Extra Play Time! "The Boor" by Anton Chekhov

           

What is it?

           This play was originally written in Chekhov's native Russian, and therefore has a couple of different translations (also known as "The Bear" in English). To start, our two main characters are Mrs. Helena Popov and Grigori Smirnov. Initially, they have two very different objectives. Popov wants to mourn for the loss of her husband, who passed away about 7 months ago. She wants to waste away behind closed doors to show her endless devotion to her beloved. While Smirnov rudely interrupts her bereavement, bursting into her house, demanding that she pay him the money owed to him by her late husband. He has interest to pay and needs the money owed to him to-day. The point of attack occurs when Popov explains to Smirnov that she has no money until her manager returns in a week. Smirnov is frustrated because none of his debtors have paid him and says that he will not leave her house until he gets paid!

Why do we care?

            What becomes interesting about this play as you get into it, is that neither of these people are really after what they claim to be after. While Popov claims she is in a deep depression, as you read further you realize that she is only trying to prove to her lying, cheating husband that she is better than him, and she will forever be loyal. She says of her husband, "his departed soul may see how I love him...he was often unjust to me, cruel, and--he wasn't faithful, but I shall be faithful to the grave and prove to him how I can love."(Chekhov, p. 1) It's her way of sticking it to him the only way she knows how, even if it has to be post mortem. Meanwhile, Smirnov is not staying simply to collect the money, he is looking to make a point. Smirnov tries to play the womanizing playboy angle, and Popov appears unimpressed. He wants respect and is very annoyed that this woman will not kowtow to his wishes. She yells at him that he is , "a Boor, a Bear, a Monster!" They have both been burned by their past lovers and continue to argue, battle of the sexes style, both hoping to top the other one and in that way getting some closure to past loves.

How does it end?(caution **SPOILERS**)

             Slowly, Smirnov begins to weaken his stance as he experiences Popov's strength. This culminates in her challenging him to a duel, pistols and all! What's really funny about the whole thing is that she brings back the guns and asks, "Here are the pistols. But before we have our duel, please show me how to shoot. I have never had a pistol in my hand before!"(Chekhov, p. 9) It's the first time that she shows vulnerability toward him. Ultimately, Smirnov refuses to duel, having fallen in love. After much objection, Popov finally consents and the two embrace, having fallen truly, madly, deeply in love after only a couple of hours of knowing each other. Did I mention this was a farce?

If I would ride 4000 miles, then I would ride 4000 more...

Just to be the man who rode 4000 miles and fall down at your door! da-DA-da!!!

So the play 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog has multiple patterns scattered throughout. One of the main motifs is Leo as a traveller. There are multiple mentions of Leo as this nomadic figure. Not connected to anyone or anything. His first action when entering his grandmother's place is to unclip one of his panniers. This suggests, that with multiple bags like this one, he's been on the road for a while and hasn't had to rely on anyone else. He has all the supplies he needs. He also shows interest in rockcliming, which is another rustic, manly thing to do. He is also constantly reminding his grandmother that he won't be here for long. Even after being with her for 3 weeks, he still claims that he won't be there much longer. He is always and forever trying to prove he doesn't need anyone, as long as he has his mountains and open road. This, of course, doesn't hold much water when considering how long he has stayed with his grandmother, how upset he is over his friend's death, how much he seems to miss his girlfriend and makes effort to see her, and especially how much he misses his sister. In fact, he creepily tries to sleep with an asian girl who reminds him of his sister. He needs people, but for some reason fights against this impulse. Including the estranged relationship he clearly has with his mother. This seems to somewhat clear away near the end of the play when he finally attends the funeral of his grandmother's neighbor. He strangely connects with this woman he doesn't even know, when he was so unwilling to attend the funeral of his best friend. He didn't want to see all of his friends and family. He wanted to be alone in his grief. Now, it would seem, he's making up for this by writing a eulogy for this woman and finally gaining some closure.

One other pattern of this play that I found irritatingly repetitive was the, whaddayacallit, oh yea, Grandma Vera's forgetful streaks. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the fact that we need to know that she feels scared and vulnerable due to her memory loss. But that word "whaddayacallit" seemed more and more cartoon-like every time I read it. You could almost set your watch by when it would show up in the script. But I digress. It's important to note how often Vera is "not being able to find [her] words" (Herzog, p. 39) because it becomes that much more satisfying at the very end when she's looking for, "What is that expression?…Green thumb." (Herzog, p. 50) It almost gives the impression that she will be okay when Leo departs because she's finally found her words. Or, another way of looking at it is that Vera is becoming better because Leo's around and vice versa. Maybe Leo won't leave after all.


All in all though, I've had trouble figuring out what the play "expects of me". I'm not entirely sure what to take from all this. The slice of life aspect is clear, but why was it important to tell this story? I'll have to think about this thingamajig.

Judith by Howard Barker

When identifying the Major Dramatic Question of a piece like Judith, I think it's important to think about how the character of Judith seems to change throughout the play. She starts as sort of this quiet, mousy girl who does as she is told. However, you quickly realize that she may be the one in charge here. In retrospect this is evident in Judith's very first line, "You are killing my property." (Barker, p. 50) Holofernes has just attacked the servant. Is choking the life from her. But Judith says it so coolly. You don't see any exclamation points or bold print. She says it as a matter of fact. You're killing my property, you may want to fix that. As the play continues, Judith makes effort to be in agreement with Holofernes, to appease him. However, it doesn't seem to be out of fear. She confides to the servant, "I am neither awed nor intimidated, and I can say in perfect honesty, he is not what I expected."(Barker, p. 53) And while Holofernes barks about war and death, the servant tries to keep things on track. Although we're unclear as to her actual function. She won't leave and seems to be neither servant to Judith nor Holofernes, but merely serving her own purpose. She also goes back and forth between ordering Judith around: to take off her clothes or speak to Holofernes. But then being told by Judith to , "Be quiet…I said to be quiet didn't I?"(Barker, p. 53 and 55)

Initially the Major Dramatic Question seems to be, "Who's the Boss?"

But this question doesn't serve us. Mainly because it isn't a proper MDQ(it can't be a straightforward "yes" or "no" answer). I just saw an opportunity to post a picture of Tony Danza, and I took it.

No, the Major Dramatic Question became more clear to me on the second read. I noticed a quotation that didn't strike me the first time around. After Judith undresses she becomes panicked, but why? She's not shy, she's not worried about being physical with Holofernes(it's the pretense of why she came here after all). Judith contemplates her reservations, "As if I were not the object of his gaze, but simply the object of my own…As if I were before the mirror…"(Barker, p. 52) This indicates that she sees something in Holofernes that she has begun to discover in herself. The Major Dramatic Question may then be put forth as "Is Judith a killer?". It isn't "Will she kill Holofernes?" because he is killed a good deal earlier than the end of the play. But she sits with this question, of whether or not she could take additional life. In fact, the servant leaves her in that room to continue her inner monologue and Judith seems to increasingly embody the spirit of Holofernes. She may in fact, be a killer.

'Night, Mother-What's your question?

When considering the Major Dramatic Question for a play like 'Night, Mother, a few things may occur to you. First of all, while this play is clearly centered around the impending suicide of the character of Jessie, that doesn't necessarily mean that the question will be,"Will Jessie commit suicide?" At no point in this play does Jessie falter in her decision. She has a very clear goal and sticks to a tight schedule. There are also very few examples, besides her mother's feeble attempts at slowing her progress, of her being shaken from her path. In this case, one might consider a better Major Dramatic Question to be,"Will Jessie's mother talk her out of committing suicide?" or "Will Jessie's mother stop her from committing suicide?" However, in this case too it is important to note that every crisis that is reached throughout the play(including Mama's failed attempts to call someone to come help her) only shows Mama desperately trying to give Jessie a reason to live, but slowly realizing that she has none. This doesn't stop her from trying to save her daughter, but it does start to unravel what she thought was her pleasant life living with her slightly odd daughter.

The most poignant moment in the play for me was when Jessie explains her choice to her mother in the "bus" metaphor:

"Mama, I know you used to ride the bus. Riding the bus and it's hot and bumpy and crowded and too noisy and more than anything in the world you want to get off and the only reason in the world you don't get off  is it's still fifty blocks from where you're going? Well I can get off right now if I want to, because even if I ride fifty more years and get off then, it's the same place when I step down to it. Whenever I feel like it, I can get off. As soon as I've had enough, it's my stop. I've had enough."

Therefore, the Major Dramatic Question could be "Will Jessie's mother make peace with her decision?" This is something she grapples with throughout the text of the play. Only at the very end, after she has yelled to Jessie that she won't honor any of her wishes and after the shot is fired, Mama finally picks up the phone to call Dawson to start getting everything on Jessie's list done.

This post was extremely depressing. Sooo…here's a picture of a cat who just can't handle it!

"Trifles" by Susan Glaspell

           After reading the play Trifles I couldn't help but compare it to Overtones. Although the subject matter seems completely different (a murder in a small town vs. a tea party between two old acquaintances) they both focus on the inner workings of a woman's mind. The characters of Mrs. and Mr. Wright are used as plot points to display the main differences between men and women. On several occasions during the play the characters make considerable effort to defend their sex and justify their roles. For example, when the county attorney sees that the towels are dirty in the kitchen, he asserts,"[Mrs. Wright]…not much of a housekeeper..." to which Mrs. Hale fires back,"There's a great deal of work to be done on a farm…Men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be." This indicates an attempt by Mrs. Hale to shift the power from men to women. It's her not so subtle way of letting him know that the men are causing the problems that the women then have to fix.

Oh Haaale NO!            

           Mrs. Hale is the character fighting to be heard, while Mrs. Peters is more reserved. What strikes me as interesting about these characters is they are never given first names. One reason for this could be that it's an illustration of these women "belonging" to the men they are married to. In that case, it reinforces the feeling Mrs. Wright had about being trapped as merely an extension of this man with no way of making a happy, "cheerful" life for herself. A different reason could be that these two women are the two sides of Mrs. Wright. You may think of Mrs. Peters as the side that was on the surface, very agreeable, stands behind her husband and doesn't make trouble. On the other hand Mrs. Hale is what is bubbling below the surface. The side that takes exception at being condescended to and desperately craves equality and respect.

         "quilt it or knot it"

They keep bringing it up almost as a little joke, so it must mean something. What is the significance? When looking into knitting you find that to "quilt" takes a lot of effort but makes the quilt incredibly durable. One piece should be completed by multiple people at once, while "knotting" is a much quicker method that can be done on your own. The obvious correlation of the "knot" would be that Mr. Wright was killed by a knot around the neck. But if you look deeper, you see that if she were going to "knot it" as the ladies implied she would, it again speaks to her intense isolation from the world. Finishing the quilt by herself, because she has no circle of friends to help her.

"Overtones" by Alice Gerstenberg

         The first play we get to talk about is called Overtones. It was a very easy read, taking maybe 45 minutes to get through the whole thing. On top of that, the entire time you're reading it you can't help but be completely fascinated by these 2 characters, er 4 characters…For me, it brings me back to every conversation I've ever had with someone that I don't like, don't trust, but for whatever reason it was important for me to "play nice". 

         The focus of this play is the idea that women make effort to maintain a facade when dealing with others. In this case the facades are physically manifested as the "primitive selves", Hetty and Maggie, the rough counterparts of the "cultured selves", Harriet and Margaret. It doesn't even matter whether or not they care about or even like each other, but the fact of the matter is that they need to be perceived a certain way. They'd like to be thought of as happy, successful, brilliant, etc. These two women are threatened by each other. This is why their counterparts, Hetty and Maggie, are so prominent in the scene as it unfolds. These "primitive selves" are activated when primal instincts, like fear and anger, become front and center. They believe that the lies they tell are vital to their very survival. For example when Hetty and Harriet discuss that neither one loves their husband Charles, Harriet offers,"…a man who is managed only by the cleverness of my artifice." This tells you that it's not just other women, but her own husband, that she deceives in order to preserve her status. This stems from her fear of being poor and alone. In Margaret/Maggie's case her deception stems from the same fear although hers is more of a present danger. In one instance starving Maggie pleads with Hetty,"Help us! Help me! Save me!" while at the same time hating Harriet/Hetty for "sneering at [their] poverty". It's as though something as modern and tedious as social discord can cause these women to respond as though they are being physically threatened, and their counterparts instruct them to "attack" and "defend" themselves as they see fit. Though the so-called attack is cleverly hidden by each character's overtones.

Thought for the day: