Misfits, written by Arthur Miller is the story of a fading beauty and ex-stripper who falls in love with the aging cowboy Gay Langland. Roslyn is a divorced woman and has become embittered in her relationships with men. She briefly finds happiness with Langland, but then rejects him when she discovers that part of his business of being a cowboy is rounding up wild horses and selling them for dog food. Eventually, she demands that the horses be set free. Although Langland refuses, his helper Pearce Howland, an injured rodeo cowboy, accedes to her demands. Everyone "The Misfits" is damaged and a 'misfit' in some way, much like the horses. The horses are meant to symbolize the plight not just of Roslyn, who clearly identifies with them, but all of the men who are infatuated with her. Pearce has loses his livelihood because of an injury he sustains at a rodeo; Guido Racanelli, Langland's friend, is a...
The men's way of life -- ranching and living on the rage -- is clearly dying. The men try to stay alive and Roslyn's feminine presence briefly diverts them from their unhappiness, self-obsession and harsh life. This is in contrast to the values of most tales of the American West, which celebrate masculinity and the ability to dominate women, nature, and animals. The cowboys are helpless in the face of fate except when they are trapping the horses to send them to their deaths. The West is no longer a place where people can hide and reinvent themselves. Like the wild animals they try to capture, all of the people in the film are ultimately destined to be ground up and discarded as misfits in society.
This skilled use of ironic prose is also observable in "A Jury of her Peers" by Susan Glaspell, as when the woman who has just committed murder tells the investigators: "after a minute...'I sleep sound.'" the tale depicts how a group of women gradually deduce, through small and simple clues, how Mrs. Wright killed her husband, and why. The women's observations are more astute than the male investigator's analysis,
Drama is tragic not only because of Willy Loman's suicide, but because he has left his family with nothing, and his sons with no hopes and abilities of their own. Brief overview of the play Miller's work Story Characters Obstacles Argument for tragedy Aristotle's definition Pro argument for tragedy Con argument against tragedy Own conclusions What the critics say Death of a Salesman as Tragedy This paper analyzes the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Specifically, it discusses the definition of
Gail Godwin's "Dream Children" and Tobias Wolff's "The Liar" are both stories about escapism. In "Dream Children" a woman whose baby was stillborn and who may have had a hysterectomy because of it finds solace in out-of-body experiences and dreams. Her escapism is harmless, and yet it deeply disturbs her neighbor and worries her husband. Likewise, James's compulsive fibbing in "The Liar" is not intended to hurt anyone, but the
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