MAJOR PLAYWRIGHT : WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare was born on 26 April 1564 in  in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He was well known as the greatest English writer,He managed to wrote about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrtive poem. He was admired by many people around the world of his impressive work. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men.Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. Most of his play are used the comedies and histories as the genre. In 16th century, he began to write the plays with tragedies genre. Among of his famous plays are Romeo and Juliet,Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.William was die on 23 April 1616.

 Romeo and Julier is a tragedy  written early in the career of  William Shakespeare is  about two young lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime .Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal  young lovers. This is the synopsis of Romeo and Juliet:
    
The play, set in Verona, begins with a street brawl between Montague and Capulet  supporters who are sworn enemies. The Prince of Verona  intervenes and declares that further breach of the peace will be punishable by death. Later, Count Paris talks to Capulet about marrying his daughter, but Capulet asks Paris to wait another two years and invites him to attend a planned Capulet ball . Lady Capulet and Juliet's nurse try to persuade Juliet to accept Paris's courtship.


 

 Meanwhile, Benvolio  talks with his cousin Romeo , Montague's son, about Romeo's recent depression. Benvolio discovers that it stems from unrequited infatuation for a girl named Rosaline, one of Capulet's nieces. Persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio, Romeo attends the ball at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosaline. However, Romeo instead meets and falls in love with Juliet. However Romeo is noticed by Juliet's cousin,  Tybalt, who intends to kill him for sneaking into a Capulet ball but is only stopped by Juliet's father, who doesn't wish to shed blood in his house. After the ball, in what is now called the "balcony scene", Romeo sneaks into the Capulet orchard and overhears Juliet at her window vowing her love to him in spite of her family's hatred of the Montagues. Romeo makes himself known to her and they agree to be married. With the help of Friar Laurence , who hopes to reconcile the two families through their children's union, they are secretly married the next day.


Tybalt, meanwhile, still incensed that Romeo had sneaked into the Capulet ball, challenges him to a duel. Romeo, now considering Tybalt his kinsman, refuses to fight. Mercutio is offended by Tybalt's insolence, as well as Romeo's "vile submission,"and accepts the duel on Romeo's behalf. Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo attempts to break up the fight. Grief-stricken and wracked with guilt, Romeo confronts and slays Tybalt.
Montague argues that Romeo has justly executed Tybalt for the murder of Mercutio. The Prince, now having lost a kinsman in the warring families' feud, exiles Romeo from Verona, with threat of execution upon return. Romeo secretly spends the night in Juliet's chamber, where they consummate  their marriage. Capulet, misinterpreting Juliet's grief, agrees to marry her to Count Paris and threatens to disown her when she refuses to become Paris's "joyful bride.When she then pleads for the marriage to be delayed, her mother rejects her.
Juliet visits Friar Laurence for help, and he offers her a drug that will put her into a deathlike coma for "two and forty hours." The Friar promises to send a messenger to inform Romeo of the plan, so that he can rejoin her when she awakens. On the night before the wedding, she takes the drug and, when discovered apparently dead, she is laid in the family crypt.

The messenger, however, does not reach Romeo and, instead, Romeo learns of Juliet's apparent death from his servant Balthasar. Heartbroken, Romeo buys poison from an apothecary  and goes to the Capulet crypt.  He encounters Paris who has come to mourn Juliet privately. Believing Romeo to be a vandal, Paris confronts him and, in the ensuing battle, Romeo kills Paris. Still believing Juliet to be dead, he drinks the poison. Juliet then awakens and, finding Romeo dead, stabs herself with his dagger. The feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb to find all three dead. Friar Laurence recounts the story of the two "star-cross'd lovers". The families are reconciled by their children's deaths and agree to end their violent feud. The play ends with the Prince's elegy for the lovers: "For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo"


References :

  i) http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323
  ii)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
  iii) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet

MAJOR PLAYWRIGHT : SUSAN GLASPELL

Susan Glaspell was born on 1 July 1876 in  Davenport, Iowa. The only daughter of Elmer and Alice Gaspell couple, she received her degree in philosophy from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa and began to write for the Des Moines Daily News in 1899. She also did  wrote short stories for Youth's Companion, selling a total of forty-three stories over the next two decades, many of which were set in Freeport, the fictional version of Davenport. She married George Cram Cook in 1914 who was the theatrical director. This couple managed to form a theatrical group named Provincetown Player which became the most influential group in American drama. Susan was well known as the woman who rebelled against society’s expectations of women. In 1931 Glaspell won the Pulitzer Prize for her play Alison’s House

 Among of her famous works are Fidelity, in 1915,Trifles (1916) The Outside (1917), Inheritors (1921), Woman’s Honor (1918) Suppressed Desires (written with Cook in 1915), and  The Verge (1921). Talk about her most famous play,Trifles she wrote this play in 1916, basing this brief, one-act play on the murder of the sixty-year-old John Hossack, which she had covered extensively during her stint as a journalist with the Des Moines Daily News. Trifles was about the murder of John Wright and the men who involved in the investigation could not find any hint or clues related to this case. This play also exposed that the women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs.Peters ,that always been looked down by the society especially the men managed to find the clues even from small thing which men assumed them as kitchen things and accused women to worry over the trifles. The major themes in this play is men do not appreciate women which can be seen the men in this play  think they are tough, serious-minded detectives, when in truth they are not nearly as observant as the female characters. Their pompous attitude causes the women to feel defensive and form ranks. Not only do Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters bond, but they choose to hide evidence as an act of compassion for Mrs. Wright. Stealing the box with the dead bird is an act of loyalty to their gender and an act of defiance against a callous patriarchal society.

Susan Glaspell died on July 27, 1948 due to a pulmonary embolism at the age of 66. Susan wrote nine novels, fourteen plays, countless short stories and articles.

TRIFFLES by SUSAN GLASPELL

Exploration of the text

1) Characterize Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter at the beginning of the play. How do they differ?

Mrs. Hale is a wife of the farmer, Mr.Hale. She also was a friend to Minnie Foster@ Mrs. Wright. While Mrs. Peteris the wife to the new comer sheriff,Mr.Henry Peter. There are several differences between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter. Mrs.Peter is a women who very loyal towards her husband just follow what he said since she married with the law. She also allow herself to be looked down by the men. At the first of this story, she does not want to tolerate about Mrs.Wright case due to the law,but after Mrs.Hale tell her about Minnie's experience, she changed her mind and keep silent. Mrs, Hale is the farmer's wife which braver than Mrs Peter and does not totally follow her husband instruction. She stands with her instinct to keep silent about the evidence on Minnie's action of killed her husband. She also does not want to be remain looking down by the men.


2) What clues lead the women to conclude that Minnie Wright killed her husband?

The women found the body of the dead canary with its neck has been wrung which is the same way as Mr. Wright has been killed and they make the conclusion that she killed her husband use the same way he killed her bird.Besides, they also found the ruined preserves fruit in the kitchen and unfinished quilt.


3) How do the men differ from the women? From each other?
Men always think about the serious matter and used to ignore the small things. While women will keep thinking and wondering about something even though it is only a common thing. For example in this play, the men said "Nothing here but kitchen things" which mean they never thought that it could be the clues for the murder case. But, women feel curious what is going to be happen by saw the way Mrs. Wright knitting the quilt.


4) What do the men discover? Why do the conclude  " Nothing here but kitchen things'? What do the women discover?

The men in this play only discover that Minnie Foster has killed her husband without they notice about the way and the reason why she did  the murder. The conclude is " Nothing here but kitchen things'' because the men cannot find any evidence through the kitchen things which for them is meaningless. While for the women, they found a few evidences in the kitchen. For instance, ruined fruit preserves and the bread that left out of the box.