English Question
For the first paper, you may write on Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape,” Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party,” Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” or Tennessee William’’s’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” The following guide is for a paper on any of the three
Consider any of the following statements/questions as possible paper topics. In your paper, please include some source material [textual evidence]. Consider the class discussions, the themes we discussed, issues about all of these characters, symbolic imagery, plot issues, atmosphere, and tone. Using the language of the classroom and material from your notes and the book, you should be able to formulate a good 3-4 page essay any one of the plays. Remember your experience in English 1. A good paper is a developed idea. Develop an architecture, show evidence, conclude with summary and reiteration. That’s part of what makes a good academic paper. The following statements/questions should give you good direction.
The character Krapp is quite complex. He is also three people on one stage. He is 69, 39, and 27. Discuss these three aspects of the same man. How are they different? Are they?
In Krapp’s Last Tape, according to Anthony CroninLinks to an external site., Beckett uses ManichaenismLinks to an external site. as a structural device: The dichotomyLinks to an external site. of light and dark … is central to Manichaean doctrine … its adherents believed that the world was ruled by evil powers, against which the god of the whole of creation struggled as yet in vain. Krapp is in violation of the three seals or prohibitions of Manichaenism for the elect: the seal of the hands, forbidding engagement in a profession, the seal of the breast against sexual desire, and the seal of the mouth, which forbids the drinking of wine. Beckett [however] seems to have known no more about Manichaenism than is contained in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopædia BritannicaLinks to an external site.. It’s fairly simple then—he was using some rudimentary understanding of Manicheanism. Explain.
The critic Harold Bloom says this of Beckett: “[His] only fertile research is excavatory [meaning into himself], immersive, a contraction of the spirit, a descent…” Beckett’s “extraordinary self-recognition is that he “stays within the circumference of the self.” In other words, it’s about him—us. It’s relatively simple. This is the story of a man in love—who lost a long time ago. What else is there to explore but the heart? Discuss.
More from the great Harold Bloom: “Playing his last tape, Krapp admits he has lost happiness but still exults in the fire within him. Negative energies, in Beckett as in Kafka, go back to Schopenhauer’s ‘will to live,’ which blindly seeks to engender life, to keep going on when you can’t go on…” My question is, does he still, at 69, exult in the fire? Or is he questioning everything as he stares blankly at the end of the play?
Beckett once wrote, “My mistakes are my life.” Some called his writing a “mediation of the heart.” He saw it more as a “stain upon silence.” He writes about memory and how it haunts a man—“We witness a character thinking aloud with a part of himself he no longer knows…” [1444]—and about a man who almost had it…[discuss these ideas in any pattern you wish].
SPINOZA’S most eloquent principle: “We should learn to love God without ever expecting that God will love us in return…” This is very heavy, and it somehow relates to Krapp. What would it mean to love someone or something openly without expecting anything in return? I think that Beckett is exploring this idea in Krapp. What did he love? Fail to love? Explain.
Critic Martin EsslinLinks to an external site. coined the term “Theater of the Absurd” in his 1960 essay “Theatre of the Absurd.” [makes sense][2] He related these plays based on a broad theme of the Absurd, similar to the way Albert CamusLinks to an external site. uses the term in his 1942 essay, “The Myth of SisyphusLinks to an external site.“. Read Camus’ piece in the module [Myth of Sisyphus] and ask the question [answer the question] what is absurd and is anything worth fighting for? I think the answer will surprise you.[3]Links to an external site.
What makes this play so different? Is it the loneliness of a man in am odern setting, contemplating his life of lost opportunities? What were they? Why did he lose them? Did he gain anything or is he lying to himself?
Discuss theater devices in the play. What are the devices Beckett used to make his point? This includes various symbols, use of setting, imagery.
- The setting of this play is meant to evoke a quality of loneliness, degradation, maybe depression. How does the set itself contribute [shade of light and dark, visual atmosphere, the furniture], evoke some quality of his state of mind?
- Discuss symbols in the play. The banana, the tape recorder, the lamp above his head, the black rubber ball, the dog. There are others. Discuss how visual symbols help convey meaning in the play.
There is the physical atmosphere of the play, characterized by his gestures, voice, the recorder, sounds from outside, the hard corners of the desk, the darkness and the light; and there is the emotional atmosphere, evoked by what he says about himself, the world. Discuss either one of these atmospheres or both.
Themes are important in any good piece of literature. Is Beckett writing about something here? What does he seem to be interested in exploring? Remember, themes are concepts. Is love the theme? Death? Time? The self?
Consider the very end of the play. Krapp seems to suggest that he is torn between the 39 year old who rejected love and the 27 year old who wanted it. Go closely into the dialogue. What’s happening here and is it important to the overall idea? Love.
Very simple: Consider the character of each voice in the play: the 27 year old, the 39 year old, the 69 year old. Are they different? Has he changed?
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