Blog 13

The ending has some ironical meaning to me and I do feel not sorry for the main character , Ti Moune, but pity for her decision in leaving her family. The reason why I feel ironical is when Ti Moune is thrown out of the gate by Lucifus and tries to let Daniel see her on the other side of the gate with the crowd, Daniel's eyes indeed fall on Desiree but, just like what his father did before back in that village, he "gazed  at her and not seen her". With all these love and effort that Ti Moune has put in Daniel, Daniel just simply cannot recognize her in a crowd. The reaction of Daniel to her must be absurd to the peasant girl. From the reaction of Daniel, I feel like without all these beautiful clothes and shoes, Desiree is mundane among those poor peasants. It is sarcastic when Desiree deeply hopes for a rich life, yet the death is finally what she gains. Besides, Desiree might misunderstands the kind of “love” that the young man has for her for her. The young man is grateful for what she has done for him and even though marrying Andrea is destined, Daniel still says to the girl that “Ti Moune, stay. I love you”. Daniel may simply love her because he views her as her younger sister and  it can be Desiree to be the one who over-think everything. The entrenched hierarchy with distinct identity in the society cannot be changed. The peasant girl becomes some kind of example, showing no matter how she has tried to become someone new, she will back to her original status eventually. The ending shows the story of Cinderella  won't happen in "real life" and it is rather to be satisfied to the present than pursuing something that is not belonged to you. Desiree does understand this idea finally as she talking about what is the point to leave nice Mama and Tonton to here, the hotel. She realizes she should not go away from the village with such an anxiety and “lost her beloved Tonton Julian” and “Mama Euralie”. People always truly value something when they lose them and the story of the girl suggests that people should indeed cherish what they have at the present. Ti Moune in the end also regrets the time she lost that red comb due to her immersion in happiness and neglect of the past. “ In the days of her elegance she had thought little of her magic comb” and lost the comb without notice.

4 thought provoking questions

Why Ti Moune does not want to let the butterfly go freely from her cage? 

What is the symbol of Ti Moune failing to catch the butterfly in chapter 13?

Did Papa Ge actually possess the guard called Lucifus? Why the God did so?

Why the red comb has such power?

A weak but unyielding woman in love

Ti Moune, as the main character in My Love, My Love, shares some similarity in characteristic with the little mermaid. They are innocent and both have strong will and tenacity in pursuing their love. Although Ti Moune’s first self-glorification in which she thinks she is not as ordinary as the other peasants makes me dislike her at first, her later dauntless and persistent efforts are the elements that make me change to admire her. She has to face so many displeasures and obstacles in order to pursue her own happiness because the story takes place in a world where the hierarchy in the society is so entrenched. Being Sneered and belittled by both the rich and the poor is what Desiree will always encounter in following her dream.  

After the young man is taken from Ti Moune by his father, Ti Moune has never given up to find him again, even though her mother opposes her action and some villagers doubts her ability to actually manage to see the young man. After knowing the route and with the encouragement of Toton Julian, Ti Moune starts her journey to Beauxhomme’s hotel. I feel sorry for Ti Moune when she finally arrive at Daniel Beauxhoome’s house after many days and nights’ travel, but still be laughed at by the crowd and refused to enter because of her beggar-like clothes. Her polite words of asking the guards to let her in only gets scorn like “Peasant pig, get back with the scum where you belong” and rude action of being thrown outside the gate, into the crowd. As the only person who does not have shoes, she even becomes the target of public criticism in that crowd, making her can do nothing but to run away. Humiliation does not daunt her, and instead, she grows from it, knowing the fact that she should have decent clothes and shoes in order to gain basic respect. Just like the little mermaid he endures great pain in order to transfer into a better form: for a girl who has never worn shoes, she has to forces her toes together to make them “fit the confinement of the unyielding plastic of the too small shoes”  and “every step she took became a new experience in torture”.She withstands the pain and her sacrifice gets payback: the guards even do not recognize her as the previous poor peasant girl. Besides, her patience is admirable. After all these failures of entering the hotel, she knows that she need to use her patience to wait the gods sending Daniel to her. After the peasant girl is announced as the new lady in the family, there are sarcastic remarks about her and her identity as a peasant, but Daniel is the one she only cares about and he is the only one in her eyes so that Desiree does not be bothered by others. Her devotion in the love to the young man is indeed noteworthy and likable.

         

Question #4

If you were to stage this novel as a play, how would you costume Desiree (Ti Moune) in order to show her as a member of the peasant village yet also an outsider, a dreamer who longs for something different? Would you show any connection to the Gods or to the rich and if so, how? Explain your answer.

In my perspective, Desiree should display some degree of characteristic of both the peasant and the rich. Although Desiree is poor in this village, she is still longing to see the world outside and keeps expecting something extraordinary will happen to her. Her appearance should be easily sensed as unique among all the other peasants, so first of all, her costume must be different than the other peasants. I will let those peasants wear in Grey and dark to show their simplicity while let Ti Moune dress in a light pink color dress which is tattered a little bit because of the hard fieldwork.. Besides, Ti Moune should be the only one who puts on a slight makeup in the village. However, the trait of the peasants should definitely shows on her as well. As shoes, Ti Moune will wear a pair of frazzled shoes made out of the grass just like everyone else and her believes in those four gods should be as deep as the rest of the peasant group. I want to show that by letting Ti Moune frequently put her palms together devoutly when she talks about god in her speech.

Stage of the gods

My love, My love, written by Rosa Guy, starts with the description of the Island where the story takes place. The Island appears to be the combination of ugly views like the bald mountain peak and scenic beauty like the flushing trees with various colors. For those peasants in the villages, they attribute every things happening around them to the Gods which are Asaka, Agwe, Papa Ge and Erzulie. They are omnipotent in those poor farmers’ eyes and when the four gods are shown in the play, their power should be sensed by the audience while remaining their each distinct style.

Asaka, the Goddess of earth, in my thought should be like a kind and steady lady . Earth always gives humans the sense of immensity and heaviness.A small incident cannot shake the foundation of the Earth at all so that Asaka need to be a women with wide breadth of mind. On the other hand, Earth is the key factor of giving lives to most of the creatures and it also brings them to maturity. With this interpretation, the Goddess of earth should wear in a vibrant green color suit  with the decoration of some flowers.  Afterall, earth can represent as the mother of nature and like the king of the forest, Asaka in my mind should  wear a hat which is made by vines.

Agwe, the God of sea, in the novel does not inherit the peaceful side of the ocean but instead, he incarnates the stormy weather. From the tales that are repeated among the elder peasants, Agwe appears as the irritable God who loves Asaka but has tension with her as well, To show his temperance, he should wear in dark blue costume with holding a fish spear in his hand and whenever he appears in the play, a music of the coming of storm or the sound of lightening should be played in the background.

Papa Ge, the God of death, should undoubtedly be regarded as a frightful and dark character. Death is always some kind of taboo in modern or ancient society, and the God of death must make people afraid. Therefore, if I stage this novel, Papa Ge will be covered all in his dark clothes except for his face which audience only can see a mask of the clown and his hands which are pale and have long nails. The mask of the clown can create a sense of mystery underneath the mask and  his happiness in killing.

Erzulie, the Goddess of love, should be exactly what is opposite from the god of death. She will wear in a bright-colored red long dress with roses on her hand and the actress who acts as her need to be beautiful and passionate because she represents the perfect aspects of a  spouse who is worth to love. She is the most optimistic god of all and she can enter in the play with a dance, showing that when falling love, humans just simply throw away their concerns.

          

        

Haitian View

Final Draft

Written Coursework on the performance and analysis of act 1 scene 1, act 1 scene 5 and act 3 scene 1

The play Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare about how two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, fall in love with each other at sight yet are fooled by destiny to meet their eventual death due to the combination of several seemingly accidental events and ironically make a peace finally among their two hostile families. Like other Shakespeare plays, Romeo and Juliet has been viewed as one of the masterpieces of classic English Literature. Often considered as a story of forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet demonstrates how irrationality, impulsion and holding a grudge can trigger the irreversible tragedy. The Feud of the two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, is the main culprit of the demise of the young couple and more importantly, it blinds the ability of those members in these two families to understand the affairs thoroughly: they are easily irritated and treat others with long-held prejudice.In order to embody the importance of this theme to the final tragedy, I chose Act 1 scene 1, Act 1 scene 5 and Act 3 scene 1 to perform with emotional actions, vocal technique, contrary costumes and suitable movements

The world that Shakespeare portrays is violent and full of hatred from the beginning of the play. Act one scene one establishes the ongoing conflicts between the house of Montague and the house of Capulet to an extent in which even the servingmen under two households want to instigate the other to start a fight. The first scene also set the background of  the play. In this scene, two members of the Capulets, Gregory and Sampson, walks alone on the Verona street with the conversation of how tough they are and their hatred to the Montagues. After a while, Abram, the member of the Montagues, enters their sight. Unwillingly to break the law yet loving to provoke Abram into a fight, Sampson bites his thumb, an action that is a disgrace to Abram, while denies the fact that he is actually biting the thumb “at” Abram because the law forbids such fight. Sampson and Gregory successfully infuriate Abram and starts a fight which later entangles Tybalt and Benvolio until Prince restore the peace with severe warning.  We did make a lot of adaptation of the first scene. To indicate the difference between Montagues and Capulets during the performance, we decided to let Montagues wear Black Costume and let Capulet wear green costume with medieval style. In order to show the feud between the families in this scene, we specifically emphasize and pick the lines like “ A dog of the house of Montague shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's"(Act 1 Scene 1, line 12-13), a sentence implicitly states Sampson's strong will to physically suppress the men of Montagues and sexually conquer the women in the Montague Family. We shortened the play and only acted the first part of scene one because that is the part that reveals the conflicts and paves  the way for the larger inharmony later. Although in the original play, the playwright does not mention how the fight ends up, we let Sampson and Gregory stab Abram in the end of the scene in order to exaggerate and show the severity of the conflicts and foreshadow the following aggravated tension and bloody events. Even though Romeo and Juliet do not appear in this scene, the scene is actually related to the tragedy. Tybalt is the one who is involved in this chaos and the fight actually let him hold a grudge and make him want to vent his anger, “As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee” informing those who will listen that he hates all Montagues and will act dangerously towards any of them.

Act one scene five is indeed essential to the overall development of increasing tension, escalating Tybalt's determination of vengeance to Montague's family. It is the scene where the Capulet’s party is held. Everyone, except Tybalt, is enjoying themselves in the party: Capulet is socializing with others, Romeo and Juliet are stunted by each other’s appearance. However, because of the prejudice, Tybalt recognizes the uninvited guest, Romeo, in the party and wants to expel him or gives him severe punishment because “this is a Montague, our foe, a villain that is hither come in spite to scorn at our solemnity this night” (Act 2 scene 5, line 69-71). Tybalt views Romeo as a disgrace to the Capulet party and a people who intends to ruin the party as he says Romeo will "fleer and scorn at our solemnity", but his attempt fails when Capulet forbids him to create disturbance in party. Nonetheless, the seed of revenge is planted in Tybalt’s heart. “I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall, now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall” (act 1 scene 5, lines 102-103) is the final speech before Tybalt’s exist, foreshadowing the later turning point of the destiny of the young lover like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. In order to emphasize the power of feud, our group condensed the play of this scene into the conversation between Capulet and Tybalt when Tybalt expresses his hatred to Romeo and Capulet warns him not to do so. Considering the fluency of the play, we selected a part of Romeo's speeches in the party and placed it at the beginning of this scene. Romeo was pretending to talk to a real person beside him and after that Tybalt pointed to Romeo while explaining to Capulet why Romeo should be banished from the party. It is the first time that Romeo presents in our performance, and we want him to be viewed as innocent and looking forward to love so that his later evildoing of murdering Tybalt can be highlighted as astonishing. By citing his wonder of love like “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear” at the beginning of our performance and making the people who acted as Romeo put his palms together devoutly, we managed to do so. In order to show the foreshadowing at the end of Tybalt speech, we added a music which is a deep sound like the coming of storm and let Tybalt throw his wine glass to the ground and leave with heavy foot step after he said " I will withdraw....convert to bitt'rest gall", showing the degree of anger in Tybalt's heart. Besides, to avoid misconception of the audience to think that Capulet stops Tybalt due to his favor of Romeo, we omitted several lines like saying Romeo is “a virtuous and well-governed youth” while kept and underlined the lines like “You’ll make a mutiny among my guest” which states the reason Capulet bears the presence of Romeo is he doesn’t want to ruin his own party and reputation. In conclusion, this short scene and performance serve as the catalyst of outbreak of later mishap.

Symbolized as the turning point of the play, Act 3 scene 1 is definitely the part in the play where the feud rises to the peak and it plays an unprecedented role of leading to tragic ending.  Mishap always pays an unexpected visit. When both Juliet and Romeo are immersing in felicity in which they successfully marry each other and are united together, Tybalt, no longer able to bear the disgrace he gets from Romeo during the party, decides to get his revenge on Romeo.Due to the long-holding feud, when Romeo is saying words like “I have to love thee” to Tybalt, Tybalt only can comprehend Romeo’s action as teasing him. Therefore, what Romeo tries to explain and appease does not work at all. With Tybalt still saying “turn and draw” to Romeo, there is nothing can be done to redeem the tragedy. Dramatically, after that, Mercutio, with a impulsive personality, replaces Romeo to duel with Tybalt and finally gets killed under Romeo’s arm, triggering Mercutio’s most famous line: “A plague o' both your houses” .What he said, like a curse, is exactly what happens: both families immerse in sorrow of the loss of their important members finally, and an actual plague blocks the messenger that Friar Lawrence sends to Romeo to inform him that Juliet’s death is faked. Romeo, outraged by the death of his best friend, slays Tybalt. After Romeo falls apart and flees, both lady Capulet and Capulet, distrust the word of Benvolio because “he is a kinsman to the Montague, affection makes him false”, insist that Romeo get severe punishment and Romeo is eventually banished from the city. In our performance, we focused on the interaction between Romeo, Mercutio and Tybalt and since Benvolio is a true peacemaker in this scene, we deleted this character in our play to maximize the reflection of the power of feud. One goal of the performance is to show the significant change of Romeo before and after the death of Mercutio. In this scene, I, acted as Romeo, showed my resolution of refusal to fight against Tybalt by throwing away my sword back to Tybalt when I said “ Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting: villain am I none”. However, after the death of Mercutio, everything changes. In our performance, when Romeo said "Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him", I did not give Tybalt much time to react, and used my dagger to stab Tybalt right after I finished my sentence. In our adaptation, the fight between Romeo and Tybalt was instantaneous for showing hatred blinds Romeo and makes him impulsive and regardless of the honor. The scene, as a whole, exactly shows how feud exacerbates or even creates the tragedy.

Trace to the heart of the bitter story, it is the feud. The madness of Tybalt leading to self-destruction and the dramatic change of Romeo causing his banishment and later murder of Paris are exacerbated by the theme of feud which is reflected from the beginning of the play. The unique figure of feud is its insidious ubiquity insides members in both houses and no matter how innocent the character, like Romeo, is, the feud finally let those people be entangled into the circulation of vengeance. Therefore, it becomes the chief culprit of Romeo and Juliet's tragedy.

New discovery to a long-existed asset

It was the first time that I came to writing center and I have to say it is indeed a recommendable place to go for revising papers. Before I came to Writing Center and had an appointment with Ms. Swift on Wednesday, I basically had three focuses on the improvement of my written coursework: the topic sentences, the conclusive or connection sentences in the end of my paragraphs and the propriety of words and except topic sentences, which she thought was okay for this paper, I gained many advises on what shall I change and correct..

What Ms.Swift asked me to do at the first time was reading the paper to her instead of she examining my paper alone. Reading out loud is different than simply looking through the paper. I felt like it was a really effective way of letting me realize whether the sentences I wrote or the words I used were clear and appropriate enough. Sometimes, the place I made a stop in the reading was exactly where I had my mistakes. Ms. Swift gave me suggestions when I finish each paragraph. I was surprised at the fact I only made a few grammar mistakes; however, there were quite a few places where my language was not clear or concise. For instance, I wrote “..... we manage to do so”, a sentence in which readers cannot get what “we manage to do”, so I changed it into “....we manage to indicate his innocence”.  Another example for that is I wrote “ they successfully marry each other and unite together”, and Ms. Swift thought “marry each other” and “unite together” had a repeating meaning and therefore I should delete one of them. Besides, Ms.Swift let me find more quotes from the original play in my paper to support my analysis or even substitute some lines which have similar meaning as those in the original play. Like she changed the sentence “an action that is disgrace to Abraham” to a direct quote “which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it”.

During the meeting, I had a discussion of my long sentences with Ms.Swift not only on this coursework particularly but on my essay in general. As you might know, I tend to write long sentences in my formal essays, but Ms.Swift gave me quite a few suggestions on editing or breaking up these sentences. She indicates that some of my long sentences, although not wrong in grammar, would be viewed as not fluent while readers read through. Instead of writing long sentences all over the paper, she said, I can write a essay with an even combination of succinct and long sentences with an even share of both. She then showed me an essay related to a hurricane happened in the USA before  in a magazine. The essay had a combination of short and long sentences and more importantly, I realized the difference between his long sentences and mine: although his sentences were long, their meanings could still be understood straightforwardly.

A new insight into an classical children's story

The play Peter Pan is the first play I have ever seen in the campus and undoubtedly, I am amazed by the splendid show. I think the play directors especially spend lots of thoughts in making the play be provocative of mirth.

All actors are really into their characters and the performance of the dog, Captain Hook and the father are really notable in creating a comical atmosphere. William, acts as the dog, shows his inner emotion by facial expression especially when the father is mean to him and the nurse is dragging his ear in order to let him leave. In addition, his changing sound of dog really is viewed as an indication of the dog’s feeling. I still remember how the dog bark with great grievances when  he is dragged away. The performance of John and the actor of the mother and Captain Hook show their ability of acting characters with extremely different personalities. John does show the rigor as the father when he continuously rises his voice to emphasize his dissatisfaction and the happiness and silliness as one of the lost boys when he wrinkles his face and makes grimace and takes of his wig. As Captain Hook, the actor does act like a man and  due to some reason I cannot really tell, her performance somehow reminds me of John Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. Besides, she also shows the concern and love of her children all the time when she acts as the mother. I am moved by the time when she repeats her tune again and again lonely in the room. The three teachers’ guest appearance in the show also make the play quite interesting, particularly Potter's appearance and the way he acts really trigger laughter among audiences when he speaks in a deep voice and pretend to be tough but is frightened when he is asked to see what it is in the room.

As a whole, I am impressed by the show. The play demonstrate an excellent performance of every actors and the background setting and the use of stage props are appropriate.

       

Final Draft

The play Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare about how two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, fall in love with each other in the first sight yet are fool by destiny to meet their eventual death due to the combination of several seemingly accidental events and ironically make a mutiny finally among their two hostile families.  Like other Shakespeare’s plays, Romeo and Juliet has been viewed as one of the masterpieces of classic English Literature. Often considered as a story of forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet demonstrates how irrationality, impulsion and grudge can trigger the irreversible tragedy. The Feud of the two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, is the main culprit of the demise of the young couple and more importantly, it blinds the ability of those members in these two families to understand the affairs thoroughly: they are easily irritated and treat others with long-hold prejudice.In order to embody the importance of this theme to the final tragedy, I chose Act 1 scene 1, Act 1 scene 5 and Act 3 scene 1 to perform with emotional actions, vocal technique, contrary costumes and suitable movements

The world that Shakespeare portray is violent and full of abhorrence from the beginning of the play. Act one scene one establishes the ongoing conflicts between the house of Montague and the house of Capulet to an extent in which even the servingmen under two households want to instigate the other to start a fight. The first scene also set the background of  the play. In this scene, two members of the Capulets, Gregory and Sampson, walks alone the Verona street with the conversation of how tough they are and the hatred to the Montagues. After a while, Abram, the member of the Montagues, enters their sight. Unwillingly to break the law yet love to provoke Abram into a fight, Sampson bites his thumb, an action that is a disgrace to Abram, while denies the fact that he is actually biting the thumb at Abram.  Sampson and Gregory successfully infuriate Abram and starts a fight which later entangles Tybalt and Benvolio  until Prince restore the peace with severe warning.  We did make a lot of adaptation of the first scene. In order to show the difference between Montagues and Capulets during the performance, we decided to let Montagues wear Black Costume and let Capulet wear green costume with medieval style. In order to show the feud between the families in this scene, we specifically emphasize and pick the lines like “ A dog of the house of Montague me to stand. I will take the wall of any man of or maid of Montague's"(Act 1 Scene 1, line 12-13), a sentence implicitly states Sampson's strong will to physically suppress the men of Montagues and sexually conquer the women in Montague Family. We shorten the play and only act the first part of scene one because that is the part that reveals the conflicts and paves  the way for the larger inharmony later. Although in the original play, the playwright does not mention how the fight ends up, we let Sampson and Gregory stab Abram in the end of the scene in order to exaggerate and show the severity of the conflicts and foreshadow the following aggravated tension and bloody events. Even though Romeo and Juliet do not appear in this scene, the scene is actually related to the tragedy. Tybalt is the one who is involved in this chaos and the fight actually let him hold a grudge and make him want to vent his anger which lead to the second scene that we perform.

Unimportant to the theme of feud at the first sight, act one scene five is indeed essential to the overall development of increasing tension, escalating Tybalt's determination of vengeance to Montague's family. It is the scene where the Capulet’s party is held. Everyone, except Tybalt, is enjoying themselves in the party: Capulet is socializing with others, Romeo and Juliet are stunted by each other’s appearance. However, because of the prejudice, Tybalt recognizes the uninvited guest, Romeo, in the party and wants to expel him or gives him severe punishment because “this is a Montague, our foe, a villain that is hither come in spite to scorn at our solemnity this night” (Act 2 scene 5, line 69-71). Tybalt views Romeo as a disgrace to the Capulet party and a people who intends to ruin the party as he says Romeo will "fleer and scorn at our solemnity", but his attempt fails when Capulet forbidden him to create disturbance in party. Nonetheless, the seed of revenge is planted in Tybalt’s heart. “I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall, now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall” (act 1 scene 5, lines 102-103) is the final speech before Tybalt’s exist, foreshadowing the later turning point of the destiny of the young lover like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. In order to emphasize the power of feud, our group condensed the play of this scene into the conversation between Capulet and Tybalt when Tybalt expresses his hatred to Romeo and Capulet warns him not to do so. Considering the fluency of the play, we selected a part of Romeo's speeches in the party and placed it at the beginning of this scene. Romeo was pretending to talk to a real person beside him and after that Tybalt pointed to Romeo while explaining to Capulet why Romeo should be banished from the party. It is the first time that Romeo presents in our performance, and we wants him to be viewed as innocent and looking forward to love so that his later evildoing of murdering Tybalt can be highlighted as astonishing. By citing his wonder of love like “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear” at the beginning of our performance and making the people who acts as Romeo put his palms together devoutly, we manage to do so. In order to show the foreshadowing at the end of Tybalt speech, we added a music which is a deep sound like the coming of storm and let Tybalt throw his wine glass to the ground and leave with heavy foot step after he said " I will withdraw....convert to bitt'rest gall", showing the degree of anger in Tybalt's heart. Besides, to avoid misconception of the audience to think that Capulet stops Tybalt due to his favor of Romeo, we deleted several lines like saying Romeo is “a virtuous and well-governed youth” while kept and underlined the lines like “You’ll make a mutiny among my guest” which states the reason Capulet bears the presence of Romeo is he doesn’t want to ruin his own party and reputation.

Symbolized as the turning point of the play, Act 3 scene 1 is definitely the part in the play where the feud rises to the peak and it plays an unprecedented role of leading to tragic ending.  Mishap always pays an unexpected visit. When both Juliet and Romeo is immersing in felicity in which they successfully marry each other and  unite together, Tybalt, no longer able to bear the disgrace he gets from Romeo during the party, decides to get his revenge to Romeo.Due to the long-holding feud, when Romeo is saying words like “I have to love thee” to Tybalt, Tybalt only can comprehend Romeo’s action as teasing him. Therefore, what Romeo tries to explain and appease does not work at all. With Tybalt still saying “turn and draw” to Romeo, there is nothing can be done to redeem the tragedy. Dramatically, after that, Mercutio, with a impulsive personality, replaces Romeo to duel with Tybalt and finally gets killed under Romeo’s arm, triggering Mercutio’s most famous line: “A plague o' both your houses” .What he said, like a curse, is exactly what happen: both families immerse in sorrow of the loss of their important members finally, and an actual plague blocks the messenger that Friar Lawrence sends to Romeo to inform him that Juliet’s death is faked. Romeo, outraged by the death of his best friend, slays Tybalt. After Romeo fall apart and flees, both lady Capulet and Capulet, distrust the word of Benvolio because “he is a kinsman to the Montague, affection makes him false”, insist to let Romeo get severe punishment and Romeo is eventually banished from the city. In our performance, we just focus on the interaction between Romeo, Mercutio and Tybalt and since Benvolio is a true peacemaker in this scene, we delete this character in our play to maximize the reflection of the power of feud. One goal of the performance is to show the significant change of Romeo before and after the death of Mercutio. In this scene, I, act as Romeo, show my resolution of refusal to fight against Tybalt by throwing away my sword back to Tybalt when I say “ Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting: villain am I none” . However, after the death of Mercutio, everything changes. In our performance, when Romeo says "Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him", I does not give Tybalt much time to react, and uses my dagger to stab Tybalt right after I finish my sentence. In our adaptation, the fight between Romeo and Tybalt is instantaneous for showing hatred blinds Romeo and makes him impulsive and regardless of the honor.

Trace to the heart of the bitter story, it is the feud. The madness of Tyblat leading to self-destruction and the dramatic change of Romeo causing his banishment and later murder of Paris are exacerbated by the theme of feud which is reflected from the beginning of the play. The unique figure of feud is its insidious ubiquity insides members in both houses and no matter how innocent the character, like Romeo, is, the feud finally let those people be entangled into the circulation of vengeance. Therefore, it becomes the chief culprit of Romeo and Juliet's tragedy.

A paragraph

Unimportant to the theme of feud at the first sight, act one scene five is indeed essential to the overall development of increasing tension, escalating Tybalt's determination of vengeance to Montague's family. It is the scene where the Capulet’s party is held. Everyone, except Tybalt, is enjoying themselves in the party: Capulet is socializing with others, Romeo and Juliet are stunted by each other’s appearance. However, because of the prejudice, Tybalt recognizes the uninvited guest, Romeo, in the party and wants to expel him or gives him severe punishment because “this is a Montague, our foe, a villain that is hither come in spite to scorn at our solemnity this night” (Act 2 scene 5, line 69-71). Tybalt views Romeo as a disgrace to the Capulet party and a people who intends to ruin the party as he says Romeo will "fleer and scorn at our solemnty", but his attempt fails when Capulet forbidden him to create disturbance in party. Nonetheless, the seed of revenge is planted in Tybalt’s heart. “I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall, now seeming sweet, covert to bitt’rest gall” (act 1 scene5, lines 102-103) is the final speech before Tybalt’s exist, foreshadowing the later turning point of the destiny of the young lover like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. In order to emphasize the power of feud, our group condensed the play of this scene into the conversation between Capulet and Tybalt where Tybalt expresses his hatred to Romeo and Capulet warns him not to do so. Considering the fluency of the play, we selected a part of Romeo's speeches in the party and placed it at the beginning of this scene. Romeo was pretending to talk to a real person beside him and after that Tybalt pointed to Romeo while explaining to Capulet why Romeo should be banished from the party. In order to show the foreshadowing at the end of Tybalt speech, we added a music which is a deep sound like the coming of storm and let Tybalt throw his wine glass to the ground and leave with heavy foot step after he said " I will withdraw....covert to bitt'rest gall", showing the degree of anger in Tybalt's heart.

Thesis: The Feud of the two families is the main culprit of the demise of the young couple and more importantly, it blinds the ability of those members in these two families to understand the affairs thoroughly: they are easily irritated and treat others with long-hold prejudice. In order to embody the importance of this theme to the final tragedy, I chose Act 1 scene 1, Act 1 scene 5 and Act 3 scene 1 to perform with suitable actions, vocal technique, contrary costumes and emotional movements.


Outline:
1. intro+Thesis
2. The analysis of how scene one set the background of the whole play and how we perform to show the hatred between each family's servingmen with the edit of original play context.

3. The analysis of how scene 5 foreshadowing the increasingly tension between the two families especially Tybalt's abhorrence towards Romeo. The staging of how to show Tybalt's dislike to Romeo at the first sight.

4. The analysis of how last scene we perform reflects the people's inability to see things clearly and calmly due to the feud and how the scene contributes to the whole tragedy in the end.

First Draft

The play Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare about how two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, fall in love with each other in the first sight yet are fool by destiny to meet their eventual death due to the combination of several seemingly accidental events and ironically make a mutiny finally among their two hostile families.  Like other Shakespeare’s plays, Romeo and Juliet has been viewed as one of the masterpieces of classic English Literature. Often considered as a story of forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet demonstrates how irrationality, impulsion and grudge can trigger the irreversible tragedy. The Feud of the two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, is the main culprit of the demise of the young couple and more importantly, it blinds the ability of those members in these two families to understand the affairs thoroughly: they are easily irritated and treat others with long-hold prejudice.In order to embody the importance of this theme to the final tragedy, I chose Act 1 scene 1, Act 1 scene 5 and Act 3 scene 1 to perform with suitable actions, vocal technique, contrary costumes and emotional movements

The world that Shakespeare portray is violent and full of abhorrence from the beginning of the play. Act one scene one establishes the ongoing conflicts between the house of Montague and the house of Capulet to an extent in which even the servingmen under two households want to instigate the other to start a fight. The first scene also set the background of  the play. In this scene, two members of the Capulets, Gregory and Sampson, walks alone the Verona street with the conversation of how tough they are and the hatred to the Montagues. After a while, Abram, the member of the Montagues, enters their sight. Unwillingly to break the law yet love to provoke Abram into a fight, Sampson bites his thumb, an action that is a disgrace to Abram, while denies the fact that he is actually biting the thumb at Abram.  Sampson and Gregory successfully infuriate Abram and starts a fight which later entangles Tybalt and Benvolio  until Prince restore the peace with severe warning.  We did make a lot of adaptation of the first scene. In order to show the difference between Montagues and Capulets during the performance, we decided to let Montagues wear Black Costume and let Capulet wear green costume with medieval style. In order to show the feud between the families in this scene, we specifically emphasize and pick the lines like “ A dog of the house of Montague me to stand. I will take the wall of any man of or maid of Montague's"(Act 1 Scene 1, line 12-13), a sentence implicitly states Sampson's strong will to physically suppress the men of Montagues and sexually conquer the women in Montague Family. We shorten the play and only act the first part of scene one because that is the part that reveals the conflicts and paves  the way for the larger inharmony later. Although in the original play, the playwright does not mention how the fight ends up, we let Sampson and Gregory stab Abram in the end of the scene in order to exaggerate and show the severity of the conflicts and foreshadow the following aggravated tension and bloody events. Even though Romeo and Juliet do not appear in this scene, the scene is actually related to the tragedy. Tybalt is the one who is involved in this chaos and the fight actually let him hold a grudge and make him want to vent his anger which lead to the second scene that we perform.

Unimportant to the theme of feud at the first sight, act one scene five is indeed essential to the overall development of increasing tension, escalating Tybalt's determination of vengeance to Montague's family. It is the scene where the Capulet’s party is held. Everyone, except Tybalt, is enjoying themselves in the party: Capulet is socializing with others, Romeo and Juliet are stunted by each other’s appearance. However, because of the prejudice, Tybalt recognizes the uninvited guest, Romeo, in the party and wants to expel him or gives him severe punishment because “this is a Montague, our foe, a villain that is hither come in spite to scorn at our solemnity this night” (Act 2 scene 5, line 69-71). Tybalt views Romeo as a disgrace to the Capulet party and a people who intends to ruin the party as he says Romeo will "fleer and scorn at our solemnty", but his attempt fails when Capulet forbidden him to create disturbance in party. Nonetheless, the seed of revenge is planted in Tybalt’s heart. “I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall, now seeming sweet, covert to bitt’rest gall” (act 1 scene5, lines 102-103) is the final speech before Tybalt’s exist, foreshadowing the later turning point of the destiny of the young lover like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. In order to emphasize the power of feud, our group condensed the play of this scene into the conversation between Capulet and Tybalt where Tybalt expresses his hatred to Romeo and Capulet warns him not to do so. Considering the fluency of the play, we selected a part of Romeo's speeches in the party and placed it at the beginning of this scene. Romeo was pretending to talk to a real person beside him and after that Tybalt pointed to Romeo while explaining to Capulet why Romeo should be banished from the party. In order to show the foreshadowing at the end of Tybalt speech, we added a music which is a deep sound like the coming of storm and let Tybalt throw his wine glass to the ground and leave with heavy foot step after he said " I will withdraw....covert to bitt'rest gall", showing the degree of anger in Tybalt's heart.

Break out of the cocoon

The topic we choose is how the role of the feud between the two households in Romeo and Juliet became the main underlying cause of the final tragedy. The scene we select to perform are Act one scene one, Act one scene five and Act three scene one. We perform in the same sequence as that in the original play. The first scene basically establishes the adversarial relationship between the Montagues and the Capulets. Through this scene, audiences or readers should realized how entrenched the bias and conflicts are: even the servingman, like Sampson or Abram, wants to kill “any man or maid”  of the other family’s. The first scene paved the way for the larger conflicts later. Act one scene five, even though does not contain direct disharmony, is the scene when the seed of revenge is planted to Tybalt’s heart because he views the appearance of Romeo in Capulet’s party is a disgrace to him. Act three scene one, with no doubt, is when the conflict is escalated. Both Mercutio and Tybalt are dead: Mercutio dies because of his enthusiasm in defending his best friend and Tybalt dies because of his solidified mind and reluctance in believing Romeo actually loves him “better than he canst devise”.

Through the performance, I think our group did succeed in revealing the power of feud in creating the tragedy. In the first scene, I think our group did use the language to show the “ancient grudge” between the Montagues and Capulets. For example, in the first scene, as Sampson in the performance, I emphasize the sentence like “A dog of the house of Montague” and “take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s”. In the second scene, Ben, acting as Tybalt, certainly shows his bias and unpleasure immediately when he sees a member of Montague’s  in their party. Tybalt’s anger clear increases as Capulet insisting let Romeo alone. Besides, I think we did a great job in editing the lines. We deleted irrelevant sentences, like the last part of scene one when prince restores the peace and the first part of second scene where servants are serving food and Capulet is socializing with people in the party, to the topic in the scenes In order to make the performance fluent, we decided to add a monologue of Romeo  in the second scene. Meanwhile, we maintain all the important lines like “Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall” and “A plague o' both your houses”.

However, I did failed to show the emotion expressively especially when I act as Romeo in the third scene when he sees his best friend, Mercutio, dying in front of him. I rose my voice and did not show the sadness or the rage clearly to the audience. The costume and fighting swords we added to the play is well-fit, but we did not make the fighting part intense due to the lack of rehearsal of this part. Other movements or actions could be added to improve the performance. Although we did perform more smoothly and speak louder, a deeper understanding and practise of the lines that  were recited are needed.

Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPjGdHd8G60

Reflection on Draft One

The first Draft of the play can be called full of twists and turns but eventually I think our group manage to show the topic we want to reveal to the audience with the help of Leo since we lose one group member by accident.Our topic is the role of the feud in the play and how it is related to the tragedy. One of the problems we faced was the three scenes were too lengthy. In order to reveal our topic and control the time, we have to cut quite a lot of the lines in the original play, and at the same time, keep enough plots and sentences to emphasize how the feud is the inner motivate that causes characters, like Tybalt,in the play to make certain actions. However, I think we condense the play successfully. 

Personally,I think I need to work on the play context. Some of the words in the play I cannot accurately pronounce and some of the phrase I cannot fluently speak, like "a pretty piece of flesh". Besides, I need to try to memorize the lines because if I keep peeking the iPad, I cannot perform and show audience the feeling and action of characters well. Besides, our group need to plan the two fighting scenes more thoroughly because when we were acting the last part of act one scene one, we did not show the intensity and seriousness of the fight.

In-class writing

The three scenes we chose are all about the tragedies and conflicts that are motivated by the feud. The conflicts in the first scene is about the fighting between the kinsmen in both Houses. Act 1 scene 1 is the beginning of the play in which the feud is already set and show to the readers. In order to show the entrenched bias towards each other, the members in the Capulet and the Montagues should act differently. The words like " A dog of Montague" and " me they should feel" need be emphasized  Act 1 scene 5 is where Tybalt dislikes Romeo at the first sight and wants to expel him from the party. The lines he says must show the bias and detest to the Montagues as a whole. In order to emphasize the topic, the lines of Capulet should not be that remissive and the point that Capulet wants to make is Tybalt shouldn't ruin his party. 

Draft

Ben: Abram, Tybalt

Eric: Sampson, Capulet, Romeo

Lucie: Gregory, Romeo, Mercutio

1.1

Sampson:

Gregory，on my words we’ll not carry coals.

Gregory:

No, for then we should be colliers.

Sampson:

A dog of the house of Montague shall move me to stand.I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s.

Gregory:

They must take it in sense that feel it.

Sampson:

Me they should feel while I am able to stand and ‘tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.

Gregory:

Draw thy tool. Here comes of the house of Montagues.

Enter Abram

Gregory:

I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list.

Sampson:

Nay, as they dare, I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it.

Abram:

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Sampson:

No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you.

Abram:

You lie.

Gregory:

Do you quarrel, sir?

Abram:

Quarrel? No.

Sampson:

Draw if you be men.

They Fight

1.5

Romeo:

What lady’s that which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear

Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

Tybalt:

This, by his voice, should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier, boy. What, dares the slave Come hither covered with an antic face To fleer and scorn at our solemnity ?

Capulet:

Why, how now, kinsman? Wherefore storm you so?

Tybalt:

Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe, A villain that is hither come in spite To scorn at our solemnity this night.

Capulet:

Young Romeo is it?

Tybalt:

’Tis he, that villain Romeo.

Capulet:

Content thee, gentle coz. Let him alone. He bears him like a portly gentleman.

Show a fair presence and put off these frowns, An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.

Tybalt:

It fits when such a villain is a guest. I’ll not endure him.

Capulet:

You’ll not endure him! God shall mend my soul, You’ll make a mutiny among my guests,

Tybalt:

Patience perforce with willful choler meeting

Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.

I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall,

Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall.

Scene 3.1

TYBALT
Follow me close, for I will speak to them.

MERCUTIO
And but one word with one of us? couple it with
something; make it a word and a blow.

TYBALT
Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo,--

MERCUTIO
Consort! what, dost thou make us minstrels?

here's my fiddlestick; here's that shall
make you dance.

Enter ROMEO

TYBALT
Well, here comes my man.
Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford
No better term than this,--thou art a villain.

ROMEO
Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting: villain am I none;
Therefore farewell; I see thou know'st me not.

TYBALT
Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me; therefore turn and draw.

ROMEO
I do protest, I never injured thee,
But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love:

MERCUTIO
O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!

Draws
Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?

TYBALT
What wouldst thou have with me?

MERCUTIO
Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine
lives; that I mean to make bold withal.

Will you pluck your sword out of his pitcher
by the ears?

TYBALT
I am for you.

Drawing

ROMEO
Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.

MERCUTIO
Come, sir, your passado.

They fight

ROMEO
Gentlemen, for shame, forbear this outrage!
Hold, Tybalt! good Mercutio!

TYBALT under ROMEO's arm stabs MERCUTIO, and flies

MERCUTIO
I am hurt.
A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.

ROMEO

What, art thou hurt?

MERCUTIO
Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch

ROMEO
Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.

MERCUTIO
Ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.

A plague o'both your houses!

Why the devil came you between us?

I was hurt under your arm.

ROMEO
I thought all for the best.

MERCUTIO
A plague o' both your houses!

ROMEO

O, brave Mercutio's dead!
Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.

Re-enter TYBALT

Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again,

Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.

TYBALT
Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here,
Shalt with him hence.

ROMEO
This shall determine that.

They fight; TYBALT falls

ROMEO
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
The prince will doom thee death,
O, I am fortune's fool!

Exit ROMEO