame. The importance of reputation would seem to contradict Virgil's efforts in leading Dante through Purgatory to impart a more m Continue Reading...
Post-Colonial Drama Approaching the complexities of the colonial or post-colonial situation has been a major theme in drama for as long as colonialism has existed: Shakespeare wrote his Tempest on the heels of the very first English efforts to estab Continue Reading...
The Epilogue, focus of much allegorizing, alludes to the parallel between Prospero's abandonment of his art, and the actor's abandonment of his role when he steps forward to ask for applause"(F. Kermode, 49) Prospero does not give away his ability Continue Reading...
Rossellini's 1946 Paisan: The emerging aesthetic of Neorealism in Italian postwar film According to Andre Bazin's essay "An aesthetic of reality: Neorealism," Paisan as directed by Roberto Rossellini brought forth a new aesthetic in the discourse o Continue Reading...
Magistrate The why do you turn aside and hold your cloak So far out from your body? Is your groin swollen The humor in this passage pertains to the fact that the Herald has an erection. The reason he has an erection, of course, is because Lysistr Continue Reading...
Dance Final Summer Solstice Festival Ideally, this festival will take place during the summer solstice. The solstice is generally regarded as taking place on June 21. Due to popular demand and the intense international reputations that Davis Jr., D Continue Reading...
Rob Reiner's 1987 film The Princess Bride enjoyed only moderate box office revenues, but developed popular underground appeal and has become a cult classic. The enduring respect for Reiner's quirky romantic comedy is immediately apparent: it is far f Continue Reading...
Moreover, in addition to narrowing the purview of human sexuality to groups within the larger society, the sociocultural aspect examines social norm influences including the effects of external factors such as mass media or politics. These movements Continue Reading...
In this area, meanings with their endless referrals evolve. These include meanings form discourses, as well as cultural systems of knowledge which structure beliefs, feelings, and values, i.e., ideologies. Language, in turn, produces these temporal Continue Reading...
Apart from literary arts, individualism is also most evident in the field of education. The development of educational institutions, spearheaded by the Florentine Academy, an informal organization of humanists, helped celebrate human reason in comb Continue Reading...
David Mamet From the perspective of pure plot, David Mamet's 1974 play, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, is not exactly easy to summarize, although this difficulty is formally built in to the play, itself, which quite consciously rejects a standard nar Continue Reading...
Clip: Oberon and Titania 1935 (clip available on You Tube) Foolish fairies and mortals: Multiple interpretations of Shakespeare's a Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream has been interpreted and reinterpreted many times. O Continue Reading...
The quick shifts of the young lovers' giddy affections thus take place in the 'real world' of Athens, just as they do under the power of Puck's magic. Love in fairyland is not that different from the real world, it only looks different on stage and Continue Reading...
performance of the Hollywood film industry, keeping in view all the relevant details and structures, which the directors and the moviemakers of the Hollywood film industry present in their movies. The idea of artificiality in Hollywood fiction and i Continue Reading...
Technology in Musicals Musical theatre has existed in some form for centuries. Theatre is an art form that allows many emotions to be expressed through acting and music. While talented performers are most responsible for being characters to life and Continue Reading...
Robert Frost, "Acquainted with the Night" Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night" is not a traditional sonnet. Although it has the traditional fourteen lines and tightly rhymed stanzas associated with both Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets, Fr Continue Reading...
Not very different from Blanche, Marlowe's Faustus is a very proud individual, believing that there is little on the face of the earth that could pose any interest to him. The reason for his excessive pride is that his intellectual capacities had b Continue Reading...
It recounts the travails of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus the former king of Thebes, who disobeys King Creon in burying the body of her slain brother. She knows that she faces death for doing this, but insists that she does not care, saying "For who Continue Reading...
Aging in the Bucket List and Cocoon Aging and its natural consequence -- death -- are subjects that raise diverse emotions among persons involved in these processes. Some embrace these pivotal moments in life, some attempt to avoid them. The two fil Continue Reading...
Humor and Health: The evolutionary benefits of laughing easily According to Mora-Ripoli (2012), the old cliche that laughter is the best medicine is really true: laughter, even in the absence of something that is funny, can actually be healing. "La Continue Reading...
Louis Althusser (1918-90) was one of the foremost Marxist theorists in the Western world, and advocated an especially orthodox version of Marxism that was always close to the Communist Party line. He regarded Bertolt Brecht as one of the great Marxis Continue Reading...
Shakespeare's Play "All's Well that ends well" -- a Critique Conflict between generations is a theme prevalent in many of Shakespeare's tragedies, histories, and comedies. Romeo and Juliet struggle against their parents' feud and values. Hamlet batt Continue Reading...
It is the context of Catholic Ireland (and not so much the Hays Production Code) that allows Ford's characters to enjoy the light-heartedness of the whole situation. Such context is gone in O'Neill's dramas. O'Neill's Irish-American drinkers have l Continue Reading...
(White, 33) And it was rightly found in a life form which we encounter daily in our real lives- insects. Rightly, insects possess the shape, form as also the texture that aligns perfectly within the realm of computer technology and the restricted m Continue Reading...
Adultery and any sort of infidelity turns out to be a different story for men as Rosenthal stresses: "prohibition against adultery is not about property, pregnancy, misdirected male desire, or bloodlines, as one might have thought, but about the pre Continue Reading...
This forces us to think that even though we may try to fool others and ourselves, the truth of who we are is never far from what we are trying to show. Sincere -- or earnest -- is, it appears, the worst thing that one can be in Victorian England. B Continue Reading...
His face is expressionless as he focuses on the heavy bar he raises and lowers. The camera then cuts to shot of the boy's room; we see the boy's arms only lifting the bench press. The camera then cuts to a shot the boy jumping rope, doing sit-ups, p Continue Reading...
Yet despite the fact that the play's title is nothing but his name, Othello is arguably not really the central figure of the story. Iago is far more instrumental in moving the plot forward; it is his (not fully explained) hatred of Othello that the Continue Reading...
