The Elephant Man Essay -- Elephant Man Essays

The Elephant Man John Merrick, a man so pathetic and helpless because of the curse of his extremely disfigured body he carries around with him. Lots of people are born with some deformity or another, but none such as the case of John Merrick, in other words, ‘The Elephant Man’ who was given this name because he was so deformed he resembled an extremely ugly elephant. The movie shows how John Merrick is marginalized not only by the general public, but also the poorest of people to such an extent that his life was a misery. This movie shows how cynical people can be towards fellow human beings. His abnormalities did not even allow him to take a walk in the garden by day light as the common society looked at him with complete disgust. Although John suffers much, he manages to win a few hearts with the help of his ‘friend’, Dr. Frederick Treves, and when he was content with his life he commits suicide.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this story the darker side of society is witnessed and their utterly cynical behaviour is practiced on John, for one reason only – he does not look like any other normal human being. It is seen how the general public reacts in the very beginning of the movie, when Mr. Bytes presents him in the carnival just like an animal would be presented in front of an audience in a circus. In addition to this injustice Mr. Bytes brutally beats him which further disfigures him and then calls him as a ‘freak’. When Dr. Treves takes John to the hospital, a dispute brakes out whether he should be allowed to stay in the hospital, for no other reason, but only because he was so ugly. In one part of the movie it is shown how one nurse is upset with another nurse because the latter had her involved in the care of John Merrick which she did not like, because he was so ugly that it scared her. Amongst all the negative people in John Merrick’s life, the nigh t porter who in one part of the movie refers to himself as ‘Sunny Jim’ is the most cynical character in the entire story. His vile and selfish behavior tempted him to earn an extra income at John Merrick’s expense. He would take money from people and expose them to John, where the women would look at him with awe and fear while the men literally played around with him as if he were nothing but some broken toy. It is noticed how John was marginalized even by the lowest of classes even thought they themselves were amon... ...rson on a bed, which he was not supposed to because of his head being too large, which in turn would kill him. Yet he decided to sleep like a normal person, so he arranged his bed and went into the blanket and slept†¦forever. He committed suicide.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬ËœThe Elephant Man’ is what John Merrick is referred to due to his physical abnormality which was close to that of an elephant. John had lots of people in his life that looked at him with an evil, selfish and cynical eye thus marginalizing him to the extreme. Due to his pathetic and out of place facial features he was not accepted by society thus he was always indoors unable to have an independent life. Besides all of this John still achieved some happiness with the help of Dr. Treves who helped him to gain the hearts of many people and when he felt that he had lived his life to his heart’s content he committed suicide. John Merrick went down in history books as a legend, because he led a life of extremes, which was filled with sorrow, but happiness towards the end of his life. When he was tired of being pushed around and had achieved sufficient love and happiness he slept to his death thus ending the curse of ‘The Elephant Man’.

Pirandello and Reality TV: When Fine Lines Get Blurred Essay

Introduction Pirandello’s play Six Characters in Search of an Author broke ground by challenging our perceptions of what is real and not.  Ã‚   In the play, the â€Å"invisible barrier†Ã¢â‚¬â€setting apart the actors from their play—is torn down as characters otherwise trapped within the confines of text from a novel or short story emerge into real life, and burst through in the middle of a rehearsal of actors to give themselves life.  Ã‚   The roles are reversed and the actors become the prop by which the â€Å"characters† criticize stage-life, the dynamics of a story, and even the questions of humanity’s existence. His play is most noteworthy, however, by being ahead of its time; the act by which the â€Å"characters†, in need of being given life in any form, act out the very nature of their lives would be reminiscent of the trend of Reality Television today. In fact, the play’s criticisms about the formula of the theatre echo in the present time.   The play’s characters from the prop-actors to the characters-in-need-of-a-medium, represent the different aspects of Reality Television. How accurate was Pirandello’s play in predicting this trend?   What were his criticisms of it, and how much did it hit its mark?  Ã‚   What then was the play’s sentiment towards â€Å"Life forced to play Art†?  Ã‚   This essay will explore this through the evolution of the play itself, from the characterization, to the progression of the themes, and will conclude through the medium of a finished product. Finding a Cast The â€Å"Six Characters† in the playwright’s story that force themselves on a hapless Manager represent various individuals with their respective prejudices, ideas, and reactions towards their need for public expression. They also represent the different people, who are forced upon the klieg lights, particularly under the constant glare of the cameras of Reality Television. The two of the aggressive characters are of the Father and the Stepdaughter.  Ã‚   Pirandello depicts the Father as one who has volunteered to depict his role as truthfully as he can, in order to redeem himself before the eyes of his family, and hopefully smother the guilt, which had been buried in him for some time. The playwright focused much on this character, using him as instrument to question the truths of Man’s existence, his prejudices in life and as mouthpiece for the criticism of the artificialness of the theater.  Ã‚   He is out to superimpose a version of his life that would be acceptable and palatable to his audience, as well as his family. Unwittingly, though, the Father also represents characters in Reality programs such as Big Brother who volunteer to be part of the show to project a positive image of themselves, by acting out what they see themselves as who they are, and through helpful â€Å"confession booths† where they try to explain their thoughts and feelings to the camera.  Ã‚   Pirandello used the Father to explain that persons have their subjective interpretations of the world, which is just as much prejudiced as the person observing them.   This subjective depiction of oneself is magnified through the â€Å"confession booths† of reality television. The Stepdaughter is caught in the trauma of a moment and would like nothing else to perpetuate that moment of outrage as a form of punishment for her father.   She is the most vitriolic critic among the characters of the stage, and the playwright used her as an instrument to attack the formulae that the theatre and plays use to depict â€Å"truer reality†.  Ã‚   Her agenda, of course, is less than noble.  Ã‚   Her character represents those individuals who are forever caught within a traumatic moment that they painfully perpetuate to punish those close to them. This has also been absorbed by reality television in the form of show such as Temptation Island, where situations are force upon people in order to vindicate distrust or even contempt. The Mother, the Son, and the two children are the passive characters who, in one way or another, would rather not be part of the play.   They are, however, trapped to play their part for one reason or another.  Ã‚   The most active of these, the mother and son, represent those who are resistant to their parts, and virulently opposed to it, but tied to it for one reason or another.  Ã‚   In Reality Television, a program My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancee, forced an individual to fake a wedding and coerce her family to acceding to it. The most tragic of these characters, however, are the children who are silent throughout the general duration of the play only to act the final and central sequence of it through their parts.  Ã‚   These are the persons who are unwittingly trapped in a situation that they would rather have not entered, had they known.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thus, Joe Schmoe and Joe Schmoe 2 have people who are not aware that they are in fact in a reality show centered on how they were being fooled. Finding a Theme The Stepdaughter bitterly criticized that the actors trying to portray them are too unnatural in acting out her family’s characters.   Indeed, she pointed out that there were distinct differences in a scene with her father, which she acted with him, and the same scene, which the actors tried to portray. The Father later explained that actors have already begun to act them not in their true form but in a prejudiced idea of what they have observed of the characters or the scene.  Ã‚   This is true enough of media today trying to interpret an event or people by projecting them in a way that explains how they saw the event, rather than how it really was. In the Reality show The Osbournes or Growing Up Gotti for example, the scenes were edited to focus more on the heated moments where the family are caught heaping curses, invectives, or insults at each other, when these are in fact merely isolated instances of it.   The Manager in the play explains that this is only to make the fact â€Å"truer†, and more believable.  Ã‚   Indeed, the most dramatic moments of a reality show are the ones that are given most airtime, and are edited to make it, as the Stepdaughter protested, a â€Å"romantic drama† rather than what it really was. The play’s Manager in one scene explained to the Stepdaughter that a character could not be overemphasized to overshadow another character.   Indeed, that was what both the Father and the Stepdaughter were trying to do.   The inexistence of an actual central character (only a consistent plot and theme) in the play mirrors how some reality shows do not focus on a central character but let the show work out according to how the characters interact amongst themselves.  Ã‚   Survivor and Big Brother are such programs. Conclusion: Unintended Consequences The Manager in the play was caught up in the possibilities of entertainment of using the dynamics of a family’s life, while his acting ensemble watched on.   Faithful through every scene, the tragedies of the characters are indeed perpetuated right to the end (at least, to how far the â€Å"writer† wrote), and it is at this end that the Manager realizes and bewails to what fate it has turned to.  Ã‚   For such is the danger of trying to stage a play based on dynamic characters and true life. It is only the dynamism of the characters—and their respective prejudices—that sets them apart from the static of a written play. Like the Manager in Six Characters, this dynamism can sometimes go out of control and individuals will clash, so a balance is made as to what is aired and what is not.   The â€Å"true form† then, becomes compromised, and prejudiced to what is perceived.  Ã‚   It is entertaining to the audience, as they have a sense of it being an illusion (an illusion of reality, as one character described it), but as the Father adamantly explains, it is real to them. The reality show Temptation Island once seemed to appeal to the audience as a sort-of drama that is often seen in the movies about the test of love.   Ã‚  Reality bursts in, however, when one of the contestants, who just saw her husband flirting with one of the girls from a separate island, was actually pregnant with their child.  Ã‚   With the real prospects of having to break up a family, these candidates are offered an apology and immediately whisked away, and off the program.  Ã‚  Ã‚   It was not an illusion to them; it was real life. Pirandello’s critique is clear: having to stage reality before the audience is only entertainment only as far as they feel detached from it.   Within the glare of the cameras, however, lives are destroyed and perpetuated in â€Å"edited moments† that twist the very nature of it. WORKS CITED Pirandello, L. (1921). Six Characters in Search of an Author. In A. Caputi (Ed.), Eight Modern Plays.   New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1991.

The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Essay - 1041 Words

The era dominated by Roman empire is one the most well-known and influential periods of history, home to famous names from Julius Caesar to Jesus Christ. At its height, Rome’s territory stretched from the Atlantic coastline to the Middle East, reigning over 60 million people, one-fifth of the population of the ancient world. However, the Roman empire’s treatment of their conquered people’s and their own citizens ultimately led to the permanent downfall of Rome. Even in the century before the official replacement of the Roman republic by the empire, Rome expanded immensely as a result of the Punic wars. Rome fought the Punic Wars between 264 and 146 BCE against the nearby trade empire Carthage over the nearby island of Sicily, a†¦show more content†¦The Roman empire owed its existence to Julius Caesar’s military genius and leadership. At the time of his birth, the Roman republic was rife with corruption, losing touch with the people as Rome rapidly expanded. In addition, the republic suffered much unrest due to an excess of slave labor, leaving many unemployed for the government to sustain with basic food and entertainment, or â€Å"bread and circuses.† Caesar changed this, joining partnership with two other prominent men, the wealthy Crassus and the general Pompey, to form the First Triumvirate. However, he quickly took the reins of the new government, securing his position as dictator with many populist actions, such as distributing land to poor farmers. They, in turn, showed loyalty toward their leader, providing unity and patriotism. The Roman empire was born into the perfect geographical and cultural circumstances to rise to greatness. The Roman empire suffered many problems throughout its rise and several centuries of subsequent power. To begin with, they dealt with many outside invasions, including the Burgundians, Franks, Alemanni, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Visigoths, and Anglo-Saxon peoples. The invaders considered most barbaric were the Huns, which the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus describes as people who â€Å"surpass all other barbarians in the wilderness of life.† He further describes â€Å"they are so little advancedShow MoreRelated Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Essay1091 Words   |  5 PagesThe Romans were on one of the greatest people of all. They had power, wealth, and even a half of the world. They built one of the strongest and vast empire that world has ever seen. They came from nothing to something awesome. It started of as a city and ended up being one of the greatest empire of all. This essay is going to focus on the Roman Empire from the rise to the fall and the government, arch itecture, mythology, Family Structure, and Food of the Romans. 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