The Black Cat : Edger Allan Poe

The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

'The Black Cat' is told from the perspective of an insane narrator who, in his own words, does not expect the reader to believe him. He tells the reader up front that he is scheduled to die the following day, but the reader doesn't find out why until the end of the story.

After setting up his story from this perspective, the man tells the reader about a cat named Pluto he used to have as a pet. He describes Pluto as a remarkably large, beautiful animal, entirely black. The narrator's wife jokes that the cat might be a witch in disguise, given its unusual intelligence. The narrator and Pluto have a close bond. He takes care of Pluto, and Pluto follows him everywhere around the house. It is a very tender relationship.

Then, everything goes wrong. The narrator, an alcoholic, starts getting angry at everyone. He mistreats his wife and their other animals, but he never hurts Pluto. But one night, the narrator comes home drunk and thinks Pluto is avoiding him. He grabs the cat, who bites him. In retaliation, the narrator cuts out one of the cat's eyes.

After he sleeps off his drunken state, the narrator is horrified about his actions. It is not enough to get him to stop drinking, though. The cat's eye socket heals, but Pluto and the narrator no longer have a good relationship. Pluto starts to avoid the narrator all the time. Instead of feeling remorseful, the narrator just feels irritated at the cat's behavior.

The narrator hangs the cat 'in cold blood' from a tree. That night, his house burns down. The narrator, his wife, and their servant all escape the fire unharmed, but the fire destroys his home and all of his possessions. When the narrator returns to the ashes later, he sees the figure of a cat on the only surviving wall.

Months pass. The narrator sees a cat remarkably similar to Pluto, except that on his chest is a white patch. The cat follows him home. At first, the narrator likes the cat, but soon he can't stand the cat at all, especially after he notices that one of its eyes is missing.

The more he hates the cat, the more the cat likes him. The narrator cannot bring himself to hurt the cat because he is afraid of it. The white shape on its chest morphs into a gallows, a direct reminder of his crime against Pluto.

Eventually, the narrator is driven so mad that he tries to kill the cat with an axe. His wife intervenes, and the narrator ends up killing his wife. He decides to conceal the body inside his house, behind the wall of the basement.

The narrator looks for the cat, but it is missing. For three nights, he sleeps undisturbed by the cat. Then, on the fourth day, police come to his house to ask questions about his wife's disappearance. During their investigation, the narrator raps on the wall he has rebuilt to conceal his wife's corpse. The noise of him knocking causes the cat, which had accidentally become sealed inside the wall, to howl, alerting the police to the presence of the narrator's wife.

The Bluest Eye : Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Nine-year-old Claudia and ten-year-old Frieda MacTeer live in Lorain, Ohio, with their parents. It is the end of the Great Depression, and the girls’ parents are more concerned with making ends meet than with lavishing attention upon their daughters, but there is an undercurrent of love and stability in their home. The MacTeers take in a boarder, Henry Washington, and also a young girl named Pecola. Pecola’s father has tried to burn down his family’s house, and Claudia and Frieda feel sorry for her. Pecola loves Shirley Temple, believing that whiteness is beautiful and that she is ugly.

Pecola moves back in with her family, and her life is difficult. Her father drinks, her mother is distant, and the two of them often beat one another. Her brother, Sammy, frequently runs away. Pecola believes that if she had blue eyes, she would be loved and her life would be transformed. Meanwhile, she continually receives confirmation of her own sense of ugliness—the grocer looks right through her when she buys candy, boys make fun of her, and a light-skinned girl, Maureen, who temporarily befriends her makes fun of her too. She is wrongly blamed for killing a boy’s cat and is called a “nasty little black bitch” by his mother.

We learn that Pecola’s parents have both had difficult lives. Pauline, her mother, has a lame foot and has always felt isolated. She loses herself in movies, which reaffirm her belief that she is ugly and that romantic love is reserved for the beautiful. She encourages her husband’s violent behavior in order to reinforce her own role as a martyr. She feels most alive when she is at work, cleaning a white woman’s home. She loves this home and despises her own. Cholly, Pecola’s father, was abandoned by his parents and raised by his great aunt, who died when he was a young teenager. He was humiliated by two white men who found him having sex for the first time and made him continue while they watched. He ran away to find his father but was rebuffed by him. By the time he met Pauline, he was a wild and rootless man. He feels trapped in his marriage and has lost interest in life.

Cholly returns home one day and finds Pecola washing dishes. With mixed motives of tenderness and hatred that are fueled by guilt, he rapes her. When Pecola’s mother finds her unconscious on the floor, she disbelieves Pecola’s story and beats her. Pecola goes to Soaphead Church, a sham mystic, and asks him for blue eyes. Instead of helping her, he uses her to kill a dog he dislikes.

Claudia and Frieda find out that Pecola has been impregnated by her father, and unlike the rest of the neighborhood, they want the baby to live. They sacrifice the money they have been saving for a bicycle and plant marigold seeds. They believe that if the flowers live, so will Pecola’s baby. The flowers refuse to bloom, and Pecola’s baby dies when it is born prematurely. Cholly, who rapes Pecola a second time and then runs away, dies in a workhouse. Pecola goes mad, believing that her cherished wish has been fulfilled and that she has the bluest eyes.

Far From The Madding Crowd : Thomas Hardy

Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

  The novel opens with a chance encounter between Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba Everdene just outside the town of Casterbridge. Gabriel comes from humble origins as a shepherd, but has recently leased his own farm and seems to have good economic prospects. He is immediately struck by Bathsheba’s beauty, although he quickly becomes aware that she is proud and headstrong. Although Bathsheba has been well-educated, she has fallen on hard times and is now required to take a very hands-on role helping her aunt to take care of her farm. The close proximity of their farms leads to a series of encounters between the two, including an incident in which Bathsheba saves Gabriel’s life.

After only knowing her for a short time, Gabriel proposes to Bathsheba and is surprised when she turns him down, explaining that she does not love him and is reluctant to give up her independence. Shortly after this conversation, Bathsheba moves away to the town of Weatherbury. A short time later, Gabriel experiences a dramatic reversal of fortune when he loses the majority of his sheep in a disastrous accident. He loses all of his money and has to give up his farm and seek work in whatever capacity he can find. While he is looking for work near the town of Weatherbury, he happens to come across a fire that is threatening to destroy a large amount of valuable crops. Gabriel takes charge of the situation and helps to get the fire under control, only to learn later that the owner of the farm is Bathsheba. She has inherited it from her uncle, and has taken the unusual step of managing it herself, even though this was uncommon for a woman at the time. She hires Gabriel to work as a shepherd.

Bathsheba attracts a great deal of attention as an attractive, single, and prosperous woman with unconventional ideas, but she is dismayed to notice that William Boldwood, a successful middle-aged farmer, does not seem curious about her. On a whim, Bathsheba sends him a Valentine’s Day card as a prank; when she does so, she unwittingly sets the stage for Boldwood, who is lonely and shy, to fall deeply in love with her. Boldwood proposes to Bathsheba a short time later, leaving her surprised and uncomfortable. She turns down the offer but is not entirely sure how to proceed in the future, since she knows some aspects of the marriage would be advantageous.

Boldwood's courtship leads to disagreement between Gabriel and Bathsheba, to the point where she initially dismisses him from his job, but quickly hires him back when he saves many of her sheep after they eat poisonous plants and become ill. Boldwood proposes to Bathsheba a second time and although she does not accept, she gives him reason to be hopeful that she will. That same night, however, Bathsheba meets the handsome and charismatic Sergeant Troy, who quickly stirs her emotions. Knowing that Bathsheba is attracted to Troy, whom he is suspicious of, Gabriel encourages her to choose to marry Boldwood instead.

Nonetheless, Bathsheba's growing feelings for Troy lead her to tell Boldwood she can never marry him. Boldwood is angry and jealous, and even threatens violence against Troy, especially since Troy has a bad reputation as a womanizer. Bathsheba is nervous about what will happen when Troy, who is currently away in Bath, returns and she decides to go to Bath herself to end the relationship and tell him not to come back. However, when Troy and Bathsheba return from Bath, they are married, a fact which Troy reveals to Boldwood only after playing a cruel trick on him and deceiving Boldwood into offering to pay Troy to marry the woman he loves. Both Boldwood and Gabriel are deeply upset by this reckless decision.

Their worries seem well-founded, since Troy quickly proves to be lazy and unmotivated to help with running the farm. Gabriel narrowly averts disaster when a severe thunderstorm takes place on the night of the harvest celebrations and he takes the initiative to protect the uncovered crops since everyone else at the farm has gotten too drunk to help out. With Troy showing no signs of wanting to change his behavior, and spending money recklessly, the relationship between him and Bathsheba becomes worse and worse. In October, about 9 months after the beginning of the novel, Troy and Bathsheba meet a young woman walking on the road. She seems to be ill and impoverished, and the sight of her triggers strange behavior from Troy, which he refuses to explain to his wife.

Troy is determined to hide the identity of the woman: Fanny Robbins, who was formerly a servant at the Everdene farm. She and Troy had an affair the previous winter while he was stationed with his troops in Melchester, and Fanny ran away believing she and Troy were going to elope. However, he abandoned her and she found herself pregnant. Now close to giving birth, she is trying to make her way to a local poorhouse. Troy arranges to meet her in a few days time, hoping to give her money and help her. However, after making an agonizing journey to the poorhouse, Fanny and her baby both die during childbirth.

When Bathsheba learns of the death of her former servant, although not the cause, she sends for the body to be brought back to Weatherbury and buried there. Meanwhile, Troy sets out to meet Fanny, unaware of her death. Gabriel arranges for the fact that Fanny died giving birth to be hidden from Bathsheba, but the combination of rumors and her husband's suspicious behavior lead her to open the coffin and find the corpses of both Fanny and the infant inside. Bathsheba also realizes that Troy must be the father of Fanny's child, and when he comes home, the two of them have a heated argument. Bathsheba flees from the house and does not return until the coffin has been taken away. By that time, Troy has also left the house and he is seen leaving town a short time later.

Troy makes his way to the seashore, where he gets caught up in a strong tide while taking a swim. He is rescued by some sailors and impulsively decides to join them on their voyage to America. As a result of this sudden disappearance, Troy is presumed to have drowned, and Bathsheba is declared a widow. This train of events leads Boldwood to hope that he will be able to marry her eventually, although Bathsheba insists that because Troy's death was only established circumstantially, she wants to wait a full 7 years after his death. Time passes, and at the end of the summer, almost a year after his vanishing, Troy secretly returns to Weatherbury. He has gotten tried of living in poverty and is considering reuniting with his wife, although he does not immediately reveal his identity or presence. Meanwhile, Boldwood has mentioned his hopes of marriage to Bathsheba and she has agreed to tell him at Christmas whether or not she will begin the 6-year engagement.

 Troy has learned that Bathsheba is considering remarrying, and on Christmas Eve, he makes a surprise appearance at the lavish party Boldwood is throwing. He tries to reclaim Bathsheba as his wife, but Boldwood flies into a rage and shoots and kills him. Boldwood is initially sentenced to death for this crime, but is eventually found to be insane and sentenced to life in prison. Bathsheba is traumatized by these events but slowly recovers, becoming more and more dependent on Gabriel to help her run the farm. She is shocked and unhappy to learn that he plans to leave England and move to America. This news leads Bathsheba to reflect on how valuable and loyal Gabriel has been. One night, she goes to his cottage to ask him why he is determined to leave, and as the two talk, it becomes clear that they both love each other, but have each been confused about the feelings of the other. A short time later, Gabriel and Bathsheba finally marry with much rejoicing from the local people and farm workers.

 

             

The Nightingale And Rose : Oscar Wilde

 The Nightingale And Rose by Oscar Wilde

                          

The Nightingale and the Rose Introduction:

The story “The Nightingale and the Rose” is written by Oscar Wilde. It was published in 1888 in a collection of children’s story named as The Happy Prince and the Other Tales.

Although, it is a children’s story but it deals with philosophical and emotional issues that are beyond the understanding of children. It is also enriched with the wealth of deep meaning.  It is full of indirect comments on life, personifications, similes and symbolism.

Moreover, in this story Oscar Wilde raises the most common issues of materialism and idealism present in the conventional society he lived in

The Nightingale and the Rose Summary:

The story begins with a young student who is lamenting in his garden because the love of his life will dance with him in the ball only if he brings her a red rose but there is no red rose in his garden.  The Nightingale, living in the oak-tree of his garden, hears the young man crying over his helplessness and lamenting the fact that all his learning is useless since it cannot win him a girl’s love.  The nightingale comes to know that the young man is weeping for a red rose. She feels the pain of that boy and wants to help him.

The bird flies and goes to the various bushes but cannot find a red rose. Finally she comes to know about a way of getting a red rose by a tree. She performs a suicidal act while singing with his heart on the thorn, giving her heart’s blood to a white rose which turns it in to a beautiful red rose. In this process the Nightingale dies.

When the student wakes up, he sees the red rose under his window, plucks it joyously and brings it to his love.  The girl rejects the rose by saying that it will not match her blue dress and someone else has brought her jewels that are worth more than a rose. The boy throws the rose in the gutter and a cart runs over it.

At the end he decides that logic is better than love and love is unrealistic. He goes back to his home and starts reading a book.

Themes

The Nightingale and the Rose Themes:

Theme of Sacrifice:

The theme of sacrifice is explored through Nightingale’s self sacrifice in the name of true love and for the sake of helping others.

When the Nightingale sees the student crying for his sweetheart, her whole hearted believe in love compels her to help the boy. So she decides to help him and goes out of her house in search of a red rose. After searching for it everywhere she comes to know about a way of getting the rose. She has to give her heart’s blood to a white flower and make it red.  She believes that it is worth giving her life for the sake of true love.

As we know that Nightingale has an unshakeable believe in love because of which she sacrifices her life but at the end of the story nobody appreciates her sacrifice and it is wasted when the student throws the red rose in the gutter where it is destroyed.

Theme of Love:

In the story “The Nightingale and the rose” is about the nature of love. In the beginning of the story, the student claims to be in love with his professor’s daughter and is crying for a red rose because he will dance with her in the balls if he will give her a red rose.

Moreover, the Nightingale sacrifices her life for the sake of love. She thinks that it is worth sacrificing her life for true love. This sacrifice shows that true love does exist but at the end no one appreciates it.

Wilde is trying to convey that true love does exist but people make it shallow and selfish. The student who thinks that he is in love does not truly know the meaning of love. When the girl rejects him and his red rose, he calls her ungrateful and says that love is silly and unpractical which shows him more as a materialistic person rather than a true lover.

Materialism:

The theme of materialism is explored by the human characters.  The young student, Professor’s daughter and Chamberlain’s nephew are materialistic in some sense.

The student who claims to be in love is not really in love rather he evokes rational side of materialism. For him a red rose is worth more than Nightingale’s life and true love. When the Nightingale sings a song, he says that her voice is beautiful but shallow and lacks any emotion which shows that he is a materialistic person who is unable to feel deep emotions.

On the other hand, his love, the professor’s daughter also shows materialism by rejecting the red rose. She thinks that precious jewels are more worthy than a red rose. In the end of the story the sacrifice of Nightingale goes wasted when the girl rejects the rose and the boy destroys it.

Furthermore, Chamberlain’s nephew is also materialistic because he brings precious jewels for the girl to show his love for her. Love is shown as a material pursuit rather than a true emotion by these characters.

The Nightingale and the Rose Characters:

The Nightingale:

The Nightingale is the protagonist of the story. She is romantic by nature and is inspired by student’s love.  She sings about love all the time and waits to see it. When she sees the student crying for a red rose, she decides to sacrifice her life to help him out.  She gives her heart’s blood to a white flower to color its petals and fulfill the need of student and in this process she dies. The whole story revolves around her sacrifice and selfless nature which is not appreciated throughout the story.

At the end of the story, her sacrifice is ignored and wasted by everyone when the red rose, stained        by her heart’s blood, is rejected and destroyed. Her selfless nature and unshakeable believe in true love shows that true does exist but people make it selfish.

The Student:

He is a young boy with beautiful eyes and red lips who claims to be in love with a girl. In the very beginning of the story the student appears as a true lover who laments in his garden for the love of his life. He inspires the bird to sacrifice her life to help him out but as the story goes we come to know about his true nature. He is pre-occupied by practicality and lacks the ability to feel true emotions.

When the girls reject the red rose given by him, he calls her ungrateful and suddenly all his love fades away. He decides that love is unpractical and unrealistic. It shows him as a materialistic person rather than a person who believes in love and selflessness.

He does not appreciate Nightingale’s sacrifice and does not fulfill her last wish that was to be true to his love.

The Rose Tree:

There are three rose trees in the story but only one plays a major role in it. This is the tree under student’s window that helps the Nightingale in creating a red rose.

When Nightingale asks him for a way of getting a red rose, he refuses to tell her because he does not want her to lose her life. But the Nightingale performs this suicidal act by pressing her heart against one of his thorns, giving her heart’s blood to the rose to dye it red.

The rose-tree is the only one in the story who recognizes her sacrifice and remains sympathetic her.

The Girl:

The girl is briefly introduced in the story. She expresses an important theme. She is the student’s sweetheart and professor’s daughter. She tells the student to bring a red rose for her if he wants to dance with her in the party. When the student brings her a bright red-rose she rejects it because she is provided with jewels by another rich suitor.

This act of selfishness shows her as a materialistic and shallow person who values wealth more than true love.

The Lizard:

This character appears in the beginning of the story. When the student cries, he overhears him and laughs at him because he finds it useless to cry for a red rose.

It shows the lizard as a pessimist who believes that the people are motivated by self-interest rather than acting for selfless reasons.

This belief of lizard can be seen in the end of the story when the rose, a symbol of sacrificial love, is rejected by the girl and destroyed by the student for their self interests.

The Oak-Tree:

The Oak-tree is the minor character of the story. This is the tree where the Nightingale resides. He knows about the seriousness of Nightingale’s decision of sacrificing her life and begs her to sing a last song for him.

The White Rose-Tree:

The Red-rose tree is a minor character of the story. When the Nightingale goes in the search of a red rose, she asks the white rose-tree to help her but he does not have any red rose so he suggests her to go to another tree to seek help from.

The Yellow Rose-tree:

This is a minor character and the second tree the Nightingale visits in search of a red rose. He also does not have one so he suggests her to go to another tree, the red rose-tree, to seek help from.

The Daffodils : William Wordsworth

The Daffodils by William Wordsworth

                          

William Wordsworth was an avid observer of nature. In this poem, he describes the impression a cluster of daffodil flowers created in his mind when he saw them while taking a stroll beside a lake hemmed by some trees.

Stanza 1 ..

The beauty of the daffodils lifted his mind and his spirit. His imagination and his poetic instincts came to the fore. He could see himself as a cloud floating past the golden-coloured daffodils on the ground where some trees stood beside a lake. The flowers were swaying in the breeze. This gentle movement enhanced their attraction.

Stanza 2..

The daffodils were numerous in number. They seemed to stretch in an endless line. The poet felt as if they were like the twinkling stars in the Milky Way. Clearly, the poet has been profoundly enchanted by the daffodils’ beauty, accentuated by their alternating swaying movements. The flowers, appearing full of life and beauty, have un-fettered the poetic imagination of Wordsworth.

 Stanza 3..

The waves in the lake swayed too, pushed by the breeze. But the beauty of the daffodils was far more enchanting than that of the waves. The poet could not take his eyes off the golden daffodils. He remained enthralled by their beauty. He began to wonder what a great bounty of nature he had stumbled upon.

Stanza 4..

This pleasant encounter with the daffodils by the lake remained dormant in the poet’s sub-conscious mind. When he was lonely or his spirits were low, the memory of his encounter with the daffodils would surface, plunging his mind with immense pleasure. Thus, the scene remained as a priceless treasure and an in-exhaustible source of joy for the poet.

Othello :William Shakespear

Othello by William Shakespear

               

Act 1 

Othello begins in the city of Venice, at night. Iago, an ensign in the Venetian army, is bitter about being passed over for lieutenant in favor of Cassio. Iago tells Roderigo that he serves Othello, the Moor who is the army's general, only in order to serve himself. Iago knows that Desdemona, the daughter of nobleman Brabantio, has run off to marry Othello. He also knows that Roderigo lusts after Desdemona, so Iago manipulates him into alerting Venice. Iago's duplicity arises even in the first scene.

 Learning of his daughter's elopement, Brabantio panics, and calls for people to try and find Desdemona. Iago joins Othello, and tells him about Roderigo's betrayal of the news of his marriage to Brabantio. Cassio comes at last, as do Roderigo and Brabantio; Brabantio is very angry, swearing to the men assembled that Othello must have bewitched his daughter. Brabantio's grievance is denied, and Desdemona will indeed stay with Othello. However, Othello is called away to Cyprus, to defend it from an invasion of Turks.

Iago assures an upset Roderigo that the match between Othello and Desdemona will not last long, and at any time, Desdemona could come rushing to him. Iago decides to break up the couple, using Roderigo as his pawn.

 Act II

A terrible storm strikes Cyprus, and the Turkish fleet is broken apart by the storm. While Othello is still at sea, Cassio arrives. Iago, Desdemona and emmlia follow in another ship. Somehow, Iago and Desdemona enter into an argument about Iago's low opinion of women. Othello arrives at last, and is very glad to see Desdemona.

 Iago speaks to Roderigo, convincing him that Desdemona will stray from Othello, as she has already done with Cassio. He convinces Roderigo to attack Cassio that night, as he plans to visit mischief on both Othello and Cassio.

While on watch together, Iago convinces Cassio to drink, knowing he can't hold his liquor. Iago stokes a fight between Cassio and Roderigo. The ruckus wakes Othello. Iago fills him in, making sure to fictionalize his part in the fight.

 Cassio laments that he has lost his reputation along with his rank. Iago tries to convince him that if he talks to Desdemona, maybe he can get her to vouch for him with Othello. Iago knows he will be able to turn their friendship against them both.

 Act 3

Desdemona pledges to do everything she can to persuade her husband to restore Cassio's rank. Cassio leaves just as Othello enters because he does not wish for a confrontation. Iago seizes on this opportunity to play on Othello's insecurities, making Cassio's exit seem guilty and incriminating. Soon, Othello begins to doubt his wife's fidelity.

Desdemona drops the handkerchief that Othello gave her on their honeymoon. Emilia gives it to Iago, who then tells Othello that Cassio has the handkerchief. Othello is incensed to hear that Desdemona would give away something so valuable, and comes to believe that Desdemona is guilty. Othello then swears revenge.

Desdemona tells Cassio and Iago that Othello has been acting strangely, and Iago goes to look for him, feigning concern. Emilia thinks that Othello's change has something to do with his jealous nature. Cassio asks Bianca to copy the handkerchief that he found in his room; Cassio has no idea it is Desdemona's.

Act IV

Othello tries not to condemn Desdemona too harshly. But, soon, Iago whips Othello into an even greater fury through mere insinuation. Iago calls Cassio in, while Othello hides; Iago speaks to Cassio of Bianca, but Othello, in his disturbed state, believes that Cassio is talking of Desdemona. Convinced of her infidelity, Othello is resolved to kill Desdemona himself, and charges Iago with murdering Cassio.

When Desdemona mentions Cassio in front of nobleman Lodovico, Othello becomes very angry and slaps her. Othello questions Emilia about Desdemona's guilt, and she swears that Desdemona is pure and true. Emilia thinks that someone has manipulated Othello, however, Iago is there to dispel this opinion.

Iago comes across Roderigo; he is not pleased that Iago has failed to deliver on his promises regarding Desdemona. Iago quiets him by making him believe that if he kills Cassio, then he will win Desdemona; Roderigo decides to go along with it, but Iago is coming dangerously close to being revealed.

Desdemona knows that she will die soon; she sings a song of sadness and resignation, and decides to give herself to her fate.

Act V

Spurred on by Iago, Roderigo and Cassio fight, and both are injured badly. Iago enters, pretending that he knows nothing of the scuffle; Gratiano and Lodovico also stumble upon the scene. Roderigo is still alive, so Iago feigns a quarrel, and finishes him off. Bianca comes by, and sees Cassio wounded; Iago makes some remark to implicate her. Cassio is carried away.

Othello enters Desdemona's room while she is asleep. Desdemona awakens and pleads with Othello not to kill her, but he begins to smother her. Emilia knocks and Othello lets her in. He tries to conceal Desdemona, who he thinks is already dead. Emilia brings the news of Roderigo's death, and Cassio's wounding.

Emilia soon finds out that Desdemona is nearly dead, by Othello's hand; Desdemona speaks her last words, and then Emilia pounces on Othello. Othello is not convinced of his folly until Iago confesses his part, and Cassio speaks of the use of the handkerchief. Othello is overcome with grief.

Iago fatally stabs Emilia for uncovering his plots. The Venetian nobles reveal that Brabantio, Desdemona's father, is dead, and thus cannot be grieved by this tragedy now. Othello stabs Iago when he is brought back in; Othello then tells all present to remember him how he is, and kills himself.

Cassio becomes the temporary leader of the troops at Cyprus, and Lodovico and Grantio are to carry the news of the tragedy back to Venice.

All My Sons : Arthur Miller

All My Sons by Arthur Miller







 



Joe Keller, a successful businessman, lives comfortably with his wife, Kate, and son, Chris, in a suburban American neighborhood. They have only one sadness in their lives – the loss of their other son, Larry, who went missing in World War II. After three years, Kate still clings to the hope that her son is alive. Chris would like her to give up that hope because he wants to marry Ann, an old neighbor and Larry's former fiancée.

Ann arrives. Kate, sensing the reason for her visit, gets a little touchy. We learn that Ann's father is in prison for a crime he committed while working in Joe's factory. Faced with a batch of defective machine parts, he patched them and sent them out, causing the death of 21 pilots during the war. Turns out that Joe was also accused of this crime and convicted, but he was exonerated (set free) during the appeal. Steve went to prison; Joe returned home and made his business bigger and better.

Soon after Ann's arrival, her brother George follows, straight from visiting his father in prison. He knows what Chris has in mind and is totally against him marrying Ann. Joe and Kate do their best to charm George into submission, but finally it's Ann who sends him away. She wants to marry Chris no matter what.

The marriage of Chris and Ann is becoming a reality – and Kate can't handle it, because it means Larry is truly dead. And if Larry is dead, she tells Chris, it's because his own father killed him, since Larry was also a pilot. Chris finally confronts his father's guilt in shipping those defective parts.

But Chris won't do anything about it. He won't even ask his father to go to prison. Ann, who turned her back on her own father for the same reason, insists that Chris take a hard line. Joe Keller goes inside to get his things. A gunshot is heard. He's killed himself.