Open Prompt

1975 Also. Unlike the novelist, the writer of a play does not use his own voice and only rarely uses a narrator's voice to guide the audience's responses to character and action. Select a play you have read and write an essay in which you explain the techniques the playwright uses to guide his audience's responses to the central characters and the action. You might consider the effect on the audience of things like setting, the use of comparable and contrasting characters, and the characters' responses to each other. Support your argument with specific references to the play. Do not give a plot summary.

            In a play, the author is unable to narrate, instead conveying meaning in other ways.  This is true of Edward Albee’s The American Dream, in which the characters dictate action.  Through indirect characterization, literalization, and character interaction, Albee communicates meaning without using his own voice.

            The characters are developed through action onstage.  Mommy is shown as savage and childish through her treatment of Daddy and Grandma and excessive use of the indefinite article in her story of a shopping trip.  She tries to control the other characters through coercive language, and forces Daddy to have a vasectomy.  Daddy is the opposite of what a man is supposed to be.  It can be inferred from his hesitance to open the door for Mrs. Barker and his impotence that he is indecisive and unable to do “manly” things.  Grandma is the least absurd character in the play, as evidenced by her rejection of Mommy’s authority and acknowledgement of the audience at the end of the play.

            The literalization of abstract ideas allows Albee to create a visceral tone without a narrator.  Figurative language becomes manifested in the body throughout the play.  Daddy’s “Qualms” are transferred to his scars.  Grandma comments that the bodies of old people are “twisted into the shape of a complaint”.  The mutilation of the “bumble”, itself a deformed word, is described in figurative language that is turned literal.  In the universe of The American Dream, ideas take a physical form.  This creates a materialist atmosphere that shows the audience the superficiality of the American Dream, that objects have become more important than ideas.

            Relations between characters, especially Grandma’s interactions, allow Albee to express meaning.  Grandma, the only character who fights back against Mommy’s control, has a special power in the play’s dynamic.  She has the power to make characters leave at will, as shown by her extraction of Mrs. Barker from the stage.  When sexual rhythm is created between Mommy and Daddy, Grandma interjects and destroys it.  This power is even taken beyond character interaction; she can distort reality by hiding rooms and the apartment’s water.  Grandma is able to control the play in the same manner as a director, ending it at a time she feels it is appropriate.  This power dynamic shows that although the old American dream may seem to lack strength at the surface, it is actually in control under everyone’s noses.