Preview

Arsenic And Old Lace Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
271 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Arsenic And Old Lace Analysis
Typically, a play about two elderly woman poisoning lonely males would never have entertained my short attention span, but "Arsenic and Old Lace" was able to grasp and maintain my interest. The cleverly complex plot (the two woman murderers have a mobster nephew) proved to be both suspenseful and engaging, encouraging audience members to examine and predict the next twist. Each scene builds the anticipation of the climactic resolution, never failing to loose the viewers' attention. Flawlessly constructed with straightforward language, the involved story was not difficult for even the simplest audience member to understand. At the Whitman edition, the play seemed to fall short to meet the literary merit of the play. Initially, the audience

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    What caught my attention to this play was that the two authors were passionate about this theme for the play and obviously researched the history of the actual trial, in order to portray it as realistically as possible. This hard work and attention to detail created a very informative and memorable play. (Although some…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    12 Angry Men: Overview

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages

    1. Each Act takes happens in the same place. The entire play takes place in the jury room of a New York City court of law in 1957 during a very hot summer afternoon. It is a large, dull, minimalistic room with three windows in the brick wall which the skyline of New York City can be seen. There is also a wash room and lavatory off the jury room. There is a large, scarred table in the centre with twelve chairs around it. There are pencils pads and an ashtray on the table. There is also a water cooler in the room with plastic cups. The dullness of the room may signify and provide a mood for the act and is evident in the interactions between the jurors. The Twelve jurors are all seemingly awkward and uneasy towards each other once they enter the room.…

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arsenic Old Lace

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Arsenic and Old Lace portrays a very unique family dynamic compared to other works of literature discussed so far in this paper. The movie is set in the Halloween season in the mid-1900s (1944) in New York City. Arsenic and Old Lace is a story about three grown men who seem to be living with their aunts. Mortimer Brewster is a drama critic and an author who greatly adores and cares for his aunts. Theodore Brewster is cared for by his aunts and believes that he is Theodore Roosevelt. Jonathan Brewster is a psychopathic killer who eventually comes back to his Aunt Abby’s and Aunt Martha’s home to use the laboratory: “I’ve got thirteen! … There’s Mr. Spinalzo and the first one in London, two in Johannesburg, one in Sydney, one in Melbourne, two in San Francisco, one in Phoenix, Arizona…” (Capra, Arsenic and Old Lace). Throughout the movie, Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha commit mercy-killings on lonely old men to put them out of their misery. Even though they are committing terrible crimes, Mortimer loves and wants to protect his aunts. While Mortimer tries to protect his aunts, he tells his newly-wedded wife: “…I probably should have told you this before, but you see…well…insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops” (Capra, Arsenic and Old Lace). At the end of the movie Mortimer finds out that he is not a real Brewster, rather his mother was the cook and the aunts did not want to lose her so she married Mr. Brewster, the true father of Jonathan and Theodore. Even with this very unique family dynamic one can see, despite all, family comes first. Mortimer knows his aunts are wrong, yet despite of it he goes to great lengths to keep them out of prison. Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha are likely the closest relationship to a “mother” that the men…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the 1900’s, women have struggled with gender roles in society that leaned more in favor of men. Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, reflects on this struggle by blatantly separating the ideas, opinions and actions of the men and women in the play. As the title Trifles suggests, the men in the play view the two women’s concerns as unimportant and frivolous in comparison to the “real” work the men have to do. Glaspell’s characterization of the sheriff, Henry Peters, the attorney, George Henderson, and the neighboring farmer, Mr. Hale, portrays them as typical men of the time who decide to take charge because, as men, that is their duty and only they know what can be done and how to go about discovering the truth. They only take along Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to collect some things for Mrs. Wright, never taking a moment to think that from a woman’s perspective, the answer to the murder could be found.…

    • 1480 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article, "Arsenic in Your Juice" it explained, "Arsenic is a naturally occurring element that can contaminate groundwater used for drinking and irrigation in areas where it’s abundant". And over arsenic in apple juice made headlines as the school year began when Mehmet Oz, M.D., host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” told viewers that tests he’d commissioned found 10 of three dozen apple-juice samples with total arsenic levels exceeding 10 parts per billion. And how Arsenic has been notoriously used as a poison since ancient times. A fatal poisoning would require a single dose of inorganic arsenic about the weight of a postage stamp. I have never heard about this thing called arsenic, I have been drinking apple juice since I was little and no one…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    that, instead of showing how men were seen as superior in the 19th century, the play…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare follows two ill-fated lovers who marry against their feuding families’ wishes. In the tragedy, Juliet makes several impulsive decisions. The Nurse sticks by her side and tries to help with the consequences of Juliet’s hasty decisions. Yet, when the hard times progress, the Nurse feels the need to share her feelings about the predicament. The Nurse uses her motherly instincts to protect Juliet; yet, Juliet misperceives the advice as betrayal and is unaware that these suggestions encourage her own well-being.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Modern theatre audiences struggle to engage with classic plays. The answer is to adapt classic plays to fit with the times. Discuss.…

    • 958 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When fate begins to work its magic, the events of the play and the work of…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The play itself is a two handed play Consisting of Rita and Frank, Frank a middle aged “upper class” man whom drowns himself throughout the play in scotch and alcoholic drinks symbolizing Franks dire need for a change in his life. And Rita on the other hand, a young, enthusiastic, motivated, Lower-class woman who is…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arsenic and Old Lace hits several M’s of the Gothic Horror genre. The murder of Mr.Spenalzo and Mr Hoskins is the most obvious, there are two dead men hidden in a window seat, robbed of their life. The Melancholy is covered by the comedy that the play puts on the situation.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    hello my name is peter

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Or, to put it another way, it is not precisely the death(s) that makes the play tragic. A great deal of ink has been spilled by critics trying to theorize the experience ...…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    I have studied various plays included in my course. But “murder in cathedral” really different in them. It has its own greatness and the literary heights. Poetic form Eliot felt, is the most apt form of expression in the theatre. In his view, Ibsen, Stirnberg, and Chekhov were the limits of prose. In contrast to them are Yeats and Hofmannsthal who kept alive the ancient and traditionally affinity between drama and poetry.…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    three unities in othello

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages

    figure in the government of the state. In many ways the play is more a tragedy of domestic life rather than of affairs of…

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Old Story Time

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The author Old Story Time, Trevor Rhone uses strategies for his readers to understand his play. The following will be considered in this essay: How the writer enables the readers to understand the culture of the play/Caribbean people, How mama's view of black people in the play and how does racism affect the life of two characters.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays