Samuel Loomis

“Waiting for Godot” uses stage direction, parallels, uncertainty, and a tragicomedy approach in order to show that Estragon and Vladimir’s lives are meaningless. This also extends to eventually convey Samuel Beckett’s larger commentary on the purpose of human existence. Beckett wants to show how every individual’s life has no purpose or meaning. Before any thorough analysis can be made, it is important to understand the larger, extended metaphor that is this play—a metaphor for humankind. This…

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play about what happened during the Salem Witch Trials. It gives insight about what people had to deal with in this situation and how they handled it. The trials were basically a big test which helped figuring out whether or not people were guilty of witchcraft. This is an example of what a crucible is. In our world today we still have crucibles and even though they are different than back then, they all relate to each other because of what influence they have…

Though brief and comedic, Jean-Paul Sartre’s play “No Exit” offers insight into the basic ideas of his philosophy about freedom vs confinement. Sartre is able to portray the applicability of this philosophy to daily life though the commonplace setting of the work and the diversity of the basic character types found throughout the play. The main principles behind this one of Sartre’s philosophies are detailed through the three main characters, Cradeau Inez and Estelle, and their confinement to a…

Samuel Beckett, who similarly used theatrical silence and long amplified pauses for a innovative effect, heavily influences Harold Pinter’s work. The objective of this essay is to define ‘Silences’ and Pinter’s uses of pauses as a theatrical technique used in the form of non verbal communication between characters of Ben and Gus in Pinter’s, The Dumb Waiter. His plays can be studied on various levels of in depth readings. The sheer complexity of his work is what conveys these different diverse…

Earlier, the East India Company was mainly concerned with carrying on its business in India i.e., it was mainly concerned with trade and commerce in India. Towards the end of the 18th century the East India Company assumed real power after the Battle of Plassey and Buxar in 1764. Its administration was however in the hands of the people of commerce whose main interest was in making money for serving their own vested interests rather than providing the people under their jurisdiction with an…

To what extent does hypocrisy affect society? Hypocrisy is normally seen as a personal issue and it’s societal impacts are often overlooked. During the Salem witch trials, hypocrisy played a huge role in the hangings of 19 people. It created mass hysteria, which deeply affected how Salem’s societal values were interpreted. Hypocrisy is ultimately responsible for the events in Salem and The Crucible, as characters try to cover up their own flaws with lies, leading to innocent people being hanged…

Both the short story “The Possibility of Evil” (1965), written by Shirley Jackson, and the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” (1846), written by Edgar Allan Poe, explore the themes of revenge by using a variety of techniques. “The Possibility of Evil” tells the story of an elderly woman manipulating the the town to be the perfect town she wanted, and when when one of the townspeople find out what she had been doing, they cut up her number one prize possession; her roses. “The Cask of…

World Lit draft 1 – Death and The Maiden How does the gun change the role of Paulina Salas in Ariel Dorman’s play ‘Death and the Maiden’? Ariel Dorfman’s ‘Death and The Maiden’ is a play unlike any other. The play takes place in the post dictatorship world of an unnamed country. Dorfman takes us through a story of crime and justice as we learn about the struggle of Paulina Salas. Paulina had been raped a number of years ago by a group of men containing a sadistic doctor whose face she never…

Multilevel sets, flashback device and role switching are the noted theatrical techniques of Dattani to juxtapose the past and the present effectively.The use of multi-level sets helps in connecting the past with present. “Mahesh Dattani’s plays are played out on multi-level sets where interior and exterior become one, and geographical locations collapse. In short, his settings are as fragmented as the families who inhabit them” (Dhawan and Pant 35). It is interesting to note the comments of John…

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is revered for accurately telling the story about the events which unfolded in Salem, Massachusetts during 1692. Demirkaya says that The Crucible “… opened at a time when the term witch-hunt was nearly synonymous in the public mind…” (125). The play was published in 1953 during the Red Scare, and as Susan C.W. Abbotson says in her book, Student Companion to Arthur Miller, “It tells the story behind the Salem witch trials of 1692, centering our attention on the effect…