Antigone Journal 1

The stage would be dimly lit with a grand staircase in the center upstage. There would be six chorus members. Two will stand six feet or so on either side of the stair on the same plane as the top step. Two more will stand on the plane of the bottom step or center stage. They will be further from the stairs than the first two. The last pair will be downstage and will be the furthest from one another. The will be dressed in similar colors but their clothes will be worn differently (one jacket buttoned up while another is opened and sleeves or pant legs rolled or not). One chorus member will speak at a time while important phrases will be said by all of the chorus. Once the entire chorus has finished speaking another chorus member will speak alone.

For example:

CHORUS, Well here we are.

CHORUS 1,these people are about to act out for you

CHORUS, the story of Antigone.

CHORUS 2, That thin little creature sitting by herself, staring straight ahead, seeing nothing is

CHORUS, Antigone. She is thinking.

Whenever a chorus member is speaking they will look downstage toward the audience and when they are not speaking they face the person who is being talked about like in the sample about the chorus would stare at Antigone.

Eurydice will be above everything in the upstage left corner. She will only have back lighting on her while she knits and hums a song. The Nurse will be with her but at a distance.

Haemon will first be next to Ismene and will move towards Antigone when the chorus speaks about him. He will climb the stairs but stay below Antigone when he goes on one knee.

Creon will be with his page in the downstage right corner opposite of the Queen. The page and him will be looking at documents.

The messanger will be to the far left of center stage. He will be leaning on a column and will be tending to his shoes.

The three guards are going to be playing cards and drinking next to the stairs above the top step.

When all of the characters are mentiond they will have an amber top light on them only. The chorus will continually have a dark blue top light on them.

Handmaid's Tale Journal 3

In The Handmaid's Tale there are several things that could be the problem of the Republic of Gilead. Religion is the basis of the republic changing the views on sex, women, other religions, knowledge. One of the first ways the government decides to do about society was to burn the magazines of pornography and escalating to isolating women and the severity of the laws continued to rise. The line freedom to versus freedom from is the base of the author' warning. The Republic of Gilead saw harm in the idea that there were limited boundaries for the people allowing them freedom. There was not enough order. Order was built by the republic for the safety of the nation's people and was justified by God. There became walls that separated cities into districts limiting the people you seem and those in which you can communicate with. There became strict social class that put limits on speaking, labor, and other rights. There are other pieces to the warning one way represented in the book is through the side characters. Each of them are different parts of the concept of like the problem, the consequences, and the solution. Aunt Lydia and Janine help in the continuation of building the problem. The Mother, Daughter, and Moira suffered the consequences rebelling or being different Ofglen and Luke can be seen as part of the solution because one is part of the rebellion and one was rebellious.

Handmaid's Tale Journal 2

"It's Janine, telling about how she was gang-raped at fourteen and had an abortion. She told the same story last week. She seemed almost proud of it, while she was telling. It may not even be true. At Testifying, it's safer to make things up than say you have nothing to reveal. But since it's Janine, it's probably more or less true.
But whose fault was it? Aunt Helena says, holding up one finger.
Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison.
Who led them on? Aunt Helena beams, pleased with us.
She did. She did. She did.
Why did God allow such a terrible thing to happen?
Teach her a lesson. Teach her a lesson. Teach her a lesson" (71-72).

The first two sentences make Offred almost sound bored when talking about Janine. This story has been told "last week" which sets a mood about Janine. Janine gives the Aunts exactly what they want so she can get an advantage. Throughout the book Janine is disliked because of this trait and she can be seen as shallow because she doesn't care about those around her and she finds the easy way out of things. with this in mind the mood can become pessimistic or bitter.


The idea of conforming is in this passage in two ways. The girls make up stories at the Testifying because they know that they should say something and they do not want to be singled out. This is one of the major reasons as to why people conform. Conformity is also seen in the dialogue of the girls as they speak in unison and say a phrase three times. They are well informed of what they are supposed to do and they are crisp about it. It brings intimidation to the passage and is giving more reason to Janine to conform. In many dystopias they have the element of conforming and a rebellion going against everyone else. People always conform to be accepted by the corrupt authority whether it is an Aunt or the Government.