Ruined

What struck me, about the way this play was presented, was the overall sense that this culture was normal and accepted by the characters. There is an obvious theme of avoiding pain by running to alcohol. Through reading and processing the story, I found a sense of appreciation for the life I have. The story shows a compelling indication of what can happen when we move away from structure and order to chaos and war. The fact that our ancestors were willing to live and die for our country so that we can be free, paved the way to build community and a place to call home. It pains me to read about the suffering that takes place and know that this is still happening in the world today. I am not ignorant to think that it cannot be happening in America, but it is not widely known to the point that we accept this as a way of life.

 (I’m sorry, I need a refresher’s course on Trinity’s online library, because I could not find articles available after 2012. However, I did find a great article elsewhere that helped me reflect, and even, understand the play differently.) The title of the article, by Jenny Rodrigues, peaked my interest as I was searching for a story about redemption. The article, “Florida woman helps secure release of man who shot her in face as teen 25 years ago”, is about a 13-year-old (Manuel) who shot a 28-year-old (Baigrie) in the jaw and robbed her and her friend for a $20 bill, as part of a gang initiation. Two years after the incident, Manuel called Baigrie to apologize and simply called the act “a mistake”. Baigrie was conflicted because, even though she was mad, she also understood that Manuel was young. She decided to forgive Manuel and became the biggest advocate for his release. Baigrie went on to emphasize how important it is to forgive others and how it really helps propel the healing process. In contrast to Ruined, I see this story offering a sense of closure and healing. During the play, Salima is brutally killed. In her last dying words, she says, “You will not fight your battles on my body anymore.” Though these words are powerful, they are also grave, dark, and broken. These are the words of a girl who had no hope, and from them, we can infer that she is glad to die to finally find rest. She has no opportunity to find real peace through forgiveness. Reading the article, it was amazing to see the redemption Baigrie and Manuel both had through the incident. Baigrie was able to overcome resentment through forgiveness and Manuel was able to repent for his actions and find peace with with his victim.

Other than the fact that this situation is uncommon, I think this story was influenced by Baigrie’s boldness. She did something that others would never dare to do, find peace amidst adversity. She was shot for $20 and a spot in a gang that will likely offer little to no reward. However, instead of remaining furious and confused, she forgave Manuel and became peaceful and content. I think the writer’s agenda was to inspire people to see things from the “bird’s eye view”; and overall to fight for peace. Baigrie mentioned that she was able to come to terms with what happened when she recognized how young Manuel was. She understood that he was lost and looking for a sense of belonging. However, she also mentioned that she found peace and healing through the act of forgiveness. I think that Baigrie’s story can help inspire others to see that either their situation is not as bad as they thought (as Baigrie’s story is more intense than most), or that they can find healing in the situation that they are currently in (bitterness due to a lack of forgiveness). I think Nottage’s motivation for writing Ruined was similar in the way that it was informative, but different in how it went about doing so. Through her story, there is an awareness of atrocities that were taking place and likely are still taking place. Through the lack of sympathy we see throughout the play, we are inspired to see things from other people’s perspectives; not because we’ve been shown how to do so, but because we’ve seen how sad circumstances can be in a world that fails to do so.

I think that these works help inspire others to take ahold of opportunities to do the uncommon in the fight for peace. These stories help show that we do not find peace by running from our adversity, but rather by facing adversity head-on. These men were using the bar/brothel to avoid their problems, but in reality, they were actually running from finding peace. These stories also instill a voice of reason while providing a snapshot into the lives of oppressed women. This should help the audience recognize the repercussions of their actions and how their decisions can impact other people. According to Enjoyment, “Ruined and others by women playwrights were mostly developed in the not-for-profit theatre and then staged on Broadway or Off-Broadway and throughout the United States.” This is a positive impact on society, as the stories opened the doors for women to be accepted as successful playwrights. This is a progressive impact as it provides opportunities for equality, and also doubles our chances to read/experience a story that conveys a message that is beautiful.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

I found the character of Brick to be an interesting one. He seemed to lack emotion as it likely is drowned in his sorrows and adoration of alcohol. His own wife, Margaret (Maggie), cannot even bring laughter or joy into his life, and this causes many to believe that he is homosexual; "as he misses his true love Skipper". Brick seems to be the shell of a man as he admits that it does not matter if he lives or dies, as long as he has liquor left in the bottle, that is all that matters. He is obviously carrying pain, which may possibly be resolved if he will face his problems rather than choose to avoid them.

I found one of the play’s themes to be the pain of avoiding problems. As Brick is clearly unhappy with his life, early on, we see comments of his emotions. Maggie says, “you have that rare sort of charm that usually only happens in very old or hopelessly sick people, the charm of the defeated. – You look so cool, so cool, so enviably cool.” (p. 1059). This is where the audience can infer that Brick has not bee himself as of late. He has not been showing emotion as people often do when they are insecure in who they are or have ultimately given up. In Brick's current state, we can gather that he is clearly facing an internal conflict, in which he has been avoiding/self-medicating with alcohol. This pain he clings to has spread to his marriage as his beautiful wife is left feeling insecure and rejected.

I could not help but the notice the similarities between Brick and Big Daddy; neither are happily married, but the largest similarity is that both reveal each other’s secrets to one another. Big Daddy ultimately finds out that Skipper made a drunken confession to Brick, and that Brick ultimately “—dug the grave of your friend and kicked him in it!” (p. 1083). Big Daddy believes that Brick feels disgusted with himself for failing to face the truth with Skipper. As Brick feels vulnerable, he lashes out and questions Big Daddy asking why he is celebrating a birthday that is likely to be his last. Big Daddy discovers that people have been lying to him, and his days are coming to an end. As we see a snapshot into a long conversation, we understand how Big Daddy and Brick could have danced around these types of conversations in the past, as it is a lot easier to avoid these hard truths. 

I think there is a lot to learn from this play. Williams welcomed the audience to witness an unhealthy marriage between Maggie and Brick, which ultimately left viewers feeling hopeless as the final lines have Maggie professing her love for Brick, to which he replies, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that was true?”. We also see many lines where Brick is blatantly tuning out Maggie as she makes many attempts to converse with him, as if to passive-aggressively tell her that he is not interested in her whatsoever. In one exchange, Maggie speaks 26 lines of dialogue to which Brick replies, “Did you say something, Maggie?” This is not the only exchange where Brick responds in such a way. I believe that these types of conversations should leave the audience frustrated and unsettled. Which is why, I think that this play can help inspire couples to truly listen to one another, and empower them to be intentional about making sure each other’s emotional and physical needs are met to avoid unhealthy marriages/relationships.

A Doll's House

One theme that stood out to me, throughout the play, was selfishness. Nora showed a selfish side when Mrs. Linde (Kristine) visited. Kristine was telling Nora about how she is a widow, who is sad she never had children, and is currently struggling to make ends meet; and even in Kristine’s state, Nora cannot help but tell Kristine about how happy she is. During this conversation, Nora says a line that reads ironically; “No, you begin. Today I don’t want to be selfish. I want to think only of you today. But there is something I must tell you. Did you hear the wonderful luck we had recently?” (page 689). Then, Nora goes on to tell Kristine about how great her new life will be now that her husband is a bank manager.

Helmer (Torvald) shows selfishness as he learns that Nora had forged her father’s signature to take out a loan. Instead of thinking about Nora’s intentions to do anything she can to save Torvald’s life, he can only respond harshly saying, “now you’ve wrecked all my happiness—ruined my whole future” (page 710). This is an incredulous statement considering his future would not exist if she would not have borrowed the money that enabled her to save his life. We also observe a selfish thought from Torvald, when he finds out that Dr. Rank is dying, he says that perhaps it is for the best; as now Nora and Torvald will need to depend on each other for care and support. I understand he is trying to “look at the bright side”, but I think this time could be better served to simply honor and reflect on the life of his “dear friend”.

There was also a theme of secrets and the revealing of secrets. We find out quickly that Nora has been keeping a secret from her own husband, which is not officially revealed until the story reaches its climax. This is the same secret that Krogstad is eager to reveal in hopes that the information will help him keep his position at the bank. I think this secret adds to the suspense as we anticipate how Torvald will respond to this information. We also find that Dr. Rank is harboring two secrets of his own; he is deathly ill, and he has grown affectionate for Nora. This adds a small twist to the story, and by the responses of the characters, we can continue to understand the characters. For instance, as we see that Nora is appalled by Dr. Rank's profession of love, we see a small amount of depth to her character as she carries, at least some, integrity. 

I could see this play being fairly easy to execute, simply because there are no extravagant scenes. However, the toughest part for the actors, would be the large amounts of dialogue they would need to memorize. I could potentially see it being important for Nora and Torvald to have chemistry, because the characters use so many pet names for each other, which could often be difficult to deliver naturally. Other than that, the play mostly boils down to the acting and exchanges between characters.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

I found this play to be a bit of a difficult read; between the old English and the large amount of various character introductions. However, once I got past the verbiage, I found that Shakespeare was clearly brilliant and creative. We see creativity in the bases of each character, as well as, his ability to entertain with a lively story. In my opinion, the elements of the story were not exactly predictable, especially as we witness Puck unleash his whimsical shenanigans.

The development of the characters on top of the love-story complex, added to the humor of the play. The dynamic of character insecurities was well-crafted, and each one served its purpose. For example, Helena’s low self-esteem and desperation developed a comical scenario where Demetrius and Lysander are declaring their love for her and she simply believes they are mocking her; while this is greatly frustrating the jealous Hermia. Shakespeare did a great job creating the characters to align with a story that is grounded in ironic-comedy, but also offers a sense of realism.

I enjoyed the final story at the end of the play, because, in addition to the comedic relief, there seemed to be a reference to Romeo and Juliet. Just as Romeo killed himself when he thought that Juliet was dead, Pyramus killed himself when he thought that Thisby was dead. When Thisby (Juliet), realizes that her love is dead, she then, in turn, kills herself. As I investigated this play further, I found that the story of Pyramus and Thisby was also a reference to an ancient Babylonian legend. This provides more evidence that Shakespeare did not take his writing lightly. Even though there is pure entertainment with the slapstick comedic element, he also included some “parent-jokes” for his educated audience.

I also enjoyed the ending of the play as it was a play within a play. It was both creative and comical as though it was slapstick-comedy mixed with overzealous dramatic tragedy. I like to think that this is where Shakespeare inserted ideas that he had, but may have thought that they would have taken away from the “feel good” ending of the play. This could have been his way of ending the play the way he wanted to, while still allowing the audience to have the closure they would prefer.