Les Miserable :: English Literature

Les Miserable RESPONSE PHASE We were introduced to two different drama texts. Text one was a song called "Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Collins, a British singer, songwriter. The song was written at around 1985. Text two is an extract from the musical "Les Miserable." The extract is called "Look Down" and is set on the streets of Paris in 1832. For text one we were asked to listen to the song and discuss the storyline, themes and characters. The fact that the song is about people that are in poverty and how other people feel towards them. The lyrics from the song are about two characters, a man who is a passer-by in the street and a homeless woman in the street. She asks him for help. "Sir can you help me? But he ignores her, "He pretends he can't hear her". The man represents ignorance and the woman represents poverty. Phil Collins directs the song at us by saying "Its another day for you and me in Paradise". He means that we're in paradise compared to the lives oh homeless people. We were also asked to read the script from "Les Miserable"; the extract is called "Look Down". We each picked a character and then we read the script. Les Miserable is about the life of poor people in Paris and they want to start a revolution against the French government and the monarchy. However, they all say that they need Lamarque but he is ill. The similarities between the two texts are they both are about poverty and how higher class people feel towards them and they help the poor or not. Basically, the theme of the two texts are that they are set in Britain around 1985 - 1990, the same time it was written. There are three levels of still-image; I played a poor woman on the street asking for money. There was another character sitting on the floor. There was also another character sitting in his shop watching from the window. I also did a thought track for my character, saying aloud the thoughts of the character. Face expression is very important. We had to do a still image of a character from Les Miserable; I posed as Gavroche. I was standing, looking towards the ground and I looked miserable, then I had to speak aloud the thoughts of Gavroche. I said that I was just a child trying to survive from a terrible lifestyle and I wished that Lamarque were here to help me and other people like me. The characters still image (as Gavroche) was similar to the character I created for the song because they were both poor and