Samantha's Blog

In Tennessee Williams and Henrik Ibsen's A Streetcar Named Desire and Hedda Gabler, respectively, the main characters use metaphorical masks to feed their fantasy lives. Through their use of symbols, imagery, and setting the masks are born, as the women try to avoid the reality of the gender roles that they obviously don't fit in. Unfortunately, these masks are all the characters have, and once removed their worlds begin to unravel and fall apart.

Movie

The movie of "Oleanna" was very effective in my mind in capturing what happened in the play. It was also interesting to see the last scene because of the differences there. As the play comes to a close John begins to attack and hit Carol. When reading the play I don't think I was as heavily effected by this, however when it occurred in the movie I began to realize how horrible this was. That it was really John losing control and not Carol getting what was coming to her. Seeing happen instead of reading it had a much larger impact on me than it did in the play and I think that reading the play again I begin to see more of the flaws in John that I missed the first time.

Also the ending lines were significantly different from the written play giving them a completely different meaning depending on our interpretation.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Themes in Oleanna

I think that one of the themes in Oleanna is the struggle for power. Through out the play, Carol and John battle for the power in their relationship. Their battle ultimately results in the destruction of Johns career and life, while though Carol ends up with the power she is also physically beaten by John. This power struggle also appears to change people throughout the play as in the final lines Carols accusations become true and John turns into the man that Carol accuses him of being. I think that this is one of the strongest images of power as we see Carols ability to manipulate John so much.

The idea of power is also seen through "the groups" manipulation of Carol. The amount of influence over Carol "the group" has is phenomenal. Whenever we see that Carol has become stronger and more confident it is when she references "the group" and what they've told her. I think that "the group" is a very important ghost character because of the effect that they have on Carols character.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Oleanna and Prologue

Oleanna, the song is a Norwegian folk song about someone wanting to escape to a better place, namely Oleanna. The song is alluded to in the title of the play and obviously has significance to the play. Through out the play both the characters, John and Carol fight for the power over each other. Carol wants to ruin him so that she can pass the class and do what she wants in her future with out the class stopping her. John wants his freedom to do what he want as a teacher. In a way this is them trying to escape to a better place which allows them to do as they please. This song is also reflected in Johns life inside and outside of the college. John is constantly trying to get something better as we are constantly reminded through the phone calls that he get during their conversations. His Tenure and house as well as his relationship with his wife all seem to be out of reach while he is at the college trapped by the battle between Carol and him; as in the song he is trapped in a place he does not want to be while thinking about better places/things. After reading Alice's blog post on this topic I understood some of the more metaphorical representations of the song in the play. One of these is that Carol came to the school in search of success and has (during the play) not done so but is failing a class; this is seen in the song as the man wishes to go to Oleanna but unfortunately Oleanna is really a fairytale that in reality failed.The prologue quotation by Samuel Butler is very pertinent to the play. As it talks about deluding themselves to survive. This is important to the play as Carol is going to completely ruin John in order to pass the course and survive college.In a way John also deludes himself into thinking that he can take care of the problem on his own to preserve his pride and ego. The second prologue quote is from the song alluded to in the title.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Hedda Gabler Paper

I found the feminist view of Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler” to be very interesting. Throughout the paper Farfan appears to praise and condemn Hedda’s character. Farfan describes Hedda as a “great role for women in the dramatic repertory.” At the beginning of this discussion Farfan explains Hedda’s character from the feminist point of view. She explains that Hedda’s strong personality and independence made her great for plays and for womens sufferage movement as the play showed an independent and powerful woman. However, further into the discussion Farfan explains that Hedda’s suicide at the end of the play was not well taken by other feminists “since she lacks the courage and conviction of the many suffragists who endured such hardships as jail sentences and forced feedings.” I found this interesting because in the critique there is no mention of why she commited suicide as that was a very important part of the play. As she did it because she lost her power and this was the only way that she could have stayed in control I found it interesting that the Feminist view looked on it so harshly. In this paper a lot of it talked about “Hedda Gabler ” in the form of actually a performance and the changes they made. In this discussion of “Hedda Gabler” they focused on Hedda’s personality and “imagined Hedda would have been had she somehow existed outside Ibsen’s play.”

Farfan, Penny. "From "Hedda Gabler" to "Votes for Women": Elizabeth Robins's Early Feminist Critique of Ibsen." Theater Journal 48.1 (1996): 59-78. Print.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Hedda, Heidi, and A Street Car Named Desire

All of these plays focus on a woman experiencing changes in her environment. In both A Street Car Named Desire and Hedda the woman obviously does not fit into the mold of the woman at the time. Hedda extremely independent character contrast vehemently with the traditional woman of the time; while Blanche is has the opposite view of herself as she is stuck in the past and cannot break away from it. Similarly Heidi does not fit into the same ideal that the rest of the women in Heidi do, though she does support the cause and women's rights she adopts a child at the end going against the values of many strong feminists.

Children are also very important to all of these plays. There are many similarities between Heidi and Hedda in some respects towards children. In Hedda her child and other references to children are connected with death. To Hedda her unborn child is what will take away her current freedom; and in her death and her babies death her gets some of that freedom and power back. In Heidi her child is Heidi using her freedom to be a mother as well as having a career. To others her child also could represent her death in the protests for women's rights as she has given in to the stereotypes.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Hedda

Archers discussion of Hedda is quiet interesting as he reduces the play to a simple character study. Archers statement about the time period of the play I thought was interesting because of Archers claim that Ibsen was scared of the public reaction if he were to place it in current times. Because Ibsen seemed to feel fine showing his audience that many people including themselves are somewhat I find it hard to believe that he feared commenting on the lack of change in women's role. It would have been not only a commentary on people being the product of their environments but also a commentary on the lack of change in societies. I wonder how different the reaction to the play would have been if it had been placed in a time period closer to his own?

The comparison of Shakespeare's women and Ibsen's was entertaining. I tried to put some of Shakespeare's women into Hedda position and vice verse. It was strange to say the least. I think that in "As You like It" there may have been a war; and one of the couples may have gone "Romeo and Juliet" style while the other married her. But other than that I think that both types of characters are simple to understand at a basic level. Hedda is the product of her life while Shakespeare's are romanticized versions of people.