Casey Farkasovsky
Trifles Naked Lunch Essay
Cross Cultural Drama
15 September 2015
There are many significant symbols in the play, Trifles by Susan Gaspell and the play Naked Lunch by Michael Hollinger. The steak dinner in Naked Lunch is similar to the bird and the birdcage is in Trifles. They are both symbolically similar and the themes of the plays are also pretty much the same.
The steak dinner in Naked lunch represents how the antagonist, Vernon used to treat the protagonist, Lucy in their relationship and the manipulation and control he used to have over her. In the beginning of the play, Vernon invites Lucy to have a "steak dinner" with him. Lucy tells Vernon that she has been a vegetarian ever since they broke up. Lucy really
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Vernon notices that Lucy is only eating her corn and not her steak. This becomes an issue once Lucy slowly explains. Vernon is shocked at this because he feels since he made Lucy the dinner that he should be rewarded intimately later.
Vernon finally figures out that she won't eat the steak because of how he used to bully and control her. Vernon then starts to get mad due to the fact that he doesn't think he did anything wrong and that is a big problem today with manipulative relationships around the world. After Vernon gets mad he physically tries to make Lucy eat the steak which is the main theme of the control he used to have over her in and out of the bedroom. Lucy eats the steak in hopes that it won't infuriate Vernon further. The dinner has now become awkward for Lucy.
The bird and the birdcage in trifles represents how Minnie Foster, now Mrs. Wright used to be before her marriage to John Wright. In this play, the bird and the bird cage represent two different things but they are still connected at the end. She knew all along that she killed him for a reason and denied it "Someone slipped a rope around his neck and strangled him and you didn't wake up?" (Glaspell,
Unfortunately, the night turned out to be a disastrous and uncomfortable evening. Neither Ethan nor Mattie spoke a word regarding their love for one another. Additionally, during their dinner, the pet cat leaps on the table and sends a pickle dish straight to the floor, crashing into pieces. To make matters worse, the pickle dish is a favored wedding gift that is cherished by Zeena. Later, Zeena discovers it is broken and it sends her anger over the edge.
The farmhouse in Trifles was accessed by several individuals between the time of the murder and law enforcement arriving. The sheriff even sent Frank over that morning to start a fire for warmth, instructing him “not to touch anything except the stove – and you know Frank.” The men in the play are only interested in observing the areas where John would have been within the home, deeming the kitchen as unimportant. If they had only taken a few moments to consider the mindset and life of Mrs. Wright they would have discovered all the information they sought. Minnie’s obligation once married was to provide John with children, the fact they were childless helps to show her “failure” in this role in the men’s eyes, yet the women see the detached relationship she shared with John and the profound silence of a home without little ones. Mrs. Hale discovers an unfinished quilt with some very erratic stitching where Mrs. Wright has left off and begins to remove the stitches, as if trying to undo what has already happened. When the quilting method of Mrs. Wright is discovered the women link her method with the knot used around John’s neck. Without ever seeing
“Naked Lunch” is a play written by Michael Hollinger in 2003. This play is one of the groups of written sixteen plays by several playwrights for Trepidation Nation: A Phobic Anthology, that was produced at the Humana Festival by the Actor Theatre of Louisville in 2002 to 2003. This is a one-act play that is around ten-minute long. It consists of only two actors: one man and one woman with a setting on a small dining area.
The dinner occurs partly because Geoffrey is in New York on business, and also because it provides a way for Flan and Louisa to convince Geoffrey to lend them two million dollars for an art auction. Throughout his visit, Louisa talks about the flan: “It’s like when people say ‘Don’t think about elephants’ and all you can think about is elephants elephants elephants” (15). This idea, that Lousia can only think about the two million dollars shows her putting on a false front. She treats Geoffrey as a guest, not revealing her true intentions. In the same way, she mentions the difference between the image of helping people and actually helping them. during the visit, Lousia acknowledges that when people try to help, such as in South Africa where Geoffrey lives, they do it more for themselves than for the people they are “helping.” She criticizes herself and the East Side by saying that if they visited Geoffrey, they would demand to see the “poorest of the poor” and say “‘are you sure they’re the worst off? I mean, we’ve come all this way. We don’t want to see people just mildly victimized by apartheid. We demand shock’” (14). She recognizes that for many people helping the less fortunate has a self-centered aspect to it. In trying to raise their own consciousness and feel good about themselves, volunteers end up victimizing
The plays, Trifles and A Dollhouse use the literary tool of symbolism to portray the way women were treated throughout the nineteenth century. Susan Glaspell uses the bird cage and the dead bird to signify the role and life of women in marriage and society, whereas Henrik Ibsen uses the dollhouse. These symbols allow the reader to recognize the plays main similarities in the treatment of women, such as men dismissing women as trivial and treating them like property; however, the plays portray the women’s lifestyles as different which seal their fates. To begin, in both plays the men dismiss the women as trivial. In Trifles, when Mrs. Wright is being held in jail for the alleged murder of her husband, she worries about the cold weather and whether it will cause her fruit to freeze which will burst the jars.
When they first enter the house they all “bundled up and go at once to the stove”, this concept is repeated throughout their time in the house and represents that the men want the cold hard facts and nothing else. The stove is located only in the kitchen where the women are and the women are the ones who solve the crime. Other major symbols include the sewing box, half completed chores, and the bird and broken bird cage. Mrs. Wright was “kind of like a bird herself” meaning that she was the bird and Mr. Wright was the broken bird cage. The bird cage was broken because the bird wanted to be freed from it, literally it being her husband. The broken bird cage also represents that now Mr. Wright is broken, meaning that he is dead and not able to trap the bird or Mrs. Wright anymore.
Wright. The bird had been Mrs. Wright’s last resort of happiness; it represents who she used to be. This bird was very precious to Mrs. Wright, that becomes obvious when the author says this,“ Mrs. Peters drew nearer—then turned away. “There’s something wrapped up in this piece of silk,” Silk was not an easy thing to come by. Considering that the women come to believe Mr. Wright strangled Minnie’s bird, they make the inference that he did not treat her properly and she would not have been able to get expensive things like silk often. If Minnie wrapped her bird in silk, then it obviously means a lot to her. The women finally understand what happened to Minnie’s bird when they take a closer look at it, “But, Mrs. Peters!” cried Mrs. Hale. “Look at it! Its neck—look at its neck! It’s all—other side to. ”She held the box away from her. The sheriff’s wife again bent closer. “Somebody wrung its neck,” said she, in a voice that was slow and deep.” The women know that Minnie liked this bird a lot and there was no way she would have killed the bird. They come to realize that it was not her that killed the bird, it was Mr. Wright, and the bird was not the only thing that he would have been rough with. “When I was a girl,” said Mrs. Peters, under her breath “my kitten—there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes—before I could get there—” She covered her face an instant. “If they had not held me back
him he was tired. She then asked him if he wanted supper but he said
Wright and Charlotte to murder is because of their background. Each of these women are put in different circumstances that lead to the murders. Charlotte in The Yellow Wallpaper has the company of her husband John, who is a doctor, to look after her. John has a special treatment for his wife, which consists of solitude. John believes that Charlotte must get rest and then the depression will go away. However, due to this treatment the symptoms become worse and she goes insane over a period of time. “Both in groups and individuals, the evolution of evil starts with the frustration of basic human needs and the development of destructive modes of need fulfillment.” (Staub 1). She comes to resent her husband because he does not let her go outside. When the severity of post-partum depression increases, Charlotte begins to tear at the yellow wallpaper, claiming there is a person inside. Charlotte decides to lock the door, John then decides to bust the door open with an axe. As soon as he see all the blood, he passes out and Charlotte takes the axe. Finally, Charlotte takes the final blow to her husband. Mrs. Wright in Trifles on the other hand, uses a more subtle approach to murder her husband. Mrs. Wright makes the decision to kill Mr. Wright in his sleep because he kills her darling bird. “Why look at this door. It’s broke. One hinge is pulled apart.” (Glaspell 6). In Trifles, the metal cage is bent, and only the husband is strong
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, seems to describe the ultimate women’s suffrage story. No longer will men have an upper hand against women after reading this story. Cleverness will be the key to retaining power from the men in this story. The one thing that woman are criticized for, the idea that women tend to look at the ‘little picture’ instead of the ‘whole picture’, will be there path to victory. Two stories of revenge are told in this story, the revenge of suppression and revenge of being portrayed as ‘unsophisticated, unintelligent’ women. First we have the story of Mrs. Wright and the struggles with her husband, John. Married women throughout history have been portrayed and played the role as being inferior to the husband in marriage. This seems to be the case with Mrs. Wright. Even though John’s public image was somewhat respectable, it was obvious that behind close doors the story was different. There is evidence of abuse in this marriage. First, the discovery of the broken door leads me to conclude that John was very physical and anguished. Second, it is assumed that Mrs. Wrights husband had broke her canary’s neck. The canary, which of course had to be caged, was represented as the old Minnie Foster herself. The canary is a beautiful, free spirited bird that had a sweet voice, as Minnie had at one time. This was the end of the line and ‘Minnie Foster’ was about to be reborn. She would stand up for all those abused and suppressed house wives across the world and makes the first ‘final’ decision she had ever been allowed to make. The bird’s cage was her jail. The bird’s death was her freedom for the fate of the bird was the fate of her husband. John was discovered with a rope tied around his neck, the freedom of a women who could no longer be held down. This was the first implementation of women’s power in the story. The women at Mrs. Wright’s home played an important role in the story as well. The ‘professional’ detectives were busy about the house finding clues to indict Mrs. Wright in the murder case. They ridiculed the women in the house by ‘putting them in their place’ as typical ladies, so worried about small things and useless ordeals. Mrs. Hale noted the stitches in the quilt to be erratically stitched as if something were wrong.
This symbol is where the desolation that Mrs.Wright felt. The dead canary is the representation of the companionship and how weak Mrs. Wright acted on the scene when Mr. Peters showed up. According to Elke Brown, Mrs. Wright thought that “Wright was a harsh man, who like to have his quiet and disapproved of conversation and singing” causing him to break the bird 's nest. Not only that but he killed his owns wife spirit, turning a happy, Minnie Foster into a lonely, desperate Minnie Wright. It is a reality that Mrs. Wright was pushed away to be in isolation. The second symbol in the play was Mrs. Wright 's quilting. Mrs. Hale realized that the quilt was uneven, and that stitches started well and then ended all wrong. It was “the first clue about Minnie 's real state of mind lies in the fact that parts of the quilt have been sewn together haphazardly, which showed Minnie’s state of mind”, according to Mr. Brown. Her incompleteness leads to quilting. This technique of self is to distress, and that was the way Minnie felt. At the beginning of time, Minnie and her husband had everything flowing until it went down the drain and felt abandoned by Mr. Wright. When this happen, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters felt the same way as Minnie. They talk about how it was not bad at all for Minnie to act like she did and left everything with no anger as the sheriff would have thought. Minnie 's friends also realize that her fruit province broke
The birdcage represents how Mrs. Wright was trapped in her marriage, and could not escape it. The birdcage door is broken which represents her broken marriage to Mr. Wright. It also represents Mrs. Wright escaping her marriage from Mr. Wright. When the door is open it allows Mrs. Wright to became a free woman. At one point in time the cage door use to have a lock that locked the bird inside the cage. This represents how Mr. Wright kept Mrs. Wright locked up from society. Mr. Wright knew that by keeping Mrs. Wright locked up, she would never be able to tell anyone how he really acted. Mr. Wright was very cruel to his wife.
John Steinbeck wrote “The Chrysanthemums” where the protagonist, Elisa maintains her flower garden with a flower called Chrysanthemums. In a daily routine, Elisa’s husband Henry is a typical farmer who was busy with his orchard and steers, while Elisa, a housewife tends to her garden as the chrysanthemums were shown as Elisa’s children. Written by Susan Glaspell, “Trifle” was a play about Mrs. Wright who was put through an investigation where she was the main suspect in the case of her husband‘s death. In the play “Trifles”, the canary symbolizes a child for Mrs. Wright who’s also a house wife and she took care of that bird like it was her child. The bird (canary) in “Trifles” is symbolically similar to the flowers in the Steinbeck story “The Chrysanthemums”.
Though Vivian's obsession to have Raymond dance for her is clear in this script, the writer does not clarify what her involvement means for Raymond's character. As the reader/audience does not learn what her character does for a living or learn who she might have connections to, the uneasiness Raymond seems to suffer after working for her and the sudden billboard of him leaves the intended direction for the series unclear. Likewise, though dejected, or perhaps on a sudden splurge of food due to a lack of eating, the writer's message for Raymond's eating binge around page 28 was a bit confusing. The manner in which Raymond was scuffling down food seemed forced and unpleasant as if his character were fighting against himself and an unstoppable impulse to eat
MacGregor was done eating, feeling ravenously hungry, he began to search Johnny’s house for any savory and wholesome food to devour. Johnny displays a sense of caution. A snake was found, but Johnny begins to respond as I do not want to eat that the snake and I are like friends, yet he did not want Mr. MacGregor to realize that he is a simple narrow minded or self centered boy and fail to see and detect the