General Vision and Viewpoint

1
General Vision and Viewpoint

• What is it.

2
GVVP

• This is the authors view on life in the world of
  the text.
• Is what we see in the text positive or negative?
• Is the dominant mood optimistic or pessimistic?

3
How does the author communicate the GVVP?

• The opening
• The relationships
• The main characters journey.
• By how s/he deals with key themes.
• Poverty, love, family, hopes and dreams etc.

4
Also..and crucially

• By closely examining the ending.

5
What is the GVVP in each of our texts then?

• DAL The gvvp is quite dark.
• There are moments of light, seen mostly in the
  sisters generosity of spirit and mutual
  affection. But in general, the GVVP is
  predominantly dark and pessimistic.
• Friel communicates this in the following manner.

6
Dancing at Lughnasa

• The three hopeful elements at the beginning all
  amount to nothing.
• wireless, keeps breaking down
• Fr. Jack, gone native and Kate is sacked
• Gerry Evans visits a superficial, shallow man
  full of empty promises

7
Dancing at Lughnasa

• The sisters live under the constant pressure of
  poverty - money, clothes for dance, food,
  milk/biscuits. (Rose)
• The sisters fail to achieve personal romantic
  fulfillment. They are spinsters.
• Cultural restraints it wouldnt be proper for
  women of their mature years to go to the dance.
  People would talk

8
Dancing at Lughnasa

• The ending is most important
• The warm, caring family weve come to know during
  the play is fractured.
• Rose and Agnes have come to a heartbreaking end
  they have died, alone in a foreign country,
  having become down-and-outs, separated from their
  sisters, destitute.

9
Dancing at Lughnasa

• So, despite some positive moments in the text,
  the overall GVVP in DAL is predominantly dark and
  pessimistic.
• Rose and Agnes have come to a heartbreaking end
  they have died, alone in a foreign country,
  having become down-and-outs, separated from their
  sisters, destitute.

10
GWPE

• The opening section sets a sombre tone.
• Father is blinded by accident at work resulting
  in loss of job, hardship and poverty. There are
  no social supports, no welfare etc. Life is
  harsh for the working classes. If you cant work
  you starve.
• Greit has no choice, it is decided for her, she
  must leave home to work as a maid. She is
  powerless.
• Working class people have few choices. Women,
  fewer still. Greit is at the end of the social
  ladder.
• Note her leaving. A very poignant scene..

11
Poverty

• Poverty is a constant for Greits family.

12
Relationships - family

• Greit and her family (2 families! Note how she
  becomes almost awkward as her relationship with
  her own family changes.)
• Greit and Agnes Agnes dies!
• Greit and Franz Franz runs away from the
  factory (suggestion he got bosses wife pregnant)

13
Relationships - personal

• Greit and Vermeer.
• Nothing will ever come from this. Hes a
  complex, selfish, unsatisfied character
• Greit and Peiter. Hes her best (only) option.

14
Greits vulnerability

• Because shes at the bottom of the social ladder
  shes at the mercy of those above her.
• Van Ruyven can do as he pleases with her. Sexual
  assault!

15
Greits vulnerability

• Vermeer also takes advantage of her
• She must
• Go buy paint materials
• Grind the powders for the paints
• Pose for his painting
• And make sure no-one else knows!
• Oh, and do her normal work too!

16
The ending

• This is a mixed bag
• Its ten years since Greit fled Vermeers house.
• Shes married to Peiter, has a family. Shes
  learned to change her perspective, to look
  inward to her family. But is she fulfilled? Is
  this what she wanted is it all she could expect.?

17
Casablanca

• Despite the backdrop of WW2, the GVVP here turns
  out to be quite positive.
• The opening is grim and intense
• Music
• War footage
• Dramatic voice-over
• Then we learn of the murdered couriers
• The roundup of suspects
• The shooting of the resistance operative
• The general corruptionetc

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In Casablanca, life is cheap

• Ugarte is murdered in custody
• Lazlos life is in serious danger.
• The police are corrupt
• Anything could happen!
• Rick and Lazlo put themselves at risk for the
  woman they love and the cause they believe in.

19
Ahhbut the ending.!

• At the core of the gvvp, one essential message
  rings out.
• Good triumphs over evil.
• Right wins out over wrong.
• Doing the right thing brings a kind of organic
  wholeness.
• These characters have issues and obstacles to
  face which have the potential to overwhelm them.
• But unlike DAL, they triumph over their
  circumstances.