Discuss the dramatic devices Willy Russell uses in the zoo scene of ‘Our Day Out’. - page 2
Keywords: essay dramatic devices film our day out
By Jenny on 02/07/2009
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 2 of 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
it gets out “it’s bound to be mad an’ wanna kill people”. Likewise, when the children “escape” from the city centre they cause havoc running about uncontrollably like wild animals. This also anticipates Carol’s response to being taken back to the “cage” later.
The subsequent device involves a teacher, Mr. Briggs. “Briggs starts to walk away … the other teachers let y’link them”. Russell uses this to suggest a need of physical affection from an adult even Briggs. This implies a lack of it at home and highlights Russell’s awareness of what their domestic lives would be like.
This device is quickly followed by another which sets up the next problem – Briggs who is usually very grim says to Mrs. Kay, “Yes, they’ve been very good.” This statement almost cries out for an exclamation mark and there is far too much emphasis, it paves the way for the children to misbehave later. I think he is particularly successful here because the majority of the audience will definitely pick up on this and anticipate the looming disaster.
This in turn is succeeded by another device – from where Andrews (a pupil) says “It’s all right, sir …” to Briggs’ “All right Mrs. Kay. We’ll trust them to act responsibly”.
The words “trust” and “all right” are repeated four times each. This links with the earlier device and additionally the choice of language here effectively emphasizes that the children are being trusted to be all right and so to gets the audience to pick up on this and foresee the problems ahead. For the next short scene we move to the bird house, “Two boys…speak”.
The humour of this scene with the birds contrasts with the tension of Mr. Briggs in the last scene.
Then we move onto the children’s zoo. “Ronson looks fondly at a rabbit”. This seems to indicate that there are no pets at home, once again demonstrating the author’s awareness of the family-life of these children. I think that at this point in the scene he aims to demonstrate the lack of affection to be found at home, this is implied in the way that the children seek affection from the animals instead and it is also communicated through the language - the rabbit is looked at “fondly”, again implying a wish for affection from the animals in place of physical affection from adults. This also hints at trouble to come when the
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