Possible+WL+Paper+One+topics

What are the impacts of Lorca's deviations from his attempt at a realist play and Ibsen's choice to keep the play as real as possible?
 * **Name** || **//A Doll's House// and //House of Bernarda Alba//** || **//House of Bernarda Alba// and //Teahouse//** || **//A Doll's House// and //Teahouse//** ||
 * Abhinav || To what extent/through what methods is sexual behavior depicted in DH/BA?
 * How do the (seemingly) domineering characters (Torvald/BA) attempt to use language (or the lack thereof) to help shape the perceived reality around them?** || What are the different implications about the expectations of daughters as depicted by the plays? || What is the effect of the constant presence of the characters within their respective 'houses'?
 * What are the character's attitudes towards money in the play and how are characters with similar attitudes related?** ||
 * Adrian || How does the transformation of suppressed characters like Nora and the daughters in each play affect the final act of each play. || How do Wang and Adela's suicides illustrate the nature of freedom. || How ‘private’ and ‘public’ space in dollhouse and teahouse affects the overall mood of the scene. ||
 * Alice || What the set symbolizes and how the characters are placed/move on the stage considering their role. How the playwright opens the stage to the audience through progression of the three acts. || compare the role/portrayal/expectations of women within the two houses || Examine the difference and impact of a public and private house on the conversations/ behavior of the people. (Looking at stage directions)

Look at the extreme actions/decisions characters make when desperate for survival and if the playwrights create sympathy or hatred towards these characters. (Krogstand, Nora & Customers of the teahouse) ||
 * Avril || A Doll's House:
 * How Ibsen uses Nora's soliloquies to develop his plot || House of Bernarda Alba:
 * How are the character's emotions conveyed other than the use of language? (stage blocking, body language, gestures) || Teahouse:
 * **Secondary roles are passed on from father to son; do the sons necessarily continue in the same fashion as fathers.** ||
 * Crystal || * How the sets differ between the two plays and how it influences the mood of the plays.
 * Contrasting how the two main characters are seen and treated by the other characters in the play.
 * **Importance of reputation to the characters and the extent they will go to to protect it.** || * Importance of social hierarchy to the characters and what they need to do in order to keep their reputation. || * ||
 * Daisy || * What measures did Bernarda Alba and Helmer take to protect their reputation?
 * **The role of marriage in securing social status and providing stability** || * How are the social status of different characters portrayed
 * How is the stage constructed for each play to serve as an entrapment of characters? || * Empty threats and promises
 * Looking at foreign countries and influences. ||
 * Emily || * Respective playwrights' views of women who disrespect their positions in the respective social hierarchies of the play's time period.
 * Paralleling the relationship between Nora and Torvald with that of Poncia and Bernarda.
 * **The ironic role of religion as a method of self-service for Nora and Bernarda.** || * Comparing the oppressive nature of higher powers within both plays (Bernarda and government).
 * //The influence that outsiders (i.e. Pepe and Foreigners) have on the main characters of the play//
 * The hypocritical nature of the characters' negative treatment towards the poor.
 * The amount of oppression exerted in order to uphold the reputation of [the KMT and Bernarda's family name].
 * Change causing success (TH) vs. change leading to punishment (BA) || * Nora and Wang LiFa's constant presence in their respective residences ||
 * Evan

//(For all boxes): To// //what extent are Nora/Adela/Wang portrayed as// //imprisoned in their respective settings?// || * Analyze how the confinement of settings embodies societal restrictions on woman?
 * Explain how Torvald/Bernarda assert their power over Nora/Adela?
 * Analyze how staging/blocking/furniture conveys character relationships? || * How do the characters adapt/react to the outside world (Pepe/Chinese political changes)?
 * (alt. to above) **How does the audience experience the outside world given the restrictions of setting?**
 * To what extent are Adela's/Wang's deaths final indications of their defeat or of a bittersweet victory, an escape from oppression? || * Evaluate whether or not Nora/Wang find themselves in positions of power or powerlessness.
 * **Analyze the corrupting power of money.** ||
 * Kate || * **The purpose of chairs and furniture in setting the tone of the play/highlighting the relationships between characters**.
 * how both houses serve as a prison, both keeping characters from and protecting them from the outside world.
 * the more one tries to control life/force events, the more out of control it can get || * how the outside world is portrayed as an ideal land of freedom in one and something to hide from in the other
 * **lack of specific time period creates an isolated and fable-like atmosphere**
 * both plays end in suicide as a form of escape from reality and the prison/confines of it
 * resisting change is very destructive; the characters who refuse to change lose control || * **conflicts are created from a need to keep up appearances above all else, which only serves to create more conflicts**
 * how women are shown to be stronger and more resilient than the men ||
 * Lesedi || How characters intentions affect the mood of the play (Nora borrowing money to save Trovald's life and Adela disobeying Bernarda for love.)?

How does the presence/ appearance of Bernarda and Trovald affect the overall mood of the play

How does Ms. Linde and Angustia's view on marriage differ?

How do doors and windows highlight the lack of freedom?

How does society aid the oppression of Adela and Nora?


 * How does lighting emphasize the truth?** ||

- To what extent do Mrs. Linde and Poncia serve as a guiding figure to a dominating superior (Torvald and Bernarda Alba, respectively)? || * How daughters are sold to get rid of problems for the rest of their family.
 * || **How does Nora and Kang Shunzi's desire to escape oppression impact the decisions they make**? ||
 * Liam || -** How the design of the home is used to create a secure and easily controlled environment by Torvald and Bernarda. **
 * How political allegory is presented and dealt with in each play.
 * How mood is established through sounds other than the main dialogue between characters (sound effects and background dialogue) || * To what extent do guests of the house reflect the respectability of the house?
 * The significance of employment to different characters in each play. ||
 * Maura || * How sounds are used within the plays in order to create mood and tension
 * The reasons for marriage in within the plays
 * How is the set used symbolically within the two plays?
 * Creation of feeling of entrapment || * **How the set creates and reflects conflict and tension within the two plays**
 * Use of costume/setting colors
 * Idea of oppression/repression in both plays
 * lack of control of Bernarda and Wang LiFa over households
 * Differences between parents and their children
 * **Progression of violence in both plays and what that reflects on the plays**
 * **Influence of non-present entities on characters/the play as a whole** || * Presentation of the outside world (what is not on set)
 * Significance of age in both plays ||
 * Pam || * Bernarda Alba's and Nora's perspectives of the domestic sphere and how it influences them.
 * How supporting characters contribute to conflict. (Poncia from BA and Kristine from DH?)c
 * **The animal (squirrel, songbird) imagery in Doll House and the presence of animals (horses) in BA.** || * Confiding in other characters
 * domination of one gender (male in TH, female in BA) and influence of the minority gender
 * **The role of food in both BA and Teahouse** || * The significance of money in both plays
 * Confiding in other characters
 * So Yeon || * Importance of reputation within the society in both plays and how it influences the characters
 * **How music -- the dancing in DH and singing in HBA -- underlines the theme of freedom in both plays**
 * Different motivations behind marriage in both plays
 * The significance of money in both plays || * Significance of the setting - outside vs inside
 * Use of sounds to establish the mood
 * The significance and influence of reputation on the owners of the two houses, Bernarda in HBA and Wang LiFa in TH || * Significance of doors/windows
 * **How the setting, two houses, represents and relates to the characters' lives in both plays (Nora - DH, Wang LiFa - TH)** ||
 * Teresa || Presence of dishonesty/deception within both plays
 * Teresa || Presence of dishonesty/deception within both plays

Comparison of the dominant characters in the household (Torvald and Bernada) || Seasons reflecting political situation


 * Comparison of Wang Lifa and Adela's response to their oppressive environment**

Character attitudes towards foreign presence (in BA - the world outside the house, in teahouse - foreign infiltration into chinese society)

Effect of foreign presence on characters


 * Comparison of the roles of unseen characters (Pepe el Romano and foreigners)** || Desperation driving characters to commit immoral/unlawful acts

Negotiation/threats ||
 * TJ || **How the houses in** __**A Doll’s House**__ **and the** __**House of Bernarda Alba**__ **act as a prison, restricting them from outside influences.** || To what extent do the younger generations in the __House of Bernarda Alba__ and __Teahouse__ follow the paths of their elders in terms of behavior? (eg. Bernarda, Adela – Pockface Liu, Little Pockface Liu) || how does the mood created through lighting differ with aritificial lighting in Doll's House and natural light in Teahouse ||