Clara Wendy Moira Angela Darling Von Stahlbaum

Clara Wendy Moira Angela Darling Von Stahlbaum

The Nutcracker is the story of Clara Von Stahlbaum who is given to her birthday and Christmas (which is the same date) an enchanted Nutcracker doll by her Godfather Dr. Drosselmeyer. The ballet starts with the Christmas preparations in the house of the Von Stahlbaum. Guest arrive, and with them Clara’s Godfather with the Nutcracker. When the Christmas celebrations are over, Clara falls asleep. In her dream she goes to the tree to fetch her Nutcracker but all of the sudden the room grows larger than life and the mice in the house are trying to attack Clara, led by Queen mouse. The toy soldiers under the tree come to live and lead by the Nutcracker come for Clara’s defense. They defeat the mice and the Nutcracker banishes them. Then the Nutcracker transforms into a handsome young prince and Clara into an older beautiful self. The Nutcracker prince takes her away on a sleigh. First they travel to the Land of snow where they meet the snow queen and her subjects the snow flakes. Then they go on to the Kingdom of Sweets where they meet the Sugar Plum Fairy and her subjects. The magical journey continues on till Clara awakes in her own bed at home in her bed with the Nutcracker doll in her arm.

The Nutcracker was the second ballet I saw and it was amazing. Watching the dancers fly over the stage is a pure pleasure. The stage was amazingly done, the costumes beautiful, and the dancing breathtaking. The dancers however seemed a little bit more insecure than the once I saw in Swan Lake this summer and I believe that was because the cast especially for the first act consisted of mostly young dancers. The dancers weren’t always synchronous and thought I can only imagine how difficult that must be, it did slightly damp the performance.
The thing however that bothered me the most, besides maybe the baby that was crying in the audience for 1 hour and 40 minutes, was something that the dancers could do nothing about: the plot of the Nutcracker. In the first Act all the acting takes place, the Christmas party, when Clara is given the Nutcracker, the fight against the mice and the travel to the Land of Snow. The second Act however is merely dancers that perform for Clara and the Nutcracker on their journey through the magic land. Thought the dancing was amazing the lack of backstory and plot in the second act defeated the dancing purpose and made it less impressive. In the first Act the dancers were mostly younger and less experienced dancers, where the youngest one were little girls and boys that couldn’t be much older than five. Thought the children were cute to watch, the parts in which they danced was bound to be less difficult and even so there were clearly mistakes involved in the choreographies. This meant that in the first act the story happened but the dancing was less impressive, and in the second act the dancing was amazing but not backed up through any plot. This took away the element of ballets that I enjoy the most: the telling of the story through dance. In many ways the Nutcracker reminded me of Peter Pan, as the main character Clara and her dream of leaving to a magical world with the Nutcracker, reminds me a lot of Wendy and her journey to Neverland with Peter. Overall I really enjoyed seeing the Nutcracker and it was definitely worth seeing.

Thou Shall Not Defy the Gods

Thou Shall Not Defy the Gods

Questions: 1

    The ending of My Love, My Love was tragic and depressing, thought predictable. In many ways it was even inevitable. Ti Moune’s story is set up as a curve, she started of as a peasant girl, who wishes to escape her ordinary life and see the world. She is full of hope and faith for the Gods. Her wish comes true, she saves Daniel from the car crash and then follows him to the city where she falls in love with him. This is when Ti Moune’s character changes. The more she gets the more she wants. When Ti Moune meets the little girl on her journey to the city, she tells her about the wishing cage granted to every orphan. Ti Moune tells the girl that she must let the butterfly, which she must catch to make a wish, out of the wishing cage once the wish has come true. However when she later lives in the hotel with Daniel, many of Ti Moune’s wishes have come and she doesn’t let the butterfly’s out of the wishing cage: “And the papillons, maddened in their cage, demanded their freedom. But Desiree Dieu-Donne held them captive still.” Thought her wishes have come true Ti Moune doesn’t free the butterfly's showing her as becoming greedy.

Then Ti Moune loses the red comb that was a gift from Erzulie. After the ball people in the hotel see Ti Moune as beautiful: “Now that she had been received-even without her magic red comb. She had taken it form her hair and had thrown it into a drawer of her room. Now she went into the hotel dining room, smiling at guests who admired her for herself alone.” Ti Moune is turning into one of the rich people, she loses her faith in the Gods and instead starts to believe to be able to take her faith into her own hand. She doesn’t need Erzulie’s comb anymore, everyone loves her for who she really is.  It is that hybris that foreshadows a bad ending as in many stories, hybris, leads to a downfall, and My Love, My Love isn’t an exception.

Ti Moune’s luck changes when Andrea returns from France. Daniel is immediately fond of her, and though Ti Moune is still happy because he is happy, things change. She is thrown out of his room and eventually also out of the hotel. As a reader, I thought that she should have seen that coming and it was naive from her to believe that Daniel would make her his wife. Devastated with love sickness she doesn’t eat or sleep, and at Daniel’s wedding to Andrea, he doesn’t recognize her. Now she is again just the dirty peasant girl not visible to the rich people on the island.

From the point where Andrea returns from France, Ti Mounes luck gets worse and worse. The curve is falling rapidly downwards, till ending in Ti Mounes death. What made her death so tragic was that she died a nothing, she had left the only family she every had, she was thrown out on the street by the man she loved, and was left by the Gods. All that nothingness that her character is in the end is symbolized when her corpse is thrown to the garbage. It is not only that Monsieur Gabriel thinks she is a nothing because she is a peasant, but there is literally nothing left of Ti Moune or Desiree Dieu-Donne that could be seen as a dead person. In the two weeks in which Ti Moune is love sick and starves herself she is already dying it just took the wedding and the crowd to make her body die just as her spirit did. With the dead body there is so little left of her it’s like throwing away a candy wrap.

Questions: 2

The book is teaching the lesson that one should not disregard the Gods and believe to be able to take faith into one's own hands. Ti Moune is a dreamy character, not happy with the life she has. After she saves Daniel from the car crash she had gotten a glimpse of the world outside the village and now she can’t get enough of it. She decides to leave the village and find Daniel, this she still does with the help and the compliance of the Gods. However once Ti Moune has found Daniel and they have fallen in love, she starts to get used to the live among the rich, and she starts to enjoy it. Like I mentioned above, Ti Mounes death is a result from her hybris: “No longer did she feel like Ti Moune, the orphan, the peasant. Now she was a lady of elegance.” Ti Moune no longer thinks of herself as a peasant, she has left the peasant life and the Gods, which had saved her as a little girl. Now she is Desiree Dieu-Donne a real lady. At the ball Ti Moune charms everyone, “Now that she had been received-even without her magic red comb. She had taken it form her hair and had thrown it into a drawer of her room. Now she went into the hotel dining room, smiling at guests who admired her for herself alone.” Ti Moune throws away the comb because she believes that everyone admires her just for being herself, thus she takes on the believe of taking her faite into her own hands and leaves the Gods. However that hybris leads to her downfall. When Daniel meets Andrea and falls in love with her he starts to disregard Ti Moune. Thought the Gods try to give her another chance to prove her faith towards them by killing Daniel, Ti Moune refuses to do so and is thrown out of the Hotel. Devastated by her love sickness she doesn’t eat or sleep and is therefore not capable of escaping when a mass panic erupts at Daniel and Andrea’s wedding. She is trampled to death by the crowd and dies a nothing with no support of friends, or a family and her corpse is thrown with the garbage. This way the book teaches the lesson that if one defies the will of the Gods bad things will happen and one will die pitiful and alone.

My Love, My Love discussion questions

1. In the beginning of the book Ti Moune believes her faith to be in the God's hands. When she lives with Daniel does her attitude towards the Gods change? (Hint: Think about the idea of taking faith into one's own hand)
2. Is the love between Ti Moune and Daniel true love? Does Daniel truly love Ti Moune and does Ti Moune truly love Daniel?
3. How is Ti Mounes transition of her attitude and relationship towards the Gods represented by the butterfly? (expand on passage second paragraph page 141 “And the Butterfly…”)
4. When Ti Moune is in the peasant village her biggest dream is to fly away, escape the boeing peasant life and explore the world. Does her wish come true when she decides to leave the peasant village and becomes Daniel’s “Mistress”?

You Only Know You Love Her When You Let Her Go

You Only Know You Love Her When You Let Her Go

What makes Tonton Julian my favorite character in My Love, My Love

My favorite character in My Love, My Love is Tonton Julian. He is always thinking practical and is grumpy but he has a good heart. When he and Mama Euralie discover Ti Moune as a child in the tree he isn’t too happy: “Another stomach to fill,’ Tonton Julian had grumbled, for those of us whose mouths are forever dry.’ Nevertheless he had picked her up so gently that her head fell against his heart. Stomping knee deep through the mood he had taken her back to their village...and put her down on what was forever to be her mat” Thought when he first sees Ti Moune in the tree Tonton Julian things about the consequences it could have to take home and care for her, he would never leave a poor little orphan to die.

          Tonton Julian is critical of the Gods. Thought he believes and trusts in them he also criticises them. During the drought in the first chapter of the book Mama Euralie, convinced that her faith is in the God's hands, promises that the Gods haven’t forgotten them and promises rain will come. Tonton Julian responds: “Too little rain will not help this drought. Too much will wash away the soil. And here you are-your Gods making playthings of us poor peasants.” With this Tonton is saying how dependent they are on the Gods. Their survival is based on the Gods decision, in this case Agwes decision to send the right amount of rain. This way the peasants become the “playthings” of the Gods. I like that Tonton is critical towards the Gods. Thought he believes that his fate is in the God's hands he is aware how much the well being of the peasants depends on the God's mercy. This makes him an open and smart character and more openminded than the other peasants and that makes him sympathetic for me.

       Tonton Julian loves Ti Moune like a daughter. He would do everything to her but at the same time he would never let his love stand in her way to find her own happiness. After Monsieur Gabriel Beauxhomme comes to pick up Daniel Ti Moune wants to leave the peasants and follow him. Tonton Julian says: “If Ti Moune feels she must go…” however Mama Euralie is against it: “Ti Moune is our treasure, Monsieur Julian. How do we get on without her?” To which he gently replies: “Treasures that need constant watching have already been lost.” He loves Ti Moune and will miss her but he would not keep her from finding her own path to happiness. He knows that if trying to keep Ti Moune from leaving, he would truly lose her. I like that he understands that she must find her own way to be happy and that his love for her is big enough to let her leave.    

Tonton Julian is an open minded smart character. Critical and understanding of the world around him. He trusts in the Gods and is happy with what he has but he will not make others think about that the same way he does. He deeply loves Ti Moune but is mature enough to let her leave because her heart tells her too, knowing it would be selfish to try to keep her because of his love and fear to lose her.

Ti Moune Costume

Ti Moune Costume

If I were to stage this novel as a play I would make sure there is a difference between Ti Moune and the rest of the peasant village. She needs to somehow stick out labeling her as both the protagonist and the dreamy outsider. I would dress most peasants in light brown and white costumes. Simple clothing as they are peasants. To have Ti Moune stick out I would make her costume different from all the others. I picture her in a dress, in a more modern cut than those of the other peasants to show her wish to see the big wide modern world. I would also add more colors to her costumes, thought still brown it will have a hint of purple to it.

I would not show connections between her and the rich other than that her dress is slightly moder. Instead I would underline her contrast to Daniel by dressing him much differently. His cloth should be clean and tended while her dress is a bit dirty and crinkled. I would however show her connection to the gods. I would put a flower in her hair that can also be found in Asakas flower crown. I would also give her a necklace blue to show her connection to Agwe and shaped like a butterfly to symbolize her wishes from the gods.

Godly Gods

Godly Gods

I think a vital aspect of the portrayal of the Gods is to make them unreal or abstract. That is to differentiate them from the normal people in the story. I would do that by using black light costumes and body paint. Due to the black light the costumes will glow in a specific way with very bright colors thus making the Gods sem abstract. Instead of using masks I would put blacklight face paint on the Gods faces. This way one can still see their facial expressions in a way, as they are not hidden by a mask, but they don’t look real. The fact that one can’t clearly see the God’s faces also adds a sense of mysteriousness to them. It takes away a sense of identity as there is no face by which we can identify the God.

    The different types of clothing and body paint will be based on the God's character and power. For instance Agwe is the God of water. This suggest blue. I would give Agwe a stormy wild look. In the book he is described as feared and worshiped. Thought he gives life with rain, he can just as well destroy it thought storms. Therefore I would have given him a costume showing him as powerful. I would dress him in all black and use bright blue body paint to draw signs on the cloth. That way he one can never clearly see his actual shape. I would add a cape to that that is black on one side and blue on the other side. With the help of that cape he can be able to vanish by covering himself up with the black side facing outward. Now he won’t be visible in the blacklight. His face paint I would do in a warrior like style; powerful and bellicose. Asaka will be an opposite of Agwe. Asaka and Agwe are dualities. Where Agwe is mighty she is gentle. Thought still using blacklight for Asaka’s costume she would be the God who looks the most natural. Asaka is the Goddess of the earth therefore I would give her a motherlike look. Gentle but sever. She will take care of you but you shouldn’t mess with her. Her costume would be a dress in brown and green. Her face paint would look like tree bark. You can see her face but at the same time it is hidden in the tree.

This represent that she exists in all of Nature.
    Like Agwe and Asaka are are dualities Erzulie and Papa Ge are. Erzulie is the Goddess of love. She would be wearing a dress with pinks and reds and a headdress with feathers. Her face paint will be relatively natural so one can see her face to an extent. Papa Ge is the God of death. His face paint will make his face look like a skull using reds and white. Similarly to Agwe Papa Ge is powerful but he is less mysterious and more charming, thought in a scary way. To underline his charm he would wear a suit and a zylinder. Like Agwe, Papa Ge would have a cape to make both himself, and to let others vanish.

My Love My Love Setting