Month: November 2016

Macbeth just found out that his wife has died and is questioning why she died so early.

Macbeth is ready to fight and is angry, the fact that he’s heard that his wife has just died, maddens him more and makes him lose his sense of thought.

The structure of the extract presents how Macbeths state of mind is deteriorating as he starts to lose the structure of his speaking. Shakespeare consistently uses iambic pentameter and rythym when characters are speaking to show their state of mind and authority in a certain environment. When the rythym is constant then it portrays that they are in control of their mind and have good relationships with other characters

We are studying Metamorphisis, originally written by Franz Kafka, and most famously directed by Steven Berkoff.

In the piece that I am going to perform, the character that I will play is Mrs Samsa. Mrs Samsa is 45, and is the mother of arguably the main character, Gregor. Mrs Samsa is forced to adopt the role of the traditional housewife where she cooks, cleans etc. She doesn’t have much say in the house, and is constantly undermined by her dominant husband, Mr Samsa. She has a very nice personality where she’s is portrayed as soft, loving, affectionate to her family. She shows this when she tries to help Gregor as Mr Samsa hurls apples at Gregor.

I intend to play my character with her eyes towards the floor when Mr Samsa is around, to portray and underline her position in the family, and strengthen Mr Samsa’s. When Mr Samsa is not around, I will play her as a more confident character, where she stands up straighter and has more eye contact with other characters, which is showing to the audience that she feels more confident and feels as though she has slightly more power when Mr Samsa isn’t present. In terms of how I present her vocally, I will keep a soft and angelic voice throughout our piece, to show the audience her personality and her feelings when in certain situations. I don’t feel to have an accent throughout the piece, as I believe it does not really add any effect to the performance.

The social, historical and political context that our performance focuses on is to do with what the meaning of family is, what the roles of the members in the typical family are, and how the relationship between a family changes in certain circumstances.

My group has decided to base and relate the ideas on the play to the recent American election which was won by Donald Trump. This recent event closely relates with the deeper meaning of metamorphosis, in the sense that this election has split America apart in the same way that Gregor and the family’s morales started to fall apart and disintegrate. This links to our stimulus, as it helps us unravel our central question which is “What is the true meaning of family?”.

Plot (simplified): One day, Gregor Samsa, a sales man wakes up to find himself transformed into a beetle. His family notice immediately that something is not right, as they know that he is very punctual when going to work. His family ask him to come out and ask him whats wrong, but he is hesitant to reveal what happened and they start to become worried. In the midst of the havoc in the house, the Chief Clerk of his firm entered the household and forces Gregor’s bedroom door open, only to find that Gregor had turned into an insect. In fear, the Chief Clerk runs out of the house, generating even more fear into the heart of the house. Greta (Gregors sister) and Mrs Samsa (Gregors mum) are adamant to be helpful towards Gregor, and show compassion for his situation, whereas Mr Samsa (Gregor’s dad) is willing to abandon Gregor, as he is ruining the family name, even after he has been providing for the family. As time wears on, even Greta and Mrs Samsa start to forget about Gregor, and are not bothered anymore. They started off treating him like he was still human, an example of this is how they left his furniture so that he feels more normal and feeding him with a plate, whereas towards the end of the play they start to dump food and furniture into his room and treat him more like what he physically is.. a creature, they don’t care about how he feels. Eventually the family completely forget about Gregor who is locked away in his room.. helpless and with no support. The family leave him to starve and rot to death while they carry on with their life as if he never existed.

Introduction to the Working Record

Playwright of Metamorphosis, Steven Berkoff was born in East London on the 3^rd of August 1939. His family was Jewish and originally of Russian and Romanian descent. His father adjusted their original name of “Berkoff” to “Berks”, he done this so that their arrival in England was more fitting in the new community they were being part of. Berkoff had passionate political views on Zionism, where he openly expresses his belief that Jews are owed or are yet to own a long lost homeland (the Gaza strip in Palestine).

The Social context of the play his based of Franz Kafka’s life (the writer of the original novel), and how he was neglected by his father as a child growing up. This is expressed through the letter he wrote about his feelings towards his father, (which was never published until his death) and his emotions as a child whilst enduring these “torments”. This is associated with Gregor’s position in the play, as he is constantly mistreated by his family, just as Franz was in his early life. His intentions were to reflect his experiences with his father to the audience and what it was like to be an outcast to society.

The similarities between Berkoff and Kafka, are that they are both Jewish which is significant, as they both know what it is like to be an outlier in society. This helps to strengthen the interpretation of the play through their experiences.

The main theme of the text is questioning what family really is, in theory, family is unity, love, looking out for eachother etc. However, Berkoff and Kafka contradict and reject this idea, by using past experiences to show that family is more than what most people think.

What intrigues me about the play, is how they use a beetle to represent how the stress of providing for the family, forces him to take the form of a creature. Another interesting factor, is how the family start off treating Gregor’s situation with compassion and understanding, but as the play progresses, their compassion and understanding turns into disregard and not bothering to carry out fundamental actions, like feeding him. On the other hand, what I find upsetting about the text, is how Gregor Is unable to communicate to his family how he feels being trapped in an insects body. As a member of the audience, I find it particularly frustrating that he struggles to communicate to his family his wants aevolves around ideas on human society and communication between individuals or a group of people. If we put this in the context of the play, there are two reactions portrayed during periods of difficulty, as Gregor has a more optimistic outlook on the situation, whereas his family find it harder to tolerate and cope with these times of hardship. There is a link between how there was a time when Jews could not access rights, and were not socially accepted to how Gregor was not so kindly received by his family, which adds emphasis to this concept of lack of social acceptance included within Berfoff’s play.

In the play, the female characters are displayed as traditional women of that period in time, and are given the stereotypical house wife role. The opposite is done with the male characters because on the other hand, Mr Samsa does not provide the money for the family, but still demands the same level of respect and treatment as the ‘man of the house’. In terms of individual culture, each character in the play is not very well educated, meaning the only culture they are prone to know of is of their own.

In Franz Kafka’s life, he never had a very stable relationship with his father, as they were quite distant, in a sense that Kafka felt he was always held responsible for the things that didn’t go well in nd needs, as it only causes them to do things that they think will benefit him, when in reality it doesn’t. An example of this, is when Mrs Samsa and Greta try to remove the furniture from his room to give him more space, but Gregor attacks them in an attempt to show that he does not want his furniture to be removed, as he still wants a sense of normality and would like his belongings with him.

Something that I would question about the play, is why a beetle was specifically chosen for Gregor to transform into. There are a number of species available, which is why the beetle must be significant to Kafka.

An artistic feature, is the use of the unique personalities, to shape the characters throughout the play, in order to add emphasis to the changing mood in the family, as they adapt to Gregor’s new form.

The genre of the text is Tragedy, as throughout the play, Gregor is brought to ruins and is unable to cope with the unfavourable circumstances. This was portrayed consistently through his neglect and sudden and tragic death, which slowly and painfully progressed, in order to have a more powerful effect on the audience.

In the play, the performance style is abstract and not literal, in the sense that Gregor is usually not actually put in a beetle costume, but is shown to the audience through dance-like actions, and behaviour to give a more engaging look to the audience. Lighting is also used effectively to reflect each characters moods, feelings and personalities. For example, when Gregor attacks Mrs Samsa and Greta, red lighting is commonly associated to represent Gregor’s anger and frustration.

The Central Question that I’m going to explore is: “What is the true meaning of family?”. The reason I want to explore this question, is because being in a family is supposed to be a safe environment, but considering Kafka’s and Berkoff’s life experiences, I wonder whether there is a different dimension to the true meaning of family.

In 1883-1910 Czech Republic was under control by Austria. This may have affected Kafka as a young man, as it can damage a young persons mental state, knowing that your an outcaste to society just because of your religion, it’s a experience which most likely sticks with you forever, and in Kafka’s case, it did.

Kafka had a complicated relationship with his father. His father treated him with “indifference and even contempt”. It’s really important to have a good relationship with your family, as it’s mentally healthy for a young person, however, the reason why Kafka always had a antisocial energy to him was because he didn’t have a lot of social experience as a young child, due to things like having a distant relationship with his family. These experiences were often used as a stimulus in his plays. When writing up a script or preparing the plot for one of his plays, he often uses his life experiences to portray his perspective on the world and how his life was. Much of the time, his plays were strong and deep in meaning allowing the audience to also have a different perspective on the world and generally in their daily lives.

Metamorphosis is especially significant to Kafka’s life, as it portrays how humans can be affected by their families, in this case, how his distant relationship with his family affected him. In his play, he reveals to the audience how too much pressure to a human can lead to him/her becoming stressed and straining into a faze they don’t want to be in, in this case, Gregor being forced into a beetles body against his will due to the pressure on him to work and provide for his family. The use of an insect can represent someone who is more vulnerable and so someone who reacts to various emotions differently and it can tear a family apart. Generally no one likes insesct’s, and throughout the play we get more and more of his family neglecting and leaving Gregor to suffer in a form of body which his family are not fond of.

Macbeth starts off by saying “Is this a dagger which I see before me”. Macbeth has already started to question his mental state and wether this is actually real, it’s showing us how he is starting to ‘lose the plot’.

He then moves onto saying “The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee”. His vision of the dagger has been placed with the handle of it pointing straight to him, almost beckoning him over to go and grab it, like it was supposed to be there at that specific place, time and for a reason. After that, he says “Come, let me clutch thee” At this point I feel like he has been hypnotised by his madness, the witches words and his Lady Macbeth’s manipulation, I feel like he has no control over his body and that he is being pushed against his will towards grabbing the bloodstained dagger.

Towards the end of his soliloquy a bell rings, and he says “I go, the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or hell” I felt that the ringing of the bell was significant, as it was almost perfect timing of the moment. Again,  the handle of the dagger pointing towards him and the bell ringing is like it was his fate for all of this to happen, like it was set in stone. But who is making this happen? The witches? Or is it his mind playing games and really believing that it can happen without the witches fateful intervention? Whatever it is, its due to spill blood all over the path which leads him to his final destination.