Diana Czarnota
"OLIVIA: So you're supposed to be a demon from hell.
DUKE: Yep, born and raised on Dante's fourth."
The element I have selected for my research is the character Duke. Duke is a character with many interesting qualities that may benefit from closer reading. His position as both an advisor and a newly promoted demon, his background as a demon specifically from the fourth ring of hell, even his name Duke (whether he chose it, it was chosen for him or it references a position he holds) may be an area of interest to gain a better understanding of his character in the play. The passage above is from the first scene where Olivia and the audience are introduced to Duke. This passage contains most of the information we receive about Duke’s story prior to the point of attack where the story meets the plot.
Research Question
How might the information from the passage above inform Duke’s vocal presentation throughout the play?
This question was inspired by a conversation in THPERF 307 about course terminology and how the course’s key vocabulary relates to the plays being studied. More specifically the word “diction” and what that word might mean in the context of Dmitrienko’s Hell Weeks.
Central Purpose
In this Research Report I provide my findings based on specific elements from a scene in the play Hell Weeks. To support my observations are references that include [identify x 2 researched sources] as well as supplementary image references. This research is important because it will offer insight toward the development of diction and character.
Main Concept
The main concept my research explores is how Duke might speak with reference to the
information provided about Duke’s life before the plot begins. My research will focus on using
that information to determine possible ideas that the actor or the writer could incorporate into the
portrayal of Duke.
Central findings
The question on what language angels and devils speak was considered by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, of Nettesheim, counseller to Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany in his work titled Three books of occult philosophy. In book 3, chapter 23, page 412, Agrippa writes the following: “We might doubt whether Angels, or Demons, since they be pure spirits, use any vocal speech, or tongue amongst themselves, or to us; but that Paul in some place saith, If I speak with the tongue of men, or angels: but what their speech or tongue is, is much doubted by many. For many think that if they use any Idiome, it is Hebrew, because that was the first of all, and came from heaven, and was before the confusion of languages in Babylon, in which the Law was given by God the Father, and the Gospell was preached by Christ the Son…” Agrippa goes on to note that unlike humans, Angels and Demons do not require any medium to touch, see, and hear. Instead of speaking like a human being, they “[impress] the conception of the speech in those to whom they speak, after a better manner then if they should express it by an audible voyce.” (Agrippa, 413).
