his purposes are good. His emotions, his thoughts, even his errors, have an ardent generosity" (Bastow, p
The Prologue gives us Oedipus, ruler over Thebes, who is asked for help by his people to rid them off a plague. It is this initial tragedy and because of Oedipus' commitment to the cause that his gradual awakening begins (Gill, About
And, as Aristotle suggested in Poetics, that the punishment in a tragedy should be much more severe than actually deserved in order to touch on the audience's emotions and feelings of pity, Oedipus atones for his actions by violently blinding himself and choosing self exile from Thebes and alienation from his daughters. As Ian Johnston stated, Oedipus is a paradox because he initiates his fatally downfall through self assertion (Johnston Lecture)
But he is eventually found and adopted by the Corinthian King, childless himself, thus fate being restored to its initial target. Already born noble of the King and Queen of Thebes, Oedipus "attains a second kind of nobility, albeit a false one" (Struck n
("Dmitri Shostakovich") There are some who believe that inside Shostakovich's style lay hidden anti-communist meanings, a theory recently postulated. (Mazulo 2010) In 1948 he was again denounced by authorities and his career declined for the last time
Louis Armstrong was a black musician who changed American music of the South from the regional Mississippi Riverboat-style of music to something entire new and exciting: Jazz. (Miller 1994) Jazz music has had an incredible impact, not only on the history of music in America, but also American culture as a whole
Believing that his success in the West would award him some favor from the Soviet authorities, Prokofieff soon came into conflict with Soviet censors who rejected his Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution. (Nice 2003) However, like Shostakovich, Prokofieff soon found success in creating music for films and two of greatest works were for the films: Lieutenant Kiji, and Alexander Nevsky
Particularly in the medium of player pianos, where he composed many works for the Playal player piano company. (Walsh 1999) The events of World War I had a great impact on Stravinsky who composed innovative and modern forms of music prior to the war, and retreated to the realm of the classic composers as a result of the horrors of the war
As a secondary source discussing the lead up to and consequences of the rise of National Socialism in Germany, Stern's book relies on a mix of primary sources, biographical accounts, and literary and textual analysis. Stern is perhaps uniquely suited for writing such a book, because aside from his time spent as a history professor, his family actually moved from Breslau, a city in Poland, to the United States following the rise of National Socialism in 1938 (Birmele 257; Calleo 443)
The book was chosen because of its particular subject matter and methodological approach, because its series of essays makes for a more varied and interesting read than would be possible with a more straightforward approach. Stern divides his book into four sections, with each section discussing a different feature of German history surrounding World War II and its aftermath; Stern includes sections for "The Dream of Peace," "The Lure of Power," "Peace and the Release from Greatness," and "Historians and the German Past" (Stern vii-viii)
MacDonald largely focused on taking a series of elements from Shakespeare's plays and using them in a way that contradicts their original purpose. The central character of MacDonald's play, Constance Ledbelly, attempts to demonstrate how Shakespere's plays were initially comedies that the playwright altered with the purpose of having them better fit a dramatic line of thoughts (Flaherty 55)
m'Lord." (MacDonald 24) Moments such as this one turn Shakespeare's plays into comedies rather than into tragedies, taking into account that MacDonald attempted to take the audience's mind away from the traditional version of the play and to provide it with the opportunity to consider a completely new line of ideas -- one in which seemingly tragic elements are actually ironic when considering the way that they enable characters to act more on account of logics instead of acting on account of their absurd emotions
Early on, the Nazis became aware that the best way to manipulate the masses was to instill in them a sense of pageantry and enthusiasm for the new governmental regime. To serve this end, the Nazis went from one end of Germany to the other organizing parades and rallies which were designed to further the goals of the Nazi party (Bergen 72)
In 1936, Joseph Goebbels, head of Nazi's propaganda machine, wrote: "The entirely nation not only honors him, it loves him deeply and fervently, for it has the feeling that he belongs to them" (3). The German government popularized the idea that they were committed to peaceful revolution, but in reality committed violent actions against their political opposition (Bessel 2)
Nazi leaders promised that the people of Germany would no longer suffer, that they would no longer go hungry, and that they would no longer be subservient to any weaker and less fit population of peoples. Germans have always had a strong sense of nationalism and pride in their heritage going back to at least the early nineteenth century (Fichte 1)
The Nazis were quick to eradicate such opposition and in effect silenced the Communists as well as quell any other potential disagreement or political discord among other groups. One of the ways in which the Nazi government sought control was by creating a political scapegoat on which Hitler and his associates could blame all the problems of the German people (Remak 1-2)
Thus, this group more so than any regime before utilized the art of propaganda to convince the people and excite them, thereby inciting them to act. Nazis toured all over Germany, organizing rallies and marches which would engross the masses and create a united perception of what the people wanted Germany to be (Spielvogel 58)
Recalling the old adage that life is a tragedy for those that feel and a comedy for those that think can help to illuminate where this play fits on the spectrum of comedy and tragedy. The intellectual argument in the final scene of the play, and the Masked Man's dry ultimate assertion that "in the end everyone has his part," suggest that this is a thinking play, and thus is best understood as a comedy (Wedekind 58)
At the same time, Warash and Workman (1993) have shown that even if the socio dramatic play starts at an early age, often as early as two years old, the peak of such game play between the child and other children or the interacting adults is not usually reached until the age of four or five. As the children reach that age, the socio dramatic play becomes more elaborate, with real objects becoming animate rather than inanimate actors in the drama (Berk and Winsler, 1995) and the children tend to transpose their recorded observations of activities and functions in the real world into their own action plays
In fact, there were studies drawing on a distinct correlation between dramatic play in early childhood and the effect this has on early childhood emergent literacy (Fein, 1981). The assumption of fantasy roles is obviously critical in socio dramatic play and several authors, notably Dickinson and Tabors or Smilansky (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001; Smilansky, 1968) discuss these aspects