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As literature went into the turn of the nineteenth century, melodrama plays became popular and writers began to lavish their stage productions with new ideas such as the use of naturalism and expressionism in which emotions would determine their actions despite of social qualities, as well as a memory play which can be presented with unusual freedom of convention. In the two plays, Miss Julie by August Strindberg and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the writers both make use expressionism in their own interpretation of the plays, to show a shift to realism and limitation of the real world. In Miss Julie, Strindberg conveys the idea of naturalism through the main characters lives and social status. Miss Julie and Jean are having a sexual conflict versing pulling away. The two characters have a barrier between class distinction and emotions, Strindberg's idea was to characterize both Miss Julie and Jean as two people that are basically motivated into changing their social status in order to meet their needs and happiness. Julie is part of the higher class, but tries to get along with the lower class and she isnt kindly accepted.
Jean is her fathers servant and his major motivation in life is to be part of the higher class. Strindberg portrays Jeans character as someone who is a servant, but appears to have the qualities of belonging to the higher class. The plays structure was based on unity of time and place in which during the 1800 s, that was one of the most important ideas used by the writer, to maintain a continuo's flow in the play and making it a regular everyday speech between the characters. In Miss Julie, the setting was a major part of the play, because Strindberg's purpose was to connect the unity of time and place which could lead to the time of unity of action.
Strindberg's idea of presenting Miss Julie, as a naturalistic play, was very important because it also meets part of he ideas of expressionism, by the way the characters emotions have a major influence in the actions that they take. Unlike, The Glass Menagerie, by Williams, his idea was more thorough in making it a memory play. The play is very different because it has a considerably delicate form. William presents the main character Tom, as the narrator and makes the play, poetic license, which is why it has its own unusual freedom of convention. Tom and his sister Laura, who had a small limp in her leg, lived with their mother, Amanda their whole life and without the presence of their father. William conveys Toms character as someone whos been living with his family too long and wants to move on and explore the world just like his father did.
Laura is interpreted as The Glass Menagerie because she is a fragile girl emotionally and strives by hoping Tom will stay home with her and Amanda, Williams idea is to convey Laura as being easy to break, just like the menagerie. Once Tom leaves his home, he tries to run from the memory and remorse of leaving Amanda and Laura. Williams important purpose of the play is to show irony, that fifth character in the play is their father which is just a picture portrait on the wall, but has such a strong presence and influence on them even though hes not physically present. The play resembles expressionism in the sense that it represents powerful emotional states. It meets the fact of it being a memory play because it isnt expressing real truths. In both Miss Julie and The Glass Menagerie, Strindberg and Williams, tend to meet the use of expressionism and apply it to their own productions, to bring about the idea of why the characters emotions have control over most of their actions.
Although there are similar elements of literature used in both plays, it is important to understand the difference between them being a memory play and a naturalistic play. Tennessee and Williams own purpose for their plays is to mainly make the audience aware of the connections used to emphasize the purpose of their ideas.
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Research essay sample on Time And Place Miss Julie
