The Development Of Characterisation From Everyman

The Development Of Characterisation From Everyman Everyman is a medieval morality play believed to be written late in the fifteenth century (Worthen 2004: 236), while Six Characters in Search of an Author was written in 1920. The vast difference in time periods between the two plays suggests that the development of characterisation could also be vast. In Medieval times civilisation had reverted back to simplicity (Holland 2010), with plays typically involving the personification of moral or psychological abstractions, and single characters to represent society as a whole (Worthen 2004: 236). However, by the writing of Six Characters it was common for plays, like other literature, to penetrate the minds of their characters more deeply (Greer and Lewis 2004: 661), creating more complex and individualised characters. The idea of complexity is significant in comparing the characterisation from Everyman to Six Characters. While Everyman has a simple purpose to instruct morality to the masses, Six Characters has a more complex aim, as Pirandello uses his characters to raise questions that ultimately are left unanswered. Dillon suggests that Medieval theatre aimed to teach and improve its audiences (Rees 2010), therefore the characters in Everyman act as religious metaphors to clearly communicate morals to the spectators. It is apparent that the language of Everyman presents no great difficulties to an audience, and in fact the whole play follows a clear plot where the meaning is rarely in doubt (Allen 1953: ix). The audience see Death, that no man dreadeth (Anonymous 115), order Everyman to make the pilgrimage to death (Anonymous 146), who then struggles to find anyone to accompany him. In contrast to this fairly simple plot and aim, Six Characters questions the ideas of reality and illusion, using the characters to bring these issues to the foreground. The complexity of the play is self-consciously stated when the Producer says, if you can understand them [Pirandellos plays] you must be very clever (Pirandello 1.77-78), as they question the very play the audience are watching. As highlighted in a review of the play by the Manchester Guardian in 1925, the characters pose the question What is real? (Bassnett 1989: 44), trying to create their own vision of humanity (Bassnett 1989: 78). As Worthen suggests, the play makes the audience reflect in depth on reality and illusion, but is inconclusive in that it doesnt provide a final answer on whether it is the actors or characters in the play that depict reality (Worthen 2004: 687). The Son even states, I am a character who has not been fully developed dramatically (Pirandello 1.712-713), which again provokes ambiguity on characters identity. In questioning our identity by discussing how each of us is several different people in diff erent situations (Pirandello 1.642), it would be easy to suggest that the Father would provoke self-reflection in some members of the audience. The contrasting aims of the two plays therefore suggests the reasons behind Pirandellos arguably more developed characters than those presented in Everyman. Development of character could be gauged on a characters purpose in a play. As the purpose of Everyman is to teach morality to the audience, the characters are constructed as merely functional. Rather than acting as well-rounded characters that each have a different personality, many of the characters could easily merge into one. For example Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, Strength, Discretion, and Beauty all come together to help Everyman, but then all leave him to undertake his journey alone. Most of these characters are therefore presented as kind and helpful, and then regress into cowardice at the end of the play, to represent that nothing can be taken with you in death except good deeds. There is no need for the characters to be complex with multifaceted personalities, as this could distract the audience and complicate the simple meaning of the play. Performed amongst other morality plays the audience should understand that the characters function to represent typical Christian lif e and to put across a moral message (Holland 2010). Six Characters could also be seen as using its characters for a functional purpose. The idea that the six protagonists are trapped for all eternity in one moment (Pirandello The Scene.304), and only exist to tell their own story could be intended to provoke thought on character in the audience. It also suggests that they are simply constructions of the play to perform their story, questioning whether they are well-developed. It would be easy to assume that as time goes on the characters that playwrights create become more individual and life-like. While this could be deemed correct in the idea that Everyman features characters that are based on abstract concepts, such as Knowledge and Good Deeds, and Pirandello presents human characters, this argument is a lot more complex than it appears on a superficial level. In both plays, the characters are named by the role they play in life, and act as we would assume them to according to this role; as what Wallis and Shepherd refer to as recognisable social types (Rees 2010). For example, the character of Everyman is presented to act as all humans do, and is therefore restricted to having general characteristic traits of mankind rather than individual ones (Holland 2010). He is simply guilty of the sins that humans generally make, for example when he states, All my life I have loved riches (Anonymous 388), and money maketh all right that is wrong (Anonymous 413). Here, Goods is portrayed as an evil character, representative of how in Christian belief, love of money is the root of all evil (Clarke 1823: 559), as he states, My condition is mans soul to kill (Anonymous 442), and laughs at Everymans misfortune. As well as these allegorical characters that act as metaphors for concepts (Allen 1953: viii), in Six Characters the metatheatrical theatre workers on stage are referred to as the roles they play in the company. Rather than having individual names, they are grouped together with titles such as Leading Actor, Young Actress, and Producer. Like in Everyman, the group of actors also act how actors are stereotypically portrayed to be; Worthen suggests the Leading Actor must always be acting the Leading Actor, whether he is onstage or not (Worthen 2004: 687). This applies especially to the Leading Actor and Actress, for example the Leading Actor is elevated in complaining, If the theatre, ladies and gentlemen, is reduced to thisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Pirandello 1.806-807), and the Leading Actress patronisingly orders, Put him in my dressing-room for me will you (Pirandello 1.36). Interestingly, when questioned about identity, the Producer replies that he is, the Director, the Producer Im in charge (Pirandello 3.107-108); rather than seeing himself as an individual personality he is defined by his job title. Personally, I define role as a character type that obeys stereotypical assumptions, while I see a character as being a created person who has individual characteristics and idiosyncrasies that represent themself. In this way I would class both the characters in Everyman and the actors in Six Characters as undeveloped roles, who behave how an audience would expect them to behave depending on their stereotypical features. While these characters are confined by their stereotypical labels and are therefore unable to develop fully, the six characters highlighted in the title of Pirandellos play are, ironically, the only ones who are portrayed to be individual, rejecting the stereotypes theyve been branded with. Though it is clear that the six characters have actual names, for example Amalia (Pirandello 2.90), on the stage and in the script they are referred to by their family roles, such as Father and Stepdaughter. In addition to the labels they are given in relation to each other, like t he characters in Everyman they are presented wearing masks, which are designed to give the impression of figures constructed by art, each one fixed forever in its own fundamental emotion (Pirandello 1.103). The six characters are therefore intended to be defined by both their family role and the emotion they represent, for example Remorse for the FATHER, Revenge for the STEPDAUGHTER, Scorn for the SON and Sorrow for the MOTHER (Pirandello 1.103). Looking at the characters with this perspective, they could seem as underdeveloped as the theatre workers and the concept characters in Everyman, as they are stuck in one moment and in one emotion (Worthen 2004: 686). However, Pirandello designs these characters with individual traits. While the Stepdaughter is presented as intent on revenge, and at one point resumes her previous position (Pirandello 1.463) as if she is in a fixed state, she is also portrayed as full of a warm tenderness for her younger sister (Pirandello 1.103). In terms o f character development, it seems that even though both plays suggest each character is fixed, or a stereotype, the six family characters in Pirandellos play are the most developed as they are the most individually unique, and they break away from the barriers they are constructed in. In the preface to Six Characters in Search of an Author, Pirandello stated that, Every creature of fantasy and art, in order to exist, must have his drama, that is, a drama in which he may be a character and for which he is a character (Bassnett 1989: 85). The essential drama of the six characters is to allow their secrets to be unfolded on stage, and therefore in doing this they can stand alone as characters. While the characters in Everyman were given no exposition so an audience can focus on the moral, the exposition and back-story for the six characters in Pirandellos play make them appear much more developed, and therefore real. The Father suggests a fact is like a sackà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ To make it stand up, first you have to put in it all the reasons and feelings that caused it in the first place (Pirandello 1.602-604). Likewise, to understand a character, to make it developed and more life-like, the audience needs to see its exposition. For example the Father reveals how he could nt bear the sight (Pirandello 1.464) of his wife because he felt sorry she was incapable of love (Pirandello 1.296), allowing the audience to understand why he sent the Mother away. These individual and detailed feelings show the development of character as he seems life-like, a life full of his own specific qualities (Pirandello 3.101-102). While the stock characters in Everyman could only be imagined in similar situations, such as giving moral advice, the six main characters of Six Characters seem to be alive in their own right (Bassnett 1989: 79), and the audience would have enough information about them to imagine them in scores of situations (Pirandello 3.157). The characters of Six Characters seem to be more developed and rounded than those in Everyman, but we can also explore which ones develop as the plays go on. The character of Everyman begins as a sinner, and gradually uses more religious language such as, O Gracious God (Anonymous 153) and high Judge, Adonai (Anonymous 245), to his realisation that he is worthy to be blamed (Anonymous 477) where he then confesses his sins. While his character does develop, we dont see any real thought processes that present an individual state of mind, therefore it is difficult to empathise with the character. On the other hand, while in Six Characters the Stepdaughter has been defined as a character searching for revenge, she begins the play a confident, teasing and attention-seeking character, and then becomes increasingly angry and intense, and we see her individual emotions laid open. Adriano Tilgher suggests the characters in Six Characters have souls (Bassnett 1989: 41), and are therefore devel oped and life-like in comparison to the inhuman concepts created in Everyman. How developed a character is can significantly affect the audiences reaction to a performance. A characters expositional background and complexity can make it easier for audience members to engage emotionally and empathise with them. It would therefore probably be easier to empathise with the family characters in Pirandellos play than the concept characters in Everyman. Morality plays often used masks to avoid empathy (Rees 2010), therefore Everyman would be successful in making the audience think about morality rather than be emotionally moved. Contrastingly, the development of characters in Six Characters in Search of an Author could help the audience emotionally engage, allowing them both to think and feel. Character development, therefore, can be subjective. While in Everyman the characters could seem like simple personifications, when interpreted by performers they could become recognizable as individuals on stage (Worthen 2004: 236), and they could be as complex as a performer wants them to be. The lack of stage directions in Everyman can give freedom to a performer, therefore enabling the characters to be made much more complex, while Pirandellos stage directions could restrict a performer to following the predetermined, fixed character traits. While it is straightforward to suggest that characterisation develops significantly from simple to complex from Everyman to Six Characters, it is debatable who the most developed characters are. All are given stereotypical labels, and while the protagonists of Six Characters seem to have more individuality than those in Everyman, if their reality is an illusion (Pirandello 3.72-73), are they actually complex? 2187 words

Legitimating rationale Essay

Explain how and why the Functional Perspective is the legitimating rationale (explanation or justification) for a Capitalist economy, and give examples of this justification through race, religion, class, gender, and educational level. Then, critique the Functionalist ideology from the Conflict Perspective and describe how the stratification system produces deviants (not criminals, but rather those who fall outside the expectations in actions, thoughts, appearance, credit-score, etc) and the result of this labeling in terms of preserving the status quo. Without a judicial system, regardless how flawed it is, in a Capitalist economy it would be bedlam without it. As a human race, we need to abide by restrictions and laws. It is an unfortunate statistic that the majority of inmates are lower class, less educated than the norm. The penal system shows no favoritism on gender nor religion. In our society if the law is not obeyed, then you will have to pay the ultimate price. Earlier social conflict theorists argue that money is the mechanism which creates social disorder. The theory further states that society is created from ongoing social conflict between various groups. The gap between the haves, and have not, have certainly widened in the past five years. Families who were considered middle class five years ago have seen their credit score plummet. Ones that found themselves buying at higher retail stores are now at discounted houses. Having their homes foreclosed, and living week to week, has become the norm in the middle of this society. There is much resentment for the middle class as the higher class seems to go unscathed, and the lower class seems to be getting more and more government services. I believe the word status quo is a thing of the past. Part B Choose 1 legitimating rationale and show how the 5 basic social institutions (economy, family, religion, education and government) work together and support one another both structurally and ideologically to foster this rationale. Then discuss Marx’s claim that the interests and goals of the economic system define  the goals and objectives of all other institutions. (50 pts) â€Å"Women are subordinate to men,† and the way that they all support it. Economy (women get paid less than men: glass ceiling), family (men expect women to play the housewife), religion (the bible talks about women as the â€Å"sinners† and that men are superior/women can’t be priests in the Catholic church), education (we are taught sexist rationales in school like boys are macho and girls play with Barbie’s and don’t fight), government (the U.  S. Constitution says â€Å"all men are created equal† not all â€Å"people† or â€Å"all women†)Beacuse the economy is controlled by a strong male presence (wall street, congress, etc) they continue to re-emphasize the male agenda because they want to keep control (keep higher salaries, make the laws, etc) So the male controlled economy defines the goals and objectives of everything so they stay in power.

Albert Heijn-History

Albert Heijn 1602 (Barneveld) History Context Albert Heijn is a big supermarket chain which emerged from a small grocery store that once stood in Oostzaan. The 21-years old Albert Heijn took over the store from his father in 1887. The young Albert Heijn quickly began to expand the store towards other places. Albert also started to sell his self-made cookies and self-burned coffee (Albert Heijn, 2013). Now Albert Heijn is one of the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands. Quality and customers are of great importance within the formula of Albert Heijn.For this reason all subsidiaries have to have the same style. In the small village of Barneveld there is also an Albert Heijn. This Albert Heijn was managed by Mr G. Aartsen for more than 15 years. Albert Heijn Barneveld did not experience quite a lot of changes. The only changes where changes of assortment and a small expansion of the shop. Trigger The management of Albert Heijn demands that every supermarket manager is managing f or a maximum period of 4 years. This is due the fact that a manager could turn into a friend when staying too long on the same position.Another reason is the emerging of business blindness. To prevent this from happening, all managers (except for the franchise shops) have to switch places once in a while. For example: the manager of Utrecht goes to Amsterdam after 4 years, the manager of Amsterdam goes to Groningen and so on. Philosophy The manager of Albert Heijn Barneveld was like a father to all the personnel. Mr Aartsen was often called â€Å"papa Aartsen† (daddy Aartsen). Mr Aartsen was not just the manager who commands the personnel.He was a kind guy who often smoked in his office (while this was not allowed), he just had his own rules and it worked. When there was a lot of pressure on the personnel he always helped them. For example, during Christmas time he helped stocking the shelves. Mr Aartsen also had a good relationship with the customers. Change idea Diagnosis A lbert Heijn Barneveld had the same manager for 18 years. For this reason the headquarters decided to make some changes. Mr G. Aartsen had to go. This was a big shock for the regular customers and the personnel. Change of strategyThe change of strategy was decided, there were no discussions possible. Mr Aartsen protested towards the headquarters, but their decision was final. Albert Heijn had accepted the fact that Mr Aartsen was the manager for a longer period than 4 years for a long time. However it was time for change. The headquarters wants all the shops to be the same, as well in layout as in the way of managing. Intervention plan The headquarters of Albert Heijn did not really had an intervention plan. They made up the rules and were the boss of Albert Heijn, so Barneveld had to listen.Albert Heijn did replace Mr Aartsen, however, the headquarters were much more open about where Mr Aartsen should manage after Barneveld. This decision was made together with Mr Aartsen. The other intervention plan that the headquarters had, was the implementation of two managers in Barneveld. This way Barneveld was managed better and with good efforts. Sadly enough, things were not any more than they were. Interventions 1 With the help of the two new managers the intention was trying to introduce a new way of thinking.However this did not work quite well. After a few weeks the headquarters decided that Barneveld had to do it with one manager again. This time the dissatisfaction was even bigger. Interventions 2 When it turned out that Barneveld did not run as well anymore as it did, the headquarters tried to bring old personnel back. An old assistant manager came back from another subsidiary. This happened to work out. The headquarters decided that Barneveld had to steer itself again. The next step was giving personnel promotions.This way, people who worked for Mr Aartsen were able to get more influence and help each other to get over the situation. Results of change process The change process for Mr Aartsen has led to overwrought, unfortunately the changes were too big for him. For Barneveld the changes were positive as well as negative (see table 1). Positive changes| Negative changes| Albert Heijn made Barneveld a real Albert Heijn. Barneveld had struggled with the changing process, however now Barneveld was now a real Albert Heijn like all the other subsidiaries. Albert Heijn Barneveld always was a neighbourhood supermarket, now it was one of those mass city supermarkets. The changes caused the dissatisfaction of the most customers. | Table 1, Positive and negative changes Albert Heijn Barneveld Conclusion Albert Heijn headquarters did not much effort steering the change process. Due to the lack of comprehending, the change process took a lot of time. At the end, Albert Heijn headquarters succeeded in making Barneveld a real Albert Heijn. However, the headquarters did not research whether the customers wanted this change or not.

The Case Morse Vs. Frederick - 1269 Words

In the case Morse Vs. Frederick, a supreme court case that questioned the first amendment, the main argument set out by Frederick was that the school’s principal, Morse, was that Morse violated Fredericks first amendment right. Juneau-Douglas High School was in session during the Olympic Torch Relay for the 2002 winter Olympics. The school decided that it would let its students and faculty out for a short period to watch as the torchbearers passed the school. This was considered a school event and was treated as a field trip. Joseph Frederick was a senior at JDHS. He was a bit late coming to school that day. When Frederick arrived to school during the event, he met up with some of his friends. They soon pulled out fourteen-foot banner that had the phrase: â€Å"BONG HiTS 4 JESUS†. The school’s principal, Deborah Morse, almost immediately told the students to take down the banner. All but one student complied with Morse. That student was Joseph Frederick. She to ld the boys to take the sign down because she believed that the sign was encouraging the use of illegal drugs in school. She told Frederick to report to her office where she later punished him by suspending him for ten days. Frederick believed that his constitutional rights were being denied and that the first amendment was violated in the process. Frederick sued Morse claiming that the school violated his first amendment. Morse explained that she was not violating the first amendment because the school has a schoolShow MoreRelated The Bill of Rights Essay1356 Words   |  6 Pages(Coates, 1995-99). Go to the â€Å"First Amendment Center† web site and pick a related court case for one or two of the First Amendment rights. Name the case and number and interpret the case’s impact on society. Morse vs. Frederick â€Å"bong hits 4 Jesus†. 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