Thirty days in September

I really like this story as I believe Mahesh Dattani really look into the real stuation that happens in the society. It touched hearts and consciences everywhere. It manages to portray identifiable mother-daughter relationship. In this story, both Mala and her mother, Shanta experienced the same situation. They have been molested by a person who is closely related to them. I believe this situation really happens everywhere. Women always being the victim of sexual abused.

It is not easy for the victim to continue their life after they have been sexually abused. This is the main message of “Thirty Days in September”, the struggle of Mala and her mother to continue their life after they have been molested in their childhoods. Both of them try to forget the pain but they are unsuccessful to do so. Shanta gains comfort in religion but her daughter rebels in her life. The bad effect of sexual abused will stay to haunt their life if they do not seek professional help. Her mother, Shanta is one of the victims who continue to live in misery all her life.

In a nutshell, I suggest to those who experiences the same situation as Mala and Shanta to go and see counselors to get help. I also want to advise parents to take care of their child. Do listen and try to solve your children’s problem if you want them to live happily in their life.

Antony & Cleopatra

This tragic story of a prominent Roman leader is a good play to learn. This story tells about Mark Antony who falls in love with Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. This story is also exciting as it portrays the clash between East and West. Certain values in West are not accepted to the East people. Western culture prioritizes to duty while in the East, feelings and emotion are more appreciated. In this story, Antony is madly in love with Cleopatra but Cleopatra does not love him at all. By knowing his undivided love to her made Cleopatra took advantages of him. She made him her “slave” although actually it is Antony who conquers Egypt.

I feel that this story depicts the downfall of a great Roman ruler. Mark Antony is being praised by Roman people for his capability to rule Roman. However, as we all know, nobody is perfect in this world. Antony fails to control his feelings. He is willing to put aside his duty in order to be by Cleopatra’s side.

After all, it is interesting to know how this two people comprehend each other despite the completely different culture and values in life. I agreed that love can destroy people as it already happened in this story. As a conclusion, we should be careful when we are in love with somebody. We need to make sure that we do not worsen in our behaviors because of our love to them.

As You Like It

I think the big difference between Shakespeare’s play with the movie is the setting. In the movie, the setting is in Japan while in Shakespeare’s play, the setting is in England. The movie portrays Japanese culture such as kimono and sumo. It is very interesting to see Japanese culture is being integrated to Shakespeare’s play.

This movie is a romantic comedy. In the opening of the movie, Rosalind falls in love with Orlando but their love fails to grow since Orlando fled to the Forest of Arden. Rosalind follows him with Celia after that as she is being banished from the court. As in the movie, after Rosalind left the court with Celia, she assumes the dress of a young man and takes the name Ganymede, while Celia dresses as a common shepherdess and calls herself Aliena. The part which entails comedy arises after both Orlando and Rosalind who is now Ganymede meet. Ganymede helps Orlando to express his love to Rosalind by assuming that Ganymede is Rosalind. The audience knows the fact that Rosalind and Ganymede is the same person but Orlando does not know this. I feel this is the part where comedy emerges in this movie.

This movie is considered as romantic since it is a happy ending movie. In the end, Rosalind marries Orlando and Aliena marries her lover, Oliver. After all, I enjoyed this story.

how is it to be evaluated by others?

In my opinion, we need to make sure that we are well-prepared before we start doing simulated. Whenever I am ready to teach, I will fully concentrate on my teaching. I am also need to focus while teaching so that I will not make a lot of hesitation in my instructions. I feel that my students also will get irritated if the teacher makes a lot of mistakes while teaching. Being evaluated by students is a common situation for teachers. Students might think I am a good teacher if I manage to attract them to pay attention to my lesson. Having interesting materials can help me in teaching; however, I need to utilize those materials to the fullest to make sure that my students benefit them.

Other than that, I feel that I am still learning on how to teach properly in classrooms. I always observe my fellow friends’ simulated teaching to get new ideas that might works in classroom. Being evaluated by my classmates is actually a good strategy since I found out about my weaknesses while teaching. They will tell me about what I have done wrong. I also feel comfortable to listen to their advice as I know they have experienced the same while doing simulated teaching.

Pygmallion

This movie takes into account the theme of social status, Eliza is presented as low class people while Mr. Higgins and Mr. Pickering is high class people. In this story they accidentally meet at a road. While Eliza is trying to sell followers to Colonel Pickering, Higgins writes down everything she said. Both Higgins and Pickering are experts in phonetic. The story develops further as Pickering challenges Higgins to transform the flower into “a duchess”, able to speak the accent of the high class community. Then, the two of them are obsessed with their experiment to teach Eliza to speak. They made two trials to examine whether they are success in their work to change Eliza’s accent. The first trial fails as Eliza accidentally talk in her low class accent; however the second trial is a big success to them. Eliza can speak fluently in the intended accent.

This plot of this movie is in chronological order so it is easier for me to understand its story line. The theme of social status is interesting to me since it is the first time for me to hear different English accent. In my opinion, the accent of the low class is hard to understand compared to the accent to high class people that talks in Standard English. Personally, I do not really like phonetic which I find quite difficult to master. However, this movie is worth to see since it represents the real life situation in some part of England where the accent that differentiate people of different status. It is so unlucky to those who are born in low class society because once they start to speak everybody knows where they come from. Similar situation also happens in Malaysia where everyone can guess where I come from my accent but I am proud of it. I am also very grateful since in Malaysia because we do not have accent that differentiate people of different social class.

Shakespeare Wallah

This play is about the life of a British family in India. The family of Buckingham comes to India to perform plays by Shakespeare. They travel all over India in order to introduce Indian people to Shakespeare’s play. They arrived at India right after India gains its dependent from British. In this play, Tony Buckingham, his wife and daughter takes part in performing Shakespeare’s play until one day, they meet Sanju. Sanju likes to watch Shakespeare’s play. Other than that, Sanju also falls in love with the daughter of Mr. Buckingham, Lizzie Buckingham. Their love can be considered as mutual love as Lizzie also loves him. However, there are obstacles in their love since Sanju also likes Manjula, a Bollywood star. After Manjula knew about Sanju’s love toward this British woman, she makes fuss during the play by the family of Buckingham. Her arrival there disrupt peoples’ attention to the play and thus forces the play to stop as people in the theatre room start to make noise and then hit each other. As a result of Manjula’s action, Sanju scolded her. In this play, the love between Lizzie and Sanju breaks whenever Lizzie went back to England. It looks like Sanju just want to have fun with her and he is not ready to make commitment with her. This play portrays love between people of different culture and different background. The difference that exists makes their love impossible to go on.
While I watch this play, I rarely understand what the story is all about. The only thing that I know is the setting is in India as I can see Indian dance and Indian people in the movie. I also enjoy the song played in the movie and I feel that I know this song. The song is familiar to me but I assume that I listen to this song while I watch Bollywood movie with my father a long time ago. I am impressed to know that I still remember the rhythm of the song.

how i evaluate others?

One of the criteria that I will look forward in every microteaching is the language spoken by the teachers. I always sit at the back of the class so I rarely hear their voices. I think that they should speak loudly so that everyone can hear them. Sometimes when I arrived at the class, I have found out the front seats is already full so I have no choice but to sit at the back. I feel that students would not pay attention to the lesson if they can not hear it and most of the teachers know that Malaysian students rarely asking questions even though they do not understand the lesson. What a waste to Malaysian resources if something like this always happen in the classroom!

I have also noticed very important tips to the teachers in order to make their students enjoy the lesson. As I have already observed microteaching that was conducted by my friends and I think that students will enjoy most, teachers that managed to present interesting activities to them. Interesting activities can make them focus on the lesson as they feel excited to participate in the activities. So, in my opinion, teachers will success in her role to teach students if all the students eagerly wait for their class and feel pleased to learn new things from the lesson.

Another important thing that teachers should bear in mind is make sure that the lesson is student centered. Teacher should encourage students to answer questions and give their opinions regarding to the lesson. Teacher should praise students that participated actively in the activities but do not forget to encourage passive students to take part in the activities. As a conclusion, teachers have the power to change the atmosphere in their classroom so they need to grab that opportunity to help their students

a streetcar named desire

This play is about a woman who does not accept her fate. Blanche, the major character is this play used to live in rich environment. She is used to have maid to help her in her everyday life. She teaches school to gain money. When she becomes poor she can not live without luxury so she chooses to be a prostitute to support her living. However, after doing mistakes in school, she is being punished. Then, she goes to live with her sister. This is the point where she is facing conflicts. These entire problems led to her madness. At the end of the play, she is being sent to mental institution. How a sad ending to those who can not adapt themselves according to the situation!

macbeth...

In my opinion, my play is interesting although there are scenes that can be categorized as harsh. One of the harsh moments is in the opening of the play when there are a group of people buried a hand. The hand is holding a sword. So, from the early part of the play I already assumed that this play not suitable for children. Actually, I also wondered why we have always learnt about harshness and death in this semester. Oedipus Rex also displays the act when Oedipus blinded himself. For me, Macbeth is a kind of guy who greed for power and at the end, the power ruins him. He believes what the devil said about his future. I also think that Macbeth is willing to do anything in order to get the throne. He managed to be landlord and finally become the king of Scotland. The moral value from this play is we must not greed because it will destroy us someday. We should be grateful for who we are.

Tiresias, a blind prophet

Teiresias means one who “cries the signs of heavens”. He is being blessed to know “Secrets of Heaven and secrets of the earth”. Being well known as a famous blind prophet in Greek mythology, Teiresias is physically blind because according to Greek mythology he is being blinded for seeing Athene, Goddess of Wisdom naked while she bathes. He is called seer because he is given talent to foretell what will happen in the future. He can tell the truth about what will happen to Oedipus in “Oedipus Rex.” After he is being pushed to the limit by Oedipus, he tells the truth that is Oedipus is the murderer of King Laios. He is not mentally blind as he is given insight to know all the secrets. The character of Teiresias is important in Oedipus Rex as it foreshadows Oedipus’s situation at the end of the play. In my opinion, Teiresias is just a normal human being but he is different from the rest of the people in the city as he is being blessed with insight. In Oedipus Rex, he does not want to reveal the truth but after Oedipus forces him to do so, he had no choice.

introduction of drama

in this class, my lecturer gives me handout about overview of the history of theatre. In semester 2, i have taken a subject,"Introduction to Critical Appreciation". This subject gives me some input about drama thus before entering this class, i already have clues on what i am going to learn that day. my lecturer explains about history of english drama from Greek period until 20th century drama. i found out that there are a lot of changes happens to drama ever since. In Athen the plays mostly about Athenian ruler who is considered by his people as a great ruler. "Oedipus Rex" is one the the plays that portrays such situation. After that , drama moves to talk about religion , specifically Christian. Then, the plays is conquered by William Shakespeare and a few other playwrights. They talked about moral of the people. Next is the restoration of drama.The plays is being performed for high class people in the society. However, at 20th century, drama is being forgotten since new forms of literary works such as poetry emerged. I learnt in this class that there are two types of drama,tragedy and comedy. At first, i am quite confused with this two terms but after my lecturer gives example of tragedy and comedy, i can differentiate them well. Other than that, my lecturer teaches me on the conventions of theatre such as acts, scenes, space and also stage directions.

seven ages of man

Sphinx’s riddle in Oedipus Rex;

“What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at evening?”

William Shakespeare’s play, ‘As You Like It’;

JAQUES: All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arm;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into a lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning against toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.


Both Sphinx’s riddle in “Oedipus Rex” and William Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It” discuss about same message. The message is about the cycle we need to face in our life. “Four legs in the morning” means a baby need to use both hand and leg to crawl while in Shakespeare’s work, he describes the first stage of a man as “the infant”.

William Shakespeare divides stages in life into seven categories contrasted to the riddle which describes three stages only. Shakespeare gives readers hints that everybody that lives will dies when the time has come for them to leave this world that Shakespeare refers to as “a stage”. Personally, I am touched with Shakespeare’s work as I am begin to think when I will be buried six feet under. I also think about my dreams whether it will come true one day or I do not have enough time to achieve all of them. Right now, I think I am in the stage of “soldier” in Shakespeare’s poem. I have already being an infant, school-boy, and lover”. Now, I realized that I am halfway of the journey before I meet my death. It looks like I hardly believe I am already twenty one years old this year. Congratulations to both Sophocles and Shakespeare for their meaningful work.

What I will consider before I make a performance?

I feel that costumes really play important part in a play. It gives clue to us about the physical setting of the play. For example, if the setting is a battlefield, the actor will wear soldier’s uniform. From the costumes that both actors and actresses wear we can relate it to the time setting of the play. Those days, people dressed differently from us today. If the time setting is during Greek Period, we can see actresses wearing gowns that Greek people used to wear thus the director need to know what type of cloth that is popular during that era. More that that, cultural setting can be conveyed implicitly to us since we can guess what country the play takes place. It also enhances our knowledge about history and geography of the specific places.

first reading of "Oedipus Rex"

I have never read this play before so I have no idea what this play is all about. First thing that I do whenever my friend gives me the handout is looking at the picture of Sophocles at the front page. After that I realized that this paly is a very long play. I found difficulties when I read this play because I am not familiar with the setting. I also noticed there are prologue, parodos, scene 1, ode 1, scene 2, ode 2, scene 3, ode 3, scene 4, ode 4 and exodos in this play. I have never heard of the terms before thus it makes me really worried. I surf the internet to get analysis and summary of this play and I am grateful because after I read the analysis I managed to understand the overall ideas in the play.

The Four Ages by W.B Yeats

The Four Ages of Manby William Butler Yeats

He with body waged a fight,

But body won; it walks upright.Then he struggled with the heart;
Innocent and peace depart.

Then he struggled with the mind;

His proud heart he left behind.

Now his wars on God begin;

At stroke of midnight God shall win


Yeats writes about stages in a man's life. He divides the stages into four categories. I realized that the poem tells the reader that a man needs to conquer his feelings first before he could deal with his mind. Yeats describes a man who can handle his feelings can moved to the third stage which is matured in thinking. Whenever a man reached maturity,he is at the highest point in his life,maybe he is already married and have kids.The last and final stage is when he is dead. Yeats uses metaphor "midnight" to suggest that it is the end of his life. It is the time that he will meet his God. God created him and sent him to the world. Finally, God also will take him back.