This is a 2 part assignment in which both parts must be read, understood, and completed.
Part 1:
I am about to write a 3 hour exam for a course in which
consisted of 12 novels/plays.
These novels/plays are as follows:
Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie”
Miller’s “The Crucible”
Osborne’s “Look Back in Anger”
Beckett’s “Happy Days”
Pinter’s “The Homecoming”
Churchill’s “Vinegar Tom”
Soyinka’s “Death and the King’s Horseman”
Friel’s “Translations”
Shepard’s “True West”
Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross”
Stoppard’s “Arcadia”
Choi’s “Kim’s Convenience”
Write me a synopsis/mini essay for each novel/play that not only
prepares me for the exam but that I may also use as a cheat sheet.
The instructions for the exam are as follows:
Section One: Total – 50 marks
Identify in point form the playwright and the play for ALL NINE passages (9
marks). For the remaining mark out of ten, indicate the date of
composition for TWO passages (1 mark). Total: 10 marks.
Then, select TWO passages from the NINE which follow. For
each of the selected passages, you must identify the context of the speech
(where it appears in the play, who is speaking, who is listening); then turn
your attention to matters of theme, characterization, scenic form, and dramatic
function. Also treat the language of the passage, analyzing the use of literary
devices. These two answers should be in essay form. Stage directions are
in italics. Stressed words are in bold. Each mini
essay is worth 20 marks for a total of 40 marks.
9 Monologues follow here.
Section Two: Total: 50 marks
Select ONE of the following essay questions and write a well-organized
essay with a thesis statement, introduction and conclusion. 50 marks.
6 Comparative essay prompts follow here.
Total: 100 marks
Certain prompts might include, but are not limited to the
following:
Art vs nature – arcadia, true west
Colonizer vs colonized – look back in anger
Sexual desire as a force of chaos – death and kings
horseman, arcadia
Poverty, class struggle –
glass menagerie, the crucible (getting rid of Joan and Allice)
Instead of grappling big questions they distract and
entertain themselves – Happy Days, true west (both brothers distracted by each
other fulfillment)
Essence vs patchwork/rickolodge – kims convience, true west
Dismantling of grand narrative, big ideas punctured –
crucible (John Proctor), Arcadia (science and determinism vs free will, as well
as cause and affect)
Possibility of truly communicating with another human being
– translations, happy days (she wants acknowledgement from willie and not
getting it)
What is plastic theatre? Device of Tennessee Williams which
is realistic theatre. He defines it in preface of the glass mangerie
Brechtarian alienation affect: In Vinegar Tom uses songs
after every scene to do so
Happy Days: he does the alienation affect. Someone watching
me still is referred to audience
Entrances and exits: Kims convience (naturalistic)
Emblematic entrance and exits: (books of emblems with few
lines explaining the verse) Translations (when talking about going to another
country)
Hand props and symbolic crops- arcadia (apple and
symbolizing science and religion, tordus as well as garden of adam and eve )
Jessie in homecoming and Mr wingfield in glass mangerie –
characters that are talked about but never seen
Homecoming and happy days – absurdism
Puritanism – crucible
Christianity in a lot of the plays
Translations – allusions to ancient Greece and rome
Include these prompts when writing the synopsis for each
play and include specific details. Use these prompts to write mini essays about
each play/novel and be sure to include a thesis for each.
Part 2:
After opening the word document titled “part 2”, read and follow the instructions which consists of applying prompts/thesis, as well as defining terms/literary devices from the above plays, as well as identifying settings and genres from the plays
ALL INFORMATION ABOUT EACH PLAY MUST BE CORRECT AND WILL BE CHECKED
USE AS MUCH PAGES AND WORDS AS NEEDED (ABOVE OR BELOW COUNT), BUT EVERYTHING MUST BE ANSWERED CORRECTLY AND THOROUGHLY
