Paper 3 Revision (Delayed from Friday.)

Belasco, Girl of the Golden West (Finish)

While I've assigned the play, I thought it might be interesting to add a link to the novel Belasco wrote. It describes in detail some of the scenes only mentioned in the play, and may help explain what is going on in some of the more chaotic scenes.

If a particular event in the play strikes you as confusing, you might take a look at how Belasco described it in the novel. For instance, here is how Belasco explains why a gentlemanly character like Johnson finds himself leading a band of thieves. The passage begins with the deathbed speech of Johnson's dying father, a Mexican:

"Little by little these cursed Americanos have taken all that I had from me. But as they have sown so shall they reap. I have taken my revenge, and you shall take more!" He paused to get his breath; then in a terrible voice he cried: "Yes, I have robbed—robbed! For the last three years, almost, your father has been a bandit!"

The son sprang to his feet.

"A bandit? You, father, a Ramerrez, a bandit?"

"Ay, a bandit, an outlaw, as you also will be when I am no more, and rob, rob, rob, these Americanos. It is my command and—you—have—sworn…"

The Girl of the Golden West (novel)