Tragedies and Tearjerkers - Top Ten Saddest Plays

Tragedies and Tearjerkers - Top Ten Saddest Plays The following list is a continuation of the Top Ten Saddest Plays Ever Written. You can read the entries #10 through #6 by checking out the beginning of the list. #5 - Medea Heres how Ancient History expert N. S. Gill describes the basic plot of Euripides Greek tragedy: Medea is a witch. Jason knows this, as do Creon and Glauce, but Medea seemed appeased, so when she presents a wedding gift to Glauce of a dress and crown, Glauce accepts them. The theme is familiar from the death of Hercules. When Glauce puts on the robe it burns her flesh. Unlike Hercules, she dies. Creon dies, too, trying to help his daughter. So far the motives and reactions seem understandable, but then Medea does the unspeakable. In the gruesome tragedy Medea, the title character, murders her own children. However, before she can be punished, Helios sun chariot swoops down and she flies off into the sky. So in a sense, the playwright creates a double tragedy. The audience witnesses a tragic act, and subsequently witnesses the escape of the perpetrator. The murderer does not get her comeuppance, thereby infuriating the audience all the more. #4 - The Laramie Project The most tragic aspect of this play is that it is based upon a true story. The Laramie Project is a documentary-styled play that analyzes the death of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay college student who was brutally murdered because of his sexual identity. The play was created by playwright/director Moisà ©s Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. The theater group traveled from New York to the town of Laramie, Wyoming - just four weeks after the death of Shepard. Once there, they interviewed dozens of townspeople, collecting a wide array of different perspectives. The dialogue and monologues which comprise The Laramie Project are taken from interviews, news reports, courtroom transcripts, and journal entries. Kaufmann and his team of activists turned their journey into a theatrical experiment that is as innovative as it is heart wrenching. Learn more about this play. #3 - Long Days Journey into Night Unlike the other dramas mentioned on the list, no character dies during the course of the play. Yet, the family in Eugene ONeills Long Days Journey into Night is in a state of constant mourning, lamenting lost happiness as they reflect upon how their lives could have been. We can tell within the first few exchanges of Act One, this family has grown accustomed to harsh criticism as default form of communication. Disappointment runs deep, and although the father spends a great deal of time and energy complaining about his sons failures, at times the young men are their own harshest critics. Read more about Eugene ONeills dramatic masterpiece. #2 - King Lear Every line of iambic pentameter in Shakespeares tale of an abused old king is so depressing and brutal that theater producers in the Victorian Age would allow substantial changes to the plays ending in order to give audiences something slightly more upbeat. Throughout this classic drama, the audience wants to simultaneously slap and embrace King Lear. You want to smack him because he is too stubborn to acknowledge the ones who truly love him. And you want to hug him because he is so misguided and so easily fooled, he allows the evil characters to take advantage of him then abandon him to the storm. Why does it rank so high on my list of tragedies? Perhaps its simply because I am a father, and I cant imagine my daughters sending me out into the cold. (Fingers crossed they are kind to me in my old age!) #1 - Bent This play by Martin Sherman may not be as widely read as the other tragedies previously mentioned, but because of its intense, realistic depiction of concentration camps, execution, anti-Semitism, and homophobia it deserves the highest place among the saddest plays in dramatic literature. Martin Shermans play is set in mid 1930s Germany, and centers around Max, a young gay man who is sent to a concentration camp. He pretends to be Jewish believing that he wont be persecuted as much as the homosexuals in the camp. Max undergoes extreme hardship and witnesses obscene horrors. And yet amid the abject cruelty he is still able to meet someone kind, a fellow prisoner with whom he falls in love. In spite all the barrage of hatred, torture, and indignity, the main characters are still able to mentally transcend their nightmarish surroundings at least for as long as they are together.

Poetry analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Poetry analysis - Essay Example The use of repetition of words all through the poem such as "civil", bring in alliteration to the following or next. Shakespeare chooses to use the repetition of a certain sound in the subsequent line, generating alliteration. Alliteration in the line 5 is not just the repetition of the letter f sound but of bold words. A line filled with harsh sounding fs as well as words of rivalry are pushed up alongside line 6 and appear to be more unhappy than harsh which inform the audience of the expected death of the lovers that were at first believed to be enemy. Lastly, enjambment in the poem embraces the character of the play being clash and the violence paralleling with love as well as predictable disaster. Form as well as content is important aspects in any text as the combination of all inevitably produce the last meaning of the content. Meaning cannot be consequential if there is no substance in which to support a story on and a sequence of literary method for instance those present in the poem of Romeo and Juliet, place a prominence on this content for it to convey the basic idea that Shakespeare is giving out to the

A recent report highlights a large rise in gambling in the UK.Discuss Essay

A recent report highlights a large rise in gambling in the UK.Discuss why this has occurred, whether it is a cause for concern,and, if so, what could be done ab - Essay Example progressive and chronic disorder that encompasses an unrelenting failure to resist impulses to gamble and where this maladaptive behavior disrupts, or damages personal, family, or vocational pursuits’’ (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, p. 615). Problem Gambling is â€Å"persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior that disrupts personal, family or vocational pursuits.† (American Psychiatric Association) â€Å"It avoids the medical and pejorative implications of pathological’’ (Walker & Dickerson, 1996) and the term Problem Gambler’ is used to define someone â€Å"whose gambling is at an earlier stage and to a lesser degree than required by the diagnostic criteria† (Rosenthal, 1989). The third term Compulsive Gambling is more often used by â€Å"laypersons such as Gamblers Anonymous (GA) members†. (Clinical Psychology Review 22 -2002) As this discussion is based on psychology, the main focus would remain on the â€Å"pathological gambling† in order to describe the gambling behaviors. Different forms of gambling are covered by the term PG including casino gambling, pari-mutuels, horse races, lotteries and gaming machines. The pathological gambling has several â€Å"negative impacts on the gamblers’ physical and mental health and performance in vocational situations† (Productivity Commission, 1999). The pathological gamblers often face financial hardships, Interpersonal problems and psychosocial problems in their children. It is also associated with significant problems, including â€Å"suicidal ideation and attempts, marital conflicts, employment problems, alcohol and substance abuse, psychiatric co morbidity and decreased health function†. (Benjamin J. Morasco, Jeremiah Weinstock 2007) During last few decades, there has been a rise in gambling all over the world and in United Kingdom also people are getting addicted of it. Though there are not any specific reasons that convince people to start gambling but there are several factors that

Compare and contrast the consequences of WWI respectively WWII Essay Example for Free

Compare and contrast the consequences of WWI respectively WWII Essay WWI and WWII brought an extreme destruction and devastation to the world, certainly the previous wars had also brought devastation, but in a totally different scale. These wars were the biggest in the history of men with unexpectedly huge causalities to every country participating. The technology of warfare had improved beyond the imagination of men, bringing weapons that could kill enormous masses of people within a short period of time. WWI and WWII both had devastating results, far more than expected since each war took more than 10 million lives each and as written in the header, that was much more than any previous war. The cost of the war had gone along the size. Whole Europe fell in large debts from the wars, and there were inflation everywhere, more severe after the first war, and you can almost assume that the leaders of the countries had learnt something at least. Especially the inflation were high under the depression in Germany. The previous optimism from the 19th century was gone, now people had experienced the true horror of war, of the first world war, and after the second world war the horror that it could be repeated, a thought which didnt occur to most people after the first war. Partly due to that many countries changed their ideologies after both wars, countries drew back after the first war, trying to repair some of the devastation, along with the more republics that came, the ideologies became more turned inwards the country above all, we are the better, nationalism is a possible definition, but in many cases, except Germany, who mostly under these years were driven by hatred and revenge against the unfair Versailles treaty, it was more a fear, a paranoia, especially for the French along the Maginot line, walls rose between countries and the whole area were pretty tense, not as tense as before the war, but still everything hadnt faded away. The exception for this was the USA with their attempts to create the League of Nations, but it became very short lived and hadnt the impact it needed for becoming strong. However it planted the seed for the coming UN, which makes another similarity, both wars created these welfare organisations. But after the WWII the countries in Europe again started to look over their own borders, becoming a little more widely minded, countries became more involved in worldwide questions and started with these war-preventative organizations like NATO, trying to prepare for the next war, now that they knew that a repeat of the war werent impossible. These would show themselves useful sooner than expected. Since WWII as well as WWI led to a new conflict, for WWI obviously the WWII, and later for the second, the cold war, although it werent even close to the scale of the previous wars mostly due to the fact that it didnt blossom to the war it were predicted to. Both wars also had an enormous impact on the economy in Europe. Among others huge economic debts piled up for each country involved. Furthermore the countries lost labour, since they got killed in the war. This was a downfall for the economy but to make up for some of the scarcity of labour women got to work in the factories, something which earlier was unthinkable, especially in the first world war. A general opinion of men during the late 19th century and the early 20th century was that women should be at home, taking care of the family etc, while men should work, providing the family with money. Although women was accepted working in factories to a great extent in the second world war, compared to the first and especiallty the time before, it would take a lot of more years before a women, not during war time should work. This also provided to the new liberal ideologies after the Second World War. Moreover things that had an impact on the economic change was the new technical improvements during the wars, since many products was invented as a consequence of the war and also the rate of mass production rose during the first world war. Also due to the enormous cost of the war there were inflation in many countries, one extreme example is Germany after the first world war, the Versailles treaty had put Germany under unimaginable debts. Debts that Germany had no opportunity paying back. Thats the major reason behind the inflation, when in just a few months in 1923 the worth of the mark compared to the dollar rose from 4.6 million to 4.3 trillion, about 1000000 times as much. Also the geography of the world changed after the wars, the borders changed quite a lot, and for example the first world war was the final blow for the Ottoman Empire, the reason that it fell, although it were about to fall anyway this was the spark. Then during the war Austria Hungary fell and the borders changed a lot in the Balkans. Finally, as pointed out the effects are quite similar, the atmospheres after the wars were rather similar, both were tense and allowed for new conflicts to start. The distrust of people for the government rose greatly. Furthermore theres one effect I havent taken up yet, the destruction of the earth after the wars, great parts of Europe were affected, trenches were built, big land parts were bombed, and destructed even whole cities were bombed, then especially the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki under the second world war. Then theres the social trauma, both of the soldiers and the families at home, losing their relatives. But as they are similar, there arent many significant differences, probably the biggest were however the fact that no country did demand any compensation for the war, then there were no opportunity of a scenario like the one of Germany after the First World War to occur another time. Even though there also were positive sides on the war like the great leap in technology the overall effects were greatly negative, both wars had devastating effects.

Essay --

Muhammad was a revolutionary he broke many customary ways and beliefs. Muhammad’s revolution affected all aspects of life. His peace ended disputes of families, tribes and nations but most importantly with all human nature. To Muhammad religion was a comprehensive concept. It was also a set of dogmas and doctrines alone with rituals and ceremonies. Religion was a way of life for Muhammad. He came raise mankind to a higher place of peace and progress. Before the rise of Islam Arabia was a desert wasteland who’s once great trading cities have fallen on hard times. Arabia is the last of inhabited lands towards the south, and it is the only country, which produces frankincense, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, and laudanum. (1) The population was divided into rival tribes and clans that worshiped local gods. In the uninhabitable desert zones a wide variety of Bedouin cultures had developed over the centuries based on camel and goat herding. Towns and agriculture flourished on a limited scale. Over the peninsula the camel nomads, organized in clans were dominant. Although urban Islam had been pressured by writers of the Muslim civilization, the Bedouin world, in which the religion came, shaped the career of its prophet, his teachings, and the spread of new beliefs. Mecca and Medina were large extensions of the tribal culture of the camel nomads. Their populations were linked to kingship by Bedouin peoples. Bedouin herders occupied most of the habitable portions of Arabia. Farmers and town dwellers carved out small communities in the western and southern parts of the peninsula. Foreign invasion in the inroads of Bedouins people had all but destroyed the civilization before the birth of Muhammad. Mecca, located in the mountainous regions along ... ... In both his revelations and personal behavior Muhammad joined his followers to be kind and generous to the people including slaves. He forbad the rich to exploit the poor through unrealistic rents or rates on interests for loans. In his last sermon he states, â€Å"Remember, one day you will appear before ALLAH and answer for your deeds. So beware, do not astray from the path of righteousness after I am gone†. (3) The prophet’s teachings and the revelations of the Koran soon were incorporated into an extensive body of law. This regulated most aspects of the lives of the Muslim faithful. They lived in a manor that would prepare them for the last judgment which in Islam would determine there fate in eternity a strong but compassionate god with a strict but socially minded body of law set impressive standards for the social interaction between adherence of the new faith.

Graduate unemployment Essay

The rising unemployment rate among fresh university graduates today is an upsetting trend. Now the pool of unemployed graduates is rising to worrying levels even in some high-growth economies. This is due to several factors or causes that result in the increase of the unemployment rate today. This article brings and discusses the main causes and issues/effects on the unemployment of many fresh graduates. It is expected that this study of unemployment will achieve the objective and highlights of some important issues which relate to unemployment in graduates. The main cause of unemployment among graduates would be the lack of professional connections. (Alyssa Davis, 2014) For a fresh graduate, it is not often easier to find valuable contacts to recommend a job or get recommended. A valuable connection not only guides them in right direction but also helps fresh graduates to step into a job easily. Employers are followers of technology. They are in a constant search for a common connection that can fit in a vacant position in his organisation. Another cause of unemployment among graduates would be the lack of experience. Fresh graduates often do not have any practical experience of work. (Heidi, 2014) The lack of experience interrupts their job application and causes a significant delay in their employment. The career portfolio of a graduate is important to make up with his/her inexperience. They can attend on-job training programs and internships to demonstrate their working skill and talent in looking for a suitable job. Besides that, the causes of unemployment may also be due to economic crisis and recession. It is a common problem because businesses stop making as much money and have to result in less or no employment of fresh graduates. Unskilled and inexperienced workers such as fresh university graduates will suffer unemployment due to the fact that most employers will be looking for professional workers with a certain set of working skill to maintain the company’s performance during a recession. (Will Kimball, 2014) Effects of unemployment among graduates would be primarily financial issues. Graduates usually do not have enough savings or source of a stable income to support themselves, majority of them will face insufficient use of money daily. With the lost income and the frustration involved in it, the recently unemployed may develop negative attitudes toward common things in life and may feel that all sense of purpose is lost. Also, the effect of unemployment would include the loss of valuable skills  and talent of fresh graduates. The unemployed is not able to put his/her skills to use. And in a situation where it goes on for too long the person may have to lose some of his/her skills that is critical to their success in their field of study. To further complicate the situation, the longer the unemployed graduate is out of job the more difficult it becomes to find a new one. Employers find employment gasps as a negative aspect. No one wants to hire a person who has been out of work for some time even when there’s no fault of the individual per say. In conclusion, if the unemployment issue among graduates is not solved, creation of problems to the unemployed graduates, nations, society and even the country will certainly arise. Furthermore, if the nation’s unemployment continues to be severing, riots and insurgency will be occurring across the country and halting the country trading. A significant lost towards the nation will arise due to this serious problem. Therefore, more on-job training, internships, proper guidance and counselling will help many graduates understand the causes of unemployment. (588 words) 2) Outline of the essay Causes Unemployment among graduates would be the lack of professional connections. Unemployment among graduates would be the lack of experience. Fresh graduates often do not have any practical experience of work Trend of many fresh graduates seeking high income and professional jobs. Causes of unemployment may also be due to economic crisis and recession. Effects Financial problems of many fresh graduates who do not have any source of savings or income. The effect of unemployment would include the loss of valuable skills and talent of fresh graduates. The unemployed is not able to put his/her skills to use

Movie Analysis Spartacus - 1983 Words

Harrison Tobin Zeiner-Carmichael Maymester 2015 Film Analysis Spartacus: Film Analysis Spartacus, directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1960, is a magnificent Roman tale that represents the passionate and fanatical care that Spartacus, a Thracian slave, ensured for countless innocent slaves and citizens despite the detrimental disadvantage that this massive group of people endured for multiple years. It all began when Lentulus Batiatus, a Roman â€Å"lanista† businessman, ventured to North Africa in order to find healthy and vigorous slaves so they could be trained and eventually formed into combat gladiators. Spartacus is a muscular man, therefore he is chosen by Batiatus. Through a series of events, Marcus Licinius Crassus, who is the richest and most powerful man in Rome, enters the gladiator school and insists on seeing a â€Å"fight to the death.† Eventually, Spartacus is chosen to duel with Draba; and surprisingly, Draba quickly has Spartacus in a position where he could have easily slayed him, but instead Draba dropped his weapon and attempted to atta ck Crassus before rapidly being stabbed in the back by a Roman soldier. Shortly after this gladiatorial uprising, Crassus hears that slaves have ran free near Mount Vesuvius but does not seem to worry as he downplays them as â€Å"merely just a slave army.† (90, Big Screen Rome) This worries many Roman elites and citizens because â€Å"there are more slaves than Romans.† (90, Big Screen Rome) As Gracchus attempts to persuade Crassus toShow MoreRelatedMovie And Scene Of The Movie Spartacus 1659 Words   |  7 PagesThe popular 1960 film Spartacus, directed by Stanley Kubrick and named after the famous slave revolt leader of the same name, was no exception. Movie and Scene Presentation Summary The film was set in the same setting as the titular protagonist historically started the slave revolt: in Italy, and was especially set in the time of the Roman Empire. Spartacus, the slave, was sold off to a man named Batiatus, who had the slave enrolled into a gladiator school. 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