User:RSank17/sandbox

Hello everyone, my name is Raequel Sank, and I am a senior at Middle Georgia State University. My major is English, and I have a minor in Professional Writing, as well as a minor in Information Technology. I plan to pursue a career in Technical Writing upon graduating in December 2020. I’m currently taking Shakespeare along with this course this semester, so I am excited to be able to use skills from each course interchangeably. I have some fair knowledge of Wikipedia, and I am excited to be able to learn even more!

Pygmalion

Overall critical analysis Pygmalion is inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses as Pygmalion is disgusted with the women of his era, considering them loose, and dedicates his life to being unmarried. In his version of the Pygmalion myth, Shaw twists the story to conclude vaguely challenges notions associated with the Pygmalion myth.

Act I analysis This act portrays members of various social positions in society. The mismatched characters are brought together by a thunderstorm, which foreshadows the social confusion that will ensue later. The characters are referred to by their roles, reflecting the rigid relations in society: The Notetaker, The Flower Girl, The Gentleman…etc. Ultimately, as the play continues, we learn the names of the characters which reflects them growing beyond the restrictions of social roles and into their individual characters.

Act II analysis In this scene, we learn that Higgins portrays Pygmalion from the original Pygmalion myth. As Higgins’ Pygmalion characteristics are portrayed, we learn in this scene that Colonel Pickering and Mrs. Pearce are also Pygmalions. Eliza Doolittle can only become a duchess with the help of Mrs. Pearce and Colonel Pickering who are working on her appearance and dignity respectfully.

Act III analysis This scene portrays Eliza Doolittle’s first debut. Despite this act being supposedly about Eliza, we learn a lesson about character through the behavior of every character. In this act, the characters are exposed for who they really are, and this is exemplified through Mrs. Higgins’ statement, “…but if you suppose for a moment that she doesn’t give herself away in every sentence she utters, you must be perfectly cracked about her.”. Ultimately, a person’s true character is bound to be exposed.

Act IV analysis At this point, the story has reached its climax, yet the play continues because there are transformations that Eliza has yet to experience. In this act, Eliza expresses not wanting to be treated like an object, which sets the audience up for the final scene in which Higgins has a realization.

Act V analysis In this act, Eliza makes a statement that depicts the lesson of the play. Eliza contrasts a lady to a flower girl stating that the only difference is “how she is treated.”. Ultimately, Eliza has gained self-respect and Doolittle and his women have gained respectability. While the conclusion is ambivalent, the story ends with Higgins’ confession about reconsidering what a woman can be and him considering Eliza as an equal rather than a burden.

Trifles Analysis

Trifles explores the theme of identity through the absence of its key persona: Mrs. Wright. By leaving this character off stage, Glaspell demonstrates how a person's identity is "just as much constructed as innate." The audience can only form their perception of Mrs. Wright through the lens of the on-stage characters as they rehash and discuss her personal life and alleged crime, and these characters may not all perceive Mrs. Wright the same way. The varying perspectives of the group in the farmhouse afford the audience a well-rounded view of Mrs. Wright and how her identity is fluid and changes depending on the prejudices of the other characters.

The power of silence speaks louder than actions in this drama. The theme of powerful silence is portrayed through the dynamic between men and women in the play. The women are mostly silent in the beginning of the play, and their minimal conversation consists mostly of trivial things—well, at least the men see it that way. The men believe that their comments and findings are "trifles", however, the power in their silence and trivial conversation is implied at the play’s end. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, find the dead canary and decide to hide it from the men. The women’s silence in their knowledge of the canary reflects the social position of women during the specified time period. The men saw their conversation as trivial, which was generally how women were viewed by men in society. The women’s silent solidarity on the topic of the canary reflects their understanding of Minnie’s oppression and the often-diminished role of women in society.

The entrapment of women to the gendered role of domesticity is exemplified throughout the drama. Throughout the play, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters stay inside of Minnie’s house while the men go outside to do their "real work" of investigating this crime. Ultimately, the caveat is that the women end up finding the canary that would solve the investigation. Although women are confined to this domestic role, their lives, “are both shaped and empowered under the restrictions of a domestic space". The domestic role in which the women are confined to places them in the position to find the canary and solve the investigation.

Trailing the portrayal of domestic roles, the portrayal of masculinity is another key element to this drama. The men leave the women inside to discuss “trifles” while they go outside to do the ‘real’ investigation. The play’s title highlights the “trifles” that the men mock and exemplifies the way that men overlook women’s concerns. Ultimately, as the men diminish the women’s concerns, their ‘trifling’ concerns are what lead to them solving the investigation.

Justice is a major theme of Trifles, especially as it pertains to women. The title of Glaspell's short story based on Trifles is "A Jury of Her Peers," which refers to the fact that women were not allowed to serve on a jury at this time. Because of this aspect, a truly fair trial by a jury of one's peers, as promised by the American Constitution, was impossible for a female defendant. The biggest irony of justice in Trifles is that a woman's social situation, exacerbated by patriarchal culture, may lead a woman to crime and then unjustly punish her for it. The play draws a clear line between the legal definition of justice, which would mean Mrs. Wright being convicted and sentenced for killing her husband, and the moral definition of justice, which would mean Mrs. Wright is not punished for freeing herself from her abuser. With Trifles, Glaspell paints a picture of the life of Minnie Wright, Margaret Hossack, and the countless women whose experiences were not represented in court because their lives were not deemed relevant to the adjudication of their cases. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale "try Minnie Wright in an alternative venue, using a process that reveals details of her experience and possible motives—aspects of the case that the men's investigation will never discover." Although the play ends without a legitimate verdict, it is valid to assume that the woman reached their own verdict, leaving the audience to decide who the victim is. Glaspell, "like many other writers of mysteries...uses amateur detectives—the two women—who turn out to be more perceptive than the male experts investigating the case." Overall, Glaspell "made important contributions to the development of American Modernism, and her writing reflects a forceful commitment to the country's foundational principles of democracy and personal liberty."

The theme of guilt is presented in Trifles as Mrs. Hale revels on the idea that she could have come over or spoken more to Minnie Foster. She harbors guilt that she may have saved her from this path of destruction. This idea can be seen when Mrs. Hale states, "I wish I had come over sometimes when she was here. I—(looking around the room)—wish I had". Mrs. Hale shows the guilt of not listening to some of the struggles that Minnie Foster might of had, as she understands the hardships that Minnie may have went through as a women in this time period. Mrs. Hale expresses "guilt that initially motivates [her] reiterated wish that nothing be revealed to worsen Mrs. Wright's position".