5/24 notes from class

Drama 2: Understanding the Text

1.In drama, a foil is
 a character designed to illuminate another character by contrast.
2.In terms of a play’s setting, “unity of time” refers to 
a limitation on the play’s action to a short span of time, usually no more than a day.
3. What term describes the suggestions provided by the playwright for how to produce and perform a drama?
stage directions
4.A theater stage in which the audience sits around three sides of the acting area is called
a thrust stage
5.The typical structure of a dramatic plot involves which stages in the progression of the conflict?
exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion
6.Which of the following best describes the crucial difference between drama and the other major genres of fictional prose and poetry?
Unlike prose and poetry, drama is written primarily to be performed.
7.The theme of a play is
inferred by the viewer from the action.
8.Which of the following questions do you need to ask yourself when reading a play that you do not need to ask when you see a play performed live?
What does the setting of this play look like?
9.Verbal irony
is dialogue that seems to mean one thing but really means something else.
10.In a dramatic performance, how does the exposition occur?
It is conveyed implicitly through the play’s dialogue.
11,Which of the following terms describes the time period in which the characters in a play live and act?
plot time

William Shakespeare’s

"A Midsummer Night’s Dream" 

A Midsummer Night's Dream opens with Theseus and Hippolyta planning their wedding, which takes place in four days. Theseus is upset because time is moving so slowly, but Hippolyta assures him the four days will quickly pass. Their relationship has not always been so loving. Theseus won Hippolyta during a battle.

While they discuss their relationship, Egeus enters with his daughter, Hermia, and her two suitors, Lysander and Demetrius. Hermia is in love with Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. Lysander argues that he is as good of a match as Demetrius, but Egeus won't listen. Instead, he declares that if Hermia won't marry Demetrius, she will die: This is the law of Athens and his right as her father. Theseus agrees that Hermia should obey her father but offers her a third option: spending her life in a nunnery. Hermia has until the day of Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding to decide upon her fate.

Upset by Theseus' decree, Lysander comes up with a plan. He and Hermia can escape from Athens and its unjust laws by running away to his widowed aunt's house. Here he and Hermia can marry and live in peace. As they discuss their plans, Helena enters. She is in love with Demetrius and wonders how Hermia managed to capture his heart. Hermia insists she hates Demetrius. She and Lysander then tell Helena about their plan to leave Athens. In a last effort to gain Demetrius' love, Helena decides to tell him of this plot, but she doesn't receive even a "thank you" from her cold-hearted lover.

From the Duke's palace, the scene switches to the cottage of Peter Quince, a carpenter who directs a group of amateur actors in his free time. He has chosen the play "Pyramus and Thisbe" to perform for Theseus' wedding and is in the process of casting roles. Nick Bottom, the weaver, is given the leading role of Pyramus, while Francis Flute, the bellows-mender, wins the female lead, Thisbe. The remainder of the roles are assigned, and the group plans to meet the following night at the Duke's oak for a rehearsal — the same woods where Hermia and Lysander plan to meet on their flight from Athens.

The action of the play now shifts to this fairy-enchanted woods, where Puck, Oberon's joker, speaks with one of Titania's fairies. The fairy recognizes Puck as the troublemaker, Robin Goodfellow. They also discuss the argument between Titania and Oberon; Oberon is angry with Titania because she refuses to give him the Indian boy she is raising. While Puck and the fairy talk, Titania and Oberon enter from opposite ends of the stage. After criticizing each other's infidelities — Titania was supposedly in love with Theseus and Oberon with Hippolyta, among others — Titania reminds Oberon that their argument has led to chaos in the natural world. Oberon says this disaster will end if she relinquishes the Indian boy, but Titania refuses. Oberon hatches a sneaky plan to get the boy back. He sends Puck out to find a plant called love-in-idleness, the juice of which makes any person dote on the next creature he or she sees.

While Puck is out looking for this magical flower, Demetrius and Helena wander past Oberon. As usual, Demetrius insists Helena stop following him; he even vows to harm her if she doesn't leave him alone. Taking pity on Helena, Oberon instructs Puck to put some love juice in Demetrius' eyes at a moment when Helena will be the first person he sees upon waking.

Titania and her fairies are the next to enter the stage, with Oberon secretly following. When Titania falls asleep, Oberon squeezes the love juice in her eyes, hoping a wild beast will be the first creature she sees upon waking. In the meantime, Hermia and Lysander wander near Titania's bower. Lost in the woods, they decide to stop and rest until morning. Puck sees Lysander asleep and assumes he is the nasty Athenian Oberon told him about. He puts the love juice in Lysander's eyes. Still in pursuit of Demetrius, Helena wanders past and notices the sleeping Lysander. She awakens him, and he immediately falls in love with her. Cautious and heartbroken, Helena assumes Lysander is teasing her, so she runs away. Lysander follows. Hermia awakens, calling out for Lysander's help, because she has just had a nightmare in which a snake ate her heart. She dashes into the woods in search of Lysander.

Quince, Bottom, and the other actors are the next characters to meander near Titania's bower. As they rehearse "Pyramus and Thisbe," Puck secretly listens, appalled by their awful acting. Deciding Bottom is the worst in the bunch, Puck gives him an ass-head. When Bottom saunters out of the woods to deliver his lines, the other actors fly from him in fear. Bottom is unaware of the transformation and walks unworriedly through the woods. Singing as he passes her bower, Bottom awakens Titania who immediately falls in love with him.

Puck explains all of these events to Oberon, who is pleased with the way his plan has turned out. Indeed, everything seems perfect, until Demetrius and Hermia walk past, Hermia believing Demetrius has harmed Lysander, who has mysteriously disappeared. Oberon realizes that Puck has anointed the wrong Athenian with the love juice. Angry with this mistake, Oberon sends Puck in search of Helena, vowing to charm Demetrius' eyes when she appears. Now both Lysander and Demetrius are in love with Helena, adding much to Puck's amusement at the foolishness of mortals. Helena still believes they are teasing her. When Hermia honestly, and confusedly, says she knows nothing about the sudden switch in Lysander's feelings, Helena believes she is simply playing dumb: In her opinion, her three friends are laughing at her.

Before a serious fight breaks out between Demetrius and Lysander, Oberon has Puck create a fog that will keep the lovers from finding one another. While they're sleeping, Puck reverses the spell on Lysander. He also casts a spell so none of the lovers will remember what has happened in the woods. In the meantime, Oberon returns to Titania's bower in search of the Indian boy. Titania willingly releases him because she only has eyes for Bottom. Oberon's plan is now complete, and he is disgusted to see his queen in love with an ass, so he releases her from the spell.

Titania awakens and tells Oberon about her strange dream of being in love with an ass. Oberon has Puck remove the ass-head from Bottom. Now that Oberon has won the Indian boy from Titania, he is willing to forget their argument, and the two, reunited, dance off together so they can bless Theseus' marriage.

Morning has arrived and Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus are walking through the woods. Theseus suddenly spies the sleeping lovers and imagines they woke early to observe the rite of May. When the lovers are awakened, Demetrius confesses that he now loves Helena. Theseus decides the other lovers should be married along with him and Hippolyta. As they return to the palace, the scene shifts to Bottom. Just awakening from his dream, Bottom declares he'll have Quince write a ballad about it, called "Bottom's Dream," because it has no bottom.

Quince and the other actors haven't forgotten their missing friend, Bottom. They worry "Pyramus and Thisbe" won't be able to go on without him, which saddens them because Theseus is known for his generosity, and they might have been rewarded with a lifelong pension for their performance. As they lament this lost opportunity, Bottom suddenly returns. His friends want to hear his story, but Bottom tells them there isn't time for that: They must prepare for the play.

In the final scene, the play has come full circle, and all of the cast returns to the palace where Theseus and Hippolyta discuss the strange tale the lovers have told them about the events of the previous evening. The joyous lovers enter, and Theseus decides it is time to plan the festivities for the evening. Of all the possible performances, the play "Pyramus and Thisbe" turns out to be the most promising. Theseus is intrigued by the paradoxical summary of the play, which suggests it is both merry and tragical, tedious and brief. The players finally present their play. Hippolyta is disgusted by their pathetic acting, but Theseus argues that even the best actors create only a brief illusion; the worst must be assisted by an imaginative audience. The play ends with Puck's final speech, in which he apologizes for the weakness of the performance and promises that the next production will be better.

Dictionary Box

savvy:  practical knowledge and ability
For example→
business savvy
She hadn't got too much savvy.
prune up: crease, crumple, pucker, rumple, screw up
(1)to cut off branches from a tree, bush, or a plant, especially so that it will grow better in the future 
(2)to reduce something by removing things that are not necessary

E. E. Cummings

Edward Estlin "E. E." Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), often styled as e e cummings (in the style of some of his poems—see name and capitalization below), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems; two autobiographical novels; four plays and several essays. He is remembered as an eminent voice of 20th-Century English literature.Poetry
Despite Cummings's familiarity with avant-garde styles (undoubtedly affected by the Calligrammes of Apollinaire, according to a contemporary observation[21]), much of his work is quite traditional. Many of his poems are sonnets, albeit often with a modern twist, and he occasionally made use of the blues form and acrostics. Cummings' poetry often deals with themes of love and nature, as well as the relationship of the individual to the masses and to the world. His poems are also often rife with satire.
While his poetic forms and themes share an affinity with the Romantic tradition, Cummings' work universally shows a particular idiosyncrasy of syntax, or way of arranging individual words into larger phrases and sentences. Many of his most striking poems do not involve any typographical or punctuation innovations at all, but purely syntactic ones.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. With the possible exception of Walt Whitman, Dickinson is now recognized as the most important American poet of the 19th century.

Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Although part of a prominent family with strong ties to its community, Dickinson lived much of her life in reclusive isolation. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a noted penchant for white clothing and became known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence. Dickinson was a recluse for the later years of her life.

While Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.


Although Dickinson's acquaintances were most likely aware of her writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of her work became apparent to the public. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, though both heavily edited the content. A complete, and mostly unaltered, collection of her poetry became available for the first time when scholar Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955. Despite some unfavorable reception and skepticism over the late 19th and early 20th centuries regarding her literary prowess, Dickinson is now almost universally considered to be one of the most significant of all American poets.
we are going to discuss about two of her collections...

(1)Narrow Fellow in the Grass 

A narrow Fellow in the Grass

Occasionally rides -

You may have met him? Did you not

His notice instant is -

The Grass divides as with a Comb,

A spotted Shaft is seen,

And then it closes at your Feet

And opens further on -

He likes a Boggy Acre -  

A Floor too cool for Corn -

But when a Boy and Barefoot

I more than once at Noon

Have passed I thought a Whip Lash

Unbraiding in the Sun

When stooping to secure it

It wrinkled And was gone -

Several of Nature’s People

I know, and they know me

I feel for them a transport

Of Cordiality

But never met this Fellow

Attended or alone

Without a tighter Breathing

And Zero at the Bone.

A Narrow Fellow in the Grass Summary

Emily Dickinson

One of the best-known Dickinson nature poems, poem 986 is more remarkable for its execution and technique than its content. The narrator unexpectedly encounters a snake in tall marsh grass. Far from tempting the narrator, as the serpent tempted Eve, it induces fear, panting, and a sudden chill. The first eleven lines describe the snake in a personified, almost amiable way. He sometimes “rides” through the grass, parting it like a comb does hair. Yet, when plain sight threatens to betray its exact location, the grass “closes at your feet/ And opens further on—.”
The narrator of this poem is male, perhaps because boys rather than girls would be more likely to walk through marshes; however, the narrator’s sex also underscores the phallic implications of this symbol. If one prefers to see this sexual imagery, it is possible to cite the sexual association of such words and phrases as “Whip lash,” “tighter breathing,” and “Zero at the Bone.” In any event, reading the poem as a commentary on human cunning is entirely consistent with any further level of meaning. The narrator feels cordial toward “Several of Nature’s People” but has only fear for the snake. In this, as in many of Dickinson’s poems, one must beware of mixing biographical folklore with the poem and forcing the reading offered by structuralist critics that the poem is Dickinson’s confession of sexual fear.
phallic: representing ,shaped like, or relating to the penis
underscore: to underline
commentary: a spoken description of an event in the radio or television that is broadcast as the event happens
cordial: friendly ,but formal and polite
of Synonym:  
1.companionable, 
2.amicable(relating to behavior between people that is pleasant and friendly ,often despite a difficult situation)
Making a sentence with "amicable": His manner was perfectly amicable, but I felt uncomfortable.
3.collegial\kə-ˈlē-j(ē-)əl\(relating to a friendly relationship with colleagues; "colleague" means "people who work together with the subject in a sentence")
Making a sentence with the word " collegial":
The organization has a welcoming collegial atmosphere.
genial: friendly and pleasant
Making a sentence with the word "genial":
The teacher is very genial /has a genial manner

Reading the poem’s first line aloud causes the tongue to flicker, like that of a snake; sibilants abound in increasing number as the lines describe the snake’s approach. These elements are certainly intentional. Poem 1670 (“In Winter in my Room”) presents a similar encounter, though with a worm-turned-snake. Relating the events as a dream sequence, this narrator flees whole towns from the creature before she dares set the experience down.
sibilant: making a "s" or "sh" sound

(2)Because i Couldn't Stop for Death

Because I could not stop for Death – 

He kindly stopped for me –  

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –  

And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility – 

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –  

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –  

We passed the Setting Sun – 

Or rather – He passed us – 

The Dews drew quivering and chill – 

For only Gossamer, my Gown – 

My Tippet – only Tulle – 

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground – 

The Roof was scarcely visible – 

The Cornice – in the Ground – 

Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses’ Heads 

Were toward Eternity – 

BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH SUMMARY
Death, in the form of a gentleman suitor, stops to pick up the speaker and take her on a ride in his horse-drawn carriage.

They move along at a pretty relaxed pace and the speaker seems completely at ease with the gentleman. As they pass through the town, she sees children at play, fields of grain, and the setting sun. Pretty peaceful, right?

As dusk sets in our speaker gets a little chilly, as she is completely under-dressed – only wearing a thin silk shawl for a coat. She was unprepared for her impromptu date with Death when she got dressed that morning.
shawl: a large piece of cloth worn especially by women or girls over their shoulders and/or head
They stop at what will be her burial ground, marked with a small headstone.

shawl

In the final stanza, we find out the speaker's ride with Death took place centuries ago (so she's been dead for a long time). But it seems like just yesterday when she first got the feeling that horse heads (like those of the horses that drew the "death carriage") pointed toward "Eternity"; or, in other words, signaled the passage from life to death to an afterlife.

The Poem

In “Because I could not stop for Death,” one of the most celebrated of any poems Emily Dickinson wrote, the deceased(=dead) narrator reminisces about the day Death came calling on her. In the first stanza, the speaker remarks that she had been too busy to stop for Death, so in his civility, he stopped for her. In his carriage, she was accompanied by Immortality as well as Death. Many readers have wanted to know why Immortality also rides in the carriage, but when thinking of the courting patterns in Dickinson’s day, one recalls the necessity of a chaperon. In any event, Dickinson considers Death and Immortality fellow travelers. This interaction with Death shows the complete trust that the speaker had placed in her wooer. It is not until the end of the poem, from the perspective of Eternity, that one is able to see behind the semblance of Death. Far from being the gentlemanly caller that he appears to be, Death is in reality a ghoulish seducer. Perhaps Dickinson, in her familiarity with the Bible, draws upon Satan’s visitation of God in similar pose as a country gentleman. In this way, Dickinson’s poem resembles the Gothic novel, a popular Romantic genre given to the sinister and supernatural.
deceased:  the permanent stopping for all the vital bodily activities 
Making a sentence with the word "deceased": The recently deceased Member of Parliament.
In the second stanza, the reader learns that the journey was leisurely and that the speaker did not mind the interruption from her tasks because Death was courteous. Along the way, they passed the children’s school at recess time and fields of ripened grain. They even passed the setting sun—or rather, it passed them, so slow was their pace. With the coming of evening, a coolness had fallen for which the speaker found herself unprepared with regard to(relating to) clothing. They drew near a cemetery, the place where the speaker has been dwelling for centuries. In the realm of Death, time has elapsed into centuries for the speaker, though it seems shorter than her last day of life when she first “surmised” that her journey was toward Eternity.
elapse:(時間消逝)as a V.
if time elapses ,it goes past; 
to come to an end
Making a sentence with the word "elapse":
Four years had elapsed since he left college and still he hadn't found a job.
recess:(as a N.)used in the school; in school, a period of time between classes when children do not study

recess time in school (More precisely, in elementary school in USA)

In A Nutshell

If you know anything about Emily Dickinson, it's probably that she was a reclusive poet from small-town Massachusetts who wrote tons and tons of poetry in the 1800s that wasn't published much until after her death. Oh, and that death and dying were among her favorite subjects.

We can add "Because I could not stop for Death," first published in 1862, to the list of Dickinson poems obsessed with the idea of death. In this particular poem, the speaker encounters death, yet the tale is delivered rather calmly. As a result, the poem raises tons of questions: Is the speaker content to die? Is this poem really about death, or does the idea of death stand in for something else? Fear of marriage perhaps? Is this a poem about faith? The doors for interpretation are wide open.

There probably isn't one person among us who hasn't considered what will happen after we die. This poem explores that curiosity by creating a death scene that's familiar to the living – something we can all imagine, whether we'd like to or not.

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

There's something very cinematic about this poem. The ending feels especially reminiscent of the flashback trick used in movies, or the ending that turns the whole movie on its head – "and what you thought was taking place right now actually happened centuries ago and, surprise, I'm dead!" If you visualize this poem, it's hard not to imagine a Tim Burton-like scene. Corpse Bride maybe, or even Beetlejuice – movies where what feels familiar to us in this world is combined with some aspect of an afterlife.
※reminiscent: making you remember a particular person 
Even if you're not as death-obsessed as Emily Dickinson, you've got to admit that you're at least a little curious about what goes on during and after death. How do you picture death and the afterlife? In "Because I could not stop for Death," Dickinson imagines that maybe a handsome gentleman comes to take us on a pleasant ride through our former town and death is just one stop along the way. It's a little creepy, we'll admit, but not so horrifying either.