Essay #2: Writing About a Play

A tale about Mrs. Popov and Mr. Smirnov from “The Brute”

 “There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.” (Dessen, 2004) Anton Chekhov was a Russian short story writer, playwright and physician. His one-act play The Brute is a brief one-act drama written in 1984. This particular drama tells the narrative of two characters who are initially antagonistic but eventually become lovers. Despite their initial disparities, both Mrs. Popov and Mr. Smirnov, would work to have a strong and long-lasting marriage, because at an unconscious level, both of them are looking for someone to love. In this essay I will be analyzing the resemblances of our main characters, their divergent points, and also, how I imagen their life would be after the wedding.

As a first point, the resemblances I noticed in Mrs. Popov and Mr. Smirnov, broadly speaking, are that they have a strong character, a fixed mind set, they are stubborn and not fooled by anyone. In more detail, they are both single without someone to love, she by a tragic event, the death of her husband, and him, by choice. They are both resigned to live their life as it has been until now; she as a forever widow who mourns her husband persistently, and him, is a womanizer who thinks all women are vain, unreasonable, dumb but also angels and poetry.

As a second point, the diverging points I find in Mrs. Popov and Mr. Smirnov are, initially, the different social classes, she is rich, which sets her in an upper class, and he is a farmer, which sets him in a lower class than hers. Secondly, she is a landowner and seems she has inherited family money, making her in absolutely no need to work for a living; on the other hand, he is a farmer, and may or may not to own the land in which he grows oat that later sells, and seem like he is in great debt with the bank.

As a last point, I picture them having a lavish wedding, she will put the money and her house for the ceremony, and may not invite all her acquaintances because she was married once; and he will invite everyone he knows, since this is his first, and hopefully, only marriage. He will have some trouble accommodating himself into her refine world; and she will definitely find annoying her new husbands’ habits and manners. Given that, they both have experience in heartbreak, and since she is a faithful woman, he will do his best to honor his vows to her, because he never found a woman like her before, so, he must treasure her.

To sum up, our heroes’ main likeness is both of them are in equal proportions stubborn. The distinction that is most noticeable is their financial capacity, she has no need to work and he finds it necessary to ask for loans to the bank. Finally, after the wedding, it will take some time to get accustomed to each other. The preliminary discrepancies between them, were not an impediment to let each other in, in fact, that was the initial spark that ignited their love; so, they will both try to have a strong marriage, because at an unconscious level, they both are craving for someone to comfort their hearts and souls.

 

 

 

 

 Select oneof the following topics:

1. Write the next act.
2. A farce is a kind of comedy that most of us are familiar with, since farces are standard fare in movies and on television.
3. How does Mrs. Popov character change over the course of the play? Support your opinion with specific examples from the play.
4. How are Mrs. Popov and Smirnov alike? And how do they differ? How will this affect the ending of the story?
   

  

Hasta la próxima,

By Warrior Princess

http://wp-shetalks.blogspot.com/

 

Essay #1: Writing About a Short Story

I'm going to revive this blog by posting some essays I did for the class Introduction to Literature. This first essays consisted on choosing an aspect of the chosen short story, and analyze it, so I decided to focus on the Title.

Analyzing the title of “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses”

  “A little bit of summer is what the whole year is all about.” (Mayer, 2013) Irwin Shaw was born as Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff in the South Bronx in New York City. His family were Jewish immigrants from Russia; and at the age of 21 he began his career as screenwriter. His short story “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses” was written in 1939. The title of this work is misleading, yet effective because, even though, the reader was deceived, ultimately, she keeps reading it anyway. In the following essay I will focus on the effectiveness of the title given by the author; I will explore what my expectations were, why I would not change the title it and why the title works.

 When I first read the title, I was expecting a story set in the countryside, with some high schoolers enjoying the Summer break before going back to classes in the Autumn. Since for the Americans, Summer is the most expected season of the year. So, these girls with flowery pattern dresses would be having picnics next to a river or a lake and swimming during the hottest hours of the day. As a woman living in the Caribbean, that has sunny days almost year-round, and that has never experienced the cold Autumn, the freezing Winter and the chilling Summer, there for, I do not know what is like to be expectant for the Summer to start.

 I definitely would not change the title, although, I could think of some more on point alternative titles, but they would give right away the plot, or something else that might make the reader say, “Next! I don’t want to read about a couple that is having a dispute. There are many stories about this already.” Shaw managed to write an engaging story about a common problem of the era by disguising it on a trip to New York. Since we live in 2021, in order to understand the couple’s dynamic, we must examine the social time back in 1939, which helps us as a history lesson review as well.

 The title works as it is because, this makes us thinks about Summer, dresses and some girls having fun. No one would think at first that the story’s main themes are male lust, gender differences and female insecurity. As soon as you start reading the story, you get hooked, because Shaw uses a very descriptive language, you can picture everything in your mind, and you start walking down the streets of New York alongside this couple, enjoying the gossip about their relationship. Since is a third-person limited the point of view, we only get to know about their feelings and thoughts when they start speaking about them, making us read until the end to know the resolution.

 To wrap it up, my expectations were thrown away through the window right after beginning to read the story. I would still keep the title as it is. The title works just as the bait that attracts the fish. Therefore, this title is efficient in making the readers want to read about a story of some girls having fun in the Summer, because we all can relate to it, since, we were once young, and we did enjoy our Summer time with our family and/or friends, and we all have a Summer that will forever be stuck in our minds.

Hasta la próxima,

By Warrior Princess

http://wp-shetalks.blogspot.com/