Day #4: Monday

Publication chronology of films/plays for our course:

1594 The Taming of the Shrew (William Shakespeare)
1813 Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
1947 A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennesse Williams)

1962 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Edward Albee)
1961 Revolutionary Road (Richard Yeats)
1600 Much Ado About Nothing (William Shakespeare)

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Today we started out with the Film Pride and Prejudice (2005). A little about the lady herself:


Jane Austen (1775-1817)

- Setting: England, gentry (minor aristocracy), Victorian Age/Regency

- her father was a priest (a reoccurring character in her novels)

- New Realism (moved away from Romanticism and the Gothic novel)

- Dependence of women on marriage to secure income and social standing

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Themes: Love, Social Status, Class

Mr. Darcy: upper class, wealthy, uses language to show class, gestures (ie: everybody bows to him when he enters the ball) stubborn, loyal, handsome, aloof
Elizabeth: stubborn, strong, educated, independent, sociable, protective, loyal, proud, quick to judge, witty, lively

Caroline Bingley: likes entertainment, snobby, cares about reputation

Accomplished young ladies in society can draw, paint, sing, dance, read literature and speak foreign languages.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy must overcome:
-the Bingley and Wickham misunderstandings
-their own prideful ways and prejudiced thoughts (ie: Elizabeth judges Mr. Darcy harshly and holds to this first impression; Mr. Darcy is prejudiced against Elizabeth for her lower social status)
-Lady Catherine’s will for Darcy to marry her daughter
-Lady Catherine’s disregard of Elizabeth’s family and social Standing

Messages:

Love is independent of social forces!

Fight for love (realize illusion vs reality)

You can’t always trust your first impression

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Status Game:

In the status game, each student get's a number on a post-it attached to their forehead. Each post-it has a number written on it, 1-5 (1 is the highest status, 5 the lowest). Without knowing their numbers, the students have to guess based on how other students treat them... quite fun!

[Am I high in society or low??]

[Caro and Lukas are both #1s]

[Natalie and Annika]

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Tagline for Pride and Prejudice:

First impressions aren’t always true.
In a time when everyone married for money, she dreamed of romance.

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A Streetcar Named Desire  by Tennesse Williams (1947)
Blanche – younger sister, unsettled, puts on airs, vain, complains
Stella – older sister, married to Stanley (Polish), feels unsupported/unappreciated by her sister

Watched the first scenes and then read excerpts from the play:

BLANCHE: You must be Stanley. I'm Blanche.
STANLEY: Stella's Sister?
BLANCHE: Yes.
STANLEY: H'lo. Where's the little woman?
BLANCHE: In the bathroom.
STANLEY: Oh. Didn't know you were coming to town.
BLANCHE: I - uh -
STANLEY: Where you from, Blanche?
BLANCHE: Why, I - live in Laurel.
STANLEY: In Laurel, huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah, in Laurel, that's right. Not my territory. Liquor goes fast in hot weather. Have a shot?
BLANCHE: No, I - rarely touch it.
STANLEY: Some people rarely touch it, but it touches them often.
BLANCHE: ha-ha.
STANLEY: My clothes are stickin' to me. Do you mind if I make myself comfortable?
BLANCHE: Please, please do.
STANLEY: Be comfortable is my motto.
BLANCHE: It's mine, too. It's hard to stay looking fresh. I haven't washed or even powdered my face and - here you are!