The Diary of Anne Frank Detailed Notes

CHARACTERS

  • MR. FRANK

  • MIEP

  • MRS. VAN DAAN

  • MR. VAN DAAN

  • MRS. FRANK

  • MARGOT FRANK

  • ANNE FRANK

  • MR. KRALER

  • PETER VAN DAAN

  • MR. DUSSEL

Staging

  • Staging includes physical features: scenery, costumes, lighting, sound, actors' movements, and way they speak.

  • Stage directions are in italics and brackets.

  • They help visualize characters, scenes, and action.

  • The stage directions describe the on-stage setting.

Historical Context

  • Historical context includes time, place, customs, political forces, cultural attitudes, and major events of the period.

  • Historical context creates a mood of danger and tension.

  • Characters react differently, some helping and some selfishly.

Vocabulary

  • conspicuous (ken spik´ yōō ǝs) adj. noticeable (p. 704)

  • mercurial (mər kyσơr ē ǝl) adj. quick or changeable in behavior (p. 705)

  • unabashed (un ǝ basht) adj.. unashamed (p. 708)

  • insufferable (in suf ər ə bəl) adj. unbearable (p. 715)

  • meticulous (me tik´ yoo les) adj. extremely careful about details (p. 725)

  • fatalist (fǎ tǝ list) n. one who believes events are determined by fate (p. 735)

  • ostentatiously (äs' ten ta shes lē) adv. in a showy way (p. 740)

Timeline

  • 1940: Germany invades Netherlands

  • 1941: United States enters World War II

  • 1942: Anne Frank is eleven years old. August, first mass execution in Auschwitz. July, the Franks go into hiding.

  • 1943: Allied victories in North Africa and Italy. Anne and Peter's friendship grows.

  • 1944: Allies invade Normandy, France

  • 1945: Germany surrenders. The occupants of the secret annex are discovered and arrested. Mr. Frank returns to the Secret Annex.

Act 1 Scene 1

  • Setting: Top floor of a warehouse and office building in Amsterdam, Holland, November 1945.

  • Rooms: Sparsely furnished with chairs, cots, one or two tables, a sink, a gas ring for cooking, and a wood-burning stove.

  • Windows: Painted over or covered with makeshift blackout curtains.

  • Characters: Mr. Frank and Miep Gies. Mr. Frank is a gentle, cultured European in his middle years with traces of a German accent. Miep is a Dutch girl of about twenty-two who is pregnant.

Act 1 Scene 1 Discussion

  • Mr. Frank is leaving Amsterdam because there are too many memories.

  • Miep found Anne's diary among rubbish.

  • Mr. Frank begins reading Anne's diary, which details their lives from 1942.

  • Anne describes restrictions placed on Jews, including wearing yellow stars and being prohibited from various activities.

  • The diary recounts the decision to go into hiding and the arrival at the secret annex.

Act 1 Scene 2

  • Setting: Early morning, July 1942. The rooms are bare, but clean and orderly.

  • Characters: Mr. Van Daan, Mrs. Van Daan, Peter Van Daan, Mr. Frank, Margot Frank, Mrs. Frank, Miep, and Mr. Kraler.

  • All characters wear the Yellow Star of David, conspicuously displayed.

  • The Franks are late due to the presence of Green Police (Nazi police).

  • Miep and Mr. Kraler brought food and other essential supplies.

Rules for Hiding

  • Complete quiet from 8 AM to 6 PM in stockinged feet.

  • No running water or using the sink or w.c.

  • No trash disposal.

  • Everything must be burned in the stove at night.

  • After 6 PM, normal activity is allowed.

Living Arrangements

  • The Van Daans occupy the upstairs attic room.

  • Peter has a room near the Franks who sleep in the common room.

  • Anne and Peter remove their Stars of David and start to get to know each other.

  • Mr. Frank gives Anne a diary, and she is forbidden to go beyond the door.

Act 1 Scene 3

  • Setting: Two months later, a little after six o'clock in the evening.

  • Characters: Margot, Mr. Van Daan, Anne, Peter, Mrs. Frank, and Mrs. Van Daan.

  • Anne and Peter engage in playful wrestling, which Mrs. Frank disapproves of.

  • The group discusses ration books, the black market, and the white market.

  • Anne dresses in Peter's clothes and mocks him, leading to an argument.

  • Mrs. Frank checks Anne for a fever, highlighting their limited access to medical care.

  • The sound of bombers overhead alarms the families.

  • Mrs. Van Daan flirts with Mr. Frank while Mr. Van Daan expresses discontent with the food.

  • Anne spills milk on Mrs. Van Daan's fur coat, leading to a heated argument.

  • Mrs. Frank reprimands Anne but tells Margot as an example.

Act 1 Scene 4

  • Setting: Late evening.

  • Characters: Mr. and Mrs. Frank, Margot, Anne, Peter, and Dussel.

  • Anne has a nightmare about being captured by the Green Police.

  • Dussel complains about Anne’s screaming. Mrs. Frank comforts Anne.

  • Anne asks for her father, rejecting her mother's comfort, and Mr. Frank consoles and listens to Anne.

Act 1 Scene 5

  • Setting: The first night of Hanukkah.

  • Characters: Mr. and Mrs. Frank, Margot, Anne, Peter, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan, and Dussel.

  • Mr. Frank lights the Menorah and recites a Hanukkah blessing.

  • Anne gives everyone homemade gifts. She gives Peter a safety razor. She give Dussel earplugs.

  • The celebration is interrupted by a crash downstairs, revealing a thief.

  • The scene ends with Anne singing the Hanukkah song as the lights fade, despite their fear.

Act 2 Scene 1

  • Setting: January 1944, over a year and a half into hiding.

  • Characters: Mr. and Mrs. Frank, Margot, Anne, Peter, Dussel, Mr. Kraler, and Miep.

  • Miep and Mr. Kraler bring New Year's greetings, flowers, and a cake.

  • Tension rises over cake portions.

  • Mr. Van Daan asks Miep to sell Mrs. Van Daan's fur coat.

  • Mr. Kraler reveals worry about a man in the storeroom asking about the Franks and suggests blackmail.

  • Anne expresses her longing for life outside and ideals.

Act 2 Scene 2

  • Setting: Evening; after supper.

  • Characters: Anne, Peter, Margot, Dussel, Mr. and Mrs. Frank, Mrs. Van Daan.

  • Anne dresses up to visit Peter; Mrs. Frank disapproves of the frequency and asks her to leave the door open.

  • Mrs. Van Daan makes rude comments, causing tension.

  • Margot admits her jealousy of Anne because Peter gives life meaning for Anne.

  • Anne and Peter share their feelings; Peter admits he finds Anne pretty.

  • They almost kiss when the nine o’clock chime causes them to have to say goodnight. Anne and Peter end up sharing a light peck on the cheek.

  • Mrs. Van Daan sees Anne leaving Peter's room and suspects what may have happened.

Act 2 Scene 3

  • Setting: Night.

  • Characters: Mr. and Mrs. Frank, Margot, Anne, Peter, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan, and Dussel.

  • Mr. Van Daan is caught stealing bread, leading to an explosive confrontation.

  • Mrs. Frank demands that the Van Daans leave because food is limited.

  • Mr. Frank expresses his disappointment and says, "We don't need the Nazis to destroy us. We're destroying ourselves".

  • Anne and Peter become scared. Peter sides with his father, and decides to go with them. Anne begs him not to, and begs Mrs. Frank to have them stay because they’ll get caught.

  • The news of the Allied invasion lifts spirits, and everyone celebrates, bringing a moment of hope.

Act 2 Scene 4

  • Setting: Afternoon of a few weeks later; everyone but Margot is in the main room.

  • Characters: Peter, Dussel, Anne, Mr. and Mrs. Frank, and Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan.

  • The telephone rings multiple times, which frightens Dussel, who thinks it may be Miep trying to warn them of an emergency. It then stops and frightens them.

  • Without Miep’s radio to rely on for updates, Mrs. Frank says some comfort is that they may’ve "lost track of the days" It rings again, and this time everyone is petrified.

  • Dussel believes that Mr. Kraler’s death could be responsible, and begs Mr. Frank to answer the phone this time.

  • With no sound from downstairs for awhile, Dussel goes downstairs to check it. A minute passes before he runs up to tell the others he had gone too late.

  • The invasion has bogged down, and when she tells him about where they have to relocate to, she hears that the gestapo have found their radio.

    • Mrs. van Daan cries out in hysteria that she can’t stand it and that she’ll kill herself. Mr. Van Daan replies that she must feel she wants them dead with the state she always is in.

  • The air raids get Anne upset as well. All the while, all people downstairs wait silently behind both sides of the door.

  • To try and keep their spirits up, Anne puts her spin on what the outcome will be so to keep Peter from joining her mother to her room for crying.

  • Everything stops when Anne calls out. Suddenly, in the distance, the sound of squealing tires is heard from vehicles stopping outside. The distant echoes of commands and frantic running of feet can be heard all around them and even inside, where someone can be heard pounding their hands in desperation at the very doors which lie under where their secret annex is located, the outside is heard the commands: "Auf machen! In Da drinnen! Auf machen! Schnell! Schell! Schell! etc., etc."

Act 2 Scene 5

  • Setting: November 1945. Setting is back to where we first started before the family hid in the annex.

  • Characters: Mr. Frank, Miep, and Mr. Kraler.

  • The scene is revealed to find Mr. Frank to have gone through great trauma and grief. Mr. Kraler talks about to Miep where he mentions that in reality, though the family had gotten caught.

  • To not know where the members of his family had ended up for so long, until he had found his wife’s and daughters names on a board, was truly tragic.

  • To which Mr Kraler told of how the police had told the building's occupants if they could offer them 33 guilders to be set free. All the while where Anne’s voice can still be heard even after her death.

  • Mr. Kraler and Mean had gone to visit one of the police informants. It was the thief that betrayed them.

  • But even though the news of Belson or Bergen wouldn’t be heard until a little later, she had died with one of Anne’s fellow occupants from the secret annex, as well the rest of Mr. Frank’s family