Classic English Literature – Cheap Research Essays

Write an original script for a single scene of a play with an explicit or an implicit theme. You will include details that contribute to a definite mood or tone.

Course Activity

Writing a Play

This Course Activity will help you meet these educational goals:

You will write an original script for a single scene of a play with an explicit or an implicit theme. You will include details that contribute to a definite mood or tone.

Introduction

Athemeis a central idea or a fundamental truth explored in a piece of writing. It is a message that makes the reader think about life, human nature, or the way the world works. In literature, themes are typically not directly described in a single sentence. Such themes are called implicit because readers must consider the ideas explored in the play or story to decipher the theme. Less often, a theme is directly stated. When this is the case, the theme is called explicit.

Common themes explored in literature include the following:

Man’s worst enemy is man.
Good is stronger than evil.
Humans persevere through adversity.
Life is beautiful but short.
Love conquers all.
Treat others fairly.

Themes are not particular to one character or even one story. They are broad ideas that apply to a story as a whole and often attempt to ground the story in the realities of life.

Because they are carefully designed to permeate a work of literature, themes are most often identified by writers early in the writing process. The writer then seeks to employ various literary elements to develop the theme and communicate it to the audience.

Tone and mood are two of the primary literary elements that authors use to influence the theme of a story or a play.

Mood is the emotional quality that any form of art evokes in its audience.When you listen to a piece of music, for instance, your state of mind might change. While one song might make you happy, another might make you cry. The lyrics and musical arrangement can affect a listener’s mood. Similarly, words and phrases in a literary work can affect a reader’s mood.A story’s atmosphere, or mood, helps authors evoke certain reactions from their readers.

Typically, a mood is established through setting, character, and plot.

Playwrights create distinct settings and imagery with their word choices and the words they give their characters. Mood can also be developed through stage directions and descriptions of costumes, props, or scenery. A playwright might, for example, describe an apple tree that forms the setting in a scene in two different ways: as “a dark-barked, solitary tree bearing the burden of numerous blood-red fruits” or as “an emerald-green tree with fruit like rubies, its branches reaching into a clear blue sky.” Each description creates a very different mood. The first suggests loneliness and suffering, while the second expresses abundance and freedom.

Characters also contribute to the mood of a story. As you read, look closely at what characters say, think, and feel. For example, are they afraid, happy, or angry? The way that characters react to the setting or events in a story often reflects the mood the author is trying to create.

Sometimes a writer establishes a mood at the beginning of a story, and it remains unchanged. But often, as a plot moves forward, the mood changes. For example, a tale that begins with tragedy may shift in the middle and progress to a happy ending. As the plot, characters, and setting evolve, so does the mood.

Tone is the reflection of an author’s attitude toward his or her subject. A single adjective can often describe the tone of a piece of writing—serious, bitter, sarcastic, and so on. As in the case of mood, the tone may change as the story unfolds.

Tone can alter the way writers depict a subject. Two writers may discuss the same topic but use a very different tone, based on their word choices. Although tone may change over the course of the story, it should not change back and forth.

In a play, tone is most straightforwardly communicated via narration, that is, whenever the author speaks directly to the audience. A character’s actions, for example, might be described by the author as irrational, feckless, silly, or unnecessary. Such word choices communicate a degree of dismissiveness, distain, or condescension toward the character. By contrast, the character’s actions might be described as adept, precise, well reasoned, or insightful. This would communicate a certain level of esteem in which the playwright holds the character.

Tone can also be expressed through the word choices of characters within a play. When this is accomplished, it is important to consider how the writer wants the audience to relate to a given character. Do we identify with the character? Or do we understand the character through the ways in which other characters describe him or her?

An author relies on mood and tone to reach to the audience. And the audience, in turn, relies on mood and tone to connect to the text.

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Directionsand Analysis

Mood is not unique to works of literature. A mood can be established by any work of art, including paintings or photographs. In fact, playwrights have often used various other forms of art as inspiration for their plays. In this activity, you will use a painting to characterize a mood, create characters, develop a theme, and write one scene of an original play.

Visit the website of the Art Institute of Chicago. Browse the wide variety of painted artwork cataloged on the website. Choose one painting that captures your interest. Make sure that this painting depicts at least one person. You will use the painting as a tool to develop your play.

Task 1: Characterize a Mood

Consider the painting you have selected. What is it titled, and who was the artist? What people or places are depicted in the painting?

Type your response here:

A Friendly Warning by Thomas Hicks

There are four people in a room, all of whom appear to be men. There is also a dog laying next to a wood burning stove.

What words would you use to describe the painting’s mood? What emotions does it evoke in you? What emotions do you imagine the character or characters in the painting are experiencing? How do these emotions compare to those you experience by observing the painting?

Type your response here:

The mood appears a bit tense with two men who trying to make a point.

Task 2: Create Characters

Continue working with the painting you have selected. In this task, you will create characters for your play by using the painting as a tool.

Consider the people depicted in the painting. Give each of the main subjects a name and provide a brief, two- or three-sentence description of his or her history. How did the people get into the situation that the painting depicts? Try to make your explanations plausible. That is, your characters’ histories should be compatible with the mood of the painting.

Type your response here:

George, who comes from a middle class family. His convictions guide him and once his mind is made up, it is difficult to change it. He is kind and patient but driven.

Henry, who is a follower. He will let both sides battle it out and prefers to remain neutral because, in the end, they are all “family”.

Thomas, who has had to fight his entire life for everything he has. Life has not been easy and he is very passionate about his beliefs and right vs. wrong.

Gerald, like a brother to George. He is often frustrated by George’s “my way is the only way” approach once his mind is set on something.