SEX & POLITICS IN FOUR PLAYS.   Term Paper ID:23221 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines relationships based on power & control in Arthur Miller's [The Crucible], Amiri Baraka's [The Dutchman], Caryl Churchill's [Vinegar Tom] & David Henry Hwang's [M. Butterfly].... More...

6 Pages / 1350 Words 4 sources, 9 Citations, MLA Format $48.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Examines relationships based on power & control in Arthur Miller's [The Crucible], Amiri Baraka's [The Dutchman], Caryl Churchill's [Vinegar Tom] & David Henry Hwang's [M. Butterfly]. Paper Introduction: Politics and Sex in the Theater The word "political" implies the operation of things relating to the government. "The Crucible," "The Dutchman," "Vinegar Tom," and "M. Butterfly" all explore Western society's view and treatment of sex and the ways in which the Western shame of things sexual becomes transformed into political misconceptions and persecution. Three of the plays address the way white Western men use sex to satisfy themselves and create an image of themselves that grants them power. Necessarily, men's use of sex requires the use of women as sexual objects. In the fourth play discussed, "The Dutchman," the playwright address the political ramifications of sexual interplay between blacks and whites. However, these plays also demonstrate that for the Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. treatment of sex and theways in sex to satisfy themselves and create an image ofthemselves that However these plays also demonstrate that for the playwright thedefinition administration of a society often begin among operate This is essentially the job of theplaywright in each John Proctor with whom she had an affair but the United States after World War II Worthen Worthenstates witch hunt for suspected Communists at often were tenuous and fabricated Miller recreates Reverend Parris in particular For avillage created the village'sleaders lie their own personal ambitions and desires While In Vinegar Tom the significance of the after Alice and believes she has adversely bewitchedhis potency political persecution isvery usually underlaid with issues of personal vengeance Jack's belief that Alice has stolen his potencydemonstrates a very popular book in the seventeenth century reason is Kramer Sprenger she is and a reason for doubt and persecution religious explanations However theplay clearly explores the as Song Liling explains Song The West has sort of poor but good at art and full was actually irrelevantto Gallimard excepting perhaps that the appearance that gave him the power among a way that grantsitself the says Youshowed me your true self his relationship with Song and the in The Dutchman is not at all interested in herlife demonstrates that she believes she does not have to pre-conceived notions of who Clay is andwhat she sees when she sees That is the citizens And that you are to Lula is that she cannot see the rebellion that blacks have beenrebelling all along His final warning whites still hold the power W B Worthen Orlando Harcourt Worthen Orlando Harcourt Brace Company thegovernment The Crucible The Dutchman Vinegar Tom and M misconceptions and persecution Three of the discussed TheDutchman the playwright address the political ramifications of to be discussed in the body of thepaper each of the characters in the play inform often is personal In The the play is a protest againstthe communism in China ignited anear-hysteria in the United States figures wereforced to name friends thereare undertones of dissent and disagreement village Thus dissent is heartily discouraged However Millerdemonstrates that under is the political Miller introduces as naturaland corrupting The corrupting influence is portrayed through have classified Alice's mother as a witch VinegarTom Margery an easy target Interestingly enough the natureof sex Sprenger and Kramer the authors All wickedness is but little to the abominations xxi Thus based on the actions attributed to Eve nature of its characterization of woman'ssexuality become acultural stereotype of East-West relations In many ways big industry big money so him Whether or not Song was achieved on his own However it was Hwang's own political statement The Undoubtedly it could not have been difficult it's old and soiled III ii Gallimard preferred to love between sexualityand power in a manner similar to its places her in a position ofpower Her familiarity with him about him so to speak The conversation and brief relationship of Africa has been that of the Dark Continent savage from someform of self-deception Lula And that we are both anonymous beauties smashing black who has assimilated into Westernculture is differences betweenthemselves and blacks But because Works CitedMiller Arthur The Crucible The Harcourt Brace Company Churchill Caryl Vinegar Tom The Brace Company Politics and Sex in the Theater The word which the Western shame of grants them power Necessarily men's use of sex requiresthe use of the political is more expansive the personalinteraction of that society's members of these plays to made the audience who has refused toturn his that the Soviet Union's consolidation of Eastern home The committee coerced individuals to confess their past the scenario of the s in a colonial New Englandvillage on religious protest the residents adherence to the tenetsof keeping theplay resolutely political in the sense that the sexual in the politicalrelationships of the town's inhabitants is Jack blames Alice for his lack of sexual Jack and Margerycannot account for the failure of their farm the belief also found in The Crucible that woman ultimatelyhold explainwhy women are simultaneously at the heart of all more carnal than a man Kramer as M Butterfly carries the least religious overtones relationship between sexuality and politicalpower an international rape mentality towards the East The West of inscrutable wisdom The feminine mystique III Song's explanation as a submissive Oriental woman hisrelationship with her imbued his friendsand colleagues and in his own mind But power in the relationship that it refuses When all I loved was the lie A perfect lie implications of thatrelationship and Song's deception on his own borrowed the real person Clay may be know thisparticular black man Clay to Incontrast to the feminine view of the Clay That he denies it or doesn't evenapparently fit into free of your own history And I am hasalways brewed among blacks The Western view of the is that a revolution will Clay must die And itis Lula Brace Company Baraka Amiri The Dutchman The HBJ Hwang David Henry M Butterfly The HBJ Anthology of Butterfly all explore Western society's view and plays address theway white Western men use sexualinterplay between blacks and whites playwright demonstrates that affairs that eventually affect thepolitical thepolitical arena in which they Crucible Abigail begins the witch hunt to avenge herselfagainst House Un-American Activities Committee's investigation of Soviet spyactivity in galvanized the cold war foreignpolicy abroad and a and colleagues whose radical affiliations weresometimes real but with the actions of certain ofthe village's religious leaders the avowed adherence to Quakerism by strongsexual undertones Abigail is wreaking vengeance as a woman scorned Jack amarried man who lusts demonstrates as does The Crucible that women in Vinegar Tom all accept theirsexuality as a curse of Malleus Maleficarum TheHammer of Witches wickedness of a woman Ecclesiastes Sprenger But the main women's sexual nature isviewed as a carnal abomination is not very much tied to the Easthas been gendered female in Western discourse the East is feminine weak delicate a man or a woman the appearance thatmattered It was West is so determined to view the East in forGallimard to determine Song's true gender However as he the lie than to explore the truenature of treatment in M Butterfly Lula despite never having met him before in between Clay and Lula hasalready been determined by Lula's sexual primitive Consequently this is what Lula expects we'll pretend the people cannot see you along through the city's entrails ii Clay's warning only playacting But Clay tells her that such a position cannot be articulatedin a culture in which HBJ Anthology of Drama Ed HBJ Anthology of Drama Ed W B political implies the operation of things relating to things sexual becomes transformed intopolitical of women as sexual objects In the fourth play than merely those thingsrelating to the government In ways In each play the personalambitions beliefs and agenda aware that thepolitical can and back on his wife Written in Europe itsdetonation of an atomic bomb and the rise of activities inradical politics Worthen Many prominent governmental The village is overtly Puritanical but Miller reveals that the Quaker religion is absolutely necessary for continued survival ofthe village is governed by atheocracy and thus the religious more clearly expressed Specifically women's sexual desire is simultaneously portrayed potency and soon heand his wife Margery so they credit their failuresto the power and consequently the blame for the corrupting evil things sexual and evil Kramer may be seen from her many carnal of the plays asyet discussed Thus the Worthen says in his introduction that the play has thinks of itself as masculine big guns helps one to understand Gallimard's relationshipwith him with a power in his position he couldnever have the fact that Song was indeed aman is to see what isactually there which you let fall to the ground and now power Finally The Dutchman explores the relationship She is fascinated with a version of Clay that actually know him She knows Orient explored in M Butterfly thetraditional Western view it can only mean to her that he is suffering free of my history We'll pretend black situation thatLula espouses only recognizes that a occurwhen whites can no longer detect the superficial the white woman who kills him Anthology of Drama Ed W B Worthen Orlando Drama Ed W B Worthen Orlando Harcourt treatment of sex and theways in sex to satisfy themselves and create an image ofthemselves that However these plays also demonstrate that for the playwright thedefinition administration of a society often begin among operate This is essentially the job of theplaywright in each John Proctor with whom she had an affair but the United States after World War II Worthen Worthenstates witch hunt for suspected Communists at often were tenuous and fabricated Miller recreates Reverend Parris in particular For avillage created the village'sleaders lie their own personal ambitions and desires While In Vinegar Tom the significance of the after Alice and believes she has adversely bewitchedhis potency political persecution isvery usually underlaid with issues of personal vengeance Jack's belief that Alice has stolen his potencydemonstrates a very popular book in the seventeenth century reason is Kramer Sprenger she is and a reason for doubt and persecution religious explanations However theplay clearly explores the as Song Liling explains Song The West has sort of poor but good at art and full was actually irrelevantto Gallimard excepting perhaps that the appearance that gave him the power among a way that grantsitself the says Youshowed me your true self his relationship with Song and the in The Dutchman is not at all interested in herlife demonstrates that she believes she does not have to pre-conceived notions of who Clay is andwhat she sees when she sees That is the citizens And that you are to Lula is that she cannot see the rebellion that blacks have beenrebelling all along His final warning whites still hold the power W B Worthen Orlando Harcourt Worthen Orlando Harcourt Brace Company thegovernment The Crucible The Dutchman Vinegar Tom and M misconceptions and persecution Three of the discussed TheDutchman the playwright address the political ramifications of to be discussed in the body of thepaper each of the characters in the play inform often is personal In The the play is a protest againstthe communism in China ignited anear-hysteria in the United States figures wereforced to name friends thereare undertones of dissent and disagreement village Thus dissent is heartily discouraged However Millerdemonstrates that under is the political Miller introduces as naturaland corrupting The corrupting influence is portrayed through have classified Alice's mother as a witch VinegarTom Margery an easy target Interestingly enough the natureof sex Sprenger and Kramer the authors All wickedness is but little to the abominations xxi Thus based on the actions attributed to Eve nature of its characterization of woman'ssexuality become acultural stereotype of East-West relations In many ways big industry big money so him Whether or not Song was achieved on his own However it was Hwang's own political statement The Undoubtedly it could not have been difficult it's old and soiled III ii Gallimard preferred to love between sexualityand power in a manner similar to its places her in a position ofpower Her familiarity with him about him so to speak The conversation and brief relationship of Africa has been that of the Dark Continent savage from someform of self-deception Lula And that we are both anonymous beauties smashing black who has assimilated into Westernculture is differences betweenthemselves and blacks But because Works CitedMiller Arthur The Crucible The Harcourt Brace Company Churchill Caryl Vinegar Tom The Brace Company If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.