Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (English Essay)
In the story, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Joel and Clementine decide to erase each other from their memories because of all the problems they face as a couple. As they go through all the memories they spent together, at the end they find that they love each other and that no matter all the problems, they want to be together. The major theme that I was able to see throughout the movie, and screenplay was that love is not just living happily ever after, it involves problems and fights but no matter how difficult and hard it is if two imperfect people really love each other, they will always be together and face those problems together. This theme was shown throughout the story with many different literary devices like characterization, conflict, and foreshadowing.
In the story, we can see characterization as we learn the differences between Clementine and Joel. Clementine and Joel are very opposite from each other, almost entirely opposites. Joel is quiet and shy and doesn't really have an interesting life, he goes to work and then home. For example, he told Clementine at the beginning of the movie and screenplay, "Sorry. My life isn't that interesting. I go to work. I go home. I don't know what to say." On the other hand, Clementine is wild and likes to be unique, as we can see with the many different hair colors she had and she is loud and outgoing. In the scene where Clementine invited Joel to her apartment she said, "God bless alcohol, is what I say. Where would I be without it." She describes herself as "a vindictive little bitch." Joel describes Clementine in his journal saying,"I met someone tonight. Oh, Christ. I don't know what to do. Her name is Clementine and she's amazing. So alive and spontaneous and passionate and sensitive." As you may see they are very different from each other and they are both not perfect, they are far way from perfect, and what this story tells you is that love is not perfect. Love is not about finding the perfect person and then you'll become perfect too, love is about being able to collaborate with another imperfect person in a relationship and being able to face each other's differences and go through problems together.
We can see a lot of conflict between Clementine and Joel's relationship as a result of their different personalities and characters. They have good and bad times but we can mostly see fights between them in the story. For example, when she came home at three in the morning and he was in the couch waiting for her. Then she tells him that she made a dent in his car so Joel tells her, "I can't believe you wrecked my car. Your car...You're driving drunk, it's pathetic...Well it is pathetic. And fucking irresponsible. You could've killed somebody." Right here we can see one of their fights because Clementine is usually irresponsible while Joel tries to do everything right. Clementine is also usually wild and drunk while Joel is always keeping control, trying to tell her to behave. The major conflict in this story was for Clementine and Joel to decide whether or not they wanted to keep up with this relationship even with all the different problems and fights they had. They had to decide whether they're relationship was worth trying for and fighting for. Both had to be able to understand each other and go through their flaws and see what they could do to improve on whatever they did wrong in the past. For example, on that memory when Clementine and Joel go into the house at the beach at night, and Joel decides to leave and she tells him," If only you had stayed." They talk about what they could've done to make this a good and unforgettable memory. This connects to the overall theme because if there would have been no conflict at all between them then we would get the theme that love is living happily ever after but right here we see that love is not perfect, it has problems and fights and its between two imperfect people.
In this story we can also see foreshadowing. The story basically starts with what happens at the end of the story. They were meeting again after they had erased their memories from each other. That is why the car had a dent and that's why when they go to her apartment she tells him about Patrick, who is a character that comes up after Clementine's memories of Joel have been erased. This is kind of foreshadowing but backwards, it is letting you have an idea of what will happen and also tells you what happens at the end. For example, in the beginning of the story when she tells him about getting married to him, that would be foreshadowing to what will happen after the movie ends and also what happens through out the movie and their relationship. This lets you know that they will be together and that they will decide to face their problems together because they are both imperfect and they are both in love. Also, when they are in her apartment and she talks about Patrick that is foreshadowing to later when we are introduced to him. The dent in the car also helps you understand that this happened at the end. All this connects to the theme because this shows that they were really meant for each other and they were really in love because even now that they forgot about each other they meet again and know that they will end together no matter what.
Musicals in Theater (History Essay)
A musical is defined as "A play or movie in which singing and dancing play an essential part." Musicals have been an essential part in theater for quite a long time now. They are so important that we can see them all around us, like in movies, plays and theater in general. An example of a very known musical that is a movie is Hairspray. In this movie we can see how the characters tell their stories by dancing and singing. The art of telling stories through music dates back to time immemorial. The ancient Greeks used music and dance in their stage comedies and tragedies as early as the 5th Century B.C. After that there were others that expanded on the idea and used it in their own theater.
Not everyone likes musicals and many people are totally against them but there are also people who love them. Some people might not like musicals because they think that they are just so loud and noisy and could get annoying but the reason why a playwright might want to turn his or her play into a musical would be to add a different perspective to their story. There might be audiences who would want to see the actual play but there might be many more that would enjoy watching the musical. There are different things people like and that is what the playwright has to keep in mind when writing a play or musical.
In musicals, the actors don't just say their lines with dialogue but also with song. This is why musicals are better than traditional plays sometimes because often words can't express everything the actor is trying to show like all the emotions. "Musicals combine the full spectrum of all the arts: words, singing, dancing, stage spectacle, providing audiences with something for just about every taste. The addition of music to a standard play heightens emotion, reinforces dramatic action, evokes atmosphere and mood in ways that words alone cannot. Musical theater encompasses a wide range, from revues to Broadway musicals to grand opera, depending on how music functions dramatically in the work.," said Dr. Larry A. Brown. Like what the writer and novelist Victor Hugo said, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." Also like Hans Christian Andersen said, "Where words fail, music speaks." In these quotes we can see that music can express more than just words which makes musicals very important and famous in modern theater. They go a step further in plays. They go beyond the usual acting. "If music possesses an element that raises thought or emotion above words, then it logically follows that musicals are certainly not all flash and smoke. Musicals transform society through their show tunes and spectacular effects and as a result have become an extremely popular form of theatre," said Leigh Mackintosh.
There are a variety of different types of musicals. Such as classical, tragedy, comedy and many others. A famous musical that we have probably all heard of is Chicago, the musical. “A true New York City institution, CHICAGO has everything that makes Broadway great: a universal tale of fame, fortune and all that jazz; one show-stopping-song after another; and the most astonishing dancing you've ever seen. No wonder CHICAGO has been honored with 6 Tony Awards®, 2 Olivier Awards®, a Grammy® and thousands of standing ovations. It's also no surprise that CHICAGO has wowed audiences all around the world, from Mexico City to Moscow, from Sao Paulo to South Africa.” said the Chicago’s official website. As we can see, this is a worldwide known musical that is very famous, popular and great.
Musicals are not just another form of theater but a very important one and without them theater would probably not be what it is today. Musicals have added so many things to theater in general and not just the dancing and the singing but also the music and life and that new perspective of telling a story. They are widely famous because now in our generation dancing and singing is very popular and also music. Music is very important in our world and now there are so many more different genres of music, which make musicals even more diverse and now more people can enjoy them because they love music. Also in musicals you can see a lot of special effects and costumes and props and all this draws the audience to want to see it because of the many different things you can see. All this new technology that we have in our generation makes the especial effects even better and improves the overall musical grabbing more people's attention to musicals. Everyday new things and ideas are added to musicals and every day more and more people start to get interested in musicals. Musicals keep getting more famous and important in theater.
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