Absurd Thoughts - Short Story

                           He was tired. The next morning, he was to die. The man paced around his room with his hand under his chin. With the time limit on his life, many thoughts were suddenly rushing into his already troubled mind. All of a sudden, the idea of death became apparent to him. For his whole life, he had been running away, constantly pushing away the fact that he was going to die when he was old and frail. Now that the moment had come at such a young age, all the pressure came crashing down on his mind. What would he do before he died? He looked around the room. He could not see much, as there was barely any light. The only light source was from a grimy window, so greased up that it the light barely penetrated the glass. This dark, gloomy setting put down his mood to the point where he had almost lost hope. He looked around the room once more, in a desperate attempt to accept his situation. Beneath the window, there was a small round wooden table with a bucket full of water in it. He saw that the water was coming from the ceiling, where there was a leak in the centuries-old cobblestone and mortal. He also noticed that every time he put his foot down on the floor, the table wobbled. Beside it, there was a small blue cushion, probably to substitute for a chair. He glared intensely at the table, and an idea popped into his mind.

                        Quickly but rather quietly to not alert the guards, he leaped towards the chair, and looked at its legs. He saw that one of them was loose. He carefully grabbed the loose leg, and twisted it slowly until it broke off from the rest of the table. The end of the leg was curved, shaped peculiarly like a spoon. He made up his mind on that spot: This is what he would do before he died. He would escape. For he decided that his death was up to whichever path he was put on, and should not be decided by other humans. Very carefully, he set the table down, and saw that it still stood on three legs, though somewhat unstable. Silently he grabbed the cushion, and stood on the table. He reached up to the crack where the water was dripping down from, and wrapped the table leg with the cushion, to muffle as much noise as he could. He scraped away for a good two hours, and the little light that was coming from outside the window began to fade out into pitch darkness. He had almost taken out the looser stone and was about to pull it out when suddenly, he placed his foot back, but could not see where he set his foot. Losing his balance, the table toppled over, and he hit his head on the hard stone floor. Everything was bright, and then faded back into dark.

                        He woke up to the sound of scratching. He moved his head, immediately regretting that decision. Pain seared through his temple like a bullet. Now only daring to slightly move his head, he looked down at where the scratching noise was coming from. He saw that it was a rat, scuttling about and chewing on what looked like bits of bone. Crying out, disgusted, He scrambled onto his feet, ignoring the unbearable pain in his head, and quickly backed up into a wall. Gasping, he dropped back down and looked around again: This room looked different. The dripping was gone, and there was no window, but this time, there was a single candle on the wall, alight with a small flame. This gave him a comforting feeling, an almost homeliness mixed with melancholy. He wished he could go back home.

                         When his head and heart ceased pounding, he looked back at the rat. Slowly creeping closer, he stared at it. Knowing that it was being watched, the rat fidgeted around, occasionally glancing up at him. "Hello, little rat", he said. The rat stayed in the same spot, still looking at the human whilst gnawing on that piece of bone. "It's unfortunate that you have such a ugly name for you", he said again after a few seconds of silence. "People see you and think you're always up to no good, but you just look harmless and innocent!" he remarked. Seeing that it stayed still, the man stopped talking for a few minutes in deep thought. "We are not so different, little rat." he said after. "Society both hates us for things that out species scarcely do... If the people gave us a chance, we could possibly merge back into being accepted!" The man smirked to himself. "Look at me! Stuck in this measly dungeon, my execution tomorrow morning imminent." he exclaimed, exasperated. "Humans shouldn't kill, what gives them the right to choose the fate of others?" He shouted this time, causing the guards outside his door to yell at him to shut up. "It's too harsh", the man muttered to himself. His head began to hurt again from the shouting, and he closed his eyes. Before he knew it, he was drifting off to sleep.

                        He woke up to the sound of rattling at the door. "Wake up! Wake up, you rat! This is your last meal!" A guard shouted from the door. A bowl of gruel and a stale loaf of bread was slid through a wide slit on the door. Rousing himself quickly, the man scrambled forward and snatched the plate. He began to ravenously inhale the small amounts of gruel-porridge there was, using his hands as a spoon of sorts. After wiping the bowl clean, he turned to look at the loaf of bread, but was shocked and disgusted to see that rat with its body practically inside the loaf, tunneling through with the same raging hunger that the man had. Complete anger took over the man's head. He felt his heartbeat in his forehead as he smashed his foot down onto the rat, stomping it as many times as he could until he was sure it was dead. "Damn rat!" He screamed. "You dirty animal, you good-for-nothing scoundrel!". When the squealing had stopped, the man lifted his foot. He saw the gnarled mess of what was originally the rat. As quickly as it had come, the anger faded away. Like the ocean tides, another wave of emotion came upon the man: But this time, a wave of sadness; regret. "What have I done?" He thought to himself.

                        At that moment, the door swung open. "What a mess you have made," the guard said. "Come on, it's your time to go now." The guard gestured towards the door. The man contemplated running out the door and  then out of the dungeon as far as he could. Then, looking back at the rat, he sighed, and followed the guard out of the door. 

A Review of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall          

            Last Thursday, I watched the play "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" directed by Sarah Rodgers, which was at the Frederic Wood Theatre. It was quite an interesting play to watch for me, particularly because it was quite wordy, which I assume it was because the play was an adaptation from Anne Bronte's novel.

            The play starts out with a set in 19th century U.K, showing a small group of people from the same village, gossiping about with each other about a mysterious new lady that just moved in to town, specifically into the house, Wildfell Hall. The woman, Helen Graham (Meegin Pye), does not reveal anything about her past life before she moved to Wildfell Hall, which makes some citizens very curious, and some others quite upset. Eventually, a young, flirtatious man named Gilbert (Francis Winter) falls hopelessly in love with Helen, mostly because of her very "unladylike" views on woman's rights of independence and strength.  Throughout the story, Gilbert slowly learns the truth behind Helen's past life; about how she abandoned her unfaithful and controlling husband and came to Wildfell Hall.

            The acting was quite good in general, although there were some slight issues, such as all the actors standing in a line, talking with each other. For some scenes, the dialogue seemed to turn into monotone chatter. Another inconsistency I noticed were the accents. I could not tell if they were trying to speak in an English accent, Scottish accent, or an American Canadian accent. Other than those problems, the actors and actresses filled their roles very well. For most of the time, the dialogue was snappy, witty, and very emotional. I think that there was quite a lot of tension when Gilbert had seen Helen hugging another man (Frederick Lawrence), making Gilbert quite jealous and angry, eventually leading to him hitting the man, which also eventually ended in him finding out that the man was Helen's brother. The anger in that scene was very well portrayed, and put me on the edge.

            In my opinion, the best experiences from the play were from the lighting, music, and costumes. Those three effects combined immediately put me in the mood for a good 19th century story, and it certainly delivered the feeling as well. The set and costume designer (Jacqueline Firkins) did a fine job in interpreting the play onto the stage. The lighting was very simple, usually a solid color in the background that changed color when the scenes changed to represent a certain mood of that scene. For example, when Gilbert would get angry, the background color would be a dark orange or a very light crimson color, giving the audience a slightly agitated, empathetic feeling for Gilbert. The music, which was scattered throughout the play, were light romantic-era pieces that really brought the mood of being in the 1800's. The music especially set the mood before the play, as it gave a sophisticated and calm feeling, as you would expect from a small town in Scotland. The music also assisted greatly in the scene changes, as it made the set changes and transitions a lot less awkward. The costumes were the real selling point in the play for me. Every single detail on the costumes were tuned to perfection, from the boots to the sideburns on the men. All of the costumes were also quite simple, each costume defining the character that wore it. For example, Helen wore a simple black dress the whole play, showing her slight mourning side of a "widow", while Gilbert also wore simple clothing of a farmer boy, to show his raucousness and his countryside playfulness.

            Overall, I think that the play was well-executed and very fluid with transitions. The set and costume design was the main winning point, as they were completely perfect, matching the time period and country. The acting was very convincing, as they portrayed their characters fully with no flaws. Especially since the play was derived from the novel, I think that it was a very well polished performance and script, other than some minor issues in dialogue. The messages in the book were well portrayed in the play, such as the themes of female independence and the somewhat unfair patriarchal society that was in place during the 1800's. Although the play had quite a small cast, they managed to convey the feeling of watching an intricate and complex play. I would recommend this play to all people who love a good story that is quite unpredictable, yet calm and also unnerving at times.