Todays Woman Vs. Yesterdays Essays - Ibsen Family, Trifles

Today's Woman Vs. Yesterday's Women of today have come a long way since the periods portrayed in the dramas "Trifles," written by Susan Glaspell, and "Doll House," written by Henrik Ibsen. In both dramas, the characters played by women were portrayed as nothing more than property which should be seen and not heard. This is typical of society in the late 1800's and early 1900's, which is the time setting in which these dramas take place. In the drama "Trifles," the male characters known as Henry Peters (sheriff) and George Henderson (county attorney) strut around like roosters making lewd, sexist remarks while investigating the murder of farmer John Wright. The two farm women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, while forced to listen to such barbaric comments, actually end up solving the murder. Throughout the drama, the male characters are made to walk around the farm house looking for clues. Unfortunately, they do this from a male's point of view and are completely oblivious to the unseen environment around them. During this time, the two ladies sit silently conversing between themselves about the tragedy, and actually find clues to the hows and whys of the suspect without really looking. The female characters in this drama are written to be very perceptive and understanding about what happens in everyday life in a country home, since they too are country homemakers. With this information, which the men do not share, they notice small insignificant looking items which appear to be out of place. Through deductive reasoning, the women were able to figure out that John Wright's wife had been abused for many years. Not physical abuse, but severe mental abuse. The abuse seemed to reach its zenith when her husband killed her canary by ringing the bird's neck. This signifies a symbol of the life and freedom she once had. In the drama "Doll House," the main character named Nora is a woman who has gone through life being treated as if she were a "china doll." She was not unlike a china doll to be placed high on a pedestal, never to be heard from except when spoken to, or when asked to entertain her husband Torvald, their children or a group of Torvald's friends. As the story progresses, Ibsen creates a climax in the theme when Torvald finds out that Nora forged her father's name on a document to obtain money for a trip to Italy. This trip to Italy was necessary in order to save his life. Society had a certain stigmatism about the women of the late 1800's. Women were not thought to have been as smart as men, and were therefore not expected to understand the complicated world of money and especially the repercussions of getting a loan from places other than a banking institution. At this point, Nora receives a miracle she has not been looking forward to. The miracle turned out to be a test in which she finds out that their storybook love is not as strong to Torvald as she had imagined and hoped for. This particular scene in the drama gave the impression of morning sun rays tapping on the petals on a morning glory. With this, the reader begins to witness the blossoming of a flower. Nora's eyes open for what appears to be the firs! t time in her life, and she makes the decision to leave her life and family in search for a new beginning. For a male author born and raised in the 1800's, Ibsen does a fine job of looking at a relationship of this kind from a woman's point of view. However, women of today would not put up with either one of these situations. The women of today are more assertive and demanding than they used to be. There are many women today who are just as good if not better than their male counterparts. Some of the most successful people in today's society are women. With the passage of the right for women to vote and the women's movement of the late sixties and early seventies, women have deservingly "Come a Long Way Baby."

Last Minute Speaking Activities for ESL Teachers

Last Minute Speaking Activities for ESL Teachers Any teacher whos been in the business for more than a few months knows its important to have short speaking activities on hand to fill in those gaps that inevitably occur during class.   Student Interviews Introducing Students to Each Other / Expressing Opinions Choose a topic that will interest your students. Ask them to write five or more questions about this topic (students can also come up with the questions in small groups). Once they have finished the questions, they should interview at least two other students in the class and take notes on their answers. When the students have finished the activity, ask students to summarize what they have found out from the students they have interviewed. This exercise is very flexible. Beginning students can ask each other when they do their various daily tasks, advanced students can make up questions concerning politics or other hot topics. Conditional Chains Practicing conditional forms This activity specifically targets conditional forms. Choose either the real/unreal or past unreal (1, 2, 3 conditional) and give a few examples: If I had $1,000,000, Id buy a big house. / If I bought a big house, wed have to get new furniture. / If we got new furniture, wed have to throw away the old. etc.   Students will catch on quickly to this activity, but you might be surprised by how the story always seems to come back to the beginning.   New Vocabulary Challenge   Activating New Vocabulary Another common challenge in the classroom is getting students to use new vocabulary rather than the same old, same old. Ask students to brainstorm vocabulary. You can focus on a topic, a particular part of speech, or as a vocabulary review. Take two pens and (I like to use red and green) and write each word in one of two categories: A category for words that should not be used in conversation - these include words like go, live, etc., and a category that students should use in conversation - these include vocabulary items youd like to get students using. Pick a topic and challenge students to only use the target vocabulary.   Who Wants a...? Convincing Tell students that you are going to give them a present. However, only one student will receive the present. In order to receive this present, the student must convince you through his/her fluency and imagination that he or she deserves the present. Its best to use a wide range of imaginary presents as some students will obviously be more attracted to certain types of presents than others. A computerA gift certificate for $200 at a fashionable storeA bottle of expensive wineA new car Describing Your Best Friend Descriptive Adjective Use Write a list of descriptive adjectives on the board. Its best if you include both positive and negative characteristics. Ask students to choose the two positive and two negative adjectives that best describe their best friends and explain to the class while they chose those adjectives. Variation:Have students describe each other. Three Picture Story Descriptive Language/Reasoning Choose three pictures from a magazine. The first picture should be of people that are in some sort of relationship. The other two pictures should be of objects. Have students get into groups of three or four students to a group. Show the class the first picture and ask them to discuss the relationship of the people in the picture. Show them the second picture and tell them that the object is something that is important to the people in the first picture. Ask students to discuss why they think that object is important to the people. Show them the third picture and tell them that this object is something that the people in the first picture really dont like. Ask them to once again discuss the reasons why. After you have finished the activity, have the class compare the various stories that they came up within their groups.