By looking at the way composers represent the intertextual connections between texts, audiences are provided with heightened understanding of humanity’s changing contexts in shaping the values and societal paradigms that transcend in time. Within William Shakespeare’s tragedy “King Richard III” (1591), Shakespeare’s depiction of the Machiavellian political endeavour regarding Richard’s personal ambition in the pursuit of authority as a product of his deformed vessel of his corporeality, reflects…
Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” INTRODUCTION My analysis of Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” reveals the murder of police detective Patrick Maloney. The story depicts a tale of a loyal wife’s reaction to her husband’s betrayal. The story is an irregular day in Mary’s regular life. She makes the day turn around by murdering her husband and smartly covering it up, leaving the detectives with no possible way to excuse “innocent” Mary of murder. This short story, we are taught…
Rain Man and A Beautiful Mind are both compelling movies that explore the struggles related to mental disorders. Rain Man is the story of Charlie Babbitt’s discovery of his long-lost brother, Raymond, and their touching and eventful journey together. Charlie Babbitt is a car-dealer in his mid-twenties when he receives a phone call informing him that his estranged father has passed away. Charlie had a poor relationship with his father. He was a rebellious child and following his mother’s death…
Henry V is the final play in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy of history plays and, like the others, reflects the Elizabethan interest in history and politics. As a biographical text, the play cannot be separated from history as “history is a story in itself” (Angus 2) and there are multiple historical constructs within it. Henry V is both a signifier and signified. It is a reconstruction of past events from an Elizabethan point of view (signifier) and, from a modern perspective is a consideration…
Francis Ford Coppola has some strong opinions about George Lucas and Star Wars. During an interview at the Marrakech International Film Festival (via ScreenDaily), the Godfather director spoke about his longtime friend's most famous creation, saying that the big budget cycle of the Star Wars machine drove Lucas away from his roots as an experimental filmmaker. "I think Star Wars, it's a pity, because George Lucas was a very experimental crazy guy and he got lost in this big production and…
recites the soliloquy. During the soliloquy Hamlet pulls a knife and points it toward himself but to show the audience that he cannot go through with suicide he actually throws the knife off of the cliff and walks away. The Olivier version does the best job at the actions that Hamlet plays…
him. Look towards his meeting the female lead Tiffany, which only occurred because of Pat agreeing to attending a dinner party with his friend Ronnie and his wife Veronica even though he knows Veronica doesn’t care for him, but happens to be Nikki best friend, something he sees as a way to get Nikki attention if Veronica believes him to be better. Where once Pat and Tiffany have meet during the dinner party, where we come to learn more about Tiffany’s character who on top of her depression…
Muhammad Ali is insisting that ‘impossible’ is used as an excuse to avoid taking on new, seemingly difficult endeavors. In one part he says that ‘impossible’ is used by people who “find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it.” This indicates that people use this word to do what they know they can in this world, and count everything they supposedly can’t as impossible. Ali says that they have the choice to validate more activities as…
In the movie, Awakenings, there were many actual depictions of what happened during the trial. The actual events of the drug trial were performed by Dr. Oliver Sacks who asked that his name be changed in the movie. During the 1920s there was an epidemic of encephalitis lethargica that spread worldwide. Symptoms of encephalitis begin with high fever, headache, and sore throat. Progression of the disease has symptoms of muscle pain, tremors, slowing of physical and mental response as well as…
Charlie Chaplin The Speech Charlie Chaplin directed, produced, and starred in the film “The Great Dictator” in 1940. The film was considered by most a propaganda film that showed through comic satire that those that were against us as a country were incapable, untrustworthy cowards. The idea was to create something that would lead the audience to those same conclusions. The speech included in the film became an iconic proclamation of our own issues in the United States at the time. In the film,…