Ok so when asked to pick out some elements that counter the perception of reality in the story, I couldn’t help but think about my initial response to the characters. I kept coming back to the surrealistic nature of the play and the emotions they triggered for me personally while reading. There obviously a level of ambiguity achieved while reading this because of the nature of the actions of some of the characters. I found myself confounded by them, but also intrigued as I continued to read. After I gave myself some time to let the story percolate I realized that I was trying to ground the characters in reality, but the very concept of the play was to mix the elements that are familiar with actions and responses from the characters that are not. I couldn’t help but think about Fuchs, and how she talked about imagining the world of the play. When thinking of the play in this regard I felt it added another layer of intricate detail to this play that I’d yet to conceive. I say this because, it seems as if in order to understand or view the world of this play that you have to imagine it only exists within the boundaries of the characters’ house, and that the world as we know it, doesn’t exist within the bizarre realm that they’ve created for themselves. I think that the environment itself is a major element of the story that counters the more overall illusionistic setting of the play, because once we see what goes on in this house we're introduced to very unfamiliar behavior, and personalities that go against the somewhat mundane setting in which we understand or relate to. Even the character Shelly is under the initial assumption that she'll feel at home as they approach the house. She quickly has this idea yanked out from under her so to speak, when the Norman Rockwell type concept of “The Great American Life” is replaced with the complete opposite concept when Shepard reveals his characters in their most intimate, and personal state of being. It’s at this point that the idea of reality comes into question and the portrait becomes that of a dangerously dysfunctional family, to put it lightly. Shepard doesn’t hold back in his portrayal of the surreal mixed with the real, it’s as if we’re put in the house through the character of Shelly as the voice of normality straining to stay sane within the realm of the abnormal. In my opinion this contradiction of elements helps to create an unnerving feeling or tension that continues to mount throughout the play and defines the story as a whole.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Buried Child
Ok so when asked to pick out some elements that counter the perception of reality in the story, I couldn’t help but think about my initial response to the characters. I kept coming back to the surrealistic nature of the play and the emotions they triggered for me personally while reading. There obviously a level of ambiguity achieved while reading this because of the nature of the actions of some of the characters. I found myself confounded by them, but also intrigued as I continued to read. After I gave myself some time to let the story percolate I realized that I was trying to ground the characters in reality, but the very concept of the play was to mix the elements that are familiar with actions and responses from the characters that are not. I couldn’t help but think about Fuchs, and how she talked about imagining the world of the play. When thinking of the play in this regard I felt it added another layer of intricate detail to this play that I’d yet to conceive. I say this because, it seems as if in order to understand or view the world of this play that you have to imagine it only exists within the boundaries of the characters’ house, and that the world as we know it, doesn’t exist within the bizarre realm that they’ve created for themselves. I think that the environment itself is a major element of the story that counters the more overall illusionistic setting of the play, because once we see what goes on in this house we're introduced to very unfamiliar behavior, and personalities that go against the somewhat mundane setting in which we understand or relate to. Even the character Shelly is under the initial assumption that she'll feel at home as they approach the house. She quickly has this idea yanked out from under her so to speak, when the Norman Rockwell type concept of “The Great American Life” is replaced with the complete opposite concept when Shepard reveals his characters in their most intimate, and personal state of being. It’s at this point that the idea of reality comes into question and the portrait becomes that of a dangerously dysfunctional family, to put it lightly. Shepard doesn’t hold back in his portrayal of the surreal mixed with the real, it’s as if we’re put in the house through the character of Shelly as the voice of normality straining to stay sane within the realm of the abnormal. In my opinion this contradiction of elements helps to create an unnerving feeling or tension that continues to mount throughout the play and defines the story as a whole.
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Wow! So your revelation just made me have a revelation! I never thought to think of this play in these terms. All the time I find myself trying to mush the play into real life. However, in reality I must think of the play in terms of itself.The play on its own terms is a confusing beast in itself. Introducing the outside world just makes delving deeper even harder to do. Once I take a step back and look at the play as its own world, completely untouched by reality, differentiating what is the normality is much simpler. I agree that Shelly is the voice of normality in the text. She is the identifying point so that the audience may have some sort of comparison or window into the play.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the surrealistic feel of this play. Its almost reality, but its not. Rather than trying to fit it into a "what's real" box, looking at it as another world, or even a separate universe really allows the reader to read the play for what is is, rather than what it's not. Being let in on the most vulnerable details of the characters life give that sense of realization that everyone probably is a lot deeper if you really get to know them.
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