The Glass Of Water

A moment that seemed unfitting to me was the “flip-flops” of emotion in the relationship between Boilingbroke and the Duchess.  Throughout the play the two appear to hate each other, but there are areas where she and Boilingbroke show signs of affection upon close private moments.  She claims he has defeated her and that he is the ONLY man to have done this.  This sparks an interest in her, leading her to say, “ You are the fist man who has ever defeated me… and, if I were not already married, you would know no peace until I had wed with you.(102)”  Their interactions are a little confusing, especially since the two kiss and slap each other.  It all just seems a bit odd for “rival” enemies to interact in such a way towards one another.

John Michael Moore

Show-And-Tell

 A Peculiar Position

Basic Information- A Peculiar Position is a one act written by Eugene Scribe.

Basic Plot- Two young lovers, Barbara and Carlo, are wishing to be married.  Barbara’s mother is disapproving of this marriage due to Carlo’s job.  She says that Barbara will not be wed to a solider.  This does not seem to bother Carlo too much since he has only one year of service left and is now stationed close enough to enjoy frequent visits to his lady love. Barbara’s mother has planned what she sees as a more suitable fit for her daughter marriage, Pepito, who is referred to as a, “nasty mischief-making, tattling, babbling fellow.(1)”  A character by the name of Champigon enters, trying to sell his wines and sorts and is quickly thrown into the mix of the drama within this household.  The Count is wanted for crimes so the Countess seizes the opportunity to swap the passport of the wine seller with her husbands in order to give her husband safe travels, leaving Chanpigon to deal with the punishment of his crimes.  Barbara desperate of relieving herself from this undesired marriage, tries to convince Pepito that she has already been wed.  he questions her to findout that it is this man, Champigon, (although it actually isn’t, he is a distraction).  Little did she know the trouble she was stirring, because once the Major arrives looking to pin down the Count, he is shocked after hearing the different versions of who this man posing as the Count really is.  Only to discover that the major’s only love Adelphine, who left the major for a wealthier, more traveled man is married to Champigon.  After discussing things over with her he has made sense of all this nonsense and the Countess admits to her entire scheme.

Critical take- we are never introduced to the actual Count.  He is only spoken about, and seen by only the Countess towards the end of the play in order to exchange the passports.  This one man causes majority of the issues brought up here, that and the inability for Champigon to be a faithful husband and the peskiness of Pepito. The relationship between Barbara and Carlo seems to be one with strong and deep affections, yet we hardly see the two characters interact with on another.  It is only in the beginning that we get a slight understanding of the young couples relationship. We are then immediately introduced to her forced and unwanted relationship with Pepito, which is a much different relationship than the prior one.  But still we are not given much insight to their relationship.  Scribe mae sthe choice to only give us a general taste of what their relationships are like, have been like, and what they could be, that being either a joyful or miserable one.  Joyful for Barbara and Carlo if they succeed in their goal to marry each other and miserable if they don’t.  For Pepito to be joyful he will be married to Barbara, but that will cause Barbara to live a miserable life. Constantly putting these characters in quite a peculiar posistion.

John Michael Moore

Love! Valour! Compassion!

I had some difficulties when starting this play.  I felt like there was just too much to keep up with, too many people, thoughts, and relationships in my head as I read.  But once I got to act 2 it was much more clear.  The relationships between couples were easier to follow in the second act because it follows a more linear progression.  With the lack of having a definite plot, it may have raised many questions for the future historian.  The plays all have an interesting shift in social acceptance from play to play.  Love! Valour! Compassion!  Is celebrating an anniversary between two men while in The Children’s Hour just the thought of two women being together is ruining and destroying lives.  The historian would get a good look at how the views and issues of America in this time changed.  This play would allow the historian to see how these men are gay and proud and how they see the straight people of the world, one of the men even makes a comment about there being too many straight people in the world.

John Michael Moore

Posts

 http://jenniferdownes.blogspot.com/2013/11/sarah-ruhl-eurydice.html?showComment=1383758672052#c1823496549003722063

http://jenniferdownes.blogspot.com/2013/11/lillian-herman-childrens-hour.html?showComment=1383758954066#c568703278893233655

http://crayonxasxsnail.blogspot.com/2013/11/eurydice.html?showComment=1383759427167#c7370276019055899673

http://crayonxasxsnail.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-childrens-hour.html?showComment=1383759608265#c6177502822931882996

http://paulina2130.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-childrens-hour.html?showComment=1383759823270#c5429196328227460334

http://paulina2130.blogspot.com/2013/11/eurydice.html?showComment=1383759967175#c3918510172075072943

John Michael Moore

Eurydice

Eurydice- “I’ll come back to you. I seem to keep dying.(214)”   Each character is trying to help or save the other, they do not make decisions to better themselves, but to better the lives of the people they love.  It is so futile what they are trying to do, because they just continue to die.  All of the effort spent by the Father is pointless because she returns momentarily.  Father- “You should go to your husband. You should have grandchildren. You’ll all come down to meet me one day.(214)”  He wants a life for her even though he cannot have one himself, but he doesn’t seem worried because he knows that eventually his future family will soon join him in the underworld.

Orpheus- “When I played my music at the gates of hell I was singing your name over and over and over again.(244)”  Orpheus dared to knock on the gates of hell in order to save his love, and it was his singing her name over and over that made the Stones of the Underworld shed tears and allow his passage.  Once again it was a pointless effort, seeing as she returns to be with her father and Orpheus returns again, to save her.  They just seem to keep dying.

John Michael Moore 

The Children's Hour

The Childrens’s Hour- this is a well-made play from the early to mid 1800s.  The play is filled with drama and the whole thing is centered on a single made up secret spread by a lying little girl.  There is a late point of attack, seeing as everything for the school is already set up, little did they know that it was being set up just to fail. 

Within this play there are moments of huge misunderstanding, such as when Rosalie Misunderstands the importance of her lying to the adults when confronted about the statements Mary has said.  She is lying for Mary because Mary is using a stolen bracelet over Rosalie’s head in order to get her to lie.  All of these are aspects of a well-made play.

The reactions of all of the characters within this play to the knowledge spread about the two women is terrible.  But, I do not think that that would be a similar reaction today.  It is a tragedy, what happens to Martha, but this is the type of show that can move someone, that can send the audience leaving with something to think about.  Maybe they have treated someone poorly in their lives, either way it shows that there are more serious things that can come from slander of any kind.

John Michael Moore