LITERARY ANALYSIS – DR 101

SHAKESPEAREExcerpt from “Richard II” – (AD 1596)

SCENE:Act I. SCENE I.London. The palaceEnter RICHARD, JOHN OF GAUNT, with other NOBLES and attendants

KING RICHARD. Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster, Hast thou, according to thy oath and band, Brought hither Henry Hereford, thy bold son, Here to make boist’rous late appear, Which then our leisure would not let us hear, Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?GAUNT. I have, me liege.KING RICHARD. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him If he appeal the Duke on ancient malice, Or worthily, as a good subject should, On some known ground of treachery in him?GAUNT. As near as I could sift him on that argument, On some apparent danger seen in him Aim’d at your Highness-no inveterate malice.KING RICHARD. The call them to our presence: face to face And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear The accuser and the accused freely speak. High-stomach’d are the both and full of ire, In rage, deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.

MOLIERE (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin)- (AD 1622-1673)Excerpt from “Tartuffe” or “The Hypocrite”

Translated by Jeffrey D. Hoeper

ACT ISCENE IMadame Pernelle and her servant Flipote, Elmire, Mariane, Dorine, Damis, Cleante

Mme. Pernelle. Let’s go Flipote, let’s go. I hate this place.Elmire. I can’t keep up, you rush at such a pace.Mme. Pernelle. Peace, my dear, peace; come no farther.

I don’t wish to cause you any bother.Elmire. What duty demands, I insist of giving. But, mother, what has caused your hasty leaving?Mme. Pernelle. I just can’t stand the way your household runs . . .

And no one cares what I wish to have done.Oh yes, I leave your household quite dissatisfiedFor all my wise advice has been defied . . . And no no one respects me, and everyone shouts,And truly this is a home for the king of louts!

Dorine. If . . . Mme. Pernelle. You my dearie, are a bold lassy,

A little brazen and very sassy,You butt into everything to speak your mind.

Damise. But . . . Mme. Pernelle. You, grandson, are a fool of the worst kind.

It is I, your grandmother, that pronounce this edictThat you’ll turn out to be a worthless wastrel,And give him in life a foretaste of Hell.

Mariane. I think . . . Mme. Pernelle. My lord, his sister! You seem so discreet

And so untainted, so very sweet,But the stillest waters are filled with scum,And your sly ways earn my revulsion.

Elmire. But . . . Mme. Pernelle. Daughter, my views may make you mad,

But your conduct in all things is bad.In your family’s eyes you should be an example-setter;In that respect their late mother did far better.You are extravagant, and it wounds me, I guess,To see you sashay about dressed like a princess.A woman who wishes only to please her mate,Dear daughter, need not primp and undulate.

Cleante. Madam, after all . . .Mme. Pernelle. And her brother, as for you,

I respect you, love you, and revere you, too,But finally, if I were my son, her spouse,I would at once beg you to leave this house.Without cease you teach your rules and mottosWhich decent people should never follow.I now speak frankly, but it is my part;I never spare the words that stir my heart.

DAVID MAMETExcerpt from “Glengarry Glen Ross” – (AD1992)

SCENE ONE

A booth at a Chinese restaurant, Williamson and Levene areSeated at the booth

LEVENEJohn…John…John. Okay. JohnJohn. Look:

(pause)The Glengarry Highland’s leads,You’re sending Roma out. Fine.He’s a good man. We know what he is. He’s fine. All I’m saying’you look at the board, he’sthrowing… wait, wait, wait, he’sthrowing them away, he’s throwingthe leads away. All that I’m saying, that you’re wasting leads.I don’t want to tell you your job.All I’m saying, things getset, I know they do, you get a certain mindset… A guy gets a reputation. We know how this… allI’m saying, put a closer on the job.There’s more than one man for the… Put a...wait a second, put a provenman out… and you watch, now wait a second—and you watch your dollarvolumes… You start closing themfor fifty ‘stead of twenty-five… you put a closer on the…

WILLIAMSONShelly, you blew the last…

LEVENENo. John. No. Let’s wait, let’sback up here. I did…will you please? Wait a second. Please. Ididn’t “blow” them. No. I didn’t“blow” them. No. One kicked out,one I closed…

WILLIAMSON… you didn’t close…

LEVENE…I, if you’d listen to mePlease. I closed the cocksucker.His ex, John, his ex, I didn’t knowhe was married… he, the judgeinvalidated the…

WILLIAMSONShelly…

LEVENE…and what is it John? What?Bad luck. That’s all it is. Ipray in your life you will neverfind it runs in streaks. That’s what it does, that’s all it’s doing.Streaks. I pray it misses you.That’s all I want to say.

WILLIAMSON(pause)What about the other two?

LEVENEWhat two?

WILLIAMSONFour. You had four leads. Onekicked out, one the judge, you say…

LEVENE… you want to see the courtrecords? John? Eh? You want to go down…

WILLIAMSON… no…

LEVENE…do you want to go downtown?...

WILLIAMSON

… no…

LEVENE…then…

WILLIAMSON…I only…

LEVENE…then what is this “you say”? A dealKicks out…I got to eat. Shit,Williamson, shit. You…Moss…Roma…look at the sheets. Nineteen eighty,Eighty-one…eighty-two…six months of eighty-two…who’s there?Who’s up there?

WILLIAMSONRoma.

LEVENEUnder him?

WILLIAMSONMoss.

LEVENEBullshit. John.. Bullshit. April,September 1981. It isn’t fucking Moss. Due respect, he’s an order taker John, he talks, he talks a good game, look at the board, and it’s me, John, it’s me…

WILLIAMSONNot lately it isn’t.

LEVENE Lately kiss my ass lately. Thatisn’t how you build and org…talk,talk to Murray. Talk to Mitch.When we were on Peterson, who paidfor his fucking car? You talk to him. The Seville…? He came in,“You bought that for me Shelly.”Out of What? Cold calling. Nothing.

Sixty-five, when we were there, with Glenn Ross Farms? You call ‘emdowntown. What was that? Luck?That was “luck”? Bullshit, John.You’re burning my ass, I can’t geta fucking lead… you think that wasluck. My stats for those years?Bullshit…over that period oftime…? Bullshit. It wasn’t luck.It was skill. You want to throwthat away, John…? You want to throw that away?

WILLIAMSONIt isn’t me…

LEVENE …it isn’t you…? Who is it?Who is this I’m talking to? I needthe leads…

WILLIAMSON…after the thirtieth…

LEVENE Bullshit the thirtieth, I don’t get on board the thirtieth, they’reGoing to can my ass. I need the leads. I need them now. Or I’mgone, and your going to miss me, John, I swear to you.

SUZAN-LORI-PARKSExcerpt from “In the Blood” – (AD 2000)

DOCTOR. I guess your do.(he steps even closer.)HESTER. ((something-somethin-A-somethin.))(Rest.)I need glasses.DOCTOR. You can’t read this?HESTER. I gotta go.

(She turns to go and he grabs her hand, holding her fast.)DOCTOR. When I say removal of your “womanly parts” do you know what parts Im talking about?HESTER. Yr gonna take my woman parts?DOCTOR. My hands are tied. The Higher Ups are calling the shots now.(Rest.)You have five healthy children, itll be fore the best, considering.HESTER. My woman parts.DOCTOR. Ive forwarded my recommendation to yr caseworker. Its out of my hands. Im sorry.HESTER. I gotta go(But she doesn’t move. She stands there numbly.)DOCTOR. Yr gut. Lets have a listen. (He puts his ear to her stom-ach and listens.) Growling hungry stomach. Heres a dollar. Go getyrself a sandwich.(She takes the money and goest.)DOCTOR.DOCTOR.DOCTOR.

JONATHAN LARSONExcerpt from “RENT” – (AD 1996)

MIMI & ANGELTo hand crafted beers made in local breweriesTo, yoga, to yogurt, to rice, beans and cheeseTo leather, to dildos, to curry VindalooTo Huevos Rancheros and Maya Angelou

MAUREEN & COLLINSEmotion, devotion, to causing a commotion,Creation, Vacation

MARKMucho masturbation

MAUREEN & COLLINSCompassion, to fashion, to passionWhen it’s new

COLLINSTo Sontag

ANGELTo Sondheim

FOUR PEOPLETo anything taboo

COLLINS & ROGERGinsberg, Dylan, Cunningham and Cage

COLLINSLenny Bruce

ROGERLangston Hughs

MAUREENTo the stage!

PERSON #1To Uta

PERSON #2To Buddha

PERSON #3Pablo Neruda, too

MARK & MIMIWhy Dorothy and Toto went over the rainbowTo blow off Auntie Em

ALLLa Vie Boheme

STAGE DIRECTIONS/ DESCRIPTIONS

NEIL SIMON“Lost in Yonkers”- (AD 1991)

Scene I

Yonkers, New Your, 1942We are in an apartment that sits just above “Kurtnit’s Kandy Store.” . . . It consists of a living

room, dining room, small kitchen, one bathroom, and two bedrooms. The entrance door leads from downstairs directly to the candy store.

It’s about six-thirty in the evening on a hot, sultry day in August. It/s still quite light outside. A fan blows in the living room.

Two young boys are in the living room. One, ARTHUR KURNITZ, about thirteen and a half, sits on an old armchair, looking apprehensive. He is wearing an old woolen suit, his only one, with knickered pants, a shirt, tie, long socks, and brown shoes.

The other boy is his brother, JAY KURNITZ, not quite sixteen. He sits on the sofa, in a suit as well, but with long pants, shirt, tie, and shiny black shoes. He looks more sullen and angry than apprehensive.

ARTY keeps wiping his sweaty brow with his handkerchief.

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS“The Glass Menagerie”- (AD 1945)

Act IScene I

The Wingfield apartment in the rear of the building, one of those vast hive-like conglomerations of cellular living units that flower as warty growths in overcrowded urban centers of lower middle class populations and are symptomatic of the impulse of this largest and fundamentally enslaved section of American society to avoid fluidity and differentiation and to exist and function as one interfused mass of automatism. The apartment faces an alley and is entered by a fire escape, a structure whose name is a touch of accidental poetic truth, for all of these huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation. The fire escape is included in the set – that is, the landing of it and the steps descending from it. (Note that the stage L. alley maybe entirely omitted since it is never used except for Tom’s first entrance which can take place stage R.) The scene is memory and is therefore nonrealistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details, others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominately in the heart. The interior is therefore rather dim and poetic. As soon as the house lights dim, dance-hall music is hears on-stage R. Old popular music of, say, 1915-1920 period. This continues until Tom is at fire-escape landing, having lighted cigarette, and begins speaking.)AT RISE: At the rise of the house curtain, the audience is faces with the dark, grim rear wall of the Wingfield tenement. (The stage proper is screened out by a gauze curtain, which suggests the front part, outside, of the building.) This building, which runs parallel to the footlights, is flanked on both sides by dark, narrow alleys which run into murky canyons of tngled clotheslines, garbage cans and sinister lattice-work of neighboring fire-escapes. (The alleys are actually in darkness, and the objects just mentioned are not visible.) It is up and down these side alleys that exterior entrances and exits are made during the play. At the end of Tom’s opening commentary, the dark tenement wall slowly reveals (by means of a transparency) the interior of the ground floor Wingfield apartment. (Gauze curtain, which suggest front part of building, rises on the interior set.) Downstage is the living room, which also serves as a sleeping room for Laura, the day-bed unfolding to make her bed. Just above this is a small stool or table on which is a telephone. Up stage, C, and divided by a wide arch or second proscenium with transparent faded portieres (or second curtain, “second curtain” is actually the inner gauze curtain between the living-room and the d9ning-room, which is upstage of it), is the dining-room. In an old-fashioned what-not in the living-room are seen scores of transparent glass animals. A blown-up photograph of the father hangs on the wall of the living-room, facing the audience, to the L. of the archway. It is the face of a very handsome young man in a doughboy’s First World War cap. He is

gallantly smiling, ineluctably smiling, as if to say, “I will be smiling forever.” (Note that all that is essential in connection with the dance-hall is that the window be shown lighting the lower part of the alley. It is not necessary to show any considerable part of the dance-hall.) The audience hears and sees the opening scene in the dining-rom through both the transparent fou8rth wall (this is gauze curtain which suggests the out-side of the building) of the building and the transparent gauze portieres of the dining-room arch. It is during this revealing scene that the fourth wall slowly ascends, out of sight. This transparent exterior wall is not brought down again until the very end of the play, during Tom’s final speech. The narrator is an undistinguished convention of the play. He takes whatever license with dramatic convention as is convenient to his purposes. Tom enters dressed as a merchant sailor from the alley, stage L. (i.e. stage R. if L. alley is omitted), and strolls across the front of the stage to the fire-escape. (This is the fire-escape landing shown in diagram on p. 69. Tom may lean against grillwork of this as he lights cigarette.) There he stops and lights a cigarette. He addresses the audience.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE“As You Like It” – (AD 1601)

SCENE: OLIVER’S house; FREDERICK”S court; and the Forest of Arden

ACT I. SCENE I.Orchard of OLIVER’s house