Assignment Ten (Drama)
1. Study Scene 3 of the play (Poker Night) for the way that it conforms to Freytag's Pyramid. Name three SPECIFIC moments of EXTERNAL CONFICT that occur in the rising action of this scene. Your responses must be detailed to reflect the dramatic development accurately (in other words, don't just write, "Stanley and Blanche don't like each other" or "the music annoys Stanley"). Back up all three with specific lines and page numbers for support. Then name what you consider to be the climax of the scene and how this action/moment fits the definition.
2. Choose one of the four characters (Blanche, Stanley, Stella, or Mitch) and review your notes on INTERNAL CONFLICT. As precisely as possible, explain what sort of oppositional impulses exist within this single character. Support your theory with quoted/cited passages from the play. Then, name one specific moment in the play where this internal conflict comes out through EXTERNAL CONFLICT with any another character. Explain why and how this happens and what it reveals.
3. "Belle Reve" is an important setting to this play. Arguably, it continues to impact the lives of the four principle characters, even though it's legally and financially lost, so take this as a GIVEN. Review your notes on PLACE (as one of the components of SETTING). Using both your imagination and actual text of the play (quoted and cited), describe the CULTURE of "Belle Reve." Then, in the second part of this response, explain how "Belle Reve" continues to affect the life of (choose one): Blanche, Stella, Stanley, or Mitch.
4. Review your notes on INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION from earlier in the semester. Choose one of the four principle characters (Blanche, Stanley, Stella, or Mitch) and describe his or her personality in a few sentences. Then (VERBAL) describe that character in terms of what other characters say about this character (use at least two quoted/cited lines of dialogue from two different characters). Then (VISUAL) describe this character in terms of a specific action or gesture, indicated directly in the stage notes (use at least one quoted/cited stage note).
IMPORTANT !!!-Please put question below on separate paper please --!!! IMPORTANT !!!-Please put question below on separate paper please --!!!
5. Study your Homework responses for this session before you answer so that your writing incorporates information on CHARACTER and CHARACTERIZATION. Your writing should address these.
Scene Four establishes that neither Blanche nor Stella possesses much money or marketable skills, and that Stella is inclined to stay married to Stanley. With these (and other) facts in mind, explain why Blanche would risk alienating both her sister and brother-in-law (and risking her own living situation) by lecturing Stella on moral grounds.
What's the basis and true motivation for Blanche's sermon-like chastising? Why does she feel entitled to express these things to Stella? Do you think that Blanche actually believes her own ideas (or would like to believe them)? Back up your response with quoted/cited passages from Scene Four.
In a second response, respond with your own opinions about Blanche's philosophy of life. Taken out of context, is there any substance to her principles? What part of her lecture to Stella do you agree with or disagree with, and why?