Tag Archives: Compelling Drama

Compelling Drama 3

Following a double class today, and in anticipation of a class tomorrow on Othello in which we’ll be examining what makes the play such “compelling drama”, it became clear to me that a more in depth analysis of what exactly my “10 features of compelling drama” mean might be helpful, before asking students to apply these concepts to a specific example.

So here goes:

1. Atmosphere – tension – suspense – foreshadowing

Definition = the atmosphere is the prevailing mood, the feelings which exist on the stage, between the characters. Any kind of conflict between them will create tension. Wondering what will happen next creates suspense. Dropping hints about what may lie in the future is foreshadowing – we can’t see it clearly, it is but a shadow, but we do have a feeling of foreboding, of dread.

Example = most horror movies begin with a tense, foreboding atmosphere, usually at nighttime, often aided by eerie silence, creaky sound effects or bad weather – rain, thunder, lightening – anything that makes it hard to see clearly which freaks most people out!

Effect = the mood on stage will have a strong impact on the audience. If it’s tense, we’ll feel tense. If it’s awkward, we’ll feel that awkwardness sitting in the audience. If something funny happens, we’ll join in with laughter.

2. Momentum. Sense of inevitability as the plot unfolds

Definition – momentum refers to the idea that the pace of events gathers speed as the plot unfolds, somewhat like a snowball getting bigger and moving faster as it rolls down a hill. It can start to feel like there is no going back, no way of slowing or stopping the chain of events which has been set in motion. When this happens, the audience get caught up in the action and can feel simultaneously frustrated and exhilarated by the seeming inevitability of the events. This is particularly true of tragedy where the downfall of the tragic hero appears almost impossible to avert.

Example: In Love/Hate, which opens with the murder of Darren’s brother, as each of his scumbag mates gets gunned down, it seems inevitable that he is heading inexorably towards his own annihilation and that this downfall is in many ways unavoidable.

Effect: A lively pace holds our attention, sweeps us up in the action and keeps the adrenaline pumping. It also provides a contrast for the quieter, more reflective moments, often reserved for the delivery of soliloquies.

3. High stakes – characters stand to win & lose a lot

Definition: If I stroll into the kitchen and  feel torn between apple pie and crisps, this is not a high stakes choice. There will be no consequences so it doesn’t matter what I decide. But imagine if I was a super model (yup, the world’s shortest, stumpiest super model!) then this decision would suddenly be more significant, particularly if I had recently lost out on a job because I had gained a few pounds. Of course, there are some decisions that are inherently high stakes no matter who’s making them – the decision to lie is a high stakes decision, particularly if there’s a strong possibility that I’ll get caught. The bigger the lie, the higher the stakes. Ultimately there is no higher stakes decision than the decision to kill a person and the consequences are permanent. In almost all of Shakespeare’s great tragedies – Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet (but notKing Lear) the central character grapples with the decision of whether or not to kill another human being. High stakes choices indeed!

Example: Macbeth decides to kill the King and his crime (regicide) has horrific consequences for himself, his marriage, his country and his future. Hamlet hesitates whether or not to avenge his father’s murder and his procrastination leads to the unnecessary deaths of his true love, her father, Hamlet’s mother and a few more along the way! Othello, torn between his love for his wife and his faith in Iago’s loyalty, chooses wrongly and is led blindly down an evil path of revenge on those who have done no wrong. The consequences, as we shall see, are horrific.

Effect: In life, we all fear making the wrong choices, taking the wrong path and then suffering the consequences forever. We fear remorse, regret, despair, yet these is no guarantee in any decision we make that we are making the right one. Seeing the effect, for good or ill, of major life choices on the central characters of any drama, often reminds us that we are all flawed and human and that what they are going through we might one day end up going through ourselves.

4. Honestly from the central characters. Confiding darkest secrets in us

Definition: the absolute definition of honesty in a play are the moments when we get to see the inner workings of the central characters heart and mind. It’s not until we know what they’re thinking and how they’re feeling that we come to really know and understand them.

Example: In Shakespeare, soliloquies are used to give us this privileged insight into their innermost thoughts and emotions. In “Philadelphia, Here I Come”, the two sides of the one character, Public Gar and Private Gar are used to help us get closer to the inner workings of his psyche. In “Dancing At Lughnasa”, the narrator, Michael as an adult, provides a commentary on his childhood that offers an insight into his character whilst all the while reminding us that how he saw things was not necessarily how others experienced that summer.

Effect: Because we have a direct line to the central characters brain, we understand their motivations, we sympathise with them and feel a connection to them, often despite their bad behaviour. However, this connection can be problematic. Often we feel like shouting out panto-style at them to STOP! And we feel implicated in their bad behaviour, even though we have nothing to do with it, we’ve also done nothing to stop it (I know, I know, what are we going to do, stand up and start shouting at the actors on the stage? Lol!). The best way I can explain this is as follows: imagine a student of mine – let’s call her Jane – takes a dislike to me (I know! Inconceivable right?) and decides to slash the tires on my car. Her friend, Tarzan, quite likes me as a teacher and knows that I have an important hospital appointment after school, but is afraid to get Jane in trouble so says nothing. If Jane then goes ahead and slashes my tires, even though Tarzan didn’t plan this evil deed, or have anything to do with carrying it out, he will feel implicated in the crime because he knew about it and did nothing to stop it! Hopefully that makes sense!

5. Emotional & psychological conflict & complexity 

Definition: The characters must seem like real people and real people are complex. We experience floods of conflicting emotions simultaneously and are often torn between two courses of action, which in turn causes conflict in our minds, in our psyche. If things get really bad, this mental and emotional conflict may drive us to madness or despair.

Example: as I eat chocolate cake, I feel satisfied, smug, content, greedy, guilty and gluttonous all at once – making me emotionally complex. There is a psychological conflict going on inside me as I indulge in my deep desire for chocolate but also feel shame and possibly frustration at my inability to control my impulses, particularly if it’s January and I’m trying to lose the weight I put on over Christmas. The ironic thing about this psychological conflict is that I may then go much further down this dodgy path, binging on the entire cake, instead of backing off for my own good. You see this in Shakespeare’s characters all the time, where they make one mistake and then they just keep making it again and again. That’s because human beings are complex (aka dopey!) and do not necessarily learn from their mistakes, or at least often by the time they do it’s too late!

Effect: We find complex characters believable and fascinating, which in turn helps us to buy into their story. You’ll often hear plays, films and novels criticised for having “one dimensional characters” which means they are flat and unrealistic and dull.

6. Battle between good & evil (internal as well as external)

Definition: Seeing a battle between good & evil unfold never goes out of fashion but audiences are weird. Sometimes we root for the villain (Walter White in Breaking Bad) because they are more interesting and compelling than the ‘good’ characters. This is why really good writers ensure that this battle often occurs within the central character, rather than between superheroes and ‘baddies’.

Example: Internally a character is often torn between doing what is right and doing what they want – think for a moment of those cartoons where a good angel perches on one shoulder offering advice, and an evil little devil sits on the other shoulder tempting the host to ignore his conscience and follow his desires. We find this endlessly fascinating because we too are often torn between doing what is right and what is enjoyable (often doing the wrong thing is fun and doing the right thing is dull dull dull!)

Effect: similar to one of the examples given above, a battle between good and evil often reminds us that we must decide whether we are a force for good or evil in the world. The internal battle reminds us that we are all flawed and human and that what they are going through we might one day end up going through ourselves. But it also reminds us that it’s ok to feel torn, that nobody’s perfect, which is nice to be reminded of every now and again!

7. Audience in privileged position – we know more than other characters

Definition: If I’m sitting in the audience, and I know something that one or more of the characters on stage doesn’t know, then I’m in a privileged position. If I could jump up on stage (but breaking the fourth wall – the illusion of this being ‘reality’ – is frowned upon so don’t so it!) I’d be able to tell them vital information which might completely change their behaviour and ultimately, their life!

Example:  We know in Othello that Iago is a sick, twisted, sadistic little monkey who cannot be trusted but crucially no-one else in the play knows this!

Effect: We feel knowledgable and powerful. We understand what’s going on on a much deeper level than most of the characters and this makes us feel superior to them. However, we often nonetheless avoid judgement because we have seen the central character’s innermost thoughts and feelings to arrive at this position of superior knowledge, so we sympathise with them and recognise that the other characters couldn’t possibly have arrived at the same depth of knowledge without this opportunity to spy on the inner workings of the central characters’ brain.

8. Dramatic irony

Definition 1: Irony can be created when we, the audience, know something that the characters do not and they say something ‘ironic’ but only we can see the irony

Example: Characters in Othello keep commenting how honest and trustworthy Iago is.

Definition 2: Irony can be created when the opposite of what characters expect to happen, happens. This reversal of expectations is ironic because it’s so far from what they thought would be the case.

Example: Lady Macbeth at the start of the play believes that “a little water clears us of this deed” – that they can wash the blood off and that will be that. Ironically, later on, we see her obsessively washing her hands, saying “what will these hands n’er be clean”. It’s ironic that the physical blood is gone but her conscience is so fraught that she’s hallucinating blood stains that aren’t there. This situation is the exact opposite of what she predicted / expected.

Effect: we feel smart when we identify irony! We may also feel sympathy for the characters who are stuck in the ironic situation, but it depends whether or not we feel they caused it themselves (in which case they deserve their dose of situational or dramtic irony. If it’s not their fault though, we;ll probably feel sorry for them – and also perhaps frustrated that they can’t SEE the irony!

9. Poetic justice

Definition: Justice is where evil is punished. The punishment should fit the crime. Poetic justice is where the punishment is so fitting and so appropriate that we get an intense feeling of satisfaction out of the situation.

Example: If I steal your lunch and eat it, and then I get food poisoning from the very lunch I stole, that’s poetic justice. If I cheat on my husband and catch a sexually transmitted disease, that’s poetic justice.

Effect: The audience get a smug satisfaction out of seeing someone get what they deserve in a way which kind of makes it their own fault. It reassures us that the universe is on the side of good. In truth though, it’s called poetic justice, becuase you see it in stories far more often than you see it in real life! I hate to break it to you but in the real world the baddies often get away with their crime!

Catharsis:

Definition: Have you ever wondered why you like horror movies? Or violent video games (even though you’re not a violent person in real life)? Or Eastenders (it’s so bloody miserable and depressing all the time)? Or books that make you cry (I’m not a fan of “PS I Love You” but many of my – female – students love it)?

Some people suggest that we like all of these things because they’re not real. We can experience scary things in a fantasy way without putting our ‘real’ self in danger -the fear/rage/depression/sadness leave us as soon as we switch our brains off from the movie/video game/telly/book.

This process of temporarily experiencing negative emotions and then ‘cleansing’ them is known as catharsis.

Example: I was horrified watching the final scene of Breaking Bad but I was also relieved that evil had been defeated and I was glad I hadn’t ever had to make the terrible decisions Walter White did to protect his family.

Effect: We enjoy this process because it helps us to lose ourselves in someone else’s life for a while (if our own life sucks) or to appreciate how good we have it (if our own life is better than what we’ve just watched) when the movie/video game/telly/book ends.

[This list is not exhaustive. After I’d written it I began to think about other reasons we might find the play fascinating and dramatic. So my no.11 = relevance (e.g. Macbeth’s a tyrant. We’ve still got a few of them in the modern world; we’re still seeing innocents murdered in Syria & back in 2011 we witnessed the toppling of the Egyptian dictator Mubarak in the Arab Spring, thanks to a popular uprising – not unlike the events described in Macbeth, except Mubarak is still alive – not in prison but under house arrest. They didn’t chop his head off! So, watching a drama but connecting what’s happening on stage to what’s happening in the real world – or personally in your own life – is a really powerful reason a person might find a play compelling/fascinating & dramatic).

My no. 12 = emotional resonance (often with a character we connect to what they are going through. This resonance creates empathy – a much stronger emotion than sympathy – and we feel compelled to continue watching as events unfold because we are now invested in their emotional journey. I guess a weaker version of this explains why we often keep watching ‘the X-factor’, or ‘I’m a Celebrity’ long after it’s even remotely interesting, because we feel we’ve gotten to know the ‘characters’ on the show and want to see how it all works out for them). Anyway, my point is, my list of 10 features of Compelling Drama could easily be 12, and there are probably more I haven’t even thought of!]

Lesson Plan Compelling Drama

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Step 1: Distribute this list:

Definition of compelling drama: captivating, irresistible, commanding attention.

10 Features of Compelling Drama:

  1. Atmosphere – tension – suspense – foreshadowing

  2. Momentum. Sense of inevitability as the plot unfolds.

  3. High stakes – characters stand to win & lose a lot.

  4. Honestly from the central characters. Confiding darkest secrets in us.

  5. Emotional & psychological conflict & complexity. Divided self?

  6. Battle between good & evil (internal as well as external)

  7. Audience in privileged position – we know more than other characters?!?

  8. Dramatic irony

  9. Poetic justice

  10. Catharsis

[This list is not exhaustive. After I’d written it I began to think about other reasons we might find the play fascinating and dramatic….

So my no.11 = relevance (e.g. Macbeth’s a tyrant. We’ve still got a few of them in the modern world; we’re still seeing innocents murdered in Syria & back in 2011 we witnessed the toppling of the Egyptian dictator Mubarak in the Arab Spring, thanks to a popular uprising – not unlike the events described in Macbeth, except Mubarak is still alive – not in prison but under house arrest. They didn’t chop his head off! So, watching a drama but connecting what’s happening on stage to what’s happening in the real world – or personally in your own life – is a really powerful reason a person might find a play compelling/fascinating & dramatic).

My no. 12 = emotional resonance (often with a character we connect to what they are going through. This resonance creates empathy – a much stronger emotion than sympathy – and we feel compelled to continue watching as events unfold because we are now invested in their emotional journey. I guess a weaker version of this explains why we often keep watching ‘the X-factor’, or ‘I’m a Celebrity’ long after it’s even remotely interesting, because we feel we’ve gotten to know the ‘characters’ on the show and want to see how it all works out for them). Anyway, my point is, my list of 10 features of Compelling Drama could easily be 12, and there are probably more I haven’t even thought of!]

UPDATE: In the interests of differentiation, I asked students to think about whether they feel they work better alone, in pairs or in groups of 3. I got them to put their hand over their eyes and vote for their preference. Then those who prefer to work alone moved to one part of the room, those who work better in pairs & threes moved forward to the front clusters of desks and we proceeded like this. I’m always a bit sad when very knowledgable students choose to work alone. I know it’s good for them cause they can go at a faster pace, but then the peer-to-peer aspect of the pair/group work loses their valuable contribution. Ah well, swings & roundabouts I guess!

Step 2: Give students, (in groups of 3) ten minutes to define (a) what each of these means & (b) why they appeal to the audience. That’s ONE minute per term so they’d better work fast (or else you can give them a little longer).

Use an online stopwatch on the whiteboard to let them know time is a ticking!

UPDATE: This took 35 minutes! For each term we changed it to 1. Definition 2. Example 3. Effect on audience. It took way longer than I had anticipated & turned into a whole class discussion to clarify each of the terms.

Step 3: Each group must now select what they consider to be the three most compelling scenes in the play. They should prepare some notes, bullet point style, as no-one is bullet proof. Any one of them may be called on to present to the class at the end of the exercise. Allow 15 -25 minutes for this part (I don’t know how long it’ll take, I’m trying it out for the first time tomorrow but we’ve got a double class so there won’t be any rush)

UPDATE: As we were running out of time I asked each student/pair/threesome to just analyse ONE scene and identify which  features from the list of 10 were evident in this particular scene.

Step 4: Using some method of random selection (I’ve got bingo balls 1 – 30 in a bag and if the number that comes out corresponds to the number in my roll book, you’re up!), select 4-5 students to present their “most compelling scene” to the class. If you want to raise the stakes higher, tell them you’ll be videoing it. Be warned, however, this may lead to all out mutiny!

Update: Did this – but discussing just ONE scene, not three.

Step 5: Get them to write the essay. There’s no point haven the craic and not following it up with an extended piece of written work if you ask me – but then I’m such a badass…. (yeah… like those flying pigs over my head…)

Well, that’s one double class prepared. It only took me like… 5 hours?…. sigh. Time for bed!

 

 

Compelling Drama (Macbeth)

Macbeth blood

Last class Friday evening isn’t the most productive time to have Leaving Cert English, but we did start looking at the question “Macbeth contains many scenes of compelling drama” – discuss.

Compelling means “captivating” “irresistible” “commanding attention” –  in other words, you feel like you can’t look away. So which scenes pique our interest, demand our absolute attention, suck us in and make us perch on the edge of our seats or weep uncontrollably?

If your answer is “none, it’s a shite play” then stop reading now. Go have a cup of tea and know that I am trying my best not to judge you for your failure to appreciate the genius of Shakespeare.

If your answer is “hmm, I’m not sure” or even better “I know, I know! Pick me!“, by all means read on.

I had earlier googled a couple of scenes I think are particularly compelling in the play but I’ve since revised this list in my head to include some new ones:

1. Opening scene:

This is basically your classic horror movie opening. There’s “thunder, lightening..rain” & a looming battle, all introduced to us by a gang of hideous witches. Scarier, granted, for a superstitious Shakespearean audience than for us – after all, they lived in the era of the inquisition & counted burning witches at the stake as one of their top viewing passtimes of a Saturday! These evil creatures “hover through fog & filthy air” but this is no innocent game of quidditch; they are planning some serious mayhem! They plant the notion that they will meet Macbeth upon the heath which rouses our curiosity. This is a compelling start, particularly for those who are happy to enter the space that all theatre demands – the “willing suspension of disbelief“.

However, if the idea of witches is enough to make you giggle, you may want to scratch this one off your list of compelling scenes in Macbeth.

2. Macbeth’s soliloquy where he contemplates killing Duncan

I wanted to find a version of this which was convincing but not so over-the-top dramatic that it makes you roll your eyes. I failed. I’m plonking this one here so you get a sense of the drama of the moment but imho, this guy has overdone it. If he toned it down, made it less hand-on-heart-sincere, and more like a slightly (as opposed to completely) unhinged guy talking to himself out loud, it would be more to my taste!

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcI_xtsiUps]

This soliloquy is tense and compelling and rather like listening in on someone in the confessional box. Here is this guy who we’ve been told is “full of the milk of human kindness” battling with his conscience and confiding his innermost thoughts and fears in us. He examines in arrestingly honest terms the depth of his desire, admitting that if he could do it and get away with it on earth he’d “jump the life to come“. Imagine wanting something so badly you’d give up the prospect of eternal life to have it? He also accepts that committing this crime of regicide would be utterly wrong, as “this Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office that the angels will plead out trumpet tongued against the deep damnation of his taking off“. This image of angels trumpeting the alarm if Duncan is murdered is so vivid that we’re not surprised when he concludes that he can’t get way with it. Picturing the reaction to the crime as angels “blow the horrid deed in every eye that tears would drown the wind”  is enough to make him reconsider.

3. Lady Macbeth’s manipulation of her husband

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe5uRWnzUig]

I defy anyone to watch this and not think “what a bitch!”. Even if afterwards we factor in her determination to help her husband fulfil his potential and partially excuse her behaviour, when you first see how vicious and determined and manipulative she is in this scene you cannot help but be shocked and horrified and kind of in awe of her complete and utter ruthlessness. If I was Macbeth I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to withstand being called effeminate & a coward & disloyal & a liar! Her best line here – the most compelling & shocking line of the play so far if you ask me – is where she proclaims ““I have given suck, and know how tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me – I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed his brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this” Ouch! She’d apparently kill her own child before she’d break a promise to her husband! This woman is a genius at emotional and psychological manipulation. The cow!

4. The Banquet Scene

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaIfPfZ7C5s]

Why is this compelling? Well, because this is supposed to be the greatest moment of his life – the Banquet to celebrate his coronation as King. It’s what he’s dreamed of and hoped for and even, ultimately, killed for. And now here he is and instead of honour and glory, there are blood-soaked killers at the door and the ghost of the man he just had murdered appears before him, also covered in blood, haunting him, accusing him. “Never shake thy gory locks at me” Macbeth screams at thin air. Talk about awkward! God love his poor wife trying to keep the party going…

Poor Macbeth! When what you expect turns out to be the complete opposite of what actually happens, this is called dramatic irony, caused by a reversal of expectations. [If you’re not sure that you understand irony, and for the best explanation of irony I’ve ever seen, click on this link]. In the case of Macbeth, it’s also poetic justice; poetic because he deserves to suffer, rather than celebrate, as he settles onto the throne that should never rightfully have been his. He doesn’t belong in this role so it’s fitting that he never manages to fit the role either!

No-one else in the room can see Banquo’s ghost so either Macbeth is insane or those who return from the dead only appear to those they wish to communicate with. Either way, it’s pretty awkward for the assembled guests who try not to stare and probably look at their feet, their hands, their plates – anywhere but at their psychotic newly crowned King who’s acting like a total lunatic.

Is it any surprise that the rumours about Macbeth are openly discussed in the scenes which immediately follow the banquet? I doubt many of the nobles liked him anyway – he’s been spying on them (“there’s not one of them but in his house I keep a servant fee’d“) so they may have been staying quiet up to this point out of fear, but now that he’s been publicly humiliated and one of their own – Banquo – has been murdered, they’re not likely to put up with him for too much longer. The first chance they get, they’ll turn on him.

This scene is utterly compelling for the audience because we the audience now feel that his downfall is inevitable. Everyone suspects him, so it’s surely only a matter of time before he is openly challenged and defeated! Now that’s compelling drama. We just sitting in the audience waiting to see how and when his downfall will occur. If we’re secretly enjoying his misery, the feeling we’re experiencing is schadenfreude. Watch this video for an explanation of what this word means:

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55fzXL3uc1s]

5. The murder of Lady Macduff & her children

This clip has a bit of a lip sync problem but I think it captures the innocence of the victims quite well.

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8X5TR8768c]

There are a couple of things worth nothing here. This is the first time we have witnessed the murder of innocent women and children in the play. Banquo may have been innocent of any wrong-doing, but he did represent a threat to Macbeth. Here we see the complete disintegration of any remaining morality in Macbeth. He’s willing to wipe out entire families simply because the head of the household has not attended his coronation banquet. As an audience we also cringe in horror at the sadism of the killers. Who does this? Who makes a mother watch while her child’s throat is slit? This is the moment where we really question our allegiance and start to hope Macbeth gets caught. This scene also provides Macduff with a deeply personal motive for going after Macbeth (his political motive was already quite strong, evident when he lamented “bleed, bleed, poor country“) and this is turn will create even more poetic justice when Macduff finally confronts Macbeth.

6. Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Eb2t-fXD8E]

Do I need to explain why it’s compelling drama to watch Lady Macbeth disintegrate, unconsciously revealing her innermost secrets, torn apart by remorse, ravaged by guilt and caught in the grip of a hideous O.C.D as she feverishly attempts to scrub out the “damned spot” which has become an inescapable reminder of the evil which she earlier invited into her life? Here is dramatic irony at it’s most dramatic as we witness the completion of her transformation from arrogant architect of evil (“a little water clears us of this deed“) to but a tragic shadow of her former self (“all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand“).

7. Macbeth’s soliloquy “Out Out”

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8t6Qb5sZXo]

So here is the man who believed that if only he could become King and get away with it, all his worldly ambitions would be achieved and he would live happily ever after. Now, he’s telling us that life is a farce, a joke, a meaningless “tale told by an idiot“.  The depth of his despair, the power of his words, the suicidal intention behind them and the fact that he realises too late that it was all for nought all make this a compelling speech but most of all, it is the fact that it is delivered immediately after he receives news of his wife’s death – this is what makes this scene so awful. His “dearest partner of greatness”. the woman he would rather kill for than disappoint, is dead, and he is so far gone, so filled with despair, that he reacts not with tears or anguish or denial but with calm acceptance and an acknowledgement that there was nothing left for them to live for anyway. How the mighty have fallen…

Of course, when the tragedy is over and he’s dead and she’s dead and we’re still alive, we also experience the wonderful catharsis* of knowing that human beings really can f*ck up really badly, but hey, it wasn’t us, we’re fine, so off we go into the night, determined not to kill anyone on our way home, cause if we didn’t know it before, we all know it now – that can only end badly!!!

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*Catharsis =

Have you ever wondered why you like horror movies? Or violent video games (even though you’re not a violent person in real life)? Or Eastenders (it’s so bloody miserable and depressing all the time)? Or books that make you cry (I’m not a fan of “PS I Love You” but many of my – female – students love it)?

Some people suggest that we like all of these things because they’re not real. We can experience scary things in a fantasy way without putting our ‘real’ self in danger -the fear/rage/depression/sadness leave us as soon as we switch our brains off from the movie/video game/telly/book.

This process of temporarily experiencing negative emotions and then ‘cleansing’ them is known as catharsis. We enjoy this process because it helps us to lose ourselves in someone else’s life for a while (if our own life sucks) or to appreciate how good we have it (if our own life is better than what we’ve just watched) when the movie/video game/telly/book ends.

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As an aside, this video popped up while I was searching youtube. I’ve always had a bit of a thing for Ethan Hawke and now this is making me want to go see it on Broadway… wishful thinking as it finished on the 12th January. Wish I’d googled it before Christmas, you never know what Santa might have delivered!

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9rfd1R7AmA]