Discuss the dramatic devices Willy Russell uses in the zoo scene of ‘Our Day Out’. - page 1
Keywords: essay dramatic devices film our day out
By Jenny on 02/07/2009
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 1 of 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
English Coursework
Discuss the dramatic devices Willy Russell uses in the zoo scene of ‘Our Day Out’.
Willy Russell, the author of ‘Our Day Out’ was a playwright in Liverpool writing at a time when there was a high level of unemployment and a feeling that even with an education there was little work available. In the inner city areas there were low levels of literacy, schools attempted to deal with the disaffected students in special classes.
As he grew up in Liverpool and worked in various jobs there in his adult life, he knew what it was like. He expressed this culture of negativity in his writing, giving a ‘voice’ to these people, who he had affection for and understanding of.
The screenplay is about one of these special classes, called the ‘progress class’. Their teacher organises a coach trip for the children she genuinely cares for in the hope of giving them an experience beyond their usual day to day life.
Russell also explores different level with another teacher who is on the trip and has very different views about what a day trip should be.
The text is effective and entertaining because of the devices used and they are particularly evident in the zoo scene.
The first device Willy Russell uses is in the stage directions at the start. “They point and shriek with horrified delight at the sexual organs of monkeys”.
Russell uses this to show the children’s immaturity, aiming to emphasize the fact that the children haven’t previously been exposed to this experience as they have never before left the inner cities and this is shown in their reaction. His choice of language “horrified delight” highlights the fact that the children are at first momentarily shocked and/or scared by this but then find it entertaining, this demonstrates that everything is new and strange to them so that a insignificant thing like that, which most people would have got over at a much younger age, is still entertaining to them.
After this Russell moves on to comparing a trapped bear with the children. “…It was born in captivity so it won’t know any other sort of life… it’s in them t’kill you…”
Here, Russell uses the imprisoned bear as a device; it is symbolic of the children’s situation. The children are “trapped” just as the bear is trapped in its pit. I think this is particularly successful here because it also reflects the way that when
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