Playscript Analysis

(c)

(d)
Figure 3-3. Continued

ARlENE:	Have you seen Joey?

MOTHER:	Your daddy ain't doin' too good right now. Man's been dying for ten years, to hear him tell it.You'd think he'd git tired afit and jus go ahead. . . pass on.

ARLENE:	Mother. . .

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 (e)

(f)
Figure 3-3. Continued

MOTIIER:	Yeah, I seen 'im. Bout two years ago. Got your stringy hair. 

ARLENE:	You got a picture?

MOTHER :	You was right to give him up. Foster homes is good for some kids. 

ARLENE:	How'd you see him?

MOTHER:	I was down at Detention Center pickin up Pete. 

ARLENE:	How is he?

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Playscript Analysis

MOTHER:	I could be workin at the Detention Center I been there so much. All I gatta do's have somethin big goin on and I git a call to come after one of you. Can't jus have kids, no, gotta be pickin em up all over town.

ARLENE:	You was just tellin me . 

MOTHER:	Pete is taller, that's all

ARLENE:	You was just tellin me how you saw Joey.

MOTHER:	I'm comin back in the cab an I seen him waitin for the bus.

ARLENE: 	What'd he say?

MOTHER:	Oh, I didn't stop. If the kid don't even know you, Arlie, he sure ain't gonna know who I am.

ARLENE:	How come he couldn't stay at Shirley's?

MOTHER:	Cause Shirley never was crazy about washin more diapers. She's the only smart kid I got. Anyway, social worker only put him there til she could find him a foster home.

Mother is mother; Arlene is daughter. What about the rest of the gang?

1.	June (Arlene's sister?), pregnant. Joey? 
2.	Ray, father of June's baby; locked up now. Joey?
3.	Arlene's daddy, ain't doin' too good right now. Joey? stringy hair; You was right to give him up. Foster homes is good for some kids. 
4.	Pete (Arlene's brother?) at the Detention Center. Pete is taller. Joey? waitin for the bus. don't know you. 
5.	Shirley (Arlene's sister?) could not keep Joey cause Shirley never was crazy about wushin more diapers. She's the only smart kid I got. 

This exchange comes close to being a parody of a normal mother and daughter exchanging family news and gossip after a long separation. It is a terrible exchange; it is also more than a little funny.
	b. What are their roles in life? Include jobs and professions as well as social and economic status.
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The Shadow Box, by Michael Cristofer:
Exchanges (act I) from the characters who have been assigned to Cottage One: Joe, Maggie, and Steve.

JOE:	My family is coming today.

VOICE OF THE INTERVIEWER:
Yes. We know.

JOE:	It's been a long time. Almost six months. They would have come sooner, but we couldn't afford it. Not after all these goddamn bills.
*
JOE: 	Maggie always wanted a place in the mountains.
*
STEVE: 	So many goddamn trees . . . Bunk beds and a fireplace. We got any wood?
*
STEVE: 	I'll show you the guitar. It was pretty cheap.
*
MAGGIE:	How do I look? It's a new dress.

JOE:	You look real pretty.

MAGGIE:	I got dressed for the plane. I don't know. I should have worn pants. You get so tired, sitting, all pushed together like that.
*
MAGGIE: 	. . . Oh, yeah. I made a ham . . .

JOE:	What?

MAGGIE:	A ham. We can have it for lunch.

JOE: 	Christ!

MAGGIE:	What's the matter? It's no good?

JOE:	You mean you carried a ham three thousand miles across the country?

MAGGIE:	No. I put it under the seat.
*
STEVE:	We never did get our farm. We should do that. We should get that farm.

JOE: 	Well, maybe we should have.

MAGGIE:	Don't start on the farm, for God's sake. It always ends up bad when you start on the farm.
*

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Playscript Analysis

JOE: 	Fifty weeks a year in a flat-wire shop. Twenty-four years.
*
MAGGIE:	We had the saloon in between. And the oil truck. 
JOE:	A bartender and a truck driver in between. 

Maggie is not used to airplanes. She was uncomfortable traveling in a narrow seat wearing a new dress. She brought a home-cooked ham three thousand miles across the country; she put it under the seat. Steve is eager to show his father his guitar, which was pretty cheap. Joe worked in the same shop for twenty-four years. This is a working-class family who has had hopes and dreams. One of those dreams was for a place in the mountains; the other was for a farm. It is ironic that the place to which Joe has come to die is in the mountains. Steve points out that the place has so many goddamn trees and a fireplace.

c. What do they think of themselves? 
d. What do they think of each other?

Romeo and Juliet (act I, scene 4):

ROMEO:	Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling; 
Being but heavy, I will bear the light.

MERCUTIO:	Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.

ROMEO:	Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes 
With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead 
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.

MERCUTIO:	You are a lover. Borrow Cupid's wings
And soar with them above a common bound.

ROMEO:	I am too sore enpierced with his shaft
To soar with his light feathers, and so bound I call1lot bound 
a pitch above dull woe. 
Under love's heavy burden do I sink.

There are clues in this passage that prompt a designer to see the difference between Romeo's and Mercutio's appearance as they go to the Capulet party: each one comments on how he sees himself and on how he sees the other. Mercutio wants Romeo to put on an outward show; Mercutio appears to have

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adopted an outward show. Mercutio is dressed for ambling and wears, at least metaphorically speaking, dancing shoes and nimble soles. Romeo is heavy and has a soul of lead. He definitely does not want to take Mercutio's advice to wear light feathers or to Borrow Cupid's wings. It is difficult to believe that Romeo is thoughtless in his dress, however, because he wants to be sure others will see his dull woe. Here are two rich kids: one ostentatiously showing off his lovesick state; the other merely showing off.

e. Under what form of government do they live? What are their attitudes about the form of government under which they live? 

Macbeth (act 2, scene 3):

MACDUFF:	Confusion now hath made his masterpiece 
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope 
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 
The life 0' th' building

MACBETH:	What is 't you say? The life? 

LENNOX:	Mean you his Majesty?

MACDUFF:	Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon: do not bid me speak; 
See, and then speak yourselves. Awake, awake! 
Ring the alarum belL Murder and Treason! 
Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! Awake! 
Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, 
And look on death itselfl Up, up, and see 
The great doom's image!

The murder of King Duncan is no ordinary murder. It is sacrilegious, against divine law as well as human law. The Lord's anointed temple, the divinely inspired seat of rule, has been murdered, not merely the man. A murder of this sort threatens the whole country, The life 0' th' building, and is as terrible an event as the end of the world, The great doom. When Macbeth kills Duncan he is committing Murder, Treason, and sacrilege. Macbeth's act does not take on its proper significance if we do not focus on the place of the monarchy in the world of this play

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Playscript Analysis

The struggle for power is being played out on the highest possible spiritual plane within the human imagination. Macbeth puts his own soul, as well as the soul of his country in the gravest possible danger when he kills a king.

f. What role does religion ploy in their lives? Which religion? What are their attitudes about their religion?

HemyV (from act 2,scene 2):

KING:	Arrest them to the answer of the law 
And God acquit them of their practices!
*

SCROOP:	Our purposes God justly hath discovered, And I repent my fault more than my death–

CAMBRIDGE:	But God be thanked for prevention,
Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice, 
Beseeching God, and you, to pardon me.
*
GREY:	Never did faithful subject more rejoice
At the discovery of most dangerous treason
Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself. 
Prevented from a damned enterprise.
My fault, but not my body, pardon, Sovereign.
*
KING:	Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof
Shall be to you as us, like glorious.
We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,
Since God so graciously hath brought to light 
This dangerous treason, lurking in our way 
To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now 
But every rub is smoothed on our way. 
Then, forth, dear countrymen. Let us deliver 
Our puissance into the hand of God, 
Putting it straight in expedition.
Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance: 
No king of England, if not King of France.

It is easy to imagine that the Christian God is present and active in this scene. Henry and the traitors all acknowledge God's direct influence on the events at

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hand. According to Henry, God brought to light / This dangerous treason. Scroop gives God credit for having discovered the plot, and Cambridge thanks God for prevention of the plot's success. Grey admits that the enterprise was damned from the outset. Henry reads the discovery of This dangerous treason as a sign from God that the enterprise they are undertaking [seizing the French crown!] will be fair and lucky. As in all dealings with God, however, faith is paramount, and they must deliver / Our puissance into the hand of God. Even though their path is smoothed, every obstacle removed, and they will set off Cheerly to sea, there is still a bargain pending: Henry will only know he is England's true king when, submitting his forces to the hand of God, he achieves King of France.

g. What are the prevailing attitudes toward sex, family, marriage, and ethical 	conduct' Do they live within or rebel against these attitudes?

Long Day's Journey into Night, by Eugene O'Neill:
Outwardly, the behavior of all four members of this complex family is consistent with the prevailing attitudes of their decade. The play takes place in 1912. Within each character, however, there is enormous tension between the ideal and the actual, and between the many levels or layers of behavior. While analyzing this play, it is interesting to consider the ways in which memories are altered by subsequent events and how skillfully the playwright uses this all-too-human mental strategy to create these multidimensional characters.
When we are reading Long Day's Journey into Night, it is hard to know whom to believe. One of the great traps inherent in drawing images from this play is becoming sidetracked by trying to figure out who is telling the truth. Try, instead, to collect facts in as objective a way as possible, paying no attention to the contradictions that appear in almost every exchange. Categorize the conflicting statements into parallel realities. Include pertinent evidence given by all characters. In discovering Mary's parallel realities, consider the following:

1. Mary at the convent school
2. Mary's relationships with her mother and father 
3. Mary's meeting with, and marriage to, James Tyrone 
4. The life of an actor's wife
5. Motherhood

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Playscript Analysis
		 
6. Drug addiction
7. The present day and night

The following sections of dialogue contain some of the many facts that illuminate Mary as a wife, a mother, and a religious person,

MARY	[to the maid, Cathleen]: I fell in love right then. So did he, he told me afterwards. I forgot all about becoming a nun or a concert pianist. All I wanted was to be his wife. Thirty-six years ago, but I can see it as clearly as if it were tonight! We've loved each other ever since. And in all those thirty-six years, there has never been a breath of scandal about him. I mean, with any other woman. Never since he met me. That has made me very happy. Cathleen. It has made me forgive so many other things.

MARY:	But I must confess, James, although I couldn't help loving you, I would never have married you ifI'd known you drank so much, I remember the first night your barroom friends had to help you up to the door of our hotel room, and knocked and then ran away before I came to the door. We were still on our honeymoon, do you remember?

TYRONE:	I don't remember! It wasn't on our honeymoon! And I never in my life had to be helped to bed, or missed a performance!

MARY:	She [Mary's mother] didn't approve of my marrying-especially an actor, I think she hoped I would become a nun. She used to scold my father, She'd grumble, "You never tell me, never mind what it costs, when I buy anything! You've spoiled that girl so, I pity her husband if she ever marries. She'll expect him to give her the moon. She'll never make a good wife." Poor Mother.

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	But she was mistaken, wasn't she, James? I haven't been such a bad wife, have I? 
TIRONE:	I'm not complaining, Mary.

MARY:	At least, I've loved you dearly, and done the best I could-under the circumstances.
*
MARY 
[to herself]:	I hope, sometime, without meaning it, I will take an overdose. I never could do it deliberately. The Blessed Virgin would never forgive me, then.
*
TYRONE 
[to Edmund]:	And the idea she might have become a nun. That's the worst. Your mother was one of the most beautiful girls you could ever see. She knew it, too. She was a bit of a rogue and a coquette, God bless her, behind all her shyness and blushes. She was never made to renounce the world. She was bursting with health and high spirits and the love of loving.
*

EDMUND 
[to Tyrone]:	You've dragged her around on the road, season after season, on one-night stands, with no one she could talk to, waiting night after night in dirty hotel rooms for you to come with a bun on after the bars closed! Christ, is it any wonder she didn't want to be cured. Jesus, when I think of it I hate your guts!
*
MARY
[from final speech]:
	. . . I told her I wanted to be a nun. I explained how sure I was of my vocation, that I had prayed to the Blessed Virgin to make me sure, and to find me worthy. I told Mother I had a true vision . . . that the Blessed Virgin had smiled and blessed me with her consent. But Mother Elizabeth told me I must be more sure than that, even, that I must prove it wasn't simply my imagination. She said, if I was so sure, then I wouldn't mind putting myself to a test by going home after I graduated, and living as other girls

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Playscript Analysis
	Lived. Going out to parties and dances and enjoying myself; . . . I was shocked . . . I knew it was simply a waste of time, After I left her, I felt all mixed up, so I went to the shrine and prayed to the Blessed Virgin and found my peace again because she heard my prayer and would always love me so long as I never lost my faith in her. That was in the winter of my senior year. Then in the spring something happened to me. Yes, I remember. I fell in love with James Tyrone and was so happy for a time.

IV. WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE PLAY BEGAN?

In chapter 2, beginning on page 1 8, I addressed several of the strategies playwrights use to insert information about past events into present action. Becoming aware of these strategies will help you know how and where to look for what happened before the play began.
Sometimes, the revelation of a past event or events may also add a bit of suspense to the present action. What happened? When? Where? Why? Wait, tell me more! For reasons I cannot explain, visualizing certain past events in the lives of dramatic characters often allows me to see them in sudden, sharp detail.
In Marsha Norman's Getting Out, Arlene has just been released from prison and returned to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The event, or events, that precipitated a change in her former behavior and led to her parole are revealed throughout the play in a confusion of seemingly random details; they only become coherent when the pieces are fully assembled in the final scenes. Here are a few of the dialogue facts that lead up to the revelation Arlene is finally able to make.

WARDEN'S VOICE:	. . . Subject now considered completely rehabilitated.
*
BENNIE :	You ain't as strong as you was.

ARlENE:	I ain't as mean as I was.
*
BENNIE :	listen, ever prison in Alabama's usin' plastic forks now on account of what you done.
*

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Figure 3-4. The story of what has happened to these women is pieced together throughout the action in Steve Gooch's Female Transport. From the production at Actors Theatre of Louisville with Adale O'Brien, Patricia Pearcy, Mary Ed Porter, and Susan Kingsley. Photograph courtesy of
Actors Theatre of Louisville.

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PlayscriptAnalysis

ARLENE:	(Pulls a cheaply framed picture of Jesus out of the trank.) Chaplain give me this.
BENNIE:	He got it. for free, I bet.
ARLENE:	Now, look here. That chaplain was good to me, so you can shut up about-him.
BENNIE:	Fine. Fine.
*
MOTHER:	So, you're callin' yourself Arlene, now?
ARLENE:	Yes.
MOTHER:	Don't want your girlie name no more? 
ARLENE:	Somethin like that.
MOTHER:	They call you Arlene in prison?
ARLENE:	Not at first when I was being hateful. Just my number then.
MOTHER:	You always been hateful.
ARLENE:	There was this chaplain, he called me Arlene from the first day he come to talk to me.
*
ARLENE:	I ain't Arlie.
BENNIE:	No, I guess you ain't.
ARLENE:	Arlie coulda killed you.
*
RUBY:	You don't seem like Candy said.
ARLENE:	She tell you I was a killer?
RUBY:	More like the meanest bitch that ever walked. I seen lots worse than you.
ARLENE:	I been lots worse.

V. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF EACH CHARACTER IN THE PLAY?

Always remember that a play is a skillfully wrought structure constructed by a playwright. The job of the structure is to communicate a specific story in order to affect an audience in as many predictable ways as possible (given that audiences are a notoriously unpredictable lot!). Playwrights consciously create characters to carry out the actions of the play and to communicate its meaning. Dramatic characters have well-defined jobs to do. An important part of

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