Lesson Plans The Philadelphia Story

The story picks up in intensity whenever characters refuse to back down. Granted, it is setting the atmosphere for her tryst with him later, but the story and all the activities that lead up to the wedding are put on hold for a moment, as they both reevaluate each other. Sidney Kidd, of Spy Magazine, sends a reporter and a camera woman to cover the wedding of Tracy Lord, who is about to marry George Kittredge. They are installed into the house by C. At the end of a pre-wedding party, at which the champagne flows like ginger ale, she and Mike go for a dip in the pool.

When Kittredge sees them, he imagines the worst, and the wedding is threatened.

Tracy realizes she could never be happy with Kittredge, and sends him on his way. Tracy Lord grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth. Dexter Haven and divorced him when he, resenting her chilly attitude toward the comforting virtues of domesticity, took to liquor. Tracy later met and became engaged to George Kittredge, a mining tycoon. When Kidd decided to run an expose on Seth Lord, Dexter stepped in with a proposal. Tracy is described as a hunter of foxes and big game. She rides horses, swims, and sails yachts. She is shown and perceived to be a very physically active person.

She acted very hastily in getting divorced, and is probably acting hastily in getting married again so soon. After Dexter questions her relationship with Kittredge, she tries to quell her feelings by drinking and dancing and swimming the night away. In the first scene, Tracy is seen writing thank you notes for all of her wedding gifts. Although she may have trouble seeing it for herself and takes offense to the idea , Tracy is often accused of appearing to be a queen, or virgin goddess: As such, her thinking tends to reflect her belief that her way is always the right way, regardless of how it may affect others.

Tracy is often surprised when she witnesses moments of selflessness in other people. When she starts to feel conflicted about marrying George, she drinks to excess, to forget about it. Unfortunately she forgets everything she said or did during her champagne haze, as she did last time she drank too much. She must deal with Kittredge directly, saying she would do her best to make him unhappy if they were married; she is determined to be the one to tell the wedding guests exactly what has happened.

Tracy thinks that her problem is that she is too controlling. As a result of hearing Dexter, George, and Seth accuse her of being a controlling, untouchable bronze goddess, Tracy takes action by losing control entirely through champagne. Tracy blamed Dexter for the failure of their marriage rather than looking at the possibility that she could have been more forgiving and helpful. She tries to rationalize her previous indiscretions as silly and childish rather than face the fact that she is truly human and has faults of her own. As the story progresses, Tracy begins to understand more about herself and about human nature.

Tracy has her whole life figured out. She has chosen the perfect husband in George Kittredge, a self made millionaire, someone who she sees as her equal. But there are certain aspects of her own personality that she would rather not face. Her own intolerance towards the faults of others, for one. Tracy holds herself to very high standards, and has little patience for those who do not live up to them. She denies having any faults of her own, but during the course of the story she is confronted by people who force her to see herself as she really is.

The Philadelphia Story Lesson Plans for Teachers

In an attempt to run from that truth, she turns to champagne, only to realize that when all is said and done, she is quite human after all. Tracy grew up in the upper class regions of Philadelphia, the daughter of Seth and Margaret Lord.

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According to the play, she is the wealthiest member of the family, having inherited from two wealthy grandfathers. She was married to C. Dexter Haven for all of ten months, but their marriage broke up due at least in part to her intolerance of his problem with alcohol. Sometime after their divorce, she met George Kittredge, a one time coal miner who made it big, and the two of them agreed to marry.

Dexter is a master of manipulation. Under the guise of trying to spare the Lords from scandal, he installs Connor, Liz, and himself into their house for the weekend, somehow knowing exactly the effect it will have. His wedding gift the model of the True Love has the intended effect of causing Tracy to recall their honeymoon together. He manipulates Kittredge and Tracy into believing the worst of her incident with Connor, serving as the impetus for Tracy to finally tell Kittredge to leave and go back to Dexter.

Dexter truly has changed his nature. But clearly he is now in charge of himself, his life, and the situation before him.

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Dexter believes in commitment. He thinks that Tracy should have stood by him in the dark days of their marriage, and now he is back, determined to make good on his promise to do the same for her. Dexter says that Tracy is marrying beneath herself in committing herself to Kittredge. Tracy thinks he is being snobbish to say so, but the truth is, Dexter knows that he himself is the only one who can truly make Tracy happy. Dexter needs to be careful in pressing the commitment point, because Tracy could easily argue that she is holding to her commitment to Kittredge.

On the other hand, by manipulating the situation—showing Tracy that she just like Dexter is human—and that Kittredge is in fact a snob, Dexter shows himself to be the only one worthy of spending the rest of his life with Tracy. As soon as he heard that Tracy was marrying Kittredge, Dexter had to come back and make his opinion known. Dexter tells Tracy that he wonders how she would even consider marrying Kittredge. This forces Tracy to dig in her heels, justify her reasoning, and consider the pros and cons herself. Everything Dexter says is geared toward forcing Tracy to reconsider her actions, as well as her opinions about Dexter, their marriage, and herself.

When all is said and done, Dexter loves Tracy, and always has. He does what he does because of the emotional contract he believes they still share.

Dexter conceptualizes the entire plan to expose Sidney Kidd. On the morning of the wedding, he invites Kidd to the wedding so that he can trade the new story for the story on the wedding, Kidd sends a message via Margaret, that Dexter has won. Although sober now, when they were married Dexter had a drinking problem that escalated until their divorce. Played by Cary Grant in the film. At the start of the story, Dexter arrives ostensibly to help avert a scandal in the Lord family. He has changed from the drunk that he was, and knows exactly how to manipulate every situation to just the right effect.

The Next Chapter in Story Development

The institution of marriage, specifically any one that Tracy is involved in, is what creates conflict between Tracy and Dexter. Tracy and Dexter were once married. Dexter knows that Tracy is doing the wrong thing by embarking on a second marriage to Kittredge. Tracy thinks it was their own marriage that was the disaster. Dexter thinks he and Tracy should have had a future together, but Tracy disagrees. She believes her future is with George Kittredge.

The Philadelphia Story Lesson Plans for Teachers | www.newyorkethnicfood.com

Dexter tries to get Tracy to reevaluate her decision to marry George by revealing George for who he really is, and Tracy for who she really is. Dexter arrives in the story a changed man from the one Tracy divorced. He accuses her of being closed minded when it comes to human frailty. Throughout the story, Dexter is there to show Tracy that she is not as perfect as she would like to be. Only through recognizing her own imperfections will she be more accepting of the faults of others.

Dexter gives her plenty of reasons to ponder and doubt her reasons for marrying Kittredge, and Tracy fights him every step of the way. Before Tracy and Dexter can get back together, as they ultimately do, Tracy must reconsider her feelings towards Dexter, Kittredge, and toward herself. When Tracy demanded a divorce from Dexter, it effectively put their relationship a close. The fact of their divorce inhibits their relationship from moving forward. However, if they were to both believe that there relationship was truly over, that would be that.

When Dexter mentions the night Tracy got drunk and naked on the roof, she tries to dismiss it as silly, childish, and insignificant. Dexter thinks it enormously important. As the story develops, Tracy realizes, in its proper context, just how important that incident was, and how the past is open to interpretation. Although he is there ostensibly to save the Lord family from a potential scandal, Dexter and Tracy immediately continue the conflict that began when they were married.

At its core is their argument over whether or not Tracy can have any kind of future with Kittredge or indeed anyone other than Dexter. Ultimately the relationship between Dexter and Tracy, which has thus far gone largely unresolved, must be worked out if Tracy is to achieve her goal of happiness. Tracy and Dexter were married several years ago, though it only lasted ten months. Instead of helping him through it, she scolded him, and ultimately left him. Afterwards, Dexter became sober and went to work as a correspondent for Sidney Kidd, of Spy Magazine. The goal common to all the objective characters is for Tracy to be not just married, but truly, deeply happy.

In , 1, citizens from the community of Philadelphia came together and issued a clear and direct call for justice in solving these crimes. As a result, the case was reopened, and in , the ring leader of the murders was convicted. The community of Philadelphia, Mississippi, has continued to seek redemption for racial injustices of the past and to promote racial reconciliation for the future.

Utilize close reading strategies to understand a text. Examine the main points and supporting details of a text through discussion groups. Compose an essay using a formal style. A Story of Racial Reconciliation. The students can read the article silently or be placed in groups of no more than three or four and take turns reading the article to their group members. The teacher may need to review annotating strategies with the students. After students have read the article, the teacher will ask the students if they discovered any vocabulary terms that they did not understand. At this point in the lesson, the teacher will assist students in understanding the vocabulary terms that were unfamiliar to them.

The following terms are potential vocabulary that students may not understand: After the unfamiliar vocabulary is discussed with students, each student should be given a copy of the speech analysis worksheet found at the end of the lesson plan. The students will complete the worksheet independently. Once students record evidence for the first main point, they should summarize the information. These steps will be repeated for all four of the main points made in the speech.