Fences

Fences by August Wilson is an interesting play. I thought this play had a similar theme to Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, but Wilson adds his own unique elements to the story of a man pursuing the "American Dream." What really surprised me about the main character, Troy, was how he didn't support Cory and Lyons with what they wanted to do with their lives. Troy not supporting Lyons in his music career has very little effect on him because Lyons is thirty-four and his own man. Cory on the other hand, is a senior in high school and about to make some important life decisions. Cory dreams of going to college and playing football. Instead, Troy keeps his son from playing football for the college recruiter. I understand that Troy was trying to protect Cory from the pain he experienced when he didn't make baseball into a career, but I also believe that he hurt Cory by not allowing him to make this mistake.

Krapp's Last Tape

Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape was an interesting read. I actually enjoyed reading Beckett's specific stage directions. It is rather obvious that they were important to him because there is over a page of stage directions out of this four page play. I think Beckett wanted to emphasize that our actions can speak louder than our words. There are lots of things that Krapp does in this play that tell us who he is without using words. In the beginning of the play, Krapp paces and eats a banana meditatively. This told me that Krapp spends a lot of time thinking about something, but at this point in the play I wasn't sure what he was thinking about. A moment later Krapp disappears and the audience hears a cork pop and then a few seconds later Krapp returns wiping his mouth. To me this portrayed that Krapp drank a lot and was most likely an alcoholic. At the end of the play, we don't know much about Krapp. We know that he is a miserable, old man that listens to tapes that he made when he was younger and that he believes that his best years are gone.

The Cherry Orchard

When I sat down to read Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, I expected a comedy similar to Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. I was very disappointed that I did not find the comedy that I was anticipating. Chekhov got my hopes up when he subtitled his play "A Comedy in Four Acts." Did Chekhov incorporate elements that are necessary to make up a good comedy? Yes, I believe he did. His characters all have very ironic personalities and in the end the young take control from the old, which every good comedy should have. The character Gayev was my favorite because of his ironic personality. Gayev is the uncle to Anya and Varya. I would expect him to act mature and have lots of wisdom and knowledge, but instead he acts like a teenage boy by bragging about a game of billiards and eating candy.

The end of the play is where I would say that most of the tragedy happens. I think that if this were to be a comedy, the family would have magically saved the orchard. Instead, Lopakhin wins the orchard in the auction and decides to chop all of the cherry trees down to make vacation homes. Now this might just be the country girl in me, but cutting down beautiful cherry trees to build summer vacation homes is a horrible tragedy! However, I think it is good that the family is accepting loosing the orchard and moving on with their lives. Chekhov ends his play on a sad note, which also helped contribute to the tragic feeling of the play. They leave Firs, their old butler, behind in the locked house to die. Having this be the final image of this play did not leave me in giggles like a comedy would. Rather, it left me horrified and sad.

The Importance of Being Earnest

I really enjoyed reading The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Out of all of the comedic elements that Wilde uses in this play, I loved the interactions and the relationships between the characters the most. The relationship I enjoyed the most throughout this play was the relationship between Jack and Algernon. During the entire play they act like brothers, even though they think they aren't. In the first act, Algernon questions Jack, who he thinks to be Ernest, about his intentions toward his cousin Gwendolen, his cigar case, and the inscription on it from Cecily.

During the second act, Algernon and Jack spend a lot of time fighting childishly with each other about several things. They first fight about whether or not Algernon should return to the city or not. For example, Algernon says that he cannot leave his "brother" when he is in morning. Jack replies with "Well, will you go if I change my clothes?" At the end of this act, Jack and Algernon argue about who should get to eat the muffins and about getting rechristened with the name Ernest. I found this part of the play extremely funny, because instead of going after the two girls they supposedly loved, they decide to sit, eat, and argue. In the end Jack and Algernon discover that they are actually brothers, they both are allowed to marry the women they love, and everyone is happy.