Unlike most people who attended the performance with their friends, I went by myself as my other friends were unavailable at the time. Fortunately, I live close to the Constans Theatre. So, after changing into appropriate attire, I made it to the theatre about 5 minutes early by walking. I believe that attending on my own gives a slightly different experience that going with your friends. Attending alone gives one the opportunity to appreciate the play on their own, thus allowing them to derive their own interpretations, opinions, and conclusions about the performance. Although I agree that shared experiences do contribute well to the Good Life, it is essential to recognize the importance the idea of independence in one's journey to the Good Life. This is because reaching a goal can only be achieved by themselves, rather than others doing it for them.

The central issue that was being shown in the play was the dichotomy of wealth vs. poverty, especially in displaying the harsh reality of poverty. Based from history, I know that the clergy was highly revered and taken very seriously at the time. I also learned about some of the cruelty that is associated with being poor at the time, especially with the occupation of factory workers. There were extremely long hours, poor working conditions, several work-related incidents that took place, and forced child labor. However, it was quite intriguing seeing a visual perspective of the subject in the play. However, I was surprised to see that the clergy had so much power, they are able to conceal their corruption and mostly get away with it. Although times have changed, there is a lesson to be learned in the abuse of power. This can be applied to anyone in a position of leadership, such as a president. It is important to learn about this to avoid history repeating itself.

"Katharsis" is a Greek term which means the process of coming clean. As mentioned before, there are certain things that can be taken away from this play that are important to learn. For example, deception is a subject that also appears often throughout this play. At the end of the play, we see several people come clean and repent for the actions, such as the priest that confessed to abusing Talbot (#spoiler), or Brother Casgrain feeling guilt after threatening and lying in order to protect his reputation. Moreover, seeing the unpleasant reality of the past provides a powerful learning experience as well. It allows us to understand our mistakes so that we can move on and make better decisions. Without seeing and understanding the cruelty of factory workers firsthand in the past, actions such as banning child labor or giving more reasonable hours to workers would never have been taken. In a way, learning from our mistakes is a way of katharsis, or "coming clean".