PAPER GUIDELINES
CAS 480 Individual Paper Assignment
Organization: Each analysis must have several parts.
An Introduction which uses some form of evidence or support to introduce the work you are considering, the way in which you plan to perform it, or the critical analysis (depending on which of the three assignments we're discussing). You might include an interesting story about the author, a quotation from a critic about the author or about the literature, a quote from the work itself, or a brief explanation of the way in which you became interested in this author or this story. "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Performance" is another standard opening.
A Thesis, or one sentence statement which sums up your analysis of the story as literature, your production concept based on your interpretation of that analysis for performance, or your critical evaluation of what happened when you sought to make that story live in an oral performance. In other words, try to sum up in ONE SENTENCE the general idea regarding the story, the production concept, or the performance. Do not create a four-legged monster sentence with conjunctions like "and" "but" "or" strung off into the sunset. Make it one simple sentence, such as: "'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place' presents the experience of one lonely individual as a symbol for the apparent meaninglessness of human existence." "My production concept for 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place' will symbolically represent humankind's fascination with life and death through staging contrasts." "Performance contrasts provided both pleasure and pain in our production of 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.'"
A Partition that lists briefly the reasons for your interpretation, usually in the same paragraph with the thesis. Example: "We can see this story's symbolic loneliness in the life of the author, the contrast between light and darkness in the setting, the isolation of the characters from each other, the climax of the plot in an interior monologue, the coldness of the language, and the detached relationship between the narrator and the implied audience." You should then summarize each in one sentence. Examples: "We see the loneliness in the life of the author as he searches for something he never seems to find, and, in the end, commits suicide." "The contrast between the 'well- lighted' cafe and the darkness outside symbolizes the comparison between life and death presented by the story." "The characters remain distant from each other, and only one, the older waiter, develops any sympathy for others." "The plot climaxes as the narrator steps into the mind of the older waiter to describe his realization that 'nothing' is the thing that haunts his nights, and that a person can endure it given a certain "cleanness and order." "The imagery of the story retains a certain distance from the setting and characters, with the concrete images limited to light and shadow shades of death and loneliness." "The narrator remains aloof from both the audience and the characters in the story, with the brief exception of the older waiter's soliloquoy."
A Body which discusses each of these main points, usually in one or two paragraphs each. These reasons are usually based upon the categories of author, setting, characters (including the narrator[s] in prose or the persona in poetry), action (or plot), language (or style) and implied audience.
For each of these you should present three specific pieces of information about the literature as you envision it and a concrete detail of staging, lighting, casting, costume, sound or physical behavior you might employ in the performance to show the audience the meaning that information has for you. Your reactions to some items might be general. The fact that Ernest Hemingway killed himself, for example, might not result in a specific behavior in the performance, but you might use that connection to help your cast reach an emotional energy level in the performance, to give them a connection to the author's life that makes the story more meaningful. You might also place a brief summary of that information in the program, giving your audience a clue to the emotional foundation for your performance. For each setting, each character, each major turning point in the plot, the major stylistic devices of language and for the implied relationship between the performer and the audience, however, you should have specific concrete images in your mind, and specific performance behaviors that you might employ in the performance to help the audience experience or respond to those images which you find meaningful. The key to a good analysis is a clear picture of the story in your mind which you describe in concrete terms (colors, smells, movement, etc.). Then that concrete experience must be translated into something which the audience can see & hear. The smell of a skunk might result in the wrinkling of a nose combined with a grimace in a performer, or the shadows of the leaves might be translated into a gobo projecting shadows of leaves on the readers. This should result in a paragraph for each of these categories.
In other words, if you have a transitional or introductory sentence to begin each paragraph, then simply describe three of the images you see (based directly on what the author has given you in the literature) in a sentence or two, and a behavior for # each of the three images, then you've got a paragraph. Add another sentence to sum up or ease the transition to the next idea, and you're finished with that section. Use transitional devices to give the audience a meaningful connection to the next idea in the framework of the main point you set up in your thesis. If we take the thesis about 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place' as a theme, for example, we could call the quietness, separation between characters, and the darkness as physical representations of the loneliness of human existence in the setting. The quietness, we might say, could be performed by a slow pace, and a soft, serious voice; the separation between the characters in their cool and detached looks at each other; and the darkness of the environment by having the narrator stress the images of light and dark in his/her description of the setting. You could describe each physical action, and quote the line upon which it might be performed. Then, to make a transition into the next idea, we could write that these "provide a background for characters who 'are of different kinds' and are unable to bridge the loneliness that separates them."
A Conclusion that summarizes the approach to the performance which you have described in the paper. Bring the paper to a meaningful close by giving us another way to respond to what you have said. Use a quotation, a personal experience that matches something in the story and sums up your feeling about it, an allusion to a similar literary work, or a description of a performance you have seen of a similar work.
Suggestions for the Body of the Analysis
The following are suggestions for the construction of your analysis.
The Author and his life can bring interesting insights to a story that can help develop your interpretation and add authority (pun intended) to it. Hemingway's father, for example, committed suicide with a Smith and Wesson .32 revolver in December, 1929, and the story was written in the winter of 1932-33. His mother mailed him the gun as an historical keepsake. Hemingway later took his own life with a shotgun.
Carlos Baker, his biographer, writes that "He was plagued all his adult life by insomnia and in sleep by nightmares, both the result of a highly developed imagination." In addition, he often spoke of suicide during his life. He was a man of contradictions, a tough-guy who liked to hunt, fish, fight and drink, and yet a hypochondriac with a temperamental manic- depressive personality. We see those contradictions mirrored in the story: black vs. white, life vs. death, humor vs. pathos, the clean, well- lighted cafe vs. the undesirable bodega.
Baker tells us that his favorite expression was "Dans la vie, il faut d'abord durer," or in life, one must always endure. These clues give us the keys to the understanding of the other elements of the story, from the apparent reserve of the narrator to the crisp description, from the outpouring of emotion in the "nada" sequence to the contrast between the characters.
Setting should bring a picture of the scenes in the story to mind. Create that setting in your mind. The clean, well-lighted cafe, for example, is bright in my mind, but the coolness of the evening makes it seem darker outside the cafe. The place is clean and orderly. The bodega in the second scene is a little less clean, and there might be loud music. The final sequence takes place in the main character's room, and I envision a single light bulb over his head.
Central elements of setting for an analysis would be the importance of light and darkness in the story, the details of description of "cleanliness and orderliness," the sense of quiet and slow "nothing" surrounding the characters. You'd especially want to be able to describe the places where light and dark are important to the story's development.
Translating setting into the staging of the story, I might plan bright lighting on the main characters to match the brightness of the cafe, with a blue flood wash on white sheets in the background to create the sense of the cool of the evening. The old man in the cafe might be dressed in a white suit to suggest coolness as well. The white sheet backdrop would also suggest cleanness and order, as would placing the characters in black & white waiter outfits with black pants and vest and tie. The sound of loud music might open the second setting to suggest a noisy bodega. For the final setting, I might have a single overhead light aimed down at the main character, to create shadows on his face and the sense that he was isolated in his room in a pool of light.
Character brings to mind the contrast between the two waiters in the story (between Hemingway and his father?). I see the older waiter as a heavy person who is sensitive to others, but who lives a very lonely life himself. The younger waiter is thinner, quicker, a brasher person who is "in a hurry." The old man has some of the characteristics of both---he is thin like the younger man, but is slow and alone like the older waiter. He is slightly stooped, but has a sense of pride and dignity in the way he drinks and walks. He would be appalled at the waiter spilling brandy over the edge of the glass, for example. The bartender is just a gruff voice to me---the part might even be done by the "old man" character from off stage. In short, we have pictures of humankind at each stage of life, youth, middle age, & old age, with a narrator who is sympathetic to each, but especially to the middle aged older waiter.
The staging of these perceptions would lead to casting for contrast between the two waiters. A reader with a deeper, slower voice might be cast for the older waiter in contrast with a higher voice. I would probably look for someone slightly heavier for the older waiter, someone thinner for the younger waiter. I would want the costume of the older waiter to be a little more rumpled, and I would attempt in rehearsal to get a little less precise, more relaxed movement out of the older waiter. This would point up the comparison between the old man and the two waiters. The old man should be neatly dressed, as the younger waiter should be, but the old man should stumble a little in a way similar to the slightly "out-of-control" movement of the older waiter.
The narrator must be someone capable of creating the conflicting forces within himself that are present in the story and in Hemingway's life. There must be that sense of strength, of endurance, matched with the sensitivity to lead us to the emotional power of the older waiter's soliloquoy.
The narrator has characteristics of the waiters as well. He has the detached language of the younger waiter, describing the old man and the loneliness of the older waiter in very matter-of-fact language. This is the blunt language of a tough exterior, but the narrator has the sensitivity of the older waiter to the loneliness of others. Why else does he tell the story---why give us the passionate rendition of the older waiter's thoughts in the famous "nada" sequence? (More about the narrator under language and audience.)
Action proceeds in three sections with the climactic moment during the "nada"sequence and a reprise of that moment in the last line. The older waiter and the younger waiter tell us about the situation in the early portion of the story. After the younger waiter leaves and the older man walks away talking to himself, the older waiter begins to analyze his own fears and loneliness, which peaks in the line "Hail, nothing, full of nothing, nothing is with thee."
Each of these sections could be highlighted by changes in lighting. As the older waiter closes the cafe, and leaves, thinking to himself, lights could dim on stage and isolate the older waiter in a pool of blue. Then at the climax of the "nada" sequence an overhead light could come on to create a suggestion of shadows while highlighting the older waiters shoulders. Lights would change to match the shift in the mood as he goes to the bodega, creating a "bright and pleasant" light. Then as the action reminds us of the nada sequence when the waiter enters his lonely room, we can bring in the overhead light strongly, and gradually fade all the other lights to leave him isolated in a pool of light and shadow for the last lines of the story---"It is probably only insomnia. Many must have it."
Language in this story presents challenges for the performers and pitfalls for the director to beware. Hemingway's style is clipped and dry, and we get the sense that the narrator is simply reporting what we might see. The danger is to let the narrator simply place the words out in the air without much variation or emotional coloring, with the excuse that the narrator is merely being factual. In the context of a live performance, that is deadly. Anything that is dull will simply disappear, and reading in an "objective" voice will destroy the story being created in the audience's imagination. The answer to that danger is found in Hemingway's life and work. His personification of "macho" characteristics and hang-ups in American males leads to another interpretation of the language that presents dramatic possibilities to the performer. The key image is that of a "tough guy with a heart of gold," the standard American hero who is tough and leathery on the outside, but soft with women and little kids. The identification of the narrator with the older waiter, and his entry into the mind of the older waiter in the "nada" sequence, show us the softer side of the narrator. The concept for the narrator's use of clipped descriptive language, then, is one of a masculine cover for an emotional involvement with the older waiter (and all of us who are lonely and afraid sometimes). If the performer invests the crisp language with the underlying emotion of a narrator who cares deeply beneath that surface of macho unconcern, the performance can become powerful, varied, and moving.
The suggestion of Spanish rhythm in the phrasing leads me to hope that my performers can do a suggestion of a Spanish accent. The goal of the director here is to have a noticeable suggestion of the accent that doesn't draw attention to itself, but flows naturally with the language.
Finally, the images of light and shadow, light and darkness, life and death that pervade the story must be moments when the narrator reaches beyond the apparent "objectivity" of the narration to sound emotional notes that will subtly point up the symbolism to the audience.
The Audience and the narrator's relationship to it are critical in the performance of this story. The pace of the piece is slow, and the subject sombre. The narrator must speak directly to the audience, and must develop enough of that sense of personal involvement discussed above to engage the audience's imagination. What cannot be done by moving forward through time, in other words, must be done by presenting the audience
variety in quantities, qualities and energy during descriptive passages.
The characters will speak in placement using off-stage focus, to create the illusion that the audience overhears their conversation. The older waiter is one exception to this; the lines of direct interior thought that the narrator quotes will be spoken by him, and will be directed to the audience as if in a soliloquoy on stage. For example, "It was all a nothing, and a man was nothing too. It was only that, and light was all it needed, and a certain cleanness and order."