All American Tragedy :: essays papers

All American TragedyWithout a doubt, most Americans can distinctly draw a picture in their minds of John Wilkes cell The Civil War had ended five days previously with the surrender of General Lee. President Lincoln and the first lady had decided to take a night off and see a stage play at the Fords Theatre. An obviously enraged young actor preceded into the stage knock a kills Lincoln, and then exits the theatre by jumping on to the stage and escaping through the back where a horse had been waiting. stall tried to escape for good, barely within two weeks he was killed in a violent ordeal near Bowling Green, VA.From the moment the shot rang out in that theatre, the American race knew who Booth was. An interesting note was that if Lincoln had seen the men who avenged the South, he would have recognized Booth immediately. This would have not came as a storm to many, since John Wilkes was one of the most recognizable men in the country, according to the National Preservation S ociety, or NPS. Lincoln was an avid theatregoer, and on Nov. 9, 1863, after Booth had preformed The Marble Heart, the President asked around back stage if he could meet with the star. Booth, being the outspoken supporter of the South that he was, declined the offer. This was the first major mite of Booths strong dislike of Lincoln. Booth was surely not in need of attention. Thought the Civil War, the Northern newspapers fell over separately other as they showered the young actor with praise. (NPS 2)Chris Mynk 71567How then is it possible to reconcile the two conflicting impressions of John Wilkes Booth? The best answer would probably be that one must understand the environments in which produced him- the world of theater and the struggle between the North and the South. Booth was raised in a theatrical family, where Shakespearean works were recited as often as the bible. As the struggle between the States wore on, the battlefields at Gettysburg and Antietam must not have se emed very different than the battlefield of Richard III. (Williams 578) In his career, Booth died a dramatic death hundreds of times. Many scholars have voiced the opinion that the assassination was, perhaps, Booths greatest performance. In 1899, Joel Chandler Harris, a contemporary of Booths who would become famous for his Uncle Remus folk tales, wrote that Booth had all the elements of genius but seemed powerless to focus them.