Essays

Russell has ensured that from the outset Mrs. Lyons’ and Mrs. Johnstone’s behavior, and the respect they show for other people, are noticeably different. Middle class Mrs. Lyons speaks to people in Standard English and shows respect for other people. When she asks ‘Hello Mrs. J. How are you?’ she is very polite to her…

The play, Blood Brothers written by Willy Russell was set in Liverpool, Liverpool had been home to one of the highest levels of unemployment within the developed world. The play was set in the 1960’s. Russell wrote it at this time because there was low morale and a lot of unemployment. Willy Russell set it…

In the play Russell makes the two twins become ‘Blood Brothers’, this creates dramatic irony amongst the audience because we know that they really are brothers, we see this when Mickey introduces Eddie to his mother, Mickey says “Mam… Mam this is my brother. ” Mrs Johnstone is very stunned by the fact that this…

After previously reading the text, Blood Brothers, our task was to participate in two workshops. Both hopefully designed to enhance our knowledge of the text, and widen our range of drama techniques and medium. To help with the response of the play, Adrian Deakes joined us, to help with our understanding and feeling of the…

Blood Brothers is a play based in Liverpool during the 1980’s. The play involves two main characters Edward Lyons and Mickey Johnstone. These two men were actually twins but never knew it until just before their death. Both children were actually split at birth, because Mrs Johnston could not afford to keep both children. During…

Bob Marley is known worldwide not only for creating and popularizing a certain style of reggae music, but also with using music to focus attention on the difficulties of black people around the world and on various social issues. While he was deeply involved with the context and culture of his country, Marley’s musical influence…

Liz Lochhead’s poem ‘ Box Room ‘ clearly presents her contradictory thoughts and feelings about an experience. A first visit to a boyfriend’s hostile mother is first presented with great confidence but later becomes an experience of unease and despair. The first few lines of the poem show that the mother is very hostile :…

Robert Cormier is known for not taking a morraly simplistic postition when reagarding the right and wrong of the terroists and patriotes. This is shown with Miro as Cormier often reminds the reader that he is still human. He does this by initially relating him with negativity as he feels anger, fear, and frustration. This…

Metaphysical poetry was type of poetry that was very popular during 17th century. Metaphysical actually comes from the Greek words Meta and physical. Meta meaning beyond or after and physical meaning physical. The poets wrote in contrast to the highly stylized Elizabethan Lyric poetry written by poets such as Shakespeare, Spencer and Wyatt. This poetry…

The disillusionment concerning romance in “Atlas” is contrasting to that of “Valentine”. “Atlas” also discusses a less welcome aspect of love, but it does it in a much less cynical manner. It deals with the ordinary support and “maintenance” needed by all relationships. However, it does not do this in a bitter tone. The idea…

“Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred.” This quote is saying how the army are riding to their death however nothing is said about the soldiers, I feel the author has made the soldiers look brave; I also think Tennyson has put a capital D on “Death” to personify it which is a…

Before publishing ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ in 1874, Thomas Hardy’s novels were known, by readers at the time, to be rather vulgar because of their concentration on country folk and not members of high society. This was an unusual choice for an author at the time, whilst other classics by Jane Austen and the…

In the mid-19th, early 20th century the Victorian era brought along a change in the attitudes of men and women. Men provided the income for families and were expected to own a few acres of land, by most women, to ensure financial security for a family. Men associated with the upper-class would attract women who…

Gabriel Oak is portrayed as an honest farmer, who has a divine love for nature. Hardy uses him as a mouthpiece to perhaps convey his own enduring love of the countryside. But Oak’s characteristics do not fully comply to the Victorian ideals. His occupation of a shepherd would not provide the satisfactory wealth that women…

In the family Film “Bend it like Beckham” Gurinder Chadha (the director of the film) shows the conflict/contrast of two dissimilar cultures Indian and British by using many different techniques to make this effective : different types of shots (camera techniques) , juxtapositioning, humour, symbolism and stereotypes. The film is about a young British-Indian girl…

“Jaws”, is a 1970’s classic, directed by one of today’s most accomplished directors, Steven Spielberg. This legendary film is amongst the most enduring action suspense films of all time, staring Roy Schneider as Chief Brody. The main protagonist struggles to undertake the task of ending the torment of a Great White Shark feeding on the…

This novel written by Stevenson in 1886 is a highly gripping story, which provoked the religious and moral thought of people in the Victorian era. Dr Henry Jekyll, a scientist and a dearly respected man seeks to discover his inner self through a potion. Jekyll believes in the “duality of man”: indeed; “man is not…

Jaws is a 1975 thriller film directed by Steven Spielsperg. The film is based on a novel wrote by Peter Benchley called “stillness in the water”. The film itself is based on a giant Great White Shark browsing and attacking innocent people on Amity island on the week of fourth of July, this certain week…

The idea of a story about a boy trying to become a train deterred me from wanting to see the play, however, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the performance and the engaging way in which the story was told. Originally written as a radio show, I saw Lenny – The boy who…

Reality and illusion, two separate worlds bound together in the eyes of human beings. As people, we use this illusion to blanket our reality, cover it from the darkness of the truth, to deny anything that might oppose our principles, thus securing our lives by blocking out what we fear. However, when lifting this blanket…

Moving back onto the scenes the final one I liked was the courtroom scene when Dr. Dolittle was accused of throwing an old woman into the sea when actually it was Sophie the Seal! The reason I liked this scene in particular was because it had a great use of levels and the seating was…

In this essay, Simeon Bonetti calls the film that is being reviewed by me “Insanity”. Julia Billington played the insane main character. This play displays a lot off different emotions; many of them are scary and make me feel uncomfortable. At first, I thought it was strange, but as it went on I realised that…

Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, is a play examining the mass hysteria of the 1692 Salem witch trials. When the girls from the village are found dancing in the forest and the minister’s daughter Betty Paris falls into a coma-like state, rumours of witchcraft run riot, prompted by the girls ringleader Abigail Williams. This leads to…

Another fantastic actor in the play was Craig Gazey who played Launcelot. He had the audience laughing every time he was onstage. Craig Gazey used his body language to create very bold characteristics for Launcelot. When speaking Launcelot’s soliloquy, Craig Gazey used his body language to show how Launcelot was torn between two states of…

In We’ll Go No More A-roving, Lord Byron proves the essentiality of one’s youth in their life. Through this the poet brings in the universal concept of wear and tear to as he tries to make the reader realize that the end of youth can halt benefits for a person and one should enjoy it…

When you think of a bright and sunny day, what kind of images are put into your head? Maybe you think of a baseball game at the park, or perhaps a relaxing time at the beach? Whatever the case, bright and sunny is usually associated with happy, pleasant thoughts. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller,…

“The Gatewood Caper” is an exciting detective story by American author Dashiell Hammett. It was written and is set during the 1920’s in California, on the west coast of the U. S. A. It centres around a rich entrepreneur whose daughter is kidnapped and a 50,000 dollar ransom is placed on her by her captors….

‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was a Sherlock Holmes story. The novel was the only book in the Sherlock Holmes series to combine both gothic and detective genres. Most of Doyle’s other novels were either detective or adventure stories. Sherlock Holmes stories were very popular during the Victorian period…

The Man with the twisted lip is an unusual story from Conan Doyle, in this story when Holmes goes to visit the jail, you would expect him to produce some detective stuff, like magnifying glass, but instead he pulls out a bath sponge. He is a highly respected detective, so why did he do that?…

The costumes were all very well picked out to suit the different characters. Lucy’s outfit was very modern and stylish with colourful patterns and high heels which suited her quite proud character. Her outfit was also quite tight fitting and provocative. Mac wore a suit which showed his superiority in his gang. The gangs costumes…