Never forget who you are

  To me, the ending is rather miserable. The peasant girl had beautiful dreams, of being free and loved. But in the end, none of them are true, her life falls apart and finally destroyed her. She was so in love with Daniel, "Desiree cried, I am Daniel and Daniel is Desiree.", while Madame Mathilde had already told her the truth, "What peasant girl can boast of such luck that the patron keeps her when he no longer has need for her?". Desiree was paralyzed, blinded by her untrustworthy love. Daniel has been always the angel to her, "Were it not for his limp, he'd be the most perfect of men." But he indeed betrayed her, and even hurts her, "It is this life that brings me joy. It is this life that I have pledge to Andrea Galimar." Desiree, at that moment thought he belonged to her but he said the life that desiree saved is bonded to Andrea Galimar, which indirectly excluded the peasant girl out. He sees her as a life saver but not a lover. It's really miserable to finally see the truth when one believes in her own story for too long. This part is even more tragic than the moment when she died. All of her beliefs, hearts were trampled on the floor, by this ignorant, selfish young man. 

  The story illustrates an idea of how one should not forget her identity and really self-recognize better. Ever since Desiree crossed through that gate, she never belonged there. That's not who she is, she is just a peasant, who's from thousands miles away. "In the room she stood looking at her own reflection in the mirror. And not understanding the reason for fear." It's not surprising that she has fear, she not a part of the aristocrats, she sees herself in the mirror and still find a peasant girl. Madame Mathilde had told her the truth for hundreds of times, she never listens, never believes. "Stupid girl. The dirt at the bottom of our feet belongs to us alone. Yet water washes it away." And we, the story witnesses should realized, don't overextending our dreams if they make us think of ourselves as someone else. Always seek for truth and be who we are.

Discussion Questions

1. To what extent, does the city give Desiree a new perspective to the world? Use specific examples from the book.

2. When Desiree enters the city by herself, how do people treat her and why is that? Use specific examples from the book. 

3. To what extent, does the gap between languages brings the lovers trouble? Use specific examples from the book.

4. At the end of Chapter 13, Lucifus was possessed by the death god - PaPa Ge, what effect does this turning point make on the whole story?

Beauty within life

  My favorite character from the book is Desiree. She is such a dream pursuer and fabulous girl. I also like her personalities.
  Desiree has been always a special existence. At the beginning of the play, we can tell that she differs from other peasants, such as this line:" They obeyed a wordless command of M. Galimar, or feared his vicious overseer-or both. Only the peasant girl used the brook." I found it really amazing for her to ignore the vicious power. Plus, she just doesn't feel like she is part of the peasant group, she seeks for her own world and freedom. "While all the other tired peasants rested before going up to the hills to the Vaudun ceremony, the peasant girl slipped away and came here." I found myself similar to Desiree. Sometimes, everyone can have a little space to enjoy themselves.
  Also, according to the descriptions, she is a really attractive young lady. "She had the smoothest skin, the peasant girl. Black. Silk at the calves, satin on her thighs, changing to a velvet blackness as it spread up her shoulders, her neck, her face." This line is a complete description of her general appearance, and it actually makes a contrast with the next line: "The white of her eyes sparkled and the black pupils shone like jewels." The descriptions provide readers a vivid image of Desiree. I was impressed by her because she is so special and outstanding even when she's a peasant girl.
  Her persistance on love surprised me. She makes so much effort to defend, treasure the strange young man even when they've never met before. She might not be an obedient girl but that's what I like about her. "He must not die, Desiree said, I shall not let him die." Her words are just so strong and staunch. She is similar to Romeo in some degrees: as a comparison, Romeo persist in going to the Capulet feast without an invitation. "Everyday, Desiree rushed from the hut, through the woods, across the road, and up the hill to the cabin. Then she rushed back, fearing that in her absence something might happen to her young patient." We can tell that Desiree really cares about people, she not only cares about gods, her parents, but, most importantly, she cares about that one breaking point in her life. The young man's existence definitely changes her life, he is free and handsome, she becomes his biggest admirer. That love force grants her unbelievable courage to chase after him later. Her journey is the most impressive portion of the whole book, she pays everything to search for her love. I really like the scene when she is in the city all by herself, all of her emotions are written. "Even in the dark she sensed the vitality beating like a force. What excitement! Cars raced toward her. Headlights blinded her, forcing her into ditches." I feel like I'm Desiree at that moment.
  Desiree is my favorite character, her life attitude and characteristics are the main reason. This book gives me a brighter perspective to life. I hope I can be just like her, pursuing dream, fearlessly.
 

Reading Quiz 12/7 Question 4

  Desiree is girl with decisive and stubborn personalities, she really resist in her own thoughts and has been always trying to find her own world. For example, she has a strong first sight love with the young stranger even when they had never met before, and she used all her power to take good care of him, regardless Mama Euralie's persuading. In order to show her characteristics, I would pick white costumes to show her pureness and it can also make a contrast with other peasants residents, who will be dressed in grey and brown. It shows that she is such a special existence.
  In the beginning of the book, she always has good imaginations of the nature and also spend times with it. In the book's description of Desiree, she is a young, beautiful African girl, but still being a peasant. As a peasant girl, she is not able to afford too much of luxuries and decorations. So, I would select a good amount of decorations of nature including leaves and flowers to put on her. This way, it not only presents her good appearance, but also shows her love to the nature.
  It would be a great idea to show her connection to the gods too. Peasants in the story are really religious and worship the gods a lot, especially Agwe and Asaka. As a part of the peasant members, she also prays and has faith in the gods. I believe it's necessary to show her religious side because that's part of who she is. As I mentioned, I would use some green decorations on her to show her love in nature, but it can also work as a connection to Asaka, who is the goddess of earth and growing things. In additional, I would use the blue spotlight on her when she is praying to Agwe to provide a atmosphere.

Staging of specials

  If I'm staging the play for My love, my love or the peasant girl, I would make the gods have exaggerated appearance and special expressions. In the original novel, gods played extremely important roles in the story. People worshipped them, peasants prayed to them all the time. The religion, culture elements should be huge portions of the stage play. In the book, four gods existed and each of them deserves a distinctive character. In my opinion, costumes and masks are the keys to make the characters special. And colors can be used to distinguish gods from each other.
  The costumes should correspond to the god's identities. For example, the god of death should have a depressed image. It can be shown by dark color costume or even weapons like sickle. Also, Mask would be a great fit for a god. When people talk about gods, they always show up in imaginations because every individual can have a different impression of gods. Masks can be strong illustrations for gods, because they express different things than human faces. For example, the mask can be blue with conch and carving waves on it, that would be a great presence for the god of ocean; it can be made of wood with leafs and roots for the god of plants. Masks effectively show the gods' characteristics by visual representation. Of course, the play will also work without the mask, but the make up must be explicit enough to reflect the god's impression. I used to perform in a middle school play. I can still remember the fire god in that play had flamboyant fire patterns drawn on his arm. The make up was successful because it attract audience's eyes. That's what I will do.
  Colors are what best distinguish the gods from each other. For Asaka, the god of earth and growing, his theme color should be green and brown, these two colors represent plants and nature. In order to show more of his identity, there can be green stage light shining on Asaka. Agwe is the god of water and sea, so his color should be blue. Papage and Erzulie are the gods of death and love. They are kind of the opposite of each other so I would use strong contrasting colors on them, such as black and white. It's also a good idea to give Erzulie the color pink, or peach to show the love's sweetness. Besides the colors, decorations can be an important element to make the gods special. For example, gods can have wings while humans can't. Unrealistic decorations distinguish them from human beings. A decoration varies along the personalities of a character. For example, the god of death can have scary decorations on him such as bones and skulls.
  In conclusion, gods are different existence than human beings and there are all sorts of ways to make them special. The colors distinguish them from each other. Costumes, masks and decorations distinguish them from humans. They can be really outstanding in the play.

Pics of plants

Revised Final

  The performance of my group is based on a tragic play written by William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare was definitely one of the most successful English playwrights in history. A lot of his pieces reflect his personal experiences. Romeo and Juliet is a classic demonstration of immature, naive love. The play basically illustrates a story-line which develops upon the feud between the two families - Montague and Capulet, and ends with a grieving scene in which both of the young lovers died. Every Acts of the play are closely connected in Romeo and Juliet, a substantial amount of elements in the early parts of the playoffs foreshadow the tragic ending. The performance of my group demonstrates the hatred between the families, by showing the easy-irritating emotions of the two families, plus fighting and death. Hate is a type of extreme emotion, viewing things or people with hatred always gets negative results. In Romeo and Juliet, the theme of feud has been always a huge portion of the play. The young lovers were kept away from each other because of the intense relationship between Montague and Capulet. This hatred grants the inability of the families to treat the young lovers fairly. The pressure to the lovers from that atmosphere led to the final tragedy in the play, because their personality and thoughts were really affected by it. There are plenty of scenes that show the hatred of the families clearly. My group picked Act 1 Scene 1 and 5, Act 3 Scene 1, which best strengthen the idea. My performance used different colors' costumes to distinguish the two families, while the fight actions and language adaptations to present the theme of hostility. 


  The first scene I chose was shortened and adapted from Act 1 Scene 1. The setting of this scene was located among the Verona Streets. The two Capulet members, Gregory and Sampson entered the scene with weapons and started showing discrimination against the Montague family. In my performance, the Capulets were in black and white costumes, while the Montague was in green clothing, so the audience are able to recognize the difference between the two families. Next, one of the Montague member, Abram came in and began arguing with the two Capulets. It ended up with a fight. Abram died from the Capulet's blades. In the original play, there isn't any instruction that shows Abram died during the fight. So his death is one of the adaptations in our performance - in order to show the overflowing rage. Another significant adaptation is that the fight stopped right after the two Capulet stabbed Abram. So the later scene in which the prince conciliates the fight disappeared. Every adaptations that we did was with the purpose of maximizing the expression of their feud. There are a good amount of lines that are straight clues of the insolvable conflict between the characters. In the beginning of the scene. Gregory and Sampson started the conversation in this way:" I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw."(Act 1 Scene 1, line 3) So their obvious willingness of fighting is shown right at the beginning. Also, the line by Sampson:"A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man of or maid of Montague's"(Act 1 Scene 1, line 12-13) is another perfect example of their discrimination to the Montague. The analogy of Montague members to the dog shows their attitude toward the other family. Followed by those provoking judgments, Abram responded to the "thumb biting" action of Sampson. " Do you bite your thumb at us sir?" (Act 1 Scene 1, line 45) Noticing that Abram here used the term "us" instead of "me", there were supposed to have more than one Montague members, but we decided to cut other characters except Abram, so the Capulet were able to overpopulate and then kill him. And finally, after the line"Draw if you be man"(Act 1 Scene 1 line 63), Abram died under Sampson's sword. This first scene might looks non-related to the two lovers - Romeo and Juliet, but it actually plays an important role of setting up the background and establishing the tone for the entire play. This fight is only the beginning, performing the beginning part efficiently shows how the feud covers the entire play. Shakespeare really made an effort to introduce the story background at the beginning. As I mentioned above, Romeo and Juliet weren't able to be together because the opposing family relationship. The fightings make people ruthless and blind. During the prince's speech, he expresses that:"If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace ."(Act 1 Scene 1 line 98-99). This line becomes a metaphor for the later incidents. The idea is always: No matter how deep Romeo and Juliet's love is, the feud is always going to cause a dead end in this story. The end is already settled at the beginning, a really complicated and vague connection.

  The next scene was originated from Act 1 Scene 5, it was picked under a tough discussion. The scene took place in the feast held by the Capulet. In this scene, Romeo first met his "true love"- Juliet and everything started at that point. However, one of the main character - Juliet did not appear in this scene in my performance, because it was adapted to show Tybalt's discrimination to Romeo. In our performance, the scene started with the entering of Romeo to the party After a relatively short monologue, Tybalt appeared and began pouring vicious words to the young man behind his back. Following that is the conversation between Tybalt and his uncle - Capulet, the head of family. At the end, Tybalt leaves with unsatisfied and envious emotions. In Romeo's monologue, he just simply praised the girl and expressed his overflowing love. "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night"(Act 1 Scene 5, line 51-52). His personalities cause a lot of troubles for him, including taking risk to go to enemy's banquet without invitation. What happened next is another foreshadow of the later fight. Our performance erased everything before Romeo's monologue to directly show this close connection to the next scene. When Tybalt noticed Romeo's appearance, the fury blinds his eyes, my performance kept all his lines. "Come hither covered with an antic face to fleer and scorn at our solemnity ? Now, by the stock and honor of my kin, To strike him dead I hold it not a sin."(Act 1 Scene 5, line 64-67), this line clearly indicates Tybalt's willingness to fight Romeo. The relationship between Romeo and Tybalt has been always the biggest person-to-person conflict in the play, their destinies are binding together, only one can survive. From the scene, we can tell that Tybalt's personalities are extremely different from Romeo's. Romeo is a young man that put too much focus on his love, his language is poetic and gentle. On the other hand, Tybalt is the representative of hatred. He just doesn't care, takes whatever he needs to slain his enemy. By performing Act 1 Scene 5, I not only established a straight link between this scene and Act 3 Scene 1, but also indicates how much trouble Tybalt will bring to Romeo and change him. Under the pressure, Romeo finally changed and revealed the dark side of him which will be shown in the next scene.

   In my point of view, Romeo is neither a virtuous nor peaceable young man. He is kind of a unstable and tragic protagonist. At the beginning of the play, he's language brings readers an impression of innocent character, the young man is so overwhelmed by his love and life, that he is not possibly able to commit such murder in the later scene. However, showing the drastic change of Romeo is exactly my goal in the last scene, the extraction of Act 3 Scene 1. The scene begins with the dialogue between Mercutio and Benvolio. These two characters have really different personalities: Mercutio is an emotional young man, and he loves to fight. "thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more or a hair less in his beard than thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts."(Act 3 Scene 1 line 18-20) These lines perfectly demonstrate Mercutio's personalities; Although he uses the word "thou", he is still talking about himself, how he will not tolerate others. On the other hand, Benvolio is more like a peacemaker, the first sentence "I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire."(Act 3 Scene 1 line 1) straightly expresses his stand in the play. Benvolio is just not a representative of hatred, that's why we cut his line later in the scene. Again, in order to fully show the perspective of feud, a lot of adaptations needed to be established and utilized well. With the entering of Romeo, Tybalt was totally provoked, he started to arguing with Benvolio and finally started fighting with him. At that moment, Romeo was still being himself, an innocent, peaceful young man, my performance highlighted this whole line, "I do protest I never injured thee But love thee better than thou canst devise Till thou shalt know the reason of my love. And so, good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as mine own, be satisfied."(Act 3 Scene 1 line 69-73)by letting Romeo standing alone while speaking. Our group believes it's the best example of Romeo's original characteristic. Next, he was still being that part of himself during the fight, "Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up."(Act 3 Scene 1 line 85), trying to break down the fight, but that was the last moment of him being calm. My performance strongly focused on the scene when Romeo was talking to the dying Mercutio. The audience will have a deeper understanding of Romeo's change, from the hatred. Anger and sadness are the types of extremely strong emotions, they can really change a person, especially to someone like Romeo, young and vulnerable. With the effect from anger, he became a killer. At the end of the scene, he challenged Tybalt, and slashed the enemy that took away his best friend from him. It doesn't matter whether the murder is right or wrong, the impact to him was substantial. The action of killing someone brings huge panic to him, and makes the later murder of Count Paris seems not that surprising. Again, this scene exists as a demonstration of how the feud changes Romeo, affects his later relationship, and led to the final tragedy.

  Romeo and Juliet is just an fabulous, irreplaceable existance in English literature history. The complication of teenage love makes readers think about the process and cause of the storyline. The hatred between Montague and Capulet is just an outstanding factor which affects not only the lovers but the love itself. My group has been always trying to achieve the goal of showing the feud. The adaptations in the performance such as distinctive costume and killing provides the audience a strong sense of hostility. This atmosphere is what makes the performance colorful and fluent. The selection of language shows the essance of the hatred theme, such as the discrimination from Tybalt to Romeo. Tybalt's effect on Romeo totally makes him a different person, the anger blinds his eyes so he became more arbitrary. In the end, the hatred's effect ripped through the lovers' heart and just left nothing behind. 

Revision and improvement

  I visited the writing centre on Monday November 18th, Ms. Swift helped improve my paper a lot.
  I've been always worrying about my final draft. I know there are a lot of problems in it, but I just can't recognize them. But after visiting the writing centre, Ms. Swift pointed out that I have grammar mistakes all over the paper. I had trouble writing correct claudes, I should've used "which" or "who" in a few places instead of "that". Also, according to the instructions, I should use past tense for performance parts and present tense for analysis parts. I accidentally used present tense in some of my performance parts, because I was talking about the audience reaction, Ms. Swift pointed out that I still need to use past tense in order to make the sentence correct. There was one mistake that made me keep laughing: For two of the Capulet members, I used the term "underclass man", which means freshman and sophomore in schools. But soon I used the term "servants" instead.

  Ms. Swift said that my paper doesn't have big problems in the idea, the body parts demonstrate my thesis well. The only thing I have to look over is my grammar, which I can do by myself. I realized that my grammar can be a huge trouble that can affect my future writing's quality. That's what I need to improve.

  I found writing centre really helpful. In the future, I will go there every time when I feel uncertain or weird about my paper. But I still realized that the ideas can only be generated by me, Ms. Swift's job is just to correct my grammar and providing suggestions.

  There's still a long time until the due day. When I looked over my paper again, there are several things that I need to improve other than the grammar problems. First of all, I need to cut off some unecessary points. For example, I mentioned "My performance used colorful costumes to distinguish the Capulet and Montague families." in my thesis statement. But I actually didn't talk about it a lot in the body paragraphs. Everything in thesis statement have to be important, so that sentence needs to be removed. Also, I have to be careful on analyzing the lines from the original play. I made a mistake on the line "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear—Beauty too rich for use, for Earth too dear."(1.5 50-53). I said it shows his innocent characteristics but Romeo is just expressing his love to the lady. It wouldn't be a good example for his innocent personalities, but showing emotional and chameleonic sides.

  In conclusion, there are still plenty of things that needed to be revised in my paper. Writing center helped me a lot, the suggestions gave me a chance to look at my paper in a different aspect. And after recognizing the mistakes, I got a chance to re-look at my entire paper, which helps me to have a deeper understanding in it. 

  

New Vision of Classic Work

  Peter Pan has always been my favorite story, it presents the image of a wonderful fairy land.  Before I watched the stage play version of Perter Pan, I thought the red hair boy with tiny green hat only exists in Disney movies. According to stage director's introduction, it was written and performed many times before the animation.
  There's a huge difference between animation and stage play: because of the limited space for performance, a stage play has to cut a portion of the original work and use adaptations to show the most important parts. I think the Peter Pan show was really successful on presenting the essence of the play.
  First of all, the costumes were absolutely amazing, each character had delicate clothing that matched the character's personalities. My favorite one was Captain Hook's pirate suit, it was even better than the one in Disney Cartoon. I believe that good costumes bring incredibly good effect to the audience, make them understand the play better. There was one thing that caught my attention: there were actors that played several roles just by changing the costume. It actually worked out well because the costumes are able to make distinctions between those characters.
  The actors were decent, they might not be professional but definitely excellent enough for this play. Their voices were loud enough so the whole theatre could hear them well; everyone had appropriate face expressions and body language. All those factors add up and make the show perfect. There was one moment when Captain Hook was walking around and pointing his sword at the audience, I could actually feel the pressure from his eyes. Also, humor becomes a significant element in this play, the funny scenes attracted audience and kept their attention, so the two hours show doesn't get boring.
  There's another thing that's worth mentioning - the stage effect. The utilization of stage lights and props were exquisite. The narrator's role was fully showned with the assistance of spotlight, she was able to provide background information when everyone was staring at her. In the later scenes, red stage lights were used to intensify the atmosphere; when Captain Hook was driving his ship, the red light set up the tone for that scene.
  Thanks to the music performers and the staging crew, the show was fluently done. The flute player did a fantastic job, the background music was always clear and beautiful. When the light goes off, the only thing that existed was the music, and the scenes were connected by it.
  Anyway, the Peter Pan show gave me a whole new perspective to the play, and deeper understanding on stage performances. I hope there will be more plays like that in the future!

Final Draft

  The performance of my group is based on a tragic play written by William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare was definitely one of the most successful English playwright in history, a lot of his pieces reflect his personal experiences. Romeo and Juliet  is a classic demonstration of immature, naive love. The play basically illustrates a story-line which develops upon the feud between the two families - Montague and Capulet, and ends with a grieving scene that both of the young lovers died. Every Acts of the story are closely connected in Romeo and Juliet, a substantial amount of elements in the early parts of the play actually foreshadows the tragic ending. The performance of my group demonstrates the hatred of between the families, by showing the easy-irritating emotions of the two families, plus fighting and death. This hatred grants the inability of the families to treat the young lovers fairly. Under the pressure from that atmosphere, led to the final tragedy in the play.  There are plenty of scenes that show the hatred of the families clearly. My group picked three of them that best strengthen the idea that mentioned above. In Act 1 Scene 1 and 5, Act 3 Scene 1, My performance used different colors' costumes to distinguish the two families, while the fight actions and language adaptations to present the theme of hostility.


  The first scene I chose is shortened and adapted from Act 1 Scene 1. The setting of this scene is located among the Verona Streets. The two Capulet members, Gregory and Sampson entered the scene with weapons and started showing discrimination against the Montague family. In my performance, the Capulets were in black and white costumes, while the Montague was in green clothing, so the audience are able to recognize the difference between the two families. Next, one of the underclass man of Montague, Abram came in and began arguing with the two Capulet. It ended up with a fight, Abram died from the Capulet's blades. In the original play, there isn't any instruction that shows Abram died during the fight. So his death is one of the adaptations in our performance - in order to show the overflowing rage. Another significant adaptation is that the fight stopped right after the two Capulet stabbed Abram. So the later scene which the prince conciliates the fight disappeared. Every adaptations that we did was under the purpose of maximize the expression of feud. There are a good amount of lines that are the straight clues of the insolvable conflict between the characters. In the beginning of the scene. Gregory and Sampson started the conversation like this:" I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw."(Act 1 Scene 1, line 3) So their obvious willingness of fighting is shown right at the beginning. Also, the line by Sampson:"A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man of or maid of Montague's"(Act 1 Scene 1, line 12-13) is another perfect example of their discrimination to the Montague. The analogy of Montague members to the dog presents their attitude toward the other family. Followed by those provoking judgments, Abram responded to the "thumb biting" action of Sampson. " Do you bite your thumb at us sir?" (Act 1 Scene 1, line 45) Noticing that Abram here used the term "us" instead of "me", there were supposed to have more than one Montague members, but we decided to cut the other ones except for Abram, so the Capulet were able to overpopulate him and then kill him. And finally, after the line"Draw if you be man"(Act 1 Scene 1 line 63), Abram died under Sampson's sword.This first scene might looks non-related to the two lovers - Romeo and Juliet, but it actually plays an important role of setting up the background and establishing the tone for the entire play. This fight is only the beginning. One of the reason why we picked the theme of feud, is that the it is such a gigantic portion of the play. Performing the beginning part efficiently shows how the feud covers the entire play, Shakespeare really made effort on introduce the story background at the beginning. The fightings make people ruthless and blind. During the prince's speech, he expresses that:"If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace ."(Act 1 Scene 1 line 98-99). This line becomes a metaphor for the later incidents. The idea is always: No matter how deep Romeo and Juliet's love is, the feud is always going to cause a dead end in this story. The end is already settled at the beginning, a really complicated and vague connection.

  The next scene was originated from Act 1 Scene 5, it was picked under a tough discussion. The scene took place in the feast held by the Capulet. In this scene, Romeo first met his "true love"- Juliet, everything started on track. However, one of the main character - Juliet did not appear in this scene in my performance, because it was adapted to show Tybalt's discrimination to Romeo. In our performance, the scene started with the entering of Romeo to the party After a relatively short monologue, Tybalt appeared and began pouring vicious words to the young man behind his back. Following that is the conversation between Tybalt and his uncle - Capulet, the head of family. At the end Tybalt leaves with unsatisfied and envious emotions. In Romeo's monologue, he just simply appraised the girl and expressed his overflowing love. "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night"(Act 1 Scene 5, line 51-52). His personalities cause a lot of troubles for him, including taking risk to go to enemy's banquet without invitation. What happened next is another foreshadow of the later fight. Our performance erased everything before Romeo's monologue to directly show this close connection to the next scene. When Tybalt noticed Romeo's appearance, the fury blinds his eyes, my performance kept all his lines. "Come hither covered with an antic face to fleer and scorn at our solemnity ? Now, by the stock and honor of my kin, To strike him dead I hold it not a sin."(Act 1 Scene 5, line 64-67), this line clearly indicates Tybalt's willingness to fight Romeo. The relationship between Romeo and Tybalt has been always the biggest person-to-person conflict in the play, their destinies are binding together, only one can survive. From the scene, we can tell that Tybalt's personalities are extremely different from Romeo's. Romeo is a young man that put too much focus on his love, his language is poetic and gentle. On the other hand, Tybalt is the representative of hatred. He just doesn't care, takes whatever he needs to slain his enemy. By performing Act 1 Scene 5, I not only established a straight link between this scene and Act 3 Scene 1, but also indicates how much trouble Tybalt will bring to Romeo and change him. Under the pressure, Romeo finally changed and revealed the dark side of him which will be shown in the next scene.

   In my point of view, Romeo is neither a virtuous nor peaceable young man. He is kind of a unstable and tragic protagonist. At the beginning of the play, he's language brings readers an impression of innocent character, the young man is so overwhelmed by his love and life, that he is not possibly able to commit such murder in the later scene. However, showing the drastic change of Romeo is exactly my goal in the last scene, the extraction of Act 3 Scene 1. The scene begins with the dialogue between Mercutio and Benvolio. These two characters have really different personalities: Mercutio is an emotional young man, and he loves to fight. "thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more or a hair less in his beard than thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts."(Act 3 Scene 1 line 18-20) These lines perfectly demonstrate Mercutio's personalities; Although he uses the word "thou", he is still talking about himself, how he will not tolerate others. On the other hand, Benvolio is more like a peacemaker, the first sentence "I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire."(Act 3 Scene 1 line 1) straightly expresses his stand in the play. Benvolio is just not a representative of hatred, that's why we cut his line later in the scene. Again, in order to fully show the perspective of feud, a lot of adaptations needed to be established and utilized well. With the entering of Romeo, Tybalt was totally provoked, he started to arguing with Benvolio and finally started fighting with him. At that moment, Romeo was still being himself, an innocent, peaceful young man, my performance highlighted this whole line, "I do protest I never injured thee But love thee better than thou canst devise Till thou shalt know the reason of my love. And so, good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as mine own, be satisfied."(Act 3 Scene 1 line 69-73)by letting Romeo standing alone while speaking. Our group believes it's the best example of Romeo's original characteristic. Next, he was still being that part of himself during the fight, "Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up."(Act 3 Scene 1 line 85), trying to break down the fight, but that was the last moment of him being calm. My performance strongly focused on the scene when Romeo was talking to the dying Mercutio. The audience will have a deeper understanding of Romeo's change, from the hatred. Anger and sadness are the types of extremely strong emotions, they can really change a person, especially to someone like Romeo, young and vulnerable. With the effect from anger, he became a killer. At the end of the scene, he challenged Tybalt, and slashed the enemy that took away his best friend from him. It doesn't matter whether the murder is right or wrong, the impact to him was substantial. The action of killing someone brings huge panic to him, and makes the later murder of Count Paris seems not that surprising. Again, this scene exists as a demonstration of how the feud changes Romeo, affects his later relationship, and led to the final tragedy.

  Romeo and Juliet is just an fabulous, irreplaceable existance in English literature history. The complicated and controversial love between the young lovers are affected, changed by so many factors. The feud is always been the main cause, my performance uses all sorts of adaptations, acting techniques to demonstrate this main issue. It wasn't perfect and still needs to improve for a lot, but my group tried our best to express our idea.

Body paragraph extract

The first scene I chose is shortened and adapted from Act 1 Scene 1. The setting of this scene is located among the Verona Streets. The two Capulet members, Gregory and Sampson entered the scene with weapons and started showing discrimination against the Montague family. Next, one of the underclass man of Montague, Abram came in and began arguing with the two Capulet. It ended up with a fight, Abram died from the Capulet's blades. In the original play, there isn't any instruction that shows Abram died during the fight. So his death is one of the adaptations in our performance - in order to show the overflowing rage. Another significant adaptation is that the fight stopped right after the two Capulet stabbed Abram. So the later scene which the prince conciliates the fight disappeared. Every adaptations that we did was under the purpose of maximize the expression of feud. There are a good amount of lines that are the straight clues of the insolvable conflict between the characters. In the beginning of the scene. Gregory and Sampson started the conversation like this:" I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw."(Act 1 Scene 1, line 3) So their obvious willingness of fighting is shown right at the beginning. Also, the line by Sampson:"A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man of or maid of Montague's"(Act 1 Scene 1, line 12-13) is another perfect example of their discrimination to the Montague. The analogy of Montague members to the dog presents their attitude toward the other family. Followed by those provoking judgments, Abram responded to the "thumb biting" action of Sampson. " Do you bite your thumb at us sir?" (Act 1 Scene 1, line 45) Noticing that Abram here used the term "us" instead of "me", there were supposed to have more than one Montague members, but we decided to cut the other ones except for Abram, so the Capulet were able to overpopulate him and then kill him. And finally, after the line"Draw if you be man"(Act 1 Scene 1 line 63), Abram died under Sampson's sword.This first scene might looks non-related to the two lovers - Romeo and Juliet, but it actually plays an important role of setting up the background and establishing the tone for the entire play. This fight is only the beginning. One of the reason why we picked the theme of feud, is that the it is such a gigantic portion of the play. Performing the beginning part efficiently shows how the feud covers the entire play, Shakespeare really made effort on introduce the story background at the beginning. The fightings made people ruthless and blind. During the prince's speech, he expresses that:"If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace ."(Act 1 Scene 1 line 98-99). This line becomes a metaphor for the later incidents. The idea is always: No matter how deep Romeo and Juliet's love is, the feud is always going to cause a dead end in this story. The end is already settled at the beginning, a really complicated and vague connection.

Outline

  The performance of my group demonstrates the hatred of between the families, by showing the easy-irritating emotions of the two families, plus fighting and death. This hatred grants the inability of the families to treat the young lovers fairly. Under the pressure from that atmosphere, led to the final tragedy in the play.  There are plenty of scenes that show the hatred of the families clearly. My group picked three of them that best strengthen the idea that mentioned above. In Act 1 Scene 1 and 5, Act 3 Scene 1, My performance used different colors' costumes to distinguish the two families, while the fight actions and language adaptations to present the theme of hostility.

Outline

  Intro
- Background information of the book
- Thesis statement
- Summary of the performance

  Body I
- Introducing the scene
- Stage direction, adaptation
- Analysis on the adaptation
- Analysis of the play

  Body II and III follows the exact procedures in Body I

  Conclusion
- Thesis statement
- Scene reflects thesis

First Draft

  The performance of my group is based on a tragic play written by William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare was definitely one of the most successful English playwright in history, a lot of his pieces reflect his personal experiences. Romeo and Juliet  is a classic demonstration of immature, naive love. The play basically illustrates a story-line which develops upon the feud between the two families - Montague and Capulet, and ends with a grieving scene that both of the young lovers died. Every Acts of the story are closely connected in Romeo and Juliet, a substantial amount of elements in the early parts of the play actually foreshadows the tragic ending. The performance of my group demonstrates the hatred of between the families, by showing the easy-irritating emotions of the two families, plus fighting and death. This hatred grants the inability of the families to treat the young lovers fairly. Under the pressure from that atmosphere, led to the final tragedy in the play.  There are plenty of scenes that show the hatred of the families clearly. My group picked three of them that best strengthen the idea that mentioned above. In Act 1 Scene 1 and 5, Act 3 Scene 1, My performance used different colors' costumes to distinguish the two families, while the fight actions and language adaptations to present the theme of hostility.

  The first scene I chose is shortened and adapted from Act 1 Scene 1. The setting of this scene is located among the Verona Streets. The two Capulet members, Gregory and Sampson entered the scene with weapons and started showing discrimination against the Montague family. Next, one of the underclass man of Montague, Abram came in and began arguing with the two Capulet. It ended up with a fight, Abram died from the Capulet's blades. In the original play, there isn't any instruction that shows Abram died during the fight. So his death is one of the adaptations in our performance - in order to show the overflowing rage. Another significant adaptation is that the fight stopped right after the two Capulet stabbed Abram. So the later scene which the prince conciliates the fight disappeared. Every adaptations that we did was under the purpose of maximize the expression of feud. There are a good amount of lines that are the straight clues of the insolvable conflict between the characters. In the beginning of the scene. Gregory and Sampson started the conversation like this:" I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw."(Act 1 Scene 1, line 3) So their obvious willingness of fighting is shown right at the beginning. Also, the line by Sampson:"A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man of or maid of Montague's"(Act 1 Scene 1, line 12-13) is another perfect example of their discrimination to the Montague. The analogy of Montague members to the dog presents their attitude toward the other family. Followed by those provoking judgments, Abram responded to the "thumb biting" action of Sampson. " Do you bite your thumb at us sir?" (Act 1 Scene 1, line 45) Noticing that Abram here used the term "us" instead of "me", there were supposed to have more than one Montague members, but we decided to cut the other ones except for Abram, so the Capulet were able to overpopulate him and then kill him. And finally, after the line"Draw if you be man"(Act 1 Scene 1 line 63), Abram died under Sampson's sword.This first scene might looks non-related to the two lovers - Romeo and Juliet, but it actually plays an important role of setting up the background and establishing the tone for the entire play. This fight is only the beginning. One of the reason why we picked the theme of feud, is that the it is such a gigantic portion of the play. Performing the beginning part efficiently shows how the feud covers the entire play, Shakespeare really made effort on introduce the story background at the beginning. The fightings made people ruthless and blind. During the prince's speech, he expresses that:"If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace ."(Act 1 Scene 1 line 98-99). This line becomes a metaphor for the later incidents. The idea is always: No matter how deep Romeo and Juliet's love is, the feud is always going to cause a dead end in this story. The end is already settled at the beginning, a really complicated and vague connection.

  The next scene was originated from Act 1 Scene 5, it was picked under a tough discussion. The scene took place in the feast held by the Capulet. In this scene, Romeo first met his "true love"- Juliet, everything started on track. However, one of the main character - Juliet did not appear in this scene in my performance, because it was adapted to show Tybalt's discrimination to Romeo. In our performance, the scene started with the entering of Romeo to the party After a relatively short monologue, Tybalt appeared and began pouring vicious words to the young man behind his back. Following that is the conversation between Tybalt and his uncle - Capulet, the head of family. At the end Tybalt leaves with unsatisfied and envious emotions. In Romeo's monologue, he just simply appraised the girl and expressed his overflowing love. "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night"(Act 1 Scene 5, line 51-52). His personalities caused a lot of troubles for him, including taking risk to go to enemy's banquet without invitation. What happened next is another foreshadow of the later fight. Our performance erased everything before Romeo's monologue to directly show this close connection to the next scene. When Tybalt noticed Romeo's appearance, the fury blinds his eyes, my performance kept all his lines. "Come hither covered with an antic face to fleer and scorn at our solemnity ? Now, by the stock and honor of my kin, To strike him dead I hold it not a sin."(Act 1 Scene 5, line 64-67), this line clearly indicates Tybalt's willingness to fight Romeo. The relationship between Romeo and Tybalt had been always the biggest person-to-person conflict in the play, their destinies are binding together, only one can survive. From the scene, we can tell that Tybalt's personalities are extremely different from Romeo's. Romeo is a young man that put too much focus on his love, his language is poetic and gentle. On the other hand, Tybalt is the representative of hatred. He just doesn't care, takes whatever he needs to slain his enemy. By performing Act 1 Scene 5, I not only established a straight link between this scene and Act 3 Scene 1, but also indicates how much trouble Tybalt will bring to Romeo and change him. Under the pressure, Romeo finally changed and revealed the dark side of him which will be shown in the next scene.

   In my point of view, Romeo is neither a virtuous nor peaceable young man. He is kind of a unstable and tragic protagonist. At the beginning of the play, he's language brings readers an impression of innocent character, the young man is so overwhelmed by his love and life, that he is not possibly able to commit such murder in the later scene. However, showing the drastic change of Romeo is exactly my purpose in the last scene, the extraction of Act 3 Scene 1.

Reflection and Improvement

  The main theme of this performance is that how does the feud between two families aggravated the atmosphere and led to the final tragedy. The performance includes three scenes: 1.1, 1.5, 3.1. We have been always trying to show the hatred in our play; In the first scene, the members of two families started arguing and it turned out to be a fight. One thing that did not exist in the original play was Abram's death. Abram's death is our interpretation on their hatred, and it's also a extreme way to do it. In order to better present the intensity, our group even cut the prince's lines after the fight, because intervention and conciliation were existing against our main theme. I believe we were successful on showing the feud in this scene. However, as a trade, we did abandon some elements that were supposed to be significant such as the prince's role that I mentioned above. That's why our play does not present "Romeo and Juliet" in a full perspective.
  Our performance wasn't perfect. Plenty of small mistakes took place: the actors forgot to face the audience for a few times; we starred at the script for too long; and most importantly, all of us didn't express our emotions through face expressions. I didn't realize that until I watched other groups' performances. Ryan's group was definitely the best one, each actor had obvious face expressions. The lack of face expression and the varying tone made our performance a little bit plain. For example, when we were having the "deadly conversation" in Act 1 Scene 1, our faces seemed like we were just having a random talk about last night's dinner. Another example would be the moment in Act 3 Scene 1, when Mercutio was dying. Romeo didn't show enough grief and even laughed for a few times. It was just not good enough. Of course, we weren't well prepared and the absence of our group member made it even harder.
  In additional, our play was missing a significant element - music. Most of the other performances had background music and they turned out pretty impressive. Music can not only help present the atmosphere better, but also show the personalities of the actors through selecting it. I saw humor and seriousness in other groups. However, there was a new element that played pretty good role, which was the costume. We had never weared medieval costumes before, they made the performance more realistic. For example, I used to wear academic dress in performance, it didn't fit the play at all. This time, I have a green costume on, it looked much better. Also, we used the colors green and black to distinguish the Capulet and Montague.
  Our acting ability improved a lot since the first performance in this course. I added plenty of body languages in the play, and my voice was much louder. For other group members, they are much confident than before.
  After all, we tried our best to present the theme of the performance, I can see a lot of improvements in it, but the defects still exist.

Video Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPjGdHd8G60

Comments on first draft

  The actual performance reflects a lot of problems on the first draft. The largest issue is definitely the length of the play. Comparing to other groups, my group has one to two more scenes to perform. We need to cut a lot of lines from the original play in order to keep the time within 5 minutes. There were a few lines that aren't as important as others, such as one of the Mercutio speech, "An thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords. Here’s my fiddlestick"(3. 1 47-48). Editing the draft really provide us deeper understandings to this play.
  With the absence of one of our group members, the editing becomes even harder. Eric and I have to distribute those lines evenly, so we can have the same length of speeches. We have to read the draft over and over again to try to fill up the blank.
  Also, every scene that we picked have more than 3 characters in them. We edited them so that only 2-3 characters have lines. This time, we decided to invite a guest performer to help us instead of cutting another character's lines, because the lack of sentences can't express our theme - the feud as well. For draft #2, we want to keep editing the draft until it best describes how the feud between two families became tragedies.

In class writing

  In Act 1 Scene 1, I'm playing as Abram, who's a servant to Montague. The main issue of this scene is the feud between two families. During the conflict against the Capulet's servants, I need to show my anger and scorn. A few ways to represent those are raising the volume of my voice and body languages. When One of the Capulet bites his thumb at me, I need to be a little bit shocked that he does that and then be really angry. Another great way to ungrade the feud performance is the exaggeration of the sword fighting actions.

  In Act 1 Scene 5 and Act 3 Scene 1, I will be playing as Tybalt, who is also a really angry character. I have to carry the hate to Romeo all along according to the play. In 1.5, Capulet tries to stop me from going after Romeo, I need to show discontented and unsatisfied emotions. In 3.1, I'm fighting against two enemies, so my hate drives me to kill Mercutio and Romeo will kill me after.

draft

Ben: Abram, Tybalt

Eric: Sampson, Capulet, Romeo

Lucie: Gregory, Romeo, Mercutio

1.1

Sampson:

Gregory，on my words we’ll not carry coals.

Gregory:

No, for then we should be colliers.

Sampson:

A dog of the house of Montague shall move me to stand.I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s.

Gregory:

They must take it in sense that feel it.

Sampson:

Me they should feel while I am able to stand and ‘tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.

Gregory:

Draw thy tool. Here comes of the house of Montagues.

Enter Abram

Gregory:

I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list.

Sampson:

Nay, as they dare, I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it.

Abram:

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Sampson:

No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you.

Abram:

You lie.

Gregory:

Do you quarrel, sir?

Abram:

Quarrel? No.

Sampson:

Draw if you be men.

They Fight

1.5

Romeo:

What lady’s that which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear

Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

Tybalt:

This, by his voice, should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier, boy. What, dares the slave Come hither covered with an antic face To fleer and scorn at our solemnity ?

Capulet:

Why, how now, kinsman? Wherefore storm you so?

Tybalt:

Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe, A villain that is hither come in spite To scorn at our solemnity this night.

Capulet:

Young Romeo is it?

Tybalt:

’Tis he, that villain Romeo.

Capulet:

Content thee, gentle coz. Let him alone. He bears him like a portly gentleman.

Show a fair presence and put off these frowns, An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.

Tybalt:

It fits when such a villain is a guest. I’ll not endure him.

Capulet:

You’ll not endure him! God shall mend my soul, You’ll make a mutiny among my guests,

Tybalt:

Patience perforce with willful choler meeting

Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.

I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall,

Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall.

Scene 3.1

TYBALT
Follow me close, for I will speak to them.

MERCUTIO
And but one word with one of us? couple it with
something; make it a word and a blow.

TYBALT
Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo,--

MERCUTIO
Consort! what, dost thou make us minstrels?

here's my fiddlestick; here's that shall
make you dance.

Enter ROMEO

TYBALT
Well, here comes my man.
Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford
No better term than this,--thou art a villain.

ROMEO
Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting: villain am I none;
Therefore farewell; I see thou know'st me not.

TYBALT
Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me; therefore turn and draw.

ROMEO
I do protest, I never injured thee,
But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love:

MERCUTIO
O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!

Draws
Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?

TYBALT
What wouldst thou have with me?

MERCUTIO
Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine
lives; that I mean to make bold withal.

Will you pluck your sword out of his pitcher
by the ears?

TYBALT
I am for you.

Drawing

ROMEO
Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.

MERCUTIO
Come, sir, your passado.

They fight

ROMEO
Gentlemen, for shame, forbear this outrage!
Hold, Tybalt! good Mercutio!

TYBALT under ROMEO's arm stabs MERCUTIO, and flies

MERCUTIO
I am hurt.
A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.

ROMEO

What, art thou hurt?

MERCUTIO
Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch

ROMEO
Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.

MERCUTIO
Ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.

A plague o'both your houses!

Why the devil came you between us?

I was hurt under your arm.

ROMEO
I thought all for the best.

MERCUTIO
A plague o' both your houses!

ROMEO

O, brave Mercutio's dead!
Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.

Re-enter TYBALT

Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again,

Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.

TYBALT
Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here,
Shalt with him hence.

ROMEO
This shall determine that.

They fight; TYBALT falls

ROMEO
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
The prince will doom thee death,
O, I am fortune's fool!

Exit ROMEO

The foreshadowing of feud

  My paper for the IB project, will be mainly focusing on the topic of how the feud between two families - Capulet and Montague foreshadows the final tragedy. Speaking of foreshadowing, it usually represents an inevitable ending, which in this play is the death of both Romeo and Juliet. Foreshadowing is an unique literary feature that can help me to accomplish a description on development along the plot. My main goal is to show the influence of conflict, and only certain events can support the idea. A few good examples would be the fighting scenes of Act 1 Scene 1 (The beginning)and Act 3 Scene 1(Where Mercutio and Tybelt died). This method improves my logical thinking because in order to manage and make good connections between those scenes, I have to perform better organization. Also, through the deeper exploration of foreshadowing, I will be able to have a clearer vision on the interpretation of why the scenes take place.

  The scenes that My group and I are going to perform is those two I mentioned in the former paragragh. I believe those scenes have the best demonstration of the feud between Capulet and Montague. There might be an extra part from Act 1 Scene 5(the feast held by Capulet, and Romeo sneaked in) depend on the timing of other scenes. I helps explaining the origin of the fight that takes place in Act 3 Scene 1, but it won't be as important. During the performance, I really want to show the extreme of the two sides' hatred. As we all know, Capulet and Montague's dissension was built during a long period of time, and will have horrible effect on their heirs - Romeo and Juliet. If the hatred can be interpreted during the fight, it might bring up the discussion of will Romeo and Juliet have a good ending under this scenario; and how will they undergo the pressure from it.

  In the final performance, there will be three actors participating. Eric will play as Mercutio in Act 3 Scene 1 and Capulet in Act 1 Scene 5(If necessary). Lucie will play as Romeo throughout the entire scenes. I will be Tybelt in those scenes. We are going to cut several lines in order for each person to  have the same lengths of speech. Also, the distribution of characters can add extra parts to fill the blank.