ATAR Notes: Forum
HSC Stuff => HSC Subjects + Help => HSC Marking and Feedback => Topic started by: Never.Give.Up on March 13, 2018, 11:00:42 pm
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Essay on Richard III and Al Pacino
THIS IS DUE TOMORROW MORNING!! So, any help would be extremely appreciated. Mainly- do I capture essence of question? is my thesis sustained?Are my ideas backed up enough? Is it integrated? Is audience, purpose and context consider enough? Is it sophisticated?
THANKS SO MUCH!!! ;D :D ;) :)
Also, if there are any words that could be cut out- i would be glad to know- I am a little over 1200... :o
How effectively is the value of humanism and morality revealed to audiences through the composer’s representation of The Vice?
The representation of The Vice, reflects the composer’s purpose and context and is significantly effective in revealing universal values transcending societal context and time. The Vice is a personified force, embodying evil, which has a key role in morality plays. Through the compelling and seductive nature of the Elizabethan Villain, audiences are engaged and taught a clear moral lesson. William Shakespeare’s Richard III (RIII) and Al Pacino’s Looking For Richard (LFR) explore the role of Richard as the Villain in revealing the value of humanism and morality to both an Elizabethan and contemporary audience, in correspondence with their authorial intent. The changing nature of The Vice mirrors contemporary values of humanism and morality. Undoubtedly, it is through the representation of the conflict between free will and Providence, that encourages the duplicitous nature of humanity, in the necessity to appear outwardly moral, despite the Elizabethan belief that physical deformity is synonymous with moral depravity. The values imparted ensure the Vice-figure remains important and relatable to contemporary responders.
Tension between free will and Providence, allows human defiance to persist through an ambitious pursuit of power relatable to contemporary society. Shakespeare promotes the idea of Providentialism in the theocentric atmosphere to assert the right of the Tudor. Shakespeare thus characterises The Vice to oppose it, warning audiences of the dangers of pursuing free will and making the choice of a destructive future. Comparatively, the emergence of secularism in the 20th Century challenges Providentialism and embraces an ambitious free will, thus Pacino urges audiences to empathise with Richard’s pursuit of power. Within RIII’s opening soliloquy, Shakespeare represents The Vice as acting on free will “I am determined to prove a villain” foreshadowing the antagonists desire to orchestrate his own destiny, as it establishes his choices and the preconceived consequences. This ambitious pursuit of power furthers Shakespeare’s characterisation of his “subtle, false and treacherous” nature, enhancing relatability of The Vice to a contemporary audience. Moreover, Pacino moderates Shakespeare’s villainous depiction, instead representing the self-made man in free will, through figurative language “politicians… lies and innuendo” to convey human defiance in a humanistic desire for power. The consequences of human defiance are expressed through Shakespeare’s biblical allusion “thou wilt die by God’s just ordinance”, as women in RIII appeal to higher authority in the name of Providentialism, foreshadowing what will occur if Richard implements his choices. Sherr-Ziarko stresses that The Vice is ultimately undermined and “overthrown at the end by the forces of good”, reinforcing to the audience the effects of remaining defiant, in the absence of morality. Conversely, Pacino moderates and questions Shakespeare’s representation the idea that free will is undercut by ‘divine power’, in abating the villainy of The Vice, to gain empathy from a contemporary audience, sympathetic to the representation of the antagonist as a “scourge of God”. This representation offers clarification to a contemporary audience as it explores The Vice’s humanism as evident in making choices apropos his desires. LFR reaffirms the responder’s values of morality, as defying Providentialism for ambition is an ethical dilemma. The conflict between free will and Providence transcends societal context, as individuals question Providence, thus leading to the duplicitous nature of the human condition.
Desire and duplicity reflect an absence of morality in RIII and LFR. In Shakespeare’s milieu, politics and morality encourages his representation of The Vice as deceitful, representing the vice as a challenge to Tudor order. Comparatively, Pacino’s representation of duplicity was reshaped for a contemporary audience, sceptical about morality in a modern society. Pacino aims to show the moral and political relevance of Shakespeare by “communicating a Shakespeare about how we feel and think today”. Through Shakespeare’s implementation of dramatic irony in the soliloquy “I clothe my naked villainy…and seem a saint when most I play the devil” allows the audience to understand Richard as duplicitous and evil, to appease the monarchy. Conversely, due to Pacino’s desire to appropriate Shakespeare to contemporary society, he adopts the dual role of both director and actor, to convey the duplicity in the ‘everyday’ man. Through observing this dual role, Pacino makes use of his own identity as a celebrity, emulating Richard’s capacity for duplicity, to enhance Shakespeare’s relevance to contemporary society. Pacino uses chiaroscuro lighting to exemplify the duplicity of human nature to reinforce ideas of appearance versus reality to a modern audience. Shakespeare elucidates the absence of morality through the dramatic irony “I will have her, but I will not keep her long”, enabling audiences to witness The Vice’s ease of manipulation through the power of language as his physicality contrasts with his psychology. Likewise, Pacino’s parody in LFR, conveys a sardonic intercut, “HA!” to reflect the cunning nature of The Vice in his attempt to fulfil political potential. Indeed, modern audiences are alerted to the transcendence of manipulative individuals through time, due to their failure to question morals. Shakespeare’s representation of The Vice as a deceitful and conniving villain challenges the audience’s morality, as his humanism conflicts with his psychology. Pacino’s dualistic representation of the Elizabethan Villain, blending the identity of the actor and character, evokes empathy from modern audiences apropos the absence of morality in humanistic actions. This is reinforced through Sherr-Ziarko’s statement “Vice’s ‘arsenal of deceit’… disguises, both moral and physical…feigned tears and grief”, asserting that duality resonates in contemporary society.
Shakespeare’s time believed that physical frailty mirrored moral deformity. The zeitgeist of Shakespeare’s theocentric Elizabethan era perceived an imperfection as indicative of a defect of the soul, affirming the Tudor’s right to the throne. Thus, Shakespeare accentuates Richard’s deformity, magnifying his moral depravity. Conversely, Pacino’s milieu of the secular 20th Century encourages him to reinterpret and moderate Shakespeare’s characterisation of The Vice, to recreate an image rendered recognisable to a modern audience. Pacino’s representation of The Vice is a construct that represents contemporary visions of evil, particularly focusing on physical actions to reflect an American ‘gangster’. Consequently, Shakespeare’s use of physiognomy in the opening soliloquy “deformed, unfinished, sent before my time”, metaphorically defines the characterisation of The Vice as evil. Likewise, Shakespeare’s imagery of Richard as a “bloody, usurping boar” uses zoomorphism to accentuate The Vice’s animalistic qualities, highlighting Richard’s unfitness for the throne, as the Elizabethan audience would encourage Richard’s association with untamed aggression and uncontrollable violence. Alternatively, Pacino represents The Vice as a ‘gangster,’ and the belief that all authority including the government is corrupt, enhances the audience’s understanding of the widespread nature of corruption. Pacino employs chiaroscuro lighting, black costuming and a whispered tone to emphasise the malevolent character of The Vice in contemporary evil. As contemporary society is accustomed to violence and corruption, and is empathetic towards disabilities, Pacino moderates the significance of Richard’s deformity, instead stressing his physical actions to represent the nature of The Vice. Pacino’s use of vox populi, “What? The leading guy’s disabled and has children killed. We’ll have Politically Correct Police down on us so fast” enables the audience to resonate with the evil character of The Vice through his physical actions and the allusion of Richard to a ‘gangster’. Shakespeare’s representation of The Vice enables the audience to understand the importance of humanism, sustaining Sherr-Ziarko’s comment that “the role of The Vice becomes to promote intrigue” in suggesting that it is active evil choices that create an evil character, challenging the audience’s humanism. Contrastingly, Pacino communicates the value of morality through representing the flaws of humans, reaffirming Sherr-Ziarko’s argument that The Vice “provokes audiences to question their sensibility of human evil”. Ultimately, it is through these moral lessons that the composer’s representation remains transcends the confines of time.
Ultimately, the values offered through the changing representation of The Vice enable it to effectively transcend the limitations of time. Both Shakespeare’s RIII and Pacino’s LFR, are ephemeral products of their time, created for the entertainment of their milieu, yet are connected through their exploration of what it is to be human. The reinterpretation and moderation of ideas, reflect the zeitgeist of the composer, enabling their representation to remain valuable to contemporary society. Humanism and morality are thus available to transcend the confines of time through the universal representation of the challenges of free will and Providentialism, encouraging duplicity within humans, and thus impinging upon ideas that physical deformity mirrors moral depravity. Therefore, The Vice remains relevant through cultural contexts, through its effective revelation of humanism and morality.
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It's getting to midnight my friend - Call it. You won't be able to effectively implement any meaningful feedback now, you'll end up changing one thing which means you need to change a bunch of things and you'll be up until 5am, potentially making it worse. Save yourself the pain, print it out, get some shut eye. If you must do something, read it aloud and look for places to put commas, some of your sentences are a tad long based on reading a random paragraph. That's not going to get you or cost you a mark by itself though!
It looks good - Best of luck ;D
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Hey NGU :)
I'm no authority on this subject, but if you're really stuck with where to cut words, I'd suggest you look toward the end....I only really skimmed it quickly, but from what I read it seemed to say "transcends the confines of time" about 4 times in the last 10 lines or so....
You have really good points, but this idea does sound a little repetitious toward the end, so if you are looking to cut words that's probably a place you could do it! Sorry its not a great deal of help or anything specific though.
Good luck with it - it looks great! :D