MADAME BOVARY Essays - Films, Madame Bovary, English-language Films

MADAME BOVARY Essays - Films, Madame Bovary, English-language Films MADAME BOVARY - The story starts as we see Charles Bovary entering a new school in the town of Rouen in France. People laugh at him because he isn't sure what to do and how to act. He is the son of a doting mother and a very strict father. Charles isn't sure what to do with his life and therefore does as his mother advices him; to go to medical school. He fails at first because he didn't work for it in class, but the second time he does and he passes the exam and becomes a doctor in the town of Tostes. He is well liked in town because people see him as a hard working man. Because he is still single and his mother thinks he shouldn't be, she arranges a marriage only for the money with an ungly widow, Heloise Dubuc. One day Charles is called to a farm because someone has broken his leg. On the farm he meets Emma Rouault, the daughter of the farm owner. He likes her very much and keeps coming back to her father to check up on his leg, even after his leg has fully healed. They get on very well and they dicide to get married, even with protest of his former wife which dies soon after because of a stroke. They arrange a huge wedding and loads of people are invited to it. They party on for days and days and there's food enough for a whole army. Because his practice isn't where the farmer lives, they return to Tostes. And this is where are the misery starts for Emma. When Charles is out in the country for house visits, Emma just sits at home doing nothing. All she does is read, watch the rain and she used to play the piano, but quit because she feels that nobody listened to her anyway. She hoped to get the love from her husband in the same way that the main characters in the novels she read get love, but that doesn't happen. She is bored to death. She is starting to get irritated by Charles' way of living and the way he behaves sometimes. One day they go to a party of the maquis and there she meets the life that she wants to live. She doesn't want Charles to dance because she feels that it would embarras her and instead dances the night away with a Viscount and meets all the rich. When they return back home, she becomes even more miserable because she misses all those things now. Charles notices this and talks with another doctor and together they conclude that a change of scenery might be good for her and they decide to move to Yonville. At the time that they move, Emma discovers that she is pregnant. In Yonville, life isn't that much different from the life she'd lived before, but now she meets someone who is interested in the same things as she is; Leon Dupuis, a clerk. Emma is now close to giving birth to a baby and she is hoping that it's going to be a boy so that he can be strong and free, but her hopes are lost when it turns out that it is a boy; Berthe. As time passes, Emma continues her life and finds out that she is in love with Leon, but they don't start any relationship. Eventually, Leon moves to Paris to study there and Emma is again left in misery. Rodolphe meets Emma and she really is attracted to her, but in a sexual way; he thinks that Emma is beautiful. He manages to talk Emma into seducing her and it works. Emma starts to get more and more interested in Rodolphe and they start spending more and more time togeter, for example, they go to the agricultural show together. Emma starts meeting him in secret and he even comes to their house where they make love. Rodolphe decides that to keep the love going, he should leave for a few weeks and that's what he does. And it seems to work, because after six weeks, Emma can't wait to see him again. One day when Emma decides to go back to Rodolphe, she passes passed by Bines, who knew that she had nothing to

Themes of Sam Shepards Plays True West, Buried Child, and Others

Themes of Sam Shepards Plays True West, Buried Child, and Others Although the Cain-and-Abel style of sibling rivalry this play focuses on is admirable, True West is another Sam Shepard drama that perplexes much more than enlightens. (Although as far as Bible stories goes, perhaps its more like the prodigal son and a really annoyed younger brother.) True West: Summary This kitchen sink drama begins with a young, successful brother diligently working on his next screenplay while watching his mothers house. His older brother has encroached upon the place as well. Austin (the screen writer) does want to upset his brother at first. In fact, despite his older brothers dead-beat ways, Austin seems to admire him, though he doesnt trust him. Though Austen appears civilized at the beginning of the play, he will go off the deep end by Act Three, drinking, thieving, and fighting- traits of his wandering, alcoholic father. Character Development Lee, the older brother, is oxymoronically a champion loser. He bums around in the desert, following the same life choices as his drunkard father. He drifts from one friends house to another, crashing wherever he can. He out a living by stealing appliances or gambling in dogfights. He simultaneously disdains and envies his younger brothers successful lifestyle. yet, when he gets the chance, Lee manages to enter the Hollywood elite, golfing with a movie producer and convincing him to conjure up $300,000 for a script synopsis, even though Lee doesnt know the first thing about developing a story. (This, by the way, is yet another stretch away from reality.) As often happens when erratic characters nearly reach the end of their troubles, catching a glimpse of paradise just around the corner, their own flaws prevent them from attaining happiness. Such is the case with Lee. Instead of writing a script treatment, Lee becomes severely intoxicated and spends the morning smashing the typewriting with a golf club. Austin doesnt fare much better, having spent his evening robbing the neighborhood of its many toasters. If this sounds amusing, it is. But humor never lingers long in Shepards plays. Things always turn ugly, and most of his family dramas end with a lot of objects being hurled to the floor. Whether its whiskey bottles, China plates, or heads of rotten cabbage, theres always a lot of smashing going on in these households. Themes in Sam Shepards Plays In addition to being a successful playwright, Shepard is also an Oscar-nominated actor. He stole the show from the rest of an incredible ensemble of actors in the historical drama about the Mercury astronauts, The Right Stuff. In his brilliant portrayal of Chuck Yeager shows that Shepard has a knack for playing brave, stalwart characters that exude integrity. As a playwright, however, he creates many characters that lack integrity- which is precisely the point of many of his plays. Shepards main message: Humans are not in control of their own emotions, thoughts, personalities. We cannot escape our culture or our family bonds. In Curse of the Starving Class, those who try to escape their dismal surrounding are immediately destroyed. (Poor Emma is literally destroyed in a car bomb explosion!) In Buried Child, the grandchild tried to drive as far away from his dysfunctional home, only to return to become its new supine patriarch. Finally, in True West we witness a character (Austin) who has achieved the American Dream of a great career and a family, and yet he is compelled to throw everything away in exchange for a solitary life in the desert, following in the footsteps of his brother and father. The theme of an inherited, inescapable downfall recurs throughout Shepards work. However, it does not ring true for me personally. Its understood that some children never escape the influence of their familys dysfunction. But many do. Call us optimistic, but the Vinces of the world dont always take their grandfathers place on the couch, sipping from a whiskey bottle. The Austins of America dont always turn from a family man into a thief in a single night (nor do they attempt to strangle their brother). Bad, crazy, messed-up stuff happens, in real life and on the stage. But to process the evil that men do, maybe audiences might connect more with realism rather than surrealism. The play doesnt need avant-garde dialogue and monologues; violence, addiction, and psychological abnormality are bizarre enough when they occur in real life.