PRESENTATION ON “PROGRESS”XI- ENGLISH PLAY

Rizwana Naseem

English DepartmentD.A. College for Women Ph-VIII

LEARNING OBJECTIVES Through this play ‘Progress’ I

shall make my students aware of the destructions of the First World War.

I shall explain them the plot of the drama and the behaviour of the characters.

By making the learners highlighting the assertions of the characters I will explain how to attempt character analysis.

ABOUT ST. JOHN G. ERVINE (1883) He was a dramatist and novelist.

He had been the Professor of Dramatic Literature and Royal Society of Literature.

He had served in the First World War.

His Works include: The Magnanimous Lover; Alice and A Family; Changing Winds; The Wayward Man; How to Write A Play; The Theatre in my Time; The Christian and the New Morality.

PLOT OF THE PLAYProf Corrie

invents a bomb formulae. He

does so for fame and fortune.

Mrs. Meldon, Prof’s widowed

sister, is in mourning on the

3rd death anniversary of her son Eddie,

an army captain dies in the 1st World War.

Prof pays negligence to

her bereavement

and breaks the news of his invention.

Mrs. Meldon recalls her

cheerful past with husband

Tom and Eddie. She does so to make Prof feel

the value of relations and wretchedness

on losing them.

Prof’s belief wars will never

end encourages him to promote his invention as its devastating results are far

more rapid than the old

weapons.

Charlotte, Corrie’s sis, informs him

Eddie has been mutilated by a shell. So she abominates

wars: organised butchery of

boys.

Bloodless fool, wickedly mad Prof talks of money and

peerage as price of his success

as against to his sis’s

lamentations.

Charlotte pleads Prof to destroy the bomb as

Eddie’s memorial. But

Prof stays indifferent to her pleading. She hurls the table

and the formulae spills on the

floor.

Mrs. Meldon’s such act is

derided by Prof that the formulae

is in his mind. This infuriates her so that she stabs him in the back with a long knife. Prof dies.

CHARACTER-ANALYSIS OF HENRY CORRIE

SingleAged between fifty and sixty

Cold, humourless eyes, thick beard, cruel-lined mouthSobre, kind, harmless, inconsequent to humans even to his sister, Mrs. Charlotte Meldon

His cruelty - Utters wolfish snarls if gets curbed even in his minor experiment; His absorption in his scientific research that leads to bomb formulae production.

Rude, Crude to the maid-servant Hannah and Mrs.

Meldon

Heedless to family relations- he does not console his sister

on her son Eddie’s death

Rapacious for fame, fortune and peerage

He underrates women that they have no capacity for

impersonal devotion, hence never been great artists/scientists.

His barbaric attitude towards humanity while describing the

ruining effects of his bomb: corrosive gases being inhaled

will decompose the living bodies.

Besides his evil nature, he speaks of factual point : wars will never end for humans are

pugnacious by nature.

His Tragic Finale :

He neglects Charlotte’s lamentation to destroy his bomb

formulae; Derides her hurling the

apparatus table and spilling the formulae that it is stored in his

mind; This enrages Mrs Meldon and she skewered him in the back

with a long knife;He sways, chokes, clutches at the air and eventually pitches

forward on to his face.

CHARACTER-ANALYSIS OF MRS CHARLOTTE MELDON

Widow; Sister to Prof HenryAged about forty-three

Dressed in black because she is widowed and mourning her son Eddie’s deathSensitive , not fretful, has ability to stay composed while talking of her family bereavement.

HIGH-ORDER THINKING ACTIVITY

Making learners draw flow charts of focal stages in the

play and of the two characters : Prof Henry Corrie and Mrs

Meldon.

Analysing Task

HIGH-ORDER THINKING ACTIVITYEvaluating Task

Making students to present a debate on the following topic :

Does Progress lie in Advancement of Munitions or Establishment of

Peace?

Such tasks are useful when carried out in groups.

HIGH-ORDER THINKING ACTIVITYCreating task

Engaging novices to write a script for a TV Show in which a

renowned scientist has been invited for his first-rate invention of a

nuclear weapon.

This kind of exercise evokes the

latent talent in students by

mobilising their thinking capability.

CONCLUSIONUsing 21st Century Skills Teaching Methodology my students : shall be trained to learn independently. develop trust in themselves and a friendly communicative

environment in the class. shall be trained to acquire knowledge not through exam-oriented

style but through critical-thinking methods. will be finally able to attempt board papers easily.

Concerning the play Progress, such advanced

approaches clarify the concept of the plot and

characterization to students.

THANK YOU