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Copenhagen Play Summary

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The play, Copenhagen, imagines an encounter between the ghosts of two physicists, Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr, allowing them to reflect on their controversial meeting in 1941. Bohr’s wife, Margrethe, also plays a key role throughout the dialogue of the play, partially acting as a substitute for the audience. If I were to add a character to the play, I would select Albert Speer. Heisenberg met with Speer in 1942 to discuss the atomic bomb project (Frayn 48). Hitler had decided that only projects that could not succeed within a short period of time could no longer receive funding, and Speer determined which ones would continue receiving money and how much they would be given (Frayn 48). Heisenberg tells the Bohrs of this meeting and maintains …show more content…

If he did, in fact, act in this manner to prevent the Nazis from producing an atomic bomb, then he seems less of an incompetent villain than if he simply did not create the bomb because he was unable to do so. Speer’s addition to part of the play could enlighten the audience on the meeting and provide a contrasting point to Heisenberg’s interpretation of the meeting. Most of the play centers around the notion that Heisenberg can never truly know his own intentions for his journey to Copenhagen and thus leads to the discussion of multiple motives. However, when it comes to this meeting with Speer, the only insight the audience has to the encounter is Heisenberg’s own understanding of it, an interpretation that has seemingly been proven inaccurate through the rest of the play. In fact, Heisenberg’s memory seems faulty in more ways than simply his ideas of his motives. When Bohr and Heisenberg first discuss their walk, Heisenberg claims he recalls “the drift of autumn leaves under the street-lamps next to the bandstand”, when in reality, there were not any street lamps or fallen leaves (Frayn 35). If we cannot trust Heisenberg when he states a reason for going to Copenhagen or even simple details, then how can we rely on his words for this consequential meeting with

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The Good Nazi Analysis Under a tyrant’s command, who seemed to have no human morality, one man felt remorse for the things he did, or so he made us think. Dan van der Vat uses tone to show skepticism towards Albert Speer’s true intentions during his run with the Nazi regime. In his novel, The Good Nazi: The Life and Lies of Albert Speer Dan van der Vat goes over all of Albert speer’s, a top-ranking Nazi officer and Hitler’s closest friend, life and decisions. The author uses tone to show Speer’s feelings towards the party, the feelings of those around Speer, and to show suspicions of Speer 's claims and intentions. In Dan van der Vat 's novel, The Good Nazi, the author displays Albert Speer 's human element with an inspective tone.

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In studying Albert Speer, one must account for the changing nature of history through introduction of new information and evidence with each new generation of historians and scholars. In Albert Speer’s case, his interpretation originated from his penitence at the Nuremberg Trials and later developed through contradictions made by historians as evidence and information was exposed in regards to the man “who was too deep for his own good”. At the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, Speer presented a remorseful face to the world, pleading ignorance. This efficiency was rarely questioned, with many believing he increased production by 300% between 1941 and 1944. Early Speer historians endorsed this view.

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The adults in Salem, Oregon in Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate had good reason to treat the teens as if they were children. If Diwata, Solomon, and Howie were an accurate representation of the other students at the school, it is no wonder that the parents, teachers, and school board sought to exercise an abundance of control and provide too much guidance in their lives. The three teens dealt with “grown-up” issues throughout the play, but they tried to tackle them in characteristically childish ways. In the opening scene of the play, viewers are introduced to Howie, an openly gay 18-year-old.

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In his first night at Birkenau, Elie says, “The Eternal… was silent. What had I to thank Him for?” Eli feels that God’s silence means there is no divine compassion, this leads Elie to question the existence of God. There is also the silence of the prisoners in Night and the lack of resistance towards the Nazis. When his father is beaten Elie remembers, “I did not move.

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