In the play “Fences” by August Wilson, Rose tries to convey to her husband, Troy, that she had given up as much things for him as he has done for her. To express her feelings, Rose makes use of anaphora and hyperbole to accentuate her feelings for him while symbolising their love as a plant. The most obvious figurative language in the passage is how Rose uses anaphora. “I been standing with you! I been right here with you, Troy… What about my life? What about me.” Rose’s use of anaphora allows Troy to reconsider what Rose might me thinking with more validity. Her anaphora combined with the shock of her information gives each sentence an impact although the beginning is repetitive. This portrays Troy as a guy who is nearsighted and did not realize the needs of his wife. …show more content…
“I gave eighteen years of my life to stand in the same spot as you.” In this quote, Rose is saying that her life has been in the same spot so she can be with Troy. It would be nearly impossible to say that she has been standing on the same spot as Troy but what she says emphasizes that Troy has limited her capabilities as a person. Furthermore, this means that Troy is not the only person that gave up a lot of things and furthers the message that he also took a lot out of Rose. Finally, Rose symbolizes her dreams as a plant to show Troy that she really did give him everything. “I took all my feelings, my wants and needs, my dreams...and I buried them inside you. I planted a seed and watched and prayed over it... the soil was hard and rocky” Symbolism is important in understanding what Troy’s family thinks of him because Rose says he wasn’t the best for her but she didn’t care. This relates to how Troy’s family views him as someone who isn’t that perfect but they don’t care. Additionally, Rose appears to sense some sort of arrogance inside Troy because he does not see her
Throughout the life of Emily Grierson, she remains locked up, never experiencing love from anyone but her father. She lives a life of loneliness, left only to dream of the love missing from her life. The rose from the title symbolizes this absent love. It symbolizes the roses and flowers that Emily never received, the lovers that overlooked her.
Rose, Troy’s wife in the play was the obvious voice of reason between the two; all she wanted was an interrupted happy family life. The fences that she put up were not physical fences but rather emotional and psychological ones used to keep her family in
In Fences, August Wilson strives to accurately depict the social and economic situations of the time period the play is set in. He uses the plots, characters, and the characters’ relationships with each other to show the day-to-day obstacles the average African American faces in the mid 1900s; and to show the various types of relationships between people during the time, from the black/white racial relationship to the relationship between man and woman. In particular, he uses Rose and Troy as examples of the typical relationship between a man and woman of the period – more specifically, he uses them to show the relationship and power structure between men and women. This relationship and power structure – the woman playing a subservient role to the strong, alpha male type – is definitely illustrated in Fences. Rose and Troy’s relationship depicts the conventional gender roles of the late 1950s-60s by displaying an unequal relationship between man and woman – one that was usual of the time period – with Rose often forced to concede her desires and wishes for Troy in her role as a dutiful housewife. Troy, a dominating man both in an out of his home life, plays a masculine, controlling, and often – though unintentional – selfish role in their relationship.
It is indicated that Troy is living an illusion when he tells his story about his encounter with “Death.” Troy describes it as a real life event, as a wrestling match, however the fact that Death, as a character, is a mythical being shows how he’s living in a fantasy. It is made clear that Troy refuses to see the realism of the events that he describes. Rose states that Troy is speaking of a day in which he had a fever bringing reality into the story. Troy, however, ignores and continues with his fictionalized story portraying how he refuses to accept the reality of the events. Furthermore, once it is pointed out that Troy changes the details of the story he denies it and states that he’s telling the “facts.” This shows how Troy refutes, and denies, any evidence of the realism of the stories he
...laws. A tragic flaw Troy has is when cheats with a woman behind Rose's back. Another flaw would be Troy becoming both a victim and a victimizer. He is victimized by many factors such as by his race, the way his father treated him, growing up in poverty, as well as the society that surrounds him; Troy shows why he is considered as victimizer as well when controls or try to take advantage of Cory, and Rose. Wilson portrays Troy as a man worthy of respect and admiration because his intentions are well-meaning. He has overcome many trials in his life and is a father that may not be perfect but nevertheless is still there for his boys. In Wilson’s personal life he never had a fatherly experience. As a result he is sending a message to the reader that it is better to have a father there that is less than perfect than having a “rolling stone” for a father.
Troy was born to a sharecropper that was not happy with the idea that for every crop he grew he became more in debt. Troy’s father felt that he had become a failure and began to take his frustrations out on everyone he could, including Troy and his ex-wives. The only thing Troy understands in life is “ Troy learns that in the land of equal opportunity, chances for a black man are not always equal and that the same country that deprives him asked sacrifice of his brother in World War II and got it”(Wilson viii), because all his life Troy has been deprived of happiness. Troy tells his family he loves them, but his actions are completely different. When Troy has an affair and told Rose he had a baby on the way, this changed Troy’s whole personality when his family starts to pull away from him. He becomes an aggressive, bitter man. He refused to let his son join the football team because he did not want him to be like him, but because his son refused to stop playing football he took matters into his own hands. Because of Troy’s interference Cory despised him, he didn’t want anything to do with him. Troy was holding Cory back from his dreams. Then because of the baby Troy destroys his family. Rose could not stand him any
In the play's opening scenes, we get a peek into the world of Troy Maxson. He's a hardworking garbage man dedicated to providing for his family. However, we learn that Troy just may have some flaws – one of which is that he's cheating on his dedicated wife, Rose.
...e he ruined his marriage by cheating on her. Rose takes care of Troy’s newborn baby Raynell because she believes that Raynell needs a mother figure in her life and not a worthless man; she then kicks Troy out of the house. After Troy dies, Rose forgives him. Rose married Troy after he was released from prison. Troy knows that he is unsuccessful in accomplishing what he wanted for him and his family. Troy is a garbage man who feels that the white man kept him from doing a lot of things that he wanted to do in life. Troy does not have many goals in life. Troy is in own little world and does not like to be judged.
Alberta, the girl involved in Troy’s extramarital affair, gives birth to a baby girl and dies during pregnancy. Having overcome with sympathy for the innocent infant, Rose becomes a surrogate mother for Alberta’s and Troy’s baby, Raynell. Such growth in responsibilities triggers Rose’s transformation “from a passive homemaker to an enraged woman” (Shannon 4). The “homemaker” that Rose embodied symbolizes submission and suppression. Rose sacrifices her power to comfort her family and above all, Troy. Troy, due to Rose’s submission, remains stagnant in his belief that he is infallible and allowed to hold his responsibilities off for ephemeral gratifications. Rose, initially, bears the most weight because she has to intake Troy’s attitude of superiority, originated from his inability to overcome his vocational shortcomings, and transform such negative synergy into motherhood to not only Cory, but Lyons, Raynell, and Gabe. Rose is simply consumed by her obligations, and she is simply not given the luxury and time to exercise her power. Rose’s passive nature toward her marriage and family cracks, and her withheld desire to exert power over Troy erupts because she could no longer hold the burdens of both her obligations as a submissive partner and a family caretaker. Like Troy, Rose remained stagnant. However, she now is enraged and welcomes change. By becoming a surrogate mother
Rose wanted troy, her husband, to build a fence around the house, so she could keep the family in and be safe. Rose wants things to stay the same and the family to get along. For example “and you know I ain’t never wanted no half nothing in my family…. My whole family is half” (2.1). So she saying that she want her family to be a whole instead of being a half, cause that’s what she always had her whole life. Rose’s brothers and sisters all were half brothers and sisters because all, Troy wanted to be out of the fence at first,
In the beginning of the play, readers are charmed by Troy and his vivacious storytelling and genuine personality but, as the story progresses, become aware of the striking deficiencies in his character which ultimately lead to his being unfaithful to his dedicated wife, Rose. In August Wilson’s play, Fences, although she is pitted against immensely emotionally taxing circumstances, Rose’s character shows an insurmountable courage and compassion; this is evident in her dedication to her family, even in the face of Troy’s actions, her selfless care for the illegitimate daughter, and her ability to continue on regardless of these
... way to work it out” (2.1.63). He believes that he is capable of balancing his marriage and the affair. However, the situation does not go the way Troy expected: because of his mistress’s pregnancy, he has to reveal the extramarital relationship to his wife Rose: “I’m gonna be a daddy. I’m gonna be somebody’s daddy” (2.1.66). On account of obstinacy, Troy refuses to admit his fault and apologizes but asks Rose to take care of the baby, causing a marriage crisis. Rose tells him “This child got a mother. But you a womanless man” (2.3.79). By saying this, Rose takes her stand: she will take care of the baby, but not stand for what Troy does. Ignoring Bono’s advice, Troy’s stubbornness makes Rose to break with him.
Troy is the type of person that only cares about himself and will only do things that benefit him. He does not care about who hurts while doing it as long as he benefits he is satisfied. When Troy was telling Rose about getting Alberta pregnant his excuse was that he, “just might be able to steal second”(2.1.118). Troy was unsatisfied with still being on “first”. He was tired of Rose and the way his life was he just wanted something different. Troy just wanted to steal second. He did not care about how his actions may affect Rose and his family he just did what would make him happy. Troy has no sympathy for anyone in his life. He knows his actions affect everyone around him negativity but he does not care because it is beneficial to him. Being unsympathetic to the people he supposedly loves also proves why Troy is the villain of this
Rose, Troy wife, was married 18 years she took care of the household using Troy paycheck. “And other people build fences to keep people in (Act 2), she wanted Troy to build a fence to try and keep the family together. However, that did not work Troy still
This shows that the love Rose have Troy is real because what woman would stay with someone who cheated on her? To make things worst for Rose is that because of the affair, Troy resulted in having a daughter. The bond that Rose and Troy have had broken into pieces as soon as she found out that he had an affair. The last member of his family that shown up in the play is Gabriel. Gabriel Maxson have several problems because of World War I that he ended up with some personal difficulties. Because of them problems, Troy used the money to benefit himself and his family. Troy been the one to always take care of Gabriel growing up and he still is today. If Gabriel get into any kind of trouble, Troy always be the one to bail he out. What are some of the things that Troy used Gabriel for? August Wilson mentions that the house the Maxson family lives in is paid for because of the money Gabriel gets for his injury.