Preview

Interaction Between Lewis And The Patients In Louis Nowra's 'Cosi'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
724 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Interaction Between Lewis And The Patients In Louis Nowra's 'Cosi'
Lewis’ interaction with the patients forces the audience to realise that often the real world is not such a good place.

The interactions between Lewis and the patients in Louis Nowra’s play Cosi, challenge the audience to view the real world as a difficult place. Within the context of Australian society experiencing drastic social and political changes in the 1970’s, Nowra contrasts the views and believes of the patients living in the asylum against the opinions of the real world. Whilst in the asylum, the protagonist Lewis undergoes radical changes; his altered perspective demonstrates how the real world is not such a good place. The belief of having a relationship in which ‘men’s double standards’ aren’t an issue is presented as a possibility in the asylum. The asylum also gives the patients the opportunity to re-create themselves which is not possible in the real world. …show more content…
These preconceived notions regarding the asylum force himself to ask, “Why can’t I ever say no?” as he realises the ‘madness’ he has gotten himself into. As the play progresses, the characterization of Lewis develops through continuous interaction with the patients which allows him to recognise them as ‘normal people who have done extraordinary things’, which is how Justin explained them at the beginning. The turning point for Lewis is when he chooses to continue work on the play instead of assisting his friend Nick with the Moratorium, showing that he has realised how much more important working in the asylum is than the trivial real world problems which Nick focuses on. The stronger the bond becomes between Lewis and the patients the easier it is for the audience and Lewis himself to realise how unjust the real world is by placing stereotypical prejudices on the
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Cosi - Louis Nowra (Devices)
    • 3406 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Cosi - Louis Nowra (Devices)

    | |Lewis has to come to terms with his preconceived conception of a mental asylum and mental patients |…

    • 3406 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Analytical on Cosi
    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analytical on Cosi

    As Lewis is an inexperienced director, he is hesitant to control the patients as they intimidated him at the start. One of the patients, Roy believes that he belongs in the theatre and has already prepared for Lewis’s arrival by saying: “Henry’s part of my hand picked team.” This quotation from act 1 scene 1 illustrates the eagerness in Roy on wanting to be in the play and wanting to direct the play. The fact that Roy has already planned a team makes Lewis stunned by it as Roy believes he is better than Lewis at the start. Lewis does not respond, making the audience seem like he is nervous or intimidated by Roy. This adds to lack of understanding of acceptance if Lewis was not afraid of the patients, he would have…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Chapter 40-Mary In A Wall Of Fire
    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Chapter 40-Mary In A Wall Of Fire

    “I felt the hard, mechanical isolation of the hospital machine and I didn't like it” and “The light was so strong that I could no longer see the audience, the bowl of human faces” (Ellison, 341). These are some examples of how the description of the stage contributed to the protagonist confinement.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Fidelity Change In Cosi
    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Does Fidelity Change In Cosi

    At first, Lewis is shown to the audience as an unsure and weak character with a low level of self-confidence; as the director, he did not put himself in control but instead straightaway handballs the power to Roy when manipulated by him. Close to the beginning of the drama, Lewis had no opinion on politics; he turned off the radio as soon as he heard an opinion expressed on the Vietnam War. Later on, as the play develops, Lewis is able to express his own views without hesitation. By being around people with simple views, Lewis has been pushed to change; he is no longer scared of what other people will think. Towards the end of the play, when asked to attend the moratorium instead of the play, Lewis was able to say that the play comes…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cosi
    • 4098 Words
    • 17 Pages

    Cosi

    An introduction to Cosi ouis Nowra was inspired to write Cosi after a visit to a performance of Hello Dolly with a group of mental patients in 1970. He worked with this group of patients to produce a version of Trial By Jury which helped many of the patients to “blossom” and also revealed the ignorance of a student leader who ridiculed the patients’ efforts. Nowra claims that the play is a combination of fact and fiction. In Cosi, a mature Nowra looks back and evaluates his youthful self and the political environment in which he grew up. Lewis is a naive young director who is faced with the daunting task of directing a group of mental patients in a play. Cosi Fan Tutte is chosen by the exuberant and forceful Roy who overwhelms the inexperienced Lewis. The rest of the cast is less enthusiastic particularly as the play seems to demand an ability to sing and speak Italian. Roy prevails and Lewis is required to work with a motley cast of characters in a run-down theatre so that Roy’s dream can become a reality. The time Lewis spends with Doug, the pyromaniac, Cherry, the nymphomaniac, Julie, a drug addict, Ruth, a dogged realist, the introverted and silent Henry, the Lithium-addicted pianist Zac, and Roy, the exuberant dreamer, proves to be a humanising experience for Lewis. This experience has repercussions for his personal life as he copes with the contempt and criticism of his girlfriend Lucy and his politically obsessed friend, Nick. Lucy’s betrayal, Lewis’ attraction to Julie and his growing sense of alienation from the political preoccupation of the 1970s all forms part of the fabric of the play as does the performance of Cosi Fan Tutte itself. Structurally, the play uses the device of the play-within-a-play to comment on the drama which is taking place in Lewis’s life outside the theatre and between the “outside” characters, Nick and Lucy, and the inmates. The themes of love and fidelity which are the concerns of Cosi Fan Tutte are played out in the real life…

    • 4098 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cosi
    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cosi

    In the play, “Cosi” written by Lewis Nowra demonstrates his life through the character of Lewis Riley, who is the central character. The actions of Lewis and other characters are shown through the stage directions. His personality in the beginning is described to be a shy and an unsure University student who is still trying to figure out the society of the mid-sixties. Lewis started off only wanting to take the job at the asylum to become a director of a play because he needed the money to help him guide through University. But as the play continues on, Lewis begins to become a part of the group of people he is surrounded by and he helps them to gain the comfort of being themselves to get them “out of their shells”. Even though they were classed as “mental patients” he begins to realise that there is a part in them that is still normal and that he will prioritise towards helping all of them to be treated normally again before the people he sees outside on the daily basis. By working with the people in institution it has somehow changed Lewis to also get his personality away from the shyness and the unsureness that he had felt in the beginning.…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cosi Essay
    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Cosi Essay

    Furthermore, Lewis also develops in his ability to deal with other people. In Act 1, Lewis is introduced to the mental patients and he appears very…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cosi
    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Cosi

    Louis Nowra’s play, Cosi, is set in the 1970s, during the Vietnam War. The setting is in a mental institution. It was written in 1992. Cosi explores a range of ideas and attitudes towards mental illness, such as the stereotypical view that mental patients are dangerous and should be kept locked away. Another is that they are like a lot of other people who are considered “normal”. But the stereotypical view is generally the constant throughout this play. Nowra’s play addresses an issue which is still present in today’s modern society. That is the belief that women are not to be trusted when it comes to committing to a relationship.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    cosi: comedy and human suffering
    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages

    cosi: comedy and human suffering

    Nowra reflects on the damages caused by love through the mental patients but uses comedy to humanise and break down the audience’s preconceived perceptions of them. Like Lewis, Nowra assumes that the audience has had little experience with the mentally ill. He uses humour to allow the audience to understand mental illness and human suffering in a light hearted way by breaking down preconceived distinctions of ‘mad’ and ‘normal’ by society. This is evident when Doug describes burning his mother’s cats to heel their ‘unresolved conflicts’ to Lewis and how he wouldn’t be in here if it weren’t for the ‘damn cat’. Nowra uses this incongruous situation to give Doug a likeable, humorous character whilst showing his suffering from the absence of love. By using comedy in this situation it also helps the…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    "Sicko" Response Paper
    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages

    "Sicko" Response Paper

    The corruption of the health insurance companies go beyond the denial of treatment for its patients. Moore builds a strong argument for the healthcare systems of other nations such as Canada, and France. He builds a very convincing argument, however; Moore plays on the emotions and uses pathos to strengthen his arguments rather than reason. Many of the examples that Moore uses in his documentary are very dire cases of helpless families that are refused treatments from their health care providers. Instead of choosing examples that the average Americans may face, Moore uses extreme cases to play on the emotions of his audience to more effectively get his point across. He uses many dramatic effects such as interviewing family members of a patient that is not being…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Michael Moore Loves Rhetoric
    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Michael Moore Loves Rhetoric

    One of the most effective ways Moore draws our attention is by using real testimonies. By interviewing Americans who have been wronged by the health care system, he cleverly intertwines rhetoric to create a strong argument for universal health care. For example, after he presents the audience with a logos appeal, an ethos and/or pathos appeal will follow, or vice versa. Like a chain reaction, the appeals go hand in hand, making the viewer feel as if what they are seeing is real and not exaggerated. From the beginning, “Sicko” relies heavily on ethos and pathos to show that the health care industry is not sympathetic to the medical needs of Americans. One example of this is the story of a man named Tracy who had kidney cancer. His hospital refused to perform surgery on him and Tracy died soon after his wife challenged the hospital on the issue. Tracy’s wife, Julie, says that Tracy wanted to know why a good person like him had to be put into such an unfortunate situation. Here, Moore uses different techniques to get the audience to feel sympathy for this family. When the film first introduces us to Tracy and his family, we see segments of home videos depicting a happy family. As Tracy’s wife gives the interview, she tells an unfortunate story of Tracy’s death and how their health insurance failed them which further grabs the audience’s sympathy. She is interviewed in such a way where we feel as if she is in the living room with us; she seems like a friend or neighbor, and we sympathize for her loss. We are made to feel that his death was preventable. Further, we learn that despite Tracy’s wife being employed in the very hospital that provided them with so-called health care, they were denied treatment even though Tracy’s brother was a perfect donor. Essentially, she was working for the very people who were denying her family the care they need. Through the use of ethos…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cosi
    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Cosi

    Through the play Cosi the audience witnesses the lives of mentally ill people unfold before them. Louis Nowra has used black comedy within Cosi to allow the audience to abandon their pre-conceptions of ‘mad’ people and to see the characters not for their illness but for their personality. Because of this the audience is able to relate to each character and their situation and realise the underlying sadness of the patients lives. We are confronted by their pasts as we come to realise the causes for their illnesses; like with Roy as we learn of his childhood, abandoned by his mother and growing up in orphanages.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Concept Analysis In Nursing
    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Concept Analysis In Nursing

    “Personal and metaphorical narratives have been used to reconstruct and find meaning in experience in order to enhance further understanding of caring for patients” (Bonis, 2009).…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Julie Cosi
    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Julie Cosi

    Louis Nowra has used black comedy within Cosi to allow the audience to abandon their pre-conceptions of ‘mad’ people and to see the characters not for their illness but for their personality. Because of this the audience is able to relate to each character and their situation and realise the underlying sadness of the patients’ lives. Each character brings their own experiences and personalities into the play which creates the audience to perceive characters differently. One of the most obvious perceptions of some characters in the play is the sympathy and pity they invoke through their characters development. The character Roy, who suffers from manic depression, creates sympathy from the audience due to his tragic childhood and consent rejection from society and even the ‘insane’. Julie is also another character who’s also perceived as tragic. Julie is a patient in the asylum due to drug dependency which ultimately causes her death after the play has finished.…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Lewis's Essay: How Did Lewis Really Die?
    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Lewis's Essay: How Did Lewis Really Die?

    Lewis died as a young man during the peak of his fame, but how exactly did he die? Lewis was an explorer and governor of the state of Louisiana at the time. He went on the Lewis and Clark Expedition and was Jefferson’s right-hand man, helping him prove Congress wrong, saying that they should’ve bought Louisiana for economic and other purposes. As for his death, historians have claimed that he committed suicide while at Grinder’s Stand for over 200 years. However, as we now look back, there are many holes in this claim. Lewis was a superstar back in the day, but he also had struggles and enemies of his own. Lewis died by murder by conspiracy.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More