Author: Amjad

We were given the stimulus ‘7 Years’ by Lukas Graham, a song that surrounded the life of a ttroubled young man who grew up to be a successful singer. It gave the story of how his father would push him to interact with the outside world, and expressed his doubts and possibilities of the future.

In conclusion to this, our class came up with potential dramatic performances; basically a beginning improvisation piece that we had thought through for about 2 lessons.

First Improv – Our groups first initial ideas concerning improvisation was to act out every specific age, using different people. At this point, we did not consider the use of lighting or costume, which left it up to us to make it as realistic as possible. This attempt failed as many of us weren’t very focused and did not stay in character. Using this as an example, we decided how we could change this and create a better improvisation performance.

As we all played Lukas, we decided to thoroughly analyse the stages of his life that were mentioned in the empathetic piece of music.

Makai was essentially the narrator, and told the story of each stage before the protagonists began their own. The song begins with an impactful line stating that his mother had told him to ‘go make yourself some friends or you’ll be lonely’ when he was only seven. This already causes quite a lonely atmosphere, suggesting that young, seven year old Lukas had not so many friends or people to socialize with. Jose had played this scene, without using any higher status in his body actions. His state of mind was still young, so this scene was quite easier to react to as Lukas himself.  As he grows up to the age of 11, we see his life begin to deteriorate as he is smoking and drinking at such a young age. Karver acted out this part and was strong in portraying this role, which would be beneficial towards the failed improvisation. At the age of 20, Lukas was lonely, but this didn’t stop him from doing what he wanted to achieve, which was of course becoming successful in the music industry. We understand this as he states in the song; “I only see my goals, I don’t believe in failure, cause I know the smallest voices, they can make it major”. This stage was acted out by myself, in an environment where I already have a few fans asking to interact with me. But although this is the case, my character is still quite humble.

After this initial performance, we decided to split our groups, so we could focus even more on the stages that we wanted to perform. Me and Josh decided to represent two incredibly different ages, young and old. We also decided that our monologue would see the audience experience back to back events of the different stages. There was an easy difference between the moods in both scenes and the audience definitely picked up on this, considering the feedback we received.

Lighting – I had decided to do a lighting presentation, to show the differences and moods that different lights colours could produce. This song ‘7 Years’ was a story that could use many of the lights, as it included time manipulation and alterations of mood (two factors which can affect the lighting around the stage). This would also leave a different impact on the audience, as they would understand where the character was coming from. In our monologue, we only used the white light and dims,so that it was easier for the audience to understand the type of transition that was going on.

Second Improv – Our second improvisation was clearly a success. We were able to compose ourselves, and in the short time we had to prepare before, we were able to come up with a good structured performance that related to the stimulus. We did change it in some aspects. The character Lukas, was changed from being each actor to just one, who was Josh, which we found to be a better option as he was successful in delivering the same type of person each time, through the way he talked and reacted to things. Without the lighting, we could also focus more on how we delivered the scenes as individuals, and how we were relevant towards the scene. We kept the narrator (Makai) the same, as he was strong in providing quite an empathetic voice, especially in the beginning scenes, which saw Lukas’ darkest days where he was lonely at first, but then begin to negatively affect his life by smoking and drinking, common ways to escape life for young people.

We decided to add in

Monologue – My separate monolgue with Josh was also quite a success. It was strong  in showing the two different stages of Lukas’ life and how his mood was. Compared to Aarons group, we were quite different as they decided to create another scene instead of actually acting out the set scene of the song itself.. Also, they didn’t use spoken word like we did, but they were able to focus on the different opinions of the characters in their scene, especially from the old aged Lukas Graham; also signifying the difference in both performances that we did. I believe both performance had positive reactions from the audiences we delivered them too and they had delivered a similar message throughout.

Evaluating my character in the monologue is quite easy to do.  Lukas was young and was not fully aware of what he was going to do in the near future but myself and Josh decided to give him a non quitting mindset, which was thouroughly expressed throughout the performance. Because of his mother and father telling him to go out and find friends, he clearly found himself in situations where it was hard to socialize with many others, excluding his family, also adding onto the lonely atmosphere of the performance. This was vital as the audience were intrigued and empathetic, coming from opinions from other classmates.

Compare how extreme emotions are portrayed in the protagonists of Macbeth and A Christmas Carol.

Both stories ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens and ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare share a set of extreme emotions that play a big part in how both plots progress. Throughout this essay, I will highlight these emotions and thoroughly explain how and why they were used by both authors.

In the play Macbeth, the first extreme emotion would have definitely been sheer shock, felt by the protagonist, who was of course Macbeth, the thane of Glamis at the time. The specific time of this moment was Act 1 Scene 3 where the witches told him about being the future king of Scotland. This early event led to Macbeth being incredibly inquisitive about their prophecy towards the end of their dialogue where the disappearance of the three witches was seen. Evidence of this judgement is a quote that states: ” Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more: I know I am thane of Glamis; but how of Cawdor?”. This quote shows the shocked and inquisitive side to Macbeth, telling us that he didn’t expect this unlikely prophecy to be told to him. At the time, Macbeth was the highly respected thane of Glamis, but this prophecy that the witches released his way was a massive shock to him, along with the fact that he was in the presence of the supernatural. At the time of the writing of the play, the subject of the supernatural was quite normal to talk about. Witches weren’t ‘entities’ or ghostly-like, they were thought to be in the bodies of real human beings. Shakespeare definitely included this scene, because at the time it would have been an even more realistic way to reveal how Macbeth’s future could be shaped. Shakespeare also included this scene in the play, as it was important to see how easily Macbeth could be persuaded to do things he could never think of doing, which was of course trying to become King by doing the deed of killing King Duncan, who was in fact his cousin in the story.

The beginning of A Christmas Carol was quite different to the beginning of Macbeth. This was mainly because Scrooge (the protagonist) showed spiteful emotions towards everyone he encountered. Spite is the word I would use to describe the extreme emotions shown in this part of the story. A quote that supports this is ‘“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge … “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”’. This quote did have an effect on the reader as it caused Scrooge to be perceived as an incredibly heartless and rude person, which was what Charles Dickens aimed to do for the beginning part of the story. The quote also showed the lack of socializing that came with Ebenezer Scrooge. The main reason why Charles Dickens had implemented this into the book was to show the massive change in behaviour Scrooge would later take on, which is the plot of the story. Once again, it was different to the beginning of Macbeth, as the feelings were not similar, and in Macbeth, he would socialise with the people that talked to him in the scene e.g. Banquo and the Three Witches.

The second extreme emotion was definitely confusion which was incredibly blatant and saw him go through a change of mind-set. He seemed to be incredibly controlled and surprised by the deed he was about to do, which was committing the killing of King Duncan to become the next King. This part of the play was the penultimate part to Macbeth actually completely changing from the brave and mighty man that he was before. I found a quote that suggested this; “A dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat oppressed brain?”. This quote is incredibly strong in presenting the mind set of Macbeth. It clearly shows he was experiencing traumatising moments because of what he was about to do. I know this because he had been hallucinating, picture the scenes of a dagger, which of course wasn’t real.  Shakespeare had written this to show the quick effects on Macbeth, and how he was slowly turning into a man that not many people would look up to like they used to at the beginning of the story. The fact that Macbeth said ‘heat-oppressed brain’ meant that he knew what he was doing was putting pressure on him, which caused him to panic and hallucinate.

The second part of A Christmas Carol was incredibly similar to this. The extreme emotion found in this part of the story was definitely also confusion, mainly because he didn’t understand how he was seeing the supernatural, just like Macbeth did when he saw the three witches. Both supernatural beings in each story were there to pass on a message to the protagonists. The fact that Scrooge was seeing a ghost took over the whole of his body and made him feel a completely different way, bringing out the extreme emotion found which was confusion. The quote to highlight this part of the story was ‘Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre going on at this rate, and began to quake exceedingly.’ The fact that Scrooge was dismayed meant he was distressed and concerned about the happenings of this chapter. This also affected the way we thought about Scrooge now. The reader didn’t really know if he had other feelings, and seeing him in this state was quite different, compared to how Charles Dickens portrayed him in the first stages. The author, Charles Dickens, included this in the story as it would show a different side to Ebenezer Scrooge, who (like said before) was a spiteful character and had no interest in talking to others. This was also done so that we could see how much he would change, once he was put in an uncomfortable position, like what he did to many people. In comparison to Macbeth, they were both in quite similar moods at this stage, because of the supernatural beings they had experienced.

The third extreme emotion felt by Macbeth was sheer guilt. He understood how much trouble his mind got him into. He said “O, full of scorpions is my mind, my dear wife”. In this line he is talking to Lady Macbeth, expressing his feelings and how he understands his mind doesn’t contain good thoughts. The fact that he said his mind was full of scorpions meant his thoughts were poison. This is backed up by the killing of King Duncan. Shakespeare was smart to do this, because it was also a massive change in character and showed the consequences of selfishness and greed. The fact that he had listened to the witches led him to this guilt he was feeling at the time. The metaphoric language used in this quote was a great language technique to show how guilty Macbeth was.

Compared to this, Scrooge’s next extreme emotions were incredibly similar. He too was feeling guilty for the things he had done towards other people. But in this case, the difference was that the protagonist was able to change what he did, which would be seen later in the story. “I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way, now. Merciful Heaven, what is this?”. This line without a shadow of a doubt gives off Ebenezer Scrooge’s feelings and lets us know that he is full of regret. This was done by Charles Dickens to change the perception of Scrooge, who would now be seen not as an incredibly spiteful man. This was because he had begun to felt guilty, letting people know that he did have a weakness and the supernatural sightings had brought this out of him. Once again, this was incredibly similar to the feelings of Macbeth, as they both felt rather guilty for what they had done, and because of the circumstances that went on, they understand how and why they did wrong.

The last part of Macbeth saw the protagonist going through an incredibly unstable mental state. The extreme emotion was clearly insanity. This was all because of what he had done to his companions. The guilt had clearly taken over him which led to the incredibly metaphoric language used. “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage”. In this short extract, Macbeth talks about life as if it is a pointless thing. He uses incredibly metaphoric language, which indicates he doesn’t know how to put his situation into simple words. This is one of the most important parts of the play itself as it shows just how badly one decision can be. Shake definitely put in this part of the story so that we could see the overall change in behaviour of Macbeth, which clearly went from positive to negative over a short amount of time.

Lastly, in comparison to the last paragraph, we notice that the extreme emotion found in the last part of A Christmas Carol was clearly happiness. Scrooge had changed his ways; he was almost another man. The fact that he actually went out of his way to wish Bob a Merry Christmas meant that his attitude and emotions were different. “A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year. I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family.”. This quote is an excellent representation of how the appearance of the supernatural changed the mind-set of Ebenezer Scrooge. He had also offered to raise Bob’s wages; another piece of evidence that suggested he was a much happier man. Shakespeare had done this to highlight the ways in which Scrooge had changed as a result. These emotions were definitely unlike the ones that were found at the end of Macbeth. In fact, they were the complete opposite.

I thought my performance went according to plan and I focused on how Agamemnon would feeling throughout the play. I used my costume and props to my advantage, helping the impact on the way the audience thought about the two different characters in the play. The performance was one that came across strongly and I feel that the audience could tell how I was feeling and what had annoyed me so much. My partner was also good at making me actually feel annoyed so that it could bring out the anger in Agamemnon more. For example, he turned around at the right moments which showed a sign of disrespect, and I imagined it was actually happening, which made me react naturally towards him.

My body language was incredibly tense, appropriate for the performance. I think this was vital in keeping myself in the role of Agamemnon and I did so without too much difficulty.

Portraying Agamemnon was something I was not very comfortable with at first, because I didn’t understand who he was and how he got to this point, knowing why he was so frustrated made me take a walk in his shoes, with his mindset. This caused me to act naturally in my scene and I don’t think I had forced something too much.

Although I thought the performance was a success, there were still areas that I could vastly improve on;

1. Position on the stage – If I did the performance again, I would definitely think about my position and keeping still for longer. I constantly found myself going side to side in the performance, which took the attention away from me sometimes. Being in the centre of the stage would be better, because it states that I am the subject and the person the audience should be focusing on.

2. Keeping the tone of voice – I also found myself sometimes sounding different to what I had a few seconds before, because I would change the tone of my voice, without knowing. Focusing on keeping my voice and tone the same would be beneficial towards the performance as a whole, so the audience has a clearer understanding of what I was feeling as Agamemnon. Sounding like myself (Amjad), was sometimes a problem when watching the performance back, because I found it hard to imagine myself as Agamemnon, but easy as Amjad.

Context of the actual play: The play was clearly set to resemble a period of time that involved war, betraying and gods: the Trojan War. The play would go on to keep the name of the characters the same as the Gods, but would keep the plot quite similar as to what had occurred in the Trojan War including the Greek gods. The Trojan War was actually started by Zeus, with the purpose of reducing the increasing population of the Earth at that point in time. The war was fought between the defenders of the city of Troy and Greeks, based in Anatolia. The Trojan War, was fuelled by the abduction of Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta. The abduction was carried out by Paris, the Trojan prince, who had later refused to return her when Menelaus had demanded this. The war was sparked when Menelaus convinced his brother, Agamemnon, to start a battle against the city of Troy.                                                                   Agamemnon plays a massive role in ‘The Flesh Is Mine’. During the play it seems that his pride and arrogance declined as the war and his situation with Achilles were both getting worse and worse. The story displayed different messages focusing on different characters. As the reader, we recognise that Agamemnon had taken his power for granted and used it to steal Achilles partner. We know his problems got worse, as for example, Act 2 Scene 5, showed that when Achilles had quit the war, he automatically knew that they would not be able to take over the city of Troy, because Achilles was his best soldier.

Understanding of Character

In the play, Agamemnon is seen as a person of higher status. Because of this, he is normally arrogant, starts unnecessary feuds (like the one with Agamemnon) and doesn’t take into consideration what could happen in the future. This backfires as Achilles quits from the army and drives Agamemnon into a state of absolute anger and fury. The scene that I acted out (Act 2 Scene 5) was a result of this and it caused Achilles to avert his anger towards the first person he saw, the guard. Portraying Agamemnon was quite a difficult role, because I had to understand why he would get so angry and towards the guard.

Choice of Clothing

As you can see in the picture, I decided to wear smart clothing, to indicate that I was of a higher status in the scene. Although I wore smart clothing, I did not wear the clothing smartly. In some areas, I would tuck in my clothes and leave other places untucked. This would show that my character wouldn’t care about appearance because I was stressed and angry at the current situation. I would also keep my tie lose and make is visible so that it could add onto the effect I tried to implement into the scene. Another feature I tried to make clear in my final performance was the use of sweat patches (not in the picture above). Just before my final performance, I would use water to make it look like I had sweat patches, showing a feeling of stress and a hot environment around myself.

Props

The only really meaningful props I used was the bunch of papers that I had in my hand partly throughout the scene. The papers symbolised a meaning of stress and things I need to do, which added onto the idea I wanted to represent. I also used the blocks instead of school chairs, so that the area around me looked less like a school. Although the blocks aren’t entirely ‘office-themed’, it gave the audience the chance to ‘imagine’ what they could be, which was much better than having school chairs, as the performance would be less believable if so.

Use of space

From the beginning to the conclusion of the scene, I would use the whole stage to indicate how angry I was at the current situation. Although this was the case, I found myself stranded in different positions that I should not have been in.

Magic If

Working with the ‘Magic If’ technique was incredibly helpful as it helped me to separate myself from the character Agamemnon. Originally I thought it was pointless towards the performance, but I recognised how much I acted as myself in the performance, compared to the actual way I should have acted.

“Community, Identity, Stability”. Alienation and oppression are explored heavily in the novel, which many of the characters experience. For example, Bernard is alienated because he is a misfit, too small and too powerless for the position he has been conditioned to enjoy. Helmholtz is seen to be too intelligent to play his role and finally, John who is also alienated on multiple levels. He is alienated by the Indian community, and feels he is unable to become part of the world state although this alienation can be seen to provide the characters motivation for their goals.

You could argue that this alienation is brought about due to the oppressive society in which the characters live. The new world order puts stability before everything, therefore the truth becomes undesirable. A lot of the characters follow the idea of ‘freedom hurts’; they are not willing to see the truth because it’s painful and often they can’t get to grips with the unfolding of lies. Although John can be seen as the exception, he is disgusted by the lack of humanity and “be happy all the time” ground rules. Therefore, he makes himself suffer to prove he is not under the thumb of the controllers.

John being the only human naturally born from a mother represents a very unique character. In the novel, conditioning and permanent social stratification is used to make everyone fit the system perfectly. John’s mother was created in the civilized society and lived there until John was accidentally conceived. John had a connection to civilised society very early on through Shakespeare and stories from his mother. John finally arrives at civilisation as an experiment by Bernard Marx and Mond and they were intrigued to see how a savage would cope in this new environment. John at first seems to cope well, but he is disgusted by the people’s lack of free will and their ignorance and selfishness. He denounces civilised society as Mustapha Mond tells him, “there is no place for God”. He creates his own society, which at first works, until reporters come and interrupt his tranquillity. He then ultimately turns to soma and eventually commits suicide as a form of escape. Overall, John shows us the failings of the savage and civilised society and although he created his own society that is different from the rest it also fails, indicating that there is no ideal tranquil society.

John is a religious man, he believes in life after death to an extent. We shouldn’t indulge in mortal life in order to save our souls in the next. In certain types of Christianity, self-torture can be seen as a way of cleansing the soul. Throughout the novel there are various incidents which show this emphasis on self-preservation. For example, in Chapter 18, John throws himself into a “thorny bush” and Lenina thrusts her nails into his wrists. When he exiles himself from the civilised society he forces himself to drink mustard which somewhat acts as a self-conditioning and repentance. Even soma is described as “Christianity without tears” as it helps control society without pursuing the divided nature of religion.

Karl Marx, the founder of Marxism, believes that the needs of the society are more important than our individual needs, because everybody has a role in society and a goal to accomplish. Marxists believe that if you serve the needs of someone else, everybody will make sure your own needs are taken care of. In the novel, it is illustrated by the fact that people are replaceable and that the only priority is the efficiency of society. Mustapha Mond, the world controller, is a key enforcer of this. We can see this from the first moment we are introduced to him; a key aspect of control in A Brave New World is the use of his loud voice which is used in Chapter 15 to calm the riots. As we are introduced to Mond we are instantly told of “his strong deep voice” and the fact that “his voice sent a strange thrill quivering along [the students’] diaphragms.” Mustapha Mond is an embodiment of the idea of control in the novel, and the mention of his loud domineering voice contributes to this.

Ironically one of the key moments in the novel regarding Mustapha Mond is when he isn’t speaking. In Chapter 12 he is reading a Biology paper, and although he is interested by it he does not hesitate to throw it away. He seems to sacrifice happiness in order to pursue the ideals of social efficiency.

“Mother, monogamy, romance” are the words Mustapha Mond uses when discussing society to the young. Something that John stands firmly against, Mond is stating that the world state has been created to do away with these things in order to create social stability. This stance creates Johns isolation, he doesn’t deem throwing away these basic freedoms are worth social stability. This is a key point in the novel as it creates John’s isolation and is a key chain in the events that led to his eventual alienation and suicide.

John’s fixation on Shakespeare comes from his early reading of his novels as part of the Indian society. In many ways Shakespeare’s works can be seen as an analogy for his life. For example, John finds himself isolated much like Othello does. Othello is discriminated because of his skin and John his upbringing. On the other hand John is not oblivious to his isolation. “Hey, I’ve spent my whole life being lonely. You too!? No way!” His acceptation of his loneliness is evident in this quote. Yet later on in the novel when he meets Lenina he sees someone who can remove him from his solitude. “Look! A white girl!” John sees someone who is like him; this therefore offers him a chance to escape his alienation.

This leads me on to the next comparison Huxley makes between John’s relationship with Lenina and Romeo and Juliet. John sees Lenina as his ticket to freedom so he attempts to ignore her flaws; this relates back to my earlier point about the pursuit of happiness. John finally cracks when Lenina offers him sex and he reacts angrily towards her. You could argue Lenina is nothing like the virginal Juliet that John portrays and demands her to be. She is often described “pneumatic” by Bernard, which suggests what she says and stands for bares no real substance.

Animal imagery is a significant concept in A Brave New World. At the start of the novel Huxley continuously references animals. “The delta children staring at Linda with the stupid curiosity of animals”, although civilised society has aims to become less animalistic it has the opposite effect. John soon shares the same view point and once this happens the characters in the novel start to refer to him as an animal. The crowd throws food at him like he was an “ape at the zoo”. This indicates to the reader that any attempt at further understanding in this society is deemed wrong and the people within the novel resort to animalistic tendencies, something that adds to John’s isolation and desires. You could argue John escapes in order to prove his humanity to God.

Both At The Border and Belfast Confetti use a wide range of vocabulary to implement an obvious conflict-themed story, but in a poem form, so noticing and comparing them both is easier than a lot of other poems that would use a range of metaphoric phrases and words. The poems are very literal, almost straight to the point, which I believe aims at making the reader want to really imagine it in his/her head.

At The Border first of all is a very soft poem, as in it is not full of sudden actions like Belfast Confetti portrays itself. The first stanza was very short, but it told us that it was the last time the protagonist would check-in wherever they were, meaning that they were leaving for somewhere, which we later find out to be their home country which had just been holding as war (sign of conflict). Later in the poem, a joke is also said, by a small girl, who’s related to the protagonist. This makes me confident that there is no current conflict going on, but rather they have been ‘affected’ by previous conflict. The line was ‘Look over here , she said to us, my right leg is in this country and the left on is in the other’.

Belfast Confetti is a poem of the complete opposite approach. This poem is one that is in the process of fighting, conflict and violence. They are more riots than war, but it seems to be very intense and shows how one innocent man really can’t escape how hard he tries, ‘Why can’t I escape~? Every move is punctuated. Crimea Street. Dead end again.’.  The poem is very blunt, literally describing what was going on around him and how badly the conflict was. He was also very confused in the last paragraph, which tells us that he was very confused.

Why is the poppy used to remember the English fallen soldiers?

The reason I think poppies are used is because of the color mainly, representing the blood shed people went through. There are plenty of them which shows that many people had sacrificed themselves for their patriotism and the urge come out victorious. The poppies are also used because they were the plants that surrounded the victims of war, which is a good use of tribute, which’ll make it easier to remember what they actually are signifying.

How does the poet present desperation in Out of the Blue?

– First and Second person 

Make sure –