Things to look for in plays:
- Title
- Characters
- Setting/Time
- Theme
- Tone/Mood
- Message
- Genre
- Audience
- Style
- Nationality
- Time Written
- Religion
Why does the scene have to be in the play?
Short essay. Short intro, 2 body paragraphs, conclusion.
- Exposition: Something explained in words rather than action.
- Point of attack: Where the action starts.
- Complication: Something that hinders the end goal that lead to the crisis.
- Reversal: When we find out that something is the opposite, changes, from new information.
- Conflict: Stops you from getting what you want, usually direct opposition. (Man vs man, man vs nature, man vs himself.)
- Rising action: The events leading to the crisis.
- Crisis: Usually with the climax, boiling point, where everything comes together/falls apart.
- Falling action: Conclusion, loose ends being tied up, resolution.
Mini essay: Selection of scenes:
- Why does this scene have to be included in the play?
- Include quotations in each paragraph.
- Identify the play, contextualize the scene, thesis of why is the scene in the play, body supporting, balance between the scene and the play.
Scenes: 1.2, 1.7, 1.8, 2.3, 2.6
Intro, 2 body para, 2 sentence conclusion.
In the play The Little Mermaid by Pam Gems, adapted from the short story by Hans Christian Anderson, act one scene eight shows us the efforts made by Merline and two servants to cheer Undine up after she admits to having saved, kissed, and fallen in love with a human. This scene is necessary to the story for several reasons: it portrays the beginnings of Undine’s desperation and the extent to which she’ll go to be reunited with the Prince, and it introduces us to the first mention of the Sea Witch as the antagonist of the story.
The efforts made by Merline in this scene are obvious, despite the halting Mermaid language that makes up most of the first act. She repeatedly asks Undine to “Forget!” (29), “Forget aloft. Be happy.” (30) and think about the mermen that she’ll see at the party, to sing and flirt and partake in wine from a ship wreck. Undine refuses to accept her sister’s comfort throughout the scene, questioning and potentially completely dismissing her and the Seahorse at the mention of “Warm” (30), which distressed her in the previous scene when she mentioned her own feelings as she spoke of the Prince.
Just as, if not more important than the distress shown by Undine, is the first mention of the Sea Witch in the play. The playwright cannot simply introduce her as a character in act one scene ten - she has to hint at least briefly that this is the antagonist of the story, which she has done quite well through very little dialogue and specific stage directions, particularly when Anemone directly refuses to answer Undine’s question in “ANEMONE shakes her head violently” (31) when she had been described specifically as “obedient” (31) on the same page.
This scene is the first hint of Undine taking her own action in the play, and was required to explain why she left the palace.