CPL310 11/1/2004 The Ruling Class by Peter Barnes -- born 1/10/1931 in London -- self-educated -- first presented in Nottingham in 1968 -- portrays the upper class as greedy and eccentric -- Act 1: -- the 13th Earl of Gurney accidentally hangs himself -- Jack returns to the estate, becoming 14th Earl -- the family thinks Jack is a paranoid schizophrenic (he thinks he's the God of Love); they want him to marry and have an heir and then they'll commit him -- Tucker, the servant, warns Jack -- Jack does a talk at the church about "Love" and offends the ladies there -- Jack's family wants to marry and have an heir but he says he's already married to a fictional woman, the Lady of the Cameilias -- Jack's uncle Sir Charles asks Grace Shelly, Sir Charles' mistress, to pose as the Lady of the Camelias; she does and Jack marries her -- Dr Herder gets Jack to talk to another schizo who thinks he's the Electric Messiah; Jack convulses and is "reborn" -- Herder does experiments on rats, and he treats Jack the same as his schizophrenic rats (with shock treatments!); he's proud of changing Jack's identity (see Man Equals Man) -- meanwhile Grace is in labor -- Act 2 -- Jack is carrying a gun and accidentally fires it -- Jack now thinks he's Jack the Ripper but realizes he has to act normal and talk less so he's not declared insane -- the court's represenative meets with him and they sing an old song, making them buddies -- Sir Charles' wife Clair tries to seduce Jack and he kills her, thinking her a prostitute (remember he's the Ripper) -- Tucker discovers the body and gets blamed for the crime (accused by Jack) -- Dr. Herder discovers the truth and he goes crazy -- Dr Herder is a scientist who can't admit that he was wrong about Jack -- Jack saying "cock-a-doodle-do" is a reference to Peter's denying Christ three times before the rooster crows -- Jack takes his seat in the House of Lords and speaks in favor of the death penalty, pleasing Sir Charles -- at the end Jack kills Grace -- irony of the upper classes easily assuming that Tucker murdered Claire -- Charles and Claire's son Dindale is the stereotype of the upper class -- Grace is constantly reminded by Sir Charles and others of her low status -- Jack is a way like Frankenstein's monster (created by Herder) -- the play retains a comic tone despite dealing with tragedy -- Dr Hye wanted to assign this play for the whole class but it is out of print -- Peter O'Toole played Jack in the movie and was nominated for an Oscar Max Frisch -- born 1911 in Zurich -- father was an architecht -- studied German lit an art history and University of Zurich -- left school in 1932 after father's death to work as a free-lance journalist -- returned to school in 1936, getting a degree in architecture in 1941 -- started writing plays in 1944 met Brecht and D?rrenmatt in 1946 -- "The Chinese Wall" -- written in 1946 -- starts with a Prologue; Olan and and her mute son have come to Nan-King to meet the Emperor -- she asks The Contemporary if he's heard of Min Ko (the voice of the people), who is the only remaining enemy of the Chinese government -- The Contemporary speaks with Napolean, Pilate, Don Juan, Columbus, Philip of Spain -- the next war will be the last because of the atom bomb -- "he who wants to burn up others must now burn up himself (37) -- they all say their truth differs from what history says of them -- Mee Lan (the Emperor's daughter) must wait for the prince; the Contemporary tells her he's from the future and gives her a physics lesson -- Hwang Ti comes to speak about the victory over the barbarians and plans to build the Great Wall to "forestall any future" (57) and announces the capture of Min Ko, who will be tortured until he confesses -- The Contemporary speaks with Hwang Ti, who "do[es] not intend to be dethroned" (65) -- it turns out that the mute son is Min Ko -- Hwang Ti meets with Cleopatra and then when Prince Wu Tsiang about the construction of the Great Wall -- rioters assemble outside the gates to demand Min Ko's freedom -- Mee Lan thinks the Contemporary (who was the defense attorney) didn't do enough to save Min Ko (the Mute) -- later the Contemporary tells the Emperor that he is Min Ko -- instead of being executed the Contemporary is rewarded -- the rioters enter along with Olan, who asks "why shouldn't my son be someone of importance" 9112) -- Mee Lan tells the Contemporary she loves him -- themes: -- Mee Lan's wanting to know the truth -- Hwang Ti's desire to forestall the future -- dilemma: should there be a human race or not? -- this play is built on anacronism -- Frisch wrote it as a kind of counterweight to an American play "The Skin of our Teeth," an optimistic play by Thornton Wilder about how man escaped the Ice Age and the Flood and the War; it's set, however, in suburban NJ -- Dr Hye thinks the polonaise dance with all these historical figures shows the cycle of human behavior where people always want power and prestige Our next two works focus on religion and on (North) American society. -- they still deal with human creativity and how literature gives us glimpses of human nature W.P. Kinsella is a Canadian. "Shoeless Joe" -- written in the early 1980s -- movie version "Field of Dreams" covers only about 2/3 of the novel (skipping the part about Eddie Scissons, the oldest living Chicago Cub and who likes to sermonize about baseball and life; he turns out to be a fraud, a real person that Kinsella encountered on the streets of Iowa City [where University of Iowa, famous for the Writers Workshop, is) -- Dr H's version has different pagination from the bookstore version: Chapter Old New I 1 1 II 19 21 III 87 103 IV 131 155 V 217 257 Themes: -- father -- love -- family -- Eddie Scissons syndrome (before the Baseball Encyclopedia [first published in the late 60s; even someone who played one inning of one game in the majors is listed], anyone couuld claim to have been or to have had a relative in the Major League) -- Iowa -- nostalgia -- corruption (8 men out, 1919 World Series) vs. purity (of the game) -- religion </plaintext><br /></body></html>