Free Essay Example - Literal Elements

Different actors have different ways of dealing with the same situation under the same conditions. Some actors portray emotions, violence and composure, which may be relevant or irrelevant depending on the nature of the scene they are acting. The different ways actors use literal skills to deal with the same situation gives them their uniqueness and their character traits. Character traits shown by performers dictate the success of the play they are performing. This paper contrasts the character of Jane Fonda and Juliet Stevenson in the performance of the final scene of "The Doll House."

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The Literal Elements

The tonal variation, Juliet Stevensons has the right tonal variation in the play for effective communication as compared to the tonal variation of Jane Fonda. When Jane Fonda communicates to her husband in the act to sit down so that they can have a proper marriage conversation, she has a low tonal variation which shows that she is almost not interested in the marriage conversation with her husband. Juliet Stevenson's had a high pitch and a rising tonal variation when she told her husband to sit down so that they have a serious conversation. Her tone is demanding to show the seriousness of matter as it entailed dissolution of an eight-year-old marriage. Canepa et al. pp. 29-38 highlights the importance of the selection of the right tone to communicate a particular message effectively. The choice of the correct pitch shows the seriousness of the issue and thereby effectively communicates the information to the audience (Canepa et al. pp.29-38).

Reliability of the actors, Juliet Stevenson, is more reliable to effectively communicate to the audience and make the play interesting by the creation of suspense as contrasted to Jane Fonda. At the start of the Juliet act Stevensons creates tension by not talking to her husband and when she peaks her tone creates a tense mood for the scene making it more exciting and effectively communicating to the audience that something was up to her sleeve. Jane Fonda does not create the much-needed suspense during the instance as she talks to her husband, naturally making that particular scene in her performance not interesting to the audience as compared to Juliet Stevensons play. Reliability of actors is essential in determining the level of success of the performance. As Finnegan, pp. 34-35, asserts if the actors are not reliable on the stage to effectively communicate and create a different mood for different scene the performance will not appeal the audience thereby the play will not be successful as intended (Finnegan, pp. 34-35).

Emotions communicate a person's feelings. JulietStevensons was emotional when she was forgiven by her husband and from her sound when saying "thank you for forgiving me" her voice changes to that of a crying person. The emotions showed how sad she was because she was to leave her husband. It portrays the sadness she carries inside of having to lose her husband through a divorce after eight years of marriage, the emotions also enable her to create a sad mood for that particular part during the play. Unlike Juliet Stevensons, Jane Fonda is calm and does not show any emotions during the act with the fact that she was to leave her husband. Without feelings, the right mood is not created for the scene making the play somewhat monotonous. Finnegan, p. 25, highlights the importance of the right emotions during a performance. Without emotions, the actor does not communicate his/her feelings about a given subject (Finnegan, p. 25).

The mood; Juliet Stevensons creates the proper attitude for the beginning part of the final episode compared to the atmosphere created by Jane Fonda. She is reflective, committed and deep in thoughts and she does not speak to her husband but lets him talk, her reflective mood enables the audience to understand the nature and seriousness of what she is thinking at that time. Jane Fonda has a calm mood during the start of the final play her mood improves as her husband talks more, and she answers him, her perspective does not hint to the audience what she is thinking. Her attitude keeps on changing; therefore, the audience cannot tell what she is planning. Velupillai, pp. 9-12 highlights the importance of selecting the right mood for the right play for effective communication during a performance. Poor selection of the atmosphere makes the information passed to the audience through nonverbal cues not effective (Velupillai, pp. 9-12).

The diction is an essential aspect of a play. Juliet Stevenson's has a better choice of words for different scenarios as compared to Jane Fonda. The choice of words enables Juliet Stevenson's to effectively communicate her message to the audience and her husband as compared to that of Jane Fonda. After she knew that she was forgiven Juliet Stevensons says "right" and after a dramatic pause, she said "thank you" creating suspense on the implication of her words to her husband. The tension made, tells the audience that Juliet Stevensons had something else in her mind, thus adding flavour to the play. Jane Fonda only said "thank you for your forgiveness", without any dramatic pause this does not create suspense nor add flavour to the Performace because she did what was obvious. On forgiveness, one should be thankful. As highlighted by Finnegan, p. 15, performers of oral poetry should be careful in their selection of words as the diction determines the level of success of the play. Poor choice of wording makes the performer not able to communicate effectively, and also it makes the performance to be dull (Finnegan, p. 15).

The Background

Selection of background information. Juliet Stevensons selected a better background to justify her reason for leaving her husband, unlike Jane Fonda, whose explanation is not satisfactory enough. Juliet Stevenson portrays her dissatisfaction in her marriage which prompts her to terminate her marriage as she wasn't happy during the eight years, her husband treated her similarly as her father. Juliet Stevensons' husband acknowledged that her claim was valid, justifying her reasons. Jane Fonda's reasoning did not explain her divorce in the eyes of the audience, thereby making her play unsatisfying she acknowledged having fun in her marriage. Still, she proceeded to leave her husband, and this makes the play unreasonable and unsatisfactory to the audience. Baym, pp. 14-22, highlights that the actor should connect with the audience giving satisfactory reasons to their cause of action, this makes the audience to be more interested in the activities of the actor (Baym, pp. 14-22).

The costumes; Juliet Stevensons has a better choice of costumes for the play compared to Jane Fonda. Costumes create the mood for different scenes during a performance. Juliet Stevensons changed her outfits to black and took her bag, and it was late in the night, creating a tense mood before breaking the news of separation to her husband. Black is associated with bad news. The change of clothes also communicates the aspect of growth during the eight years of marriage that necessitated the divorce. After she changes clothes, she changes her tone to convey her message effectively. Jane Fonda maintains the same costumes for the last episode, and this makes her play monotonous and not interesting. As highlighted by Jabb, p. 10, the selection of the right costumes during a play is essential. Costumes can set the right background and mood for different scenes in the performance. The change of props also creates suspense as the audience remains curious as to why the actor changes; it makes the performance lively and exciting (Jabb, p. 10).

Conclusion

The level of reliability and the use of literal elements determines the success of a play as these elements allow the actors to effectively communicate the intended message and make the performance more interesting. In the show "The Doll House," Juliets Stevensons performance is better than Jane Fonda's because Juliets Stevensons uses the literal skills such as the right diction, tonal variation, suspense, emotions and the right background to make the play exciting and appealing to the audience. Jane Fonda is not reliable to communicate effectively on the stage. She does not have the right diction nor the use of suspense in her performance of the final episode of the play "The Doll House," this makes her acting monotonous and less effective when compared to that of Juliets Stevensons. For an oral literature performance to be useful and exciting, the actors should be creative, use the right literal skills and make the background interesting. The selection of background-information and literal components makes the performance by Juliets Stevensons better compared to that of Jane Fonda in the play "The Doll House."

Works Cited

Baym, Nancy K. "Connect with your audience! The relational labour of connection." Thecommunication review 18.1 (2015): 14-22.

Canepa, Edward, Andrea Cattanei, and Fabio Mazzocut Zecchin. "Effect of the rotor-stator gap variation on the tonal noise generated by axial-flow fans." Applied Acoustics 94 (2015): 29-38.

Finnegan, Ruth H. Oral Literature in Africa. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2012. Internet resource.

Finnegan, Ruth. Oral poetry: its nature, significance and social context. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2018.

Jabb, Lama. Oral and Literary Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature: The Inescapable Nation. Lexington Books, 2015.

Velupillai, Viveka. Hawai'i Creole English: A typological analysis of the tense-mood-aspectsystem. Springer, 2016.