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    A Study Guide for Lillian Hellman's "A Watch on the Rhine"
    A Study Guide for Lillian Hellman's "A Watch on the Rhine"
    A Study Guide for Lillian Hellman's "A Watch on the Rhine"
    Ebook34 pages25 minutes

    A Study Guide for Lillian Hellman's "A Watch on the Rhine"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Lillian Hellman's "A Watch on the Rhine," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 3, 2016
    ISBN9781535817486
    A Study Guide for Lillian Hellman's "A Watch on the Rhine"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Lillian Hellman's "A Watch on the Rhine" - Gale

      3

      Watch on the Rhine

      Lillian Hellman

      1941

      Introduction

      After a critically acclaimed opening at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York in 1941, Watch on the Rhine ran for 378 performances. Pamela Monaco, in her article on Lillian Hellman for the Dictionary of Literary Biography, notes that the play’s appearance at this historical moment, eight months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, responded to the political climate of the day, entering into the continuing debate on American neutrality. She concludes that Americans were already familiar with the Nazi threat but had never before imagined an antifascist message within a domestic situation. Monaco argues that through her skillful dramatic crafting, Hellman warns that all "who chose to ignore the international crisis were helping to perpetuate it and that no one [could] count himself or herself free of danger.#x201D; Katherine Lederer, in her article on Hellman for Twayne’s United States Authors Series Online stated that it was the right time—for Hellman, for the critics, and for the public. The reviews were glowing, and President Roosevelt ordered a command performance at the National Theater in Washington. In its depiction of a family who struggles to combat the menace of fascism in Europe during the Second World War, Watch on the Rhine emerges as a tribute to those who are willing to sacrifice their lives for a noble cause.

      Author Biography

      Lillian Hellman was born in New Orleans on June 20, 1906, to businessman Max Bernard and Julia Hellman. Carol MacNicholas, in her article on Hellman in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, notes that while she and her mother had opposite personalities, Hellman’s ties to her mother were quite strong and became a focus of some of her work. After her college years at New York University and Columbia University in the early 1920s, Hellman began her literary career as a manuscript reader for Horace Liveright, Inc., a New York City publishing firm. There she met and married press agent Arthur Kober, with whom she moved to Europe, where

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