Friday, October 31, 2014
Post on the Jewel in the Crown. Would students selected by their class leaders in the yearlong project please post a comment on pages 26-70. How might this material be used in your class drama? See Mr. Janus' post on pages 1-26 for an example on how this might be done. Per Lab tech rules to protect your own privacy, please post with only your first name or initials and class period. Please use your non-U of C Google account and make sure you log into blogger before posting (so your post doesn't disappear).
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This is the song that Miss Crane sings with Mr. Chaudhuri on page 56: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65gJjyifts0
ReplyDeleteThe trust between Miss Crane and Mr. Chaudhuri is a significant development in the first part of Jewel in the Crown. Singing the hymn together represents a particularly poignant part of their relationship and is an example of how music can be used in the drama to heighten emotions.
Bits of Part One remind me a little of "Marrakech" by George Orwell.
Miss Crane's social circle (or lack thereof) and her "loneliness", contrast with Lady Chatterjee. Differences between Miss Crane and Lady Chatterjee, how do they function in society? Lady Chatterjee "sparkles" around the men but attempts to "expose" ladies' lack of "social background" or "cosmopolitan experience".
In this section of the story, we see a major character development in Miss Crane. She realizes that even though she was never really accepted in the english society, she always looked down upon anyone of Indian descent. This leaves Miss Crane no real place in society. In this section, we see her get increasingly lonely, especially with the death of Mary de Silva, Miss Crane's one true friend. Mary de Silva then gets replaced by Mr. Chaudhuri, who Miss Crane does not like and does not trust. This changes with the arrest of Ghandi, when Mr. Chaudhuri offers to drive with her back to Mayapore and is killed in a riot protecting Miss Crane. During the car ride, they bond and learn to respect each other. Miss Crane finally realizes that she hasn't respected Mr. Chaudhuri as much as she should and that they he is no different from her. Mr. Chaudhuri also opens up to Miss Crane, which is a big development for him because he previously had been closed off to Miss Crane.
ReplyDeleteThis section is extremely exciting and action packed, which can easily be described in the play. However, I think that it is also very important to show the development in Miss Crane and Mr. Chaudhuri. It is especially important to show how lonely Miss Crane is, how she disassociates herself from society, and how her behavior is very different to how other women, of Indian or English descent, act in society. It would also be good to contrast her weekly conversations with Mary de Silva to her weekly conversations with Mr. Chaudhuri.
Basically, this section shows a lot of character development for Mr. Chaudhuri and especially Miss Crane, and I think that it is very important to demonstrate this in the play. Also, it depicts a time of civil distress and disorder. This is also necessary to put into the play.
While there were lots of interesting scenes in the story, the one that I think would work best as part of our play would be the trip of Miss Crane driving back to Mayapore from Dibrapur. The interactions between them and other people, how Miss Crane was treated by the Dibrapur parents, police officers, European v. Indian men in various villages, and most importantly what the rioters thought of her and Europeans in general, honestly reflects the issue of imperialism and the underlying difference between Europeans and Indians, however close and far away they may seem at times. The scene with the rioters is very dramatic and would fit well as part of the play, and it's very interesting to see Miss Crane's internal thoughts and how she changes her actions throughout that short but chaotic interaction (p. 56-59). One particular detail is how she initially refused to drive through the crowd on the basis of hurting them, slammed the accelerator when provoked by the statement "Do you only keep promises you make to your own kind?" from Mr. Chaudhuri as he was being dragged out of the car, and then immediately stops and gets out of the car when she saw Mr. Chaundhuri being beaten. Only in moments of panic and chaos like this do we see the multitude and complexity of characters like Miss Crane. Her reflection afterwards on p.62-63 and how she could not reveal her thoughts to the English soldiers hints the ignorance of the Europeans and the troubles to come and would also serve as a great way to introduce the play.
ReplyDeleteRenaissance Interpretations for JITC:
ReplyDeleteHumanism:
-emphasized the critical study of the Greek and roman classics in order to better understand human nature and bring about new age of intellectual achievement
-emphasized new areas of study (liberal arts or humanities)
-Renaissance = rebirth which was applied to the renewed interest in study and application of the classics
Essentially, I think what Mr. J wants us to get at is that Miss Crane is torn between India and her current job as a missionary and nationalism. Although, she has never been truly accepted by either culture…
“She had never been wholly accepted by Indians and had tended to reject the generality of the English” (5).
Shown through the thread of tea --
“No longer entertained Indian ladies to tea but young English soldiers instead”
“Indian ladies themselves had taken the initiative over the question of tea on Tuesdays at Edwina Crane’s bungalow”
All because of Gandhi’s pictures which she had suspected was the reason why the women no longer were showing up for tea. “Ladies husbands who had dissuaded them from making the week appearance...because Mr. Gandhi’s picture had gone” (4).
^^ Also because “what hurt her most is that none of the ladies had bothered to discuss their reasons with her” (4)
As Janus says: “The catena between Miss Crane and the Humanists: she rationalizes staying on “to promote human dignity and happiness” and to feed the “migratory birds” that carried the “humane concepts of classical and Renaissance Europe” to India.”
Also Ghandi --
“Newly found distrust of the Mahatma and her disappointment in the behavior of the ladies”
Individualism:
The people of the Renaissance saw the classics as a guide to how they should live their lives. They noticed that in the classical times, people lived their lives in a freedom of individual expression. Moreover, they began to focus more on the life they were living, instead of the life that was said to come after this one, had they lived decent and good lives
Mirandola The Dignity of Man
Mirandola states that what gives man his human nature is his spirit of free will, and that he can change the form of himself with his own free will.
He states that man is not bound to a specific place in the universe, and therefore has the ability to shape his own destiny and future.
All these thoughts spring from the Renaissance people’s love of the classics, and what they
Shown through the character Clancy
“He was what the middle-class people of her own generation would have called one of nature’s gentlemen”
Shows that she believes in the autonomy of human beings to rise in social class
Socio economic status does not equal intelligence
“He was good-looking and fitted his uniform...better than other boys”
Genevieve + Will
I think it's also important to mention the frequent use of imagery in seeds and Gardens; things that are planted and have potential to grow into something greater.
ReplyDeleteThis is important, as it pertains to the imperial seed that the British planted in India. I think that we need to somehow represent this seed in the play, whether it be through visual or dialogue cues.
" There has been, you see, a seed. A seed planted in the Indian imagination and in the English imagination. Out of it was to come something sane and grave, full of dignity, full of thoughtfulness and kindness and peace and wisdom. For all these qualities are in you, and in me, in old Joseph and Mr. Narayan and Mr. White I suppose in Brigadier Reid. And they were there too, in Mr. Chaudhuri" (63).
-Will C.
Janus period 7
-Will
The scene with Miss Crane and Mr. Chaudhuri encountering the rioters is overall a worthy candidate to include in the play, and it can definitely leave an emotional and even personal impact on the audience. But in those moments with Mr. Chaudhuri, Miss Crane delves into some philosophical layers that could be written into the play. A clear example involves Miss Crane and Mr. Chaudhuri overcoming their racial barriers as they ride together, sharing "an unexpected mutual confidence" (55) as they prepare for the dangers ahead of them. Miss Crane has always felt that the racial barrier is a "hump [that] thirty-five years of effort and willingness had never really got her over; the hump, however high or low it was, which, however hard you tried, still lay in the path of thoughts [you] sent flowing out to a man or woman whose skin was a different colour from [your] own" (55). In this intense moment, Miss Crane has connected with Mr. Chaudhuri on the basis that they are, not a white woman and a brown man, but human beings that are risking this trip to Mayapore together for the greater good.
ReplyDeleteThe role of race in Miss Crane's life is significant: as an Englishwoman among numerous Indians, she often struggles with how she should talk or interact with them. She does not feel like a pure Englishwoman nor does she think she is looked upon in the same respect by the Indians. This then ties in to the social loneliness that she feels, as mentioned above by a few other students.
The manner which Miss Crane handles the situation before Mr. Chaudhuri's death is also intriguing. When explaining to Mr. Chaudhuri why she does not see a point in turning back to safety, Miss Crane states, "I've just seen the funny side. But if I take you back to Tanpur the people will know we've gone back for good reason, and then it will come out about that Subinspector. And the assistant subinspector will probably panic and the funny side might stop being funny" (55). I'd be curious to know what people thinks she means here because I still don't think I get what she means. Perhaps analyzing this might not help the play as a whole, but it could tell us things about Miss Crane's character.
I think that the scene that is most important to include in the play is the scene in which Mr. Chaudhuri and Ms. Crane confront the rioters, not because of the many opportunities to draw the audience's attention, but because of the way that the scenes before, during, and after Mr. Chaudhuri's death develop Ms. Crane's character immensely. For example, when Mr. Chaudhuri and Ms. Crane are driving towards the rioters, Mr. Chaudhuri tells Ms. Crane to stand her ground and drive through the rioters no matter what their reaction might be. Ms. Crane, however, refuses to do such a thing. "'Faster, you're slowing down, keep pressing and blowing.' 'I shall kill someone,' she shouted back. 'I can't. I can't. Why don't they move away?' 'Let them be killed. Faster. And blow!' For a moment, closing on the crowd, she thought she and Mr. Chaudhuri had won, that the men were moving to give way, but then they cohered again into a solid mass. They must have seen her white face. A man in front began to wave his arms, commanding them to stop. 'Keep going!' Mr. Chaudhuri shouted. 'Close your eyes if you must but keep going!' She tightened her mouth preparing to obey, but failed. She couldn't drive into a mass of living creatures. 'I'm sorry,' she cried, and began to press on the brake pedal" (56-7). Until this point, Ms. Crane had yet to show any significant sign of human compassion. However, the idea of driving into a crowd of people suddenly triggers something in her, some moral center having laid dormant until that moment, when it awoke, preventing her from taking the action that might have saved Mr. Chaudhuri's life. Whatever the result, however, Ms. Crane's conscience would not have allowed her to drive through a crowd of people, no matter the situation. Ms. Crane's reaction to Mr. Chaudhuri's murder is also a new one, since it is the first time she truly breaks down and loses control of herself, not just emotionally but physically as well. When she is finally alone with Mr. Chaudhuri's body, she simply begins to break down, allowing herself to do nothing but mourn his death. "'No,' she said, 'no, it isn't true. Oh God. Oh God, forgive me. Oh God, forgive us all,' and then covered her face and wept, which she had not done for years, and continued weeping for some time" (59). This also serves to display not only how traumatic Mr. Chaudhuri's death was for Ms. Crane, but how completely devoid of emotion she is on a daily basis. When she begins to cry, the book mentions that she has not done so for many years. It is a fair assumption that this is not because she has had nothing to cry about in all her life, but more likely that nothing has caused her to do so. This scene serves to develop Ms. Crane's character in more ways than one, and also humanizes her character greatly, giving her a connection to the audience.
ReplyDeleteMy idea for the play refers largely to a general conception rather than (at least at this point in our mission to create the aforesaid drama) to a specific scene or event in the plot of the story. It goes something like this: the play could be divided into say four acts. We as a class could then choose a sequence of the events we see as the most important and crucial to the story (it is exceptionally important to note here that I do not mean we simply take the chronological plot of the story and reset it as a play––I rather mean that we choose the events we see as the most significant and use those to form the core plot––skipping over events which are seen by the group as less important) and use them as the foundation for these four acts. Then, we, as a class choose four main characters (Kumar, Daphne, Merrick, Chatterjee, etc.) and write each act as the individual story of each character in relation to the chain of events which we have selected to form the plot of the play. In doing so we leave out details that might not have been present in, say, Kumar’s story, and then include them in Daphne’s story––thus creating a concise, interesting an dynamic narrative. This is of course just and idea, and is open to suggestions for change and development
ReplyDeleteXander
Important moments to consider:
ReplyDelete-The descriptions on page 27 of the street scene/environment around the Mandir Gate bridge. Richly detailed passages like this can help us develop a sense of the setting where the story(s) we choose to develop will unfold.
-Contradictions in Ms. Crane's character: for example, her "tendency to fall asleep during the sermon" (30) but her "deeply conservative nature" which keeps her coming back to sermons like this despite her lack of deep spiritual belief. Also, her "self-confidence in the manner of her speech" as opposed to her "cautious sentiment" around Mr. Chaudhuri (42).
-An important question to have in mind: what kind of person does Ms. Crane readily connect with? (What qualities do Mr. Narayan and Miss de Silva possess that Mr. Chaudhuri doesn't?)
-Ms. Crane's loneliness (as discussed in the previous reading). "With Mary de Silva's death, Miss Crane had lost the last person in the world who called her Edwina" (39). Additionally, "...There was not a man or woman in Mayapore, in India, anywhere, British or Indian, she could point to as a friend of the sort to whom she could have talked long and intimately" (35).
-The silent night with Mr. Chaudhuri where Ms. Crane longs to "[know] the questions and the way to ask them" versus the intimacy of the situation they are faced with the next day.
-The significance of SINGING: as in Mrs. Chaudhuri, who [becomes] a different woman...self assured...not unlike...Lady Chatterjee" when she sings (45). Also as in Ms. Crane, who sings "not sentimentally, but with joy, not piously, but boldly, almost as though it were a jolly march" (56).
-Ms. Crane's sudden emotional response&connection to Mr. Chaudhuri prompted by the danger and high stakes of their situation: "She wished there were words she could use that would convey to him the regard she held him in at that moment...for Mr. Chaudhuri she had no pity; only respect and the kind of affection that came from the confidence one human being could feel in another, however little had been felt before" (55).
-The "funny side" of the situation Ms. Crane and Mr. Chaudhuri find themselves in. Our adaptation should be at least as comic as it is dramatic.
-The "compulsive harmony" of England and India as connected to their "locked...imperial embrace", emphasizing (as Ms. Crane herself does) the word Compulsive.
-The final statement/thought process of Ms. Crane on pages 62-63 as a monologue to end this act.
-There is an important sense of movement in this segment of the story that I think would be interesting to try to capture in the play at the end of the year. Many of the events that occur can be divided by location. Even Ms. Crane’s live is divided by location.
ReplyDelete-I agree with Pascale in that it would be interesting to incorporate the song that Miss Crane sings with Mr. Chaudhuri into the play.
-There are also many points of conflict that become apparent in this section. There is conflict between the people of India and Committe’s resolution (an explanation of the resolution is found on page 37), conflict between Edwina’s past and her present situation in India (she has a portrait of the old queen of England on her wall), conflict between the British and the people of India, conflict in the juxtaposition of Miss Crane’s sleeping during sermons and her position at the Missionary school. Perhaps we can incorporate some of these conflicts if not literally, then in a metaphor in the play at the end of the year.
-I don’t entirely agree that Miss Crane doesn’t have social circles. She may not have many friends in Maypore, but in Dibrapor, she has many more, and her relationship with the children only increases her position in the social hierarchy there. This ties into the feeling of movement. Just a short drive in an old Ford, and one can move from a place in which one is almost entirely isolated to a place in which one is respected by everyone.
-It would also be interesting to showcase the moments of lightheartedness during this crisis
In this portion of The Jewel In the Crown, an important and interesting contradiction to highlight is the way that Mrs. Crane is extremely caring about people in many ways, but lacks deep human relationships throughout her life. The section where Mrs. Chatterjee mentions Mrs. Crane describes her "struggling through the monsoon on that dotty bicycle of hers to check that all the children were learning to be unselfish and public-spirited and keeping clean and reasonably well-fed in the process." (70) However, even though she is constantly interacting with these children, who she clearly cares about, she has distanced herself from all of her peers and is extremely lonely. Another important thing to highlight in this section is the way that Mrs. Crane is responsible for what happens to Mr. Chaudhuri, and how it relates to her other emotional contradictions. He offers to go with her as a gesture of friendship, and even though he makes it clear what she has to do to save his life, her compassion for the general population prevents her from saving a person who has actually shown her kindness.
ReplyDeleteIn this part of "The Jewel in the Crown," I think that it is very necessary to introduce the character of Mary de Silva through narration and appointing her character a role in the play. The way that Miss Crane describes Mary de Silva illustrates the significance she perceives her to have perfectly, "His [Mr. Chaudhuri] predecessor, old Miss de Silva, a Eurasian woman from Goa, had been dead for just a bit longer [than a little less than a year]. With Mary de Silva's death Miss Crane had lost the last person in the world who called her Edwina" (39). The way that she described the death of Mary de Silva shows how much she cared about her. When she says that Miss de Silva was the last person to call her Edwina it depicts how close they were, and how she lost her last true friend. Additionally, the dialogue that takes place between Miss Crane and Mary de Silva retain some opportunities to insert humor into the play, as well as advancing the character of Miss Crane. The introduction of Mary de Silva into the story attributes to the loneliness that Miss Crane feels while she is driving to Dibrapur and working with Mr. Chaudhuri. Additionally, Mary de Silva was introduced alongside with Mr. Chaudhuri, which illustrates that Miss Crane will associate the two with each other. Her initial distrust of Mr. Chaudhuri is caused by the association she has made with him and Miss de Silva, and she feels like trusting Mr. Chaudhuri would be an act of replacing her last true friend in her mind. This is crucially important in the scene where she and Mr. Chaudhuri confront the rioters, specifically when Mr. Chaudhuri says "'Now leave it to me. Don't speak.' He put a hand on her wrist. 'Trust me,' he said. 'I know you never have but trust me now. Do whatever I say. Whatever I say'" (57). I would argue that the reason she pressed on the brakes is because of the compassion she feels for Mary de Silva, and her inability to let her go. That is why I think that scene must be included.
ReplyDelete