blog




  • Essay / Critical Analysis of Our Day Out by Willy Russell

    The well-known playwright Willy Russell wrote the play “Our Day Out” in the 1970s; the play is about a group of high school students who have a limited amount of intellectual skills, knowledge and abilities. They leave their school in a deprived area of ​​Liverpool in Wales for a day trip, which is supposed to be to a castle in Conwy but ends up being a visit to the shops, a zoo, the castle, 'a beach and a fairground. As they and their four teachers take this journey, they argue, fight, and don't get along at all, but as the day goes on, one teacher in particular begins to understand what the kids are like and why. push them to do it. they are like that. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay “Our Day Out” has a few main characters who are crucial to the plot and meaning of the play; here is Mr. Briggs - a strict and hated teacher; Ms. Kay - a laid back and caring teacher, and a student named Carol who is not well off in terms of money and education, and she is a member of Ms. Kay's progression class. Mr Briggs is very strict, harsh in his tone and manner, threatening, controlling and is not as friendly as Mrs Kay as he is an extremely professional character and the boss trusts him a lot as the boss told him that "he would like you (Mr. Briggs) to go with her (Mrs. Kay)" and "keep things in some sort of order", this shows that he is trusted because he is professional and he is professional because he can be trusted, which makes him an authority figure. Unlike Ms. Kay, the student body doesn't like her at all; When he comes on board, the coach "sighs to the children" because they know what he is like, that is, a despiser of pleasure and an admirer of education. Mr. Briggs also feels the same way about the children in the progress class; he also doesn't like them because of their lack of intellectual development; for example, he tells Mrs. Kay because of the anger he feels about the children "you have some real sparks here...a good group", he makes fun of their special educational needs because he is not empathetic and understanding as Ms. Kay is. He misunderstands students in many ways because he doesn't try or even want to understand them or their backgrounds. When Briggs is on the couch talking with some kids, he asks them about their parents. He does not seem to fully understand and relate the responses to what they are, that is, what they are deprived of; he says to one of the children: "I thought you meant he was away a lot" after asking him where his father is. Briggs automatically assumes that the boys' father is going to sea, not that his father isn't allowed to, and when Mr. Briggs takes the boys, the response is "he just comes every once in a while...to take from him money" in , he pauses due to the effect of shock. In the first scene we actually met Briggs, he was driving alongside the poor streets of Liverpool; The lollipop man, Les, calls him an "aregano bastard", which shows that he is not respected by anyone, not even people who don't know him as a person. In my opinion, the second most crucial scene takes place in the zoo. . As they prepare to enter the zoo, Mrs. Kay flatters Mr. Briggs by telling the children that he is an expert on animals. Mr. Briggs' attitude changes here; he becomes friendly towards children. I think it's because a certain Mrs. Kay complimented it to the children, andbecause the kids were asking him questions he didn't need to yell at them because the kids wanted to know the answer so the kids started talking to him more. So he got to know them. When Mrs. Kay asks Mr. Briggs to come to the cafe for a drink, Mr. Briggs is unsure whether he doesn't want to leave the children alone, but he ends up having a cup of tea with Mrs. Kay. She tries to get him to call Helen, but he doesn't; he probably thinks it's unprofessional. I think Mr. Briggs never relaxes; he is always tense. When Mr. Briggs and Mrs. Kay return to the coach, they find that all the children have returned early; it comforts Mr. Briggs to know that they are left to their own devices and are well; they come back even earlier. When some zookeepers are overseas, Coach Mr. Briggs defends the children, which means he trusts them. He doesn't jump to his throat to ask what they did, but the kids stole animals from the petting zoo. The children's trust in Mr. Briggs is now exhausted, and he now feels the same as he did at the beginning, if not worse. Mr. Briggs then feels the need to resume the course of the journey; he doesn't let Mrs. Kay discipline them and lets her take care of them. Mr. Briggs then decides that the trip should proceed immediately to the castle and, once there, divide into four groups, one member of staff in each group. I think Ms. Kay is still in control, but she lets Mr. Briggs think differently to make it easier for herself and other staff. One of the most memorable scenes in "Our Day Out" is the cliff scene featuring Mr. Briggs and Carol. Willy Russell cleverly used stage directions in this scene to create tension. He used stage directions a lot, so more tension comes through in the emotional part of this piece. An example of tension created by stage directions is when Briggs' movement is described: "he starts to move towards her." She takes a step towards the edge of the cliff”; this releases tension through the short and simple direction while also describing a short and simple movement. Briggs' initial attempts to reach Carol failed and were in vain, so he had to change his approach. At first, Briggs' techniques were his usual bossy, cruel and hasty ways such as "Come here!" ", "Now listen to me" and "I can't stand a lot of nonsense from people like you." ; these techniques didn't seem to work with Carol because she knew that this time she was the one in control and had the power, not him. However, Briggs noticed it and knew that Carol was aware of it too. So, from authoritarian and dominant, he had to change to caring, friendly and understanding. As an alternative, he began to strike up a conversation (during which he found out what Carol's life is like); he does this by asking caring questions such as “How would you survive here?” ”, which gives a positive effect to Carol because she would feel more cared for and wanted. Additionally, via the cliff scene, Briggs learned a lot of things. amount from Carol, student in the progression class. One of the things he learns is that the strict, professional route isn't always the way to go; there are gentler and more triumphant methods. In addition to learning better teaching techniques, he also came into reality knowing why children are the way they are. After the cliff scene, Mr. Briggs' behavior and interaction changes to being more sympathetic and thoughtful; he is now aware that children aredisadvantaged through no fault of their own. Before changing, he called Carol in a controlling and threatening manner: "Carol Chandler!" Come here,” but when that failed, he had to change the way he communicated, and so this phrase developed to sound like “Carol, please get away from there.” The main way Carol made Mr. Briggs change was when she told him, "If you had been my old guy, I'd be fine, right?" this affected Briggs realizing his mistake in misunderstanding them so much and thinking that they (the children in the progression class) knew absolutely nothing. As a result, his behavior and interactions improved towards children; he felt like he now knew them well and no longer despised them. As the coach approaches the school at the end of the Wales day, Mr. Briggs changes his appearance slightly, going from fun-loving to more intelligent and strict. When he reads Ms. Kay's photographic testimony, he tells her, that would save you from paying. I could do it in the lab", which shows that he seems to have learned to lower his barriers a bit and that there is more to life than doing everything professionally and following the rules 24/7 7. As Briggs moved toward the negative near the end of the play, he also changed positively His language shifted from critical, mean, and negative thinking, “you know very well that on school visits you. wear the school uniform" to a more understanding, joyful and kind thought, "we will leave the uniform this time" towards the students and fellow teachers. When Ms. Kay had just approached and informed Mr. Briggs of Carol's disappearance, one of the things he responded with was "when we come back I'll have you all" he said that because all the other teachers (Mrs Kay, Colin and Susan) hadn't! behaved as he wanted/how he wanted However, by the end of the trip, Mr. Briggs' attitude towards them changed; replacing his usual tone, he used more polite vocabulary to refuse them "No...I better not...thanks anyway", so I don't think he will return them after using so much effort to be polite and respectful to them. After going on this trip with the kids in the progression class, I think he will change the way he deals with the students at least a little bit, if not a lot, because he now knows a lot more about them and feels more pity for them. From his old bossy, educated self, like when he calls Carol and yells “come here!” ”, he will change his tone to become more courteous and somewhat negotiable. So instead of using this quote to call Carol, he will, in the future, use something like "please come here, Carol." Because Briggs will treat children more positively, that doesn't mean he will live up to his words. In the zoo scene where he talks to Mrs. Kay about the children's interest in animals, he volunteers to "come and have a little chat with them with some slides I have", but I don't think he will do it. because it sounds a lot like one of the things you say and think, but know that you will never get around to doing it for one reason or another. Mr. Briggs changed during this class trip as he began to know and understand the children's backgrounds. ; if he hadn't interacted socially with them, he wouldn't have changed or learned anything about them. In addition to understanding them more, he also began to realize that they are not as stupid as he had always thought; they know that their chances in life are limited, and they know.