Comparsions between the Common Themes in South Downs and The Browning Version - Coursework Example

?Introduction ‘Browning version’ was a play written by Rattigan in 1940s. It was rated a masterpiece in his era. After hundred years, Rattigan’s estates contracted David Hare to develop a play that will curtain raise Rattigan’s classic works. David came up with yet another masterpiece “South Downs” which complements “Browning version”. Abstract This paper is going to look at ways which could have enabled David to come up with his master piece which closely rhymes Rattigan’s works. It will start by giving the summary of the plays, then focus on the themes in the two plays. Summary of the play browning version Andrew Crocker-Harris, a character well projected by Michael Redgrave works as a teacher at a boarding school. He detects failure in his career. Due to his deteriorating health, Andrew resigns with not much to show. Not even his students or his colleagues were grateful for his dedicated service. Jean Kent takes the role of Millie, (Andrew’s wife) and it is evident that their marriage is at the edge. Millie is going out with a chemistry teacher, and she does not have the dignity to hide her infidelity from her husband. Millie’s new hook is known as Frank Hunter, a character well brought out by Nigel Patrick. Millie is breaking up with Andrew because he is unromantic. Taplow, a student at Andrew work place is highly sensitive, and this makes him break into Andrew’s confidential British exterior. 1The student offers Andrew an Agamemnon translation which makes him to breakdown with emotions. During the graduation ceremony, Andrew surprises everybody by giving an emotional speech. He mainly apologizes for letting people around him down. Andrew feels belittled by his wife who ridicules him. Adding salt to injury, his students keep on making fun of him. The school betrays him too even though he had been working for it faithfully. He has to accept the fact that nobody loves him and should see himself as other people think of him. He also has to accept that he is a failure due to the loss of his marriage, job and health. When Taplow presents him the Agamemnon play, he realizes he was insufficient in his work. His school denied him a pension after he retired and even his final speech was almost denied by his headmaster (Andrew Woodall). Andrew is devastated when he learns his nick name “the Himmler of the lower fifth”. He still keeps his head high and is composed even though he knows that he is dying inside with insults and rejection. 2He accepts his position as the society places him but keeps his dignity as a gentleman and an outstanding teacher proficient in English. Summary of South Downs Hare is smart in developing a play which has been inspired by a classic done by Terrence Rattigan. Most of The David Hare's works have been rated as intellectual. Although South Downs was tremendously inspired by Terrence, most of David’s life was characterized by sadness when he was still at a school going age. Blakemore as a character in South Down clearly narrates how his life was. Blakemore is only 14 years, intelligent and understands the pope’s poetry. The school setting in South Downs is the same as the one in browning version. Blakemore is a delightful boy that is earnest, and lonely. He is highly suspected by other boys. Among the few friends he has one of their mothers offers Blakemore tea, cake and advice. She shows him sympathy and with this, Blakemore (Alex Lawther) eases up. John Blakemore has a distinctive character and personality. He is afraid of nuclear bombs and wants to be given permission to wear a badge that is against the bombs at school. His father being a sailor, they are not financially established, and they live in a semidetached house. He is currently in school because of a scholarship. All the other boys can afford a decent life since they come from well to do families. Because he comes from such an environment, he is curious to understand his new environment and this makes him be counted as an odd one out. His current world (school) is full of showing off and people around him are filled with hypocrisy. He has a friend Jenkins who later abandons him because he makes him be unpopular in the school environment. The prefect, Jeremy Duffield becomes his friend and also acts as an inspiration to Blakemore. He tells him that he too was as “sheepish” as he is, but he learnt to step up his game and change the rules that the society had impacted on him. Duffield introduces Blakemore to his mother who in turn understands him. This play could be classified as an indicator of the English ruling class and the efforts of maintaining it. South Downs is a tender story, which is touching, and funny.3 The main themes In Rattigan’s play, there is an evident theme of feelings which are felt but can rarely be exposed through the word of mouth in Andrew’s life. It is the same theme that David Hare uses to develop his play South Downs, evident in the character Blakemore. Having settled on this theme, David uses a school setting to paint a fiercely traditional English class society. As much as Rattigan paints a picture of a lonely isolated teacher that keeps his head up despite the numerous intimidations, David struggles, on the other hand, to bring out a picture of a young, smart, lonely, isolated fourteen year old boy who is struggling to fit into the society. Blakemore has the same character as Andrew that builds up the South Downs play to complement the Browning Version. Blakemore struggles with himself. He is different when in the public but real with himself. Both stories were inspired by life experiences of the two authors. David reveals the boys’ point of view while Rattigan draws a masters’ point of view. They both contain strong sense of humor, sympathy and try to make the audience understand cruelty and pain as inflicted by the society. The school setting has been used to depict the society and how it operates and manipulates people with its rules. The relation between the two works (the Browning Version and South Downs) They can be classified as two plays, in two public schools, two characters that are not accepted by the community they live and serve, though the individuals are exceptionally brilliant intellectuals. The browning version was written by Terrence Rattigan while South Downs was written by David Hare. For the sake of commemoration of Rattigan, his estate hired David Hare to compile a master piece that will mark his anniversary after hundred years. David came up with the play South Downs. Fortunately, David’s work was clearly a success, and they were clearly compatible. Both plays have a compelling story to tell which is deep and emotional. The two artists were educated in public schools. This led them to write stories that they had either passed through in life experience like David or through observation. The theme of relationships is clear in the two plays. While Rattigan struggles to show the breaking relationship between Millie and Andrew, David, on the other hand, is struggling to bring the theme of friendship and religion. David focuses on relationships caused by believes in Catholics and Anglicans. There are a number of themes that are common in both plays, although there are a number of inevitable differences, which in a sense bring the compatibility. David identified many themes in browning version, which directed him to come up with the compatible masterpiece. Both of the plays narrate a story about a weirdly behaved lonely individual who is the leading character. Both of them have school scenes and feature the schools’ rules in their plays. While David writes about male students in the school, Rattigan centers on the masters of the school. David includes fascinating autobiographies, which were inspired by the play “Browning Version”. There is a vast time space between the two plays, but it is remarkable how David manipulates the leading character (Blakemore) and manages to give him the same characteristics as Andrew in Rattigan’s works. Browning version was done in 1940 while South Downs was done in 1962. The stage set up In the play, "South Downs" props were mainly hand held. Nothing much could be spotted on the stage except for the chairs and tables. The lighting was perfectly done as it brought about a scene of an empty and dusty space. In browning version, the stage was quite busy. Andrew’s apartment was full of resources inform of books, drinks and papers. Compatible roles that brought out compatible themes Most roles played by adults in the two plays were shared. Millie in Rattigan’s work and Belinda (Ana Chancellor) in David’s masterpiece bring out almost the same characteristics of a woman who does not like to carry out her womanly responsibilities as dictated by the society. Note how Belinda dresses and her expensive style, which clearly indicates that she is not fond of carrying out homely chores. They both are a disappointment to their husbands. Anna Chancellor and Millie are hurting with anger and frustration. Millie decides to get involved in another relationship with Andrew’s colleague Hunter frank. The play is polite enough to show the audience the reason why she is having an affair even though she is married to someone else. After Hunter observes secretly at how Andrew breaks down in tears after being given a gift by Taplow, he gets to understand the other side of Millie.4 Andrew, on the other hand, in browning version has the same characteristics as Nicholas Farrell (Blakemore) in South Downs. They both cultivate the feeling of sad emotions in the audience. The school settings in the plays As usual many schools have rebellious students and the two schools are not an exception. The audience comes to meet rebellious, rich and spoilt, drug users, an absurd “man of the robe” and teachers who are involved in weird behaviors. In the two plays, there is evident precocity and insolence. Many teachers do not approve of Blakemore in South Downs just as they did not in Browning Version. They are cold, cruel and concerned with maintaining their class in the society. The school in this play has adversely been used to emphasize the society and how it treats its lesser members. The society tends to accept people from the upper class more than people from the lower class, even if they have a positive contribution to the community. This is so in the case of Andrew, who was an exemplary teacher, and a gentle man, and Blakemore a brilliant smart boy. They are forced to accept their place in the society even though they are filled with bitterness. As in the movie “South Downs”, Blakemore is given a gift just like in “Browning Version”, where Andrew is presented a gift by a student (Taplow). Blakemore is given the gift as the sharpest and smartest boy though he is terribly unhappy. Blakemore and Andrew are characters that exhibit a soul in torment. Duffield’s mother (Belinda) takes the imitative of talking to Blakemore and helps him to change so that he can fit in his current society which is challenging to survive, especially for the fact that Blakemore comes from a poor background. The characters Belinda and Taplow took rather almost the same role of showing a remarkable extends of kindness to the lonely souls, Blakemore and Andrew. As much as Belinda makes Blakemore take heart and plan to change, Andrew crumples both physically and emotionally due to the gift offered to him by Taplow. This moment is taken especially as the climax of the two plays. The events that take place here give the two plays a theme that culminates strong feelings in the audience. The comedy part in “South Down” suddenly gets lost, and emotions rise while in “Browning Version” the emotional wretch is lost too. Comparisons between the two plays The two plays barely have a different message, but there is a main difference in the tightness of dialogue, how the characters bring out the reality of the story, understanding true behaviors of human beings and many words that were left unsaid. In “Browning Version”, a lot of the above points were met unlike in South Downs. 5Another difference comes in when David bases his story on the lives of the boys rather than the lives of the masters as Rattigan 6did in “Browning Version”. Hare’s story is rather weak in comparison to Rattigan’s though they all paint out a culminating atmosphere of emotions in real human life. Conclusion Both plays rotate around people who would like to fit in their society, which does not accept them. The society belittles them and denies them their happiness, even though they have been serving it with dedication. They had to accept the rules set by the society even though through intense pressure. The two plays are highly compatible, though with little contrast. South Downs is more humorous unlike the browning version, which is highly emotional, and heart breaking. Both the main lead characters show the potential of changing without altering their individuality. Both of the plays over used the school setting which brought out the idea to be communicated as vividly as possible. Space and character were used adequately in telling the two stories. They create a feeling of anxiety and emotions in the audience. The two plays draw a clear path to be followed in life as they show what actually happens in the society. The two stories have a way of communicating how a gift can be used to transform a person for the better, especially when it comes from the society that once shunned the individual out. Bibliography Hare, M, South Downs. Sussex, Faber and Faber, 2011. Rattigan, T, The Browning version. Sussex, Nick Hern Books, 2008. Read More