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Greek theater then and now
Analysis of fences by pat mora
Greek theater then and now
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Greek theatre introduced the world to various terms that aren’t used quite often today, including the words peripeteia, anagonorisis, and parabasis. These fancy terms are used to describe common elements that are still seen to this day in theatrical productions. This includes a reversal of fortune and/or when the protagonist has an epiphany. Both are extremely common plot elements used often if not always in the present day writings. August Wilson’s incorporates many of these terms and more in his 1985 play, Fences. Deconstructing Fences will give a better understand to how these ancient terms can still be applied to modern everyday theatre. There are seven characters in Fences, but from the first few pages of the script it is clear that Troy …show more content…
They have their ups and they have a few downs, but it isn’t until act 2 when the real moment of peripeteia arrives. This is the reveal Troy’s affair with Alberta, who the audience never actually meets, and learning that Alberta is going to have Raynell. After this moment, everything horribly changes and Troy is past the point of no return. His marriage to Rose wasn’t perfect from the start, but this drove in a permanent wedge between them, especially when Rose takes in Raynell after Alberta dies from childbirth. Raynell is a permanent reminder to Rose that Troy had an affair. Troy’s relationship with Cory also plummets to an all-time low after the reveal, and eventually leads to Cory being kicked out/leaving for good after his big confrontation with his father. Before the affair, Troy’s life was decent. He fought for a promotion at work, and he won. Rose loved him and was the “perfect little housewife.” He was even able to share a laugh or two. After this moment of peripeteia, Troy’s life is anything but pleasurable and the loved ones he used to surround himself with are …show more content…
A question the audience may ask themselves, and begin to decipher, is why was the play named Fences? There are arguable reasons behind this. The fence in the show is a symbol. Fences typically block out the things one does not want near or surrounding them and keep in the things that are wanted. The gate on the fence can be controlled, whether it opens or not. Troy is like the fence. Troy emotionally blocked the other characters out and often didn’t let them in. Troy wants to control every aspect of his life. He used the fence to discard what he did not want any involvement in. When Cory said that he would eventually be back for his things, Troy replied by saying that they would be on the other side of the fence. This is a perfect example. He no longer wanted Cory to be part of his life, so he was kicked to the other side of the fence, no longer welcome inside. This desire for control sparks fear in Troy; the fear of losing that control. The fence feels like his protection, but it participated in his downfall. The fence was even a source of tension between Cory and Troy, defeating the purpose. It is also important to note that the play was titled Fences not fence. Troy built up multiple barriers in his life whether it was with Cory, Rose or even himself. The symbolism of the title becomes more apparent when thinking about the true purpose of a fence. This symbolism is
August Wilson’s Fences was centered on the life of Troy Maxson, an African American man full of bitterness towards the world because of the cards he was dealt in life amidst the 1950’s. In the play Troy was raised by an unloving and abusive father, when he wanted to become a Major League Baseball player he was rejected because of his race. Troy even served time in prison because he was impoverished and needed money so he robbed a bank and ended up killing a man. Troy’s life was anything but easy. In the play Troy and his son Cory were told to build a fence around their home by Rose. It is common knowledge that fences are used in one of two ways: to keep things outside or to keep things inside. In the same way that fences are used to keep things inside or outside Troy used the fence he was building to keep out death, his family, and his disappointments in life while Rose used the fence to keep those she cared about inside and help them bond.
At first glimpse, Rose Maxson is your typical African American housewife at those times. She is often seen tending to the needs of her family, cooking and doing the laundry. Despite Troy’s abrasive nature, she sticks with him for the majority of the play. While she may seem like an average housewife, she is not submissive and is always calling Troy out whenever he is being inappropriate, or when he tells one of his stories and is
In the play, Fences written by August Wilson takes place in the 1940s in Pittsburg during the Civil Rights era. The main characters of the play Fences are: Troy Maxson, (Rose’s husband), Bono (Troy’s best friend), Rose (Troy’s wife), Lyons (Troy’s son from a previous marriage), Gabriel (Troy’s brother), and Cory (Troy and Rose’s son). The play opened out with Troy and Bono drinking and having their regular talks on a Friday in the yard of the Maxson’s household. As the play continues, we learn the different personalities o...
“Fences” is a play written by August Wilson about a family living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1957. Troy and Rose have been married for 18 years and have two grown children; Lyons and Corey. Troy is an uptight, prideful man who always claims that he does not fear death, the rest of his family is more laxed and more content with their lives than Troy is. As the play progresses the audience learns more about Troy’s checkered past with sharecropping, his lack of education and the time he spent in prison. The audience also learns more about Troy’s love for baseball and the dreams he lost due to racism and segregation. In the middle of the play the author outwardly confirms what the audience has been suspecting; Troy isn’t exactly satisfied with his life. He feels that he does not get to enjoy his life and that his family is nothing more than a responsibility. Getting caught up in this feelings, Troy cheats on Rose with a woman named Alberta and fathers a child with the mistress. By the end of the play Troy loses both of the women and in 1965, finally gets the meeting with death that he had been calling for throughout the play. Over the
Throughout the play, readers see an incomplete fence which symbolizes Rose (Troy’s wife) and Troy’s drifting relationship. Rose wants Troy and Cory to build a fence to keep her loved ones protected. This is evident when Rose is seen singing the church hymn, “Jesus, be a fence all around me every day. Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way” (I. ii). This insinuates the fact that Rose wants to keep her family close. Rose and Troy’s relationship seemed to be breaking down after eighteen years and the fence may have also been a way to keep Troy in Rose’s life. Yet, Troy has been in no rush to finish the fence. He sees it as some sort of confinement. Fences contain a lot of barriers that Troy tries to keep down; one barrier being his marriage. Troy claims that he has so much love for Rose, but readers see that exclusive relationships makes him feel caged in. He keeps the fence unfinished because he knows that if he finishes it than it will symbolize the end of his escape to his mistress, Alberta. Troy’s affair builds a fence that separates his marriage causing his actions to affect Rose by caging her in with a daughter that is not hers: “From right now . . . this child got a mother. But you a womanless man.” Rose tried to use a fence of divine power to keep her family protected. Troy neglected this by committing adultery, leavi...
The Play Fences Has major conflict Between Troy( Husband to Roses) and Cory( son of Troy and Rose ). Also there is Conflict between Rose( Troy wife) And Troy. The reason why there is conflict between the character because Troy prohibits Cory from playing football and going to college. An Troy think it a waste of time. Troy also does not want his son(Cory) to be anything like him.
This is the reason why Troy fights against his family and himself, because he feels like he is the only one who can protect them. To Cory and Rose, Troy is destroying the family because of his stubborn thoughts but to Troy he is saving the family from falling apart and this distrust causes the family to eventually fall apart. Troy really does try his hardest to be a good father and is bothered by the fact that Rose and Cory do not see it as him trying to protect them but more of him destroying the family. This hurts Troy because his family is his everything they are what he “fights” for he works day end and day out to put food on the table and try to give them a life he thinks the deserve. August Wilson in “fences” Troy says, “ I love this woman, so much it hurts. I love her so much… I done run out of ways to love her.”(1.1) Wilson uses to show how much Troy actually cares for his wife, to Troy Rose is his everything, she is the light in his darkness, she try’s to guide him back to a sane man. Another Way Wilson shows how much Troy loves his family is when Troy is talking to his family and says that “ You all line up at the door, with your hands out. I give you the lint from my pockets. I give you my sweat and my blood…”(1.3) Troy is saying that he will give them everything until he has absolutely nothing but the lint from his pockets. He will go out of his way to make
Troy’s belief that the system hasn’t changed, that black people will never gain opportunities in white power structures, drives him to keep Cory from even trying (Koprince 354-5). Unfortunately, all this does is exacerbate Cory’s resentment of Troy, eventually leading to a confrontation that almost becomes physical and ends with Cory leaving Troy’s house for good in a strong parallel to the way Troy left his father’s house (Wilson 26-7). When the reader finds Troy and Lyons again in the final act, the similarities between both sons’ paths and their father’s is even more pronounced. Lyons is now in jail, but still pursuing his music, the same way Troy went to jail and pursued baseball; Cory has given up his dreams and joined the military, and like Troy has become bitter about his lost chances, unwilling to go to Troy’s funeral because of the bad blood between them (28-9). Cory’s mother, Rose, even remarks upon it, stating “You Troy Maxson all over again” (29). And like Troy before him, Cory wants nothing to do with his father, denies the idea of being anything like him. The failure of success and lack of opportunities for black people trapped each generation of Maxsons in a cycle where they end up trapped just like their father before them; from Troy’s father to Troy to Cory and Lyons, each bear the strong imprints of their upbringing despite their best efforts, implying that the racism that shaped their lives is
Even though Troy does not physically abuse his children like his father did to him, he verbally abuses them. He treats Cory very callously and unjustly. In a way, Troy is taking out his frustrations of having an unsuccessful baseball career by not allowing Cory to pursue his dream to play football. Troy crushed Cory’s dream. In Act One, scene four, Cory expresses his misery. “Why you wanna do that to me? That w...
Another occasion where fences are symbolized in the play is by Rose and Troy?s relationship. One of the most major ways Troy and Rose?s relationship is symbolized is by the cakes Rose makes for the church.
Troy’s Father’s importance and impact on him become evident as soon as Troy’s childhood is known. Despite the hate Troy felt towards his father, he ended up very similar to him. Troy’s father didn’t love or even care about his children, but he did have a responsibility he owed them. . “Maybe he ain’t treat us the way he should have….but without that responsibility he could have walked off and left us.” (I iv, 51). This was the one thing Troy agreed with his father about. However, this trait of responsibility would be used in somewhat of a double standard, with over emphasizing it on Cory but not seeming to consider it on Rose. Troy changes situations to fit his
August Wilson’s play Fences brings an introspective view of the world and of Troy Maxson’s family and friends. The title Fences displays many revelations on what the meaning and significance of the impending building of the fence in the Maxson yard represents. Wilson shows how the family and friends of Troy survive in a day to day scenario through good times and bad. Wilson utilizes his main characters as the interpreters of Fences, both literally and figuratively. Racism, confinement, and protection show what Wilson was conveying when he chose the title Fences.
Lorena Estevez October 12, 2015 Acting II “Fences” by August Wilson Reading the title of this play I did not know what to expect. For some reason I thought it was going to be some sort of Tom Sawyer play, since the title was fences. It was just the first thing that popped into my head. I thought this play had a lot going on at first. It was very powerful since the beginning when the character Troy asks his boss why there aren’t any black employees driving the garbage trucks and why they are only throwing the garbage into the truck.
The entirety of the Nadel’s article sheds light on a topic that is not easy for many authors to use without creating caricatures or exaggerated images of a stereotype. At first reading, the content is a little confusing, and somewhat daunting. However, after another reading, the text is easier to grasp. Nadel’s article would have been much stronger if he took time to mention other characters than Troy. Adding more about the character of Rose in this article created a fuller and better grasp on the topic of the fence, which Nadel...
August Wilson created many themes throughout his famous play, Fences, but the most prominent one is the relationship between fathers and sons. The three father-son relationships introduced in this play seem to be complicated or difficult to understand. However, it is clear that the relationships built between Troy Maxson and his son Cory, Troy and his other son Lyons, and Troy and his own father are not love-driven. The parallelism of actions, events, and tension amongst each of the father-son relationships in the play illustrate how the sons try to break free from the constraints the father has set, yet in the end, these attempts seem to be pointless as the father leaves an everlasting effect on the sons, ultimately creating a cycle of actions