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Chekhov: Between Ibsen and Strindberg? Above!
Tragedy Genre and Themes
"One of the conventions discerned and analyzed by Aristotle was that the change of fortune, peripety or reversal, experienced by the tragic hero, should be accompanied by anagnorisis or cognitio, "discovery" or "recognition." The conditions and the degree of this discovery vary considerably. It may even be relatively absent from the protagonists's awareness, as we have noted. But it is almost always central to the audience's responses. In the school of suffering we are all students, witnessing, like Lear, essential, "unaccomodated" man, and we become caught up in an extended discovery, not only of human limitation, but also of human potentiality." [ Tragic Vision ] -- Does Existentialism make every hero intro "tragic situation"? ... Mis Julie | finale (bottom) | subtext -- method.vtheatre.net | new drama & new theatre conflict -- inner conflicts "directing" finale -- ideas line-by-line analysis non-verbal expressions "playing subtext" set -- functionality [ illustration = naturalism ] prop -- realism -- how does it "act"? sound light mise-en-scene artistic interpretation -- style ... how the "forms" are established during the exposition? Role and Character [ "Actor Prepears" ] "Q & A" [ "Living the Part" -- what does it mean? ] Actor's Theatre Actor = Artist A = Creator + Medium (M's Formula) Why do we do analysis? Co-Creator of Playwright [ position, not a choice? ] Stage, Replacing Church... Holy Theatre (Sacred ... or/and Ritualist) Peter Brook : Empty Space ... Write "Scene with Count" -- in class + homework assignment. ... 2007 -- Cherry Orchard : readings in class ? Ms. Julie and Chekhov : symbolism ? ... Cherry Orchard Unit IV
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Second Sex: Feminism, Race, and the Origins of Existentialism{ Dramaturgy }Marxism, Nietzsche and feminism... ?
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Hegel, Stirner and Me
God > Man > God-Man / Man-God > Man as God > God = Me
Nihil
... Nora exits to live, Julie -- to die. And -- "Chekhov's women".
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6m_ESSr0jw -- Ibsen Dancing ]
* From Chekhov to Pirandello ?
Is "Ms. Julie" a tragedy? http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/trag_vsn.html
Q & A :
The conclusion is catastrophic.
The catastrophic conclusion will seem inevitable.
It occurs, ultimately, because of the human limitations of the protagonist.
The protagonist suffers terribly.
The protagonist's suffering often seems disproportionate to his or her culpability.
Yet the suffering is usually redemptive, bringing out the noblest of human capacities for learning.
The suffering is also redemptive in bringing out the capacity for accepting moral responsibility.
... .--Goodbye! [Leaves Kristine]
JEAN. Damned bitch!--And all this for a siskin!--
MISS JULIE [dully]. Oh, never mind the siskin!
JEAN [ponders]. No!
MISS JULIE. What would you do in my place?
JEAN. In yours? Wait, now.--A woman of noble birth who'd-sunk? I don't know--or yes, maybe I do.
MISS JULIE [takes the razor and makes a gesture]. Like this?
JEAN. Yes.--But I wouldn't do it--mind, for there's a difference between us!
MISS JULIE. Because you're a man and I'm a woman? What difference does that make?
JEAN. Precisely that--the difference between a man and a woman.
MISS JULIE. I want to. But I can't.--My father couldn't either, that time he should have done it.
JEAN. No, he was right not to. He had to be revenged first.
MISS JULIE. And now my mother's taking her revenge again, through me.
JEAN. Have you never loved your father, Miss Julie?
MISS JULIE. Yes, very much. But I've hated him, too. I must have done so without realizing it. It was he who brought me up to feel contempt for my own sex, as a half-woman and half-man. Who's to blame for all this? My father, my mother, myself? Myself? But I have no self of my own? I haven't a thought I didn't get from my father, not an emotion I didn't get from my mother, and this last idea--that everyone's equal--I got from him, my fianc¨¦--which is why I called him a swine! How can it be my own fault, then? Shift all the blame on to Jesus, as Kristin did?--No, I'm too proud for that, and too intelligent--thanks to my father's teachings--and all that about a rich man not getting into heaven, that's a lie-Kristin's got money in the savings-bank, she won't get in at any rate! Whose fault is it?--What's it matter to us whose fault it is; I'm still the one who'll have to bear the blame, suffer the consequences.
JEAN. Yes, but-- -- --
There are two shrill rings on the bell; MISS JULIE jumps to her feet; JEAN changes his coat.
JEAN. His Lordship's home!--What if Kristin-- -- --
Goes to the speaking tube; knocks and listens.
MISS JULIE. Has he been to his desk yet?
JEAN. This is Jean, sir! [Listens. Note that the audience cannot hear what the COUNT says] Yes, sir! [Listens] Yes, sir! At once! [Listens] At once, sir! [Listens]--Yes, sir, in half an hour!
MISS JULIE [extremely anxious]. What did he say? For God's sake, what did he say?
JEAN. He wants his boots and his coffee in half an hour.
MISS JULIE. In half an hour, then!--Oh, I'm so tired; I can't bring myself to do anything, I can't repent, can't run away, can't stay, can't live--can't die! Help me, now! Order me, and I'll obey like a dog! Do me this last service, save my honour, save his name! You know what I ought to do, but can't, just will me to do it. Order me!
JEAN. I don't know why--but now I can't either--I don't understand--it's just as if this coat made me--I can't order you--and now, since his Lordship spoke to me--then--I can't explain it properly--but--oh, it's this damned lackey sitting on my back!-I believe if his lordship came down now and ordered me to cut my throat, I'd do it on the spot.
MISS JULIE. Then let's pretend you're him, and I'm you!--You acted so well just now, when you went down on your knees-then you were the aristocrat--or--have you never been to the theatre and seen a hypnotist? [Jean gestures assent] He says to his subject, 'Take this broom!', and he takes it; he says, 'Sweep!', and it sweeps*-- -- --
JEAN. But then the subject has to be asleep.
MISS JULIE [ecstatically]. I'm already asleep--it's as if the whole room were full of smoke; you look like an iron stove, dressed all in black with a top hat--your eyes glow like coals in a dying fire--and your face is a white spot, like ashes--[The sunlight has now fallen upon the floor, and is shining on JEAN]--it's so nice and warm-[She rubs her hands as though warming them before a fire]--and so light--and so peaceful!
JEAN [takes the razor and places it in her hand]. Here's the broom! Go now, while it's still fight--out to the barn--and. . . [Whispers in her ear
MISS JULIE [awake]. Thank you. Now I'm going to rest. But just tell me one thing--that the first may also receive the gift of grace. Tell me, even if you don't believe it.
JEAN. The first? No, I can't!--But wait--Miss Julie--now I know!--You're no longer among the first--you're among--the last.
MISS JULIE. That's true--I'm among the very last; I am the last. Oh!--But now I can't go--Tell me to go, just one more time!
JEAN. No, I can't now either. I can't!
MISS JULIE. And the first shall be last.
JEAN. Don't think, don't think! You're taking all my strength away too, and making me a coward--What's that? I thought the bell moved!--No! Shall we stop it with paper?-- --To be so afraid of a bell!--Yes, but it's not just a bell--there's somebody behind it-a hand sets it in motion--and something else sets that hand in motion--but if you stop your ears--just stop your ears! Yes, but then he'll go on ringing even louder--and keep on ringing until someone answers--and then it's too late! Then the police will come--and then. . .
Two loud rings on the bell.
JEAN [cringes, then straightens himself up]. It's horrible! But there is no other way!--Go! [MISS JULIE walks resolutely out through the door]
Curtain.
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