Scene 5

Julie, Mic, Manu and Tae Jong

SummaryScene 5 centers on the long conversation between Amanda and Tom, where

the audience is able to find various things among the two characters.

• Opens after they had just eaten• Amanda tells Tom to fix his hair• Tom goes out to smoke• Tom and Amanda wishes upon a star• Tom tells Amanda he got a gentleman caller for Laura

– Amanda makes a big fuss out of it• Ends with Amanda making a wish on a star with Laura

Themes

• Entrapment / Escape– Tom: “I am going out to smoke” (pg. 18) • By smoking, he is able to temporarily escape the

imprisonment.

• Being caught in a memory of the past– Amanda

• Conflict– Between Tom and Amanda

Themes

• Family– Amanda: No, I don’t have secrets… Success and

happiness for my precious children! I wish for that whenever there’s a moon, and when there isn’t a moon, I wish for it too. (pg. 19)• Maternal figure

Staging Devices

• Fire Escape– Tom and Amanda talk about the gentleman caller

(Laura’s escape) on the fire escape.– “[Tom] throws down the paper and crosses to fire-

escape” (pg. 18) After Amanda tells him to fix his hair

– “Amanda seizes [Laura’s] shoulders and turns her at an angle by the door” (pg. 24) Forcing her to escape.

Staging Devices

• Memory Play (Surrealism)- “Legend on screen: annunciation” (announcement) announcement of virgin Mary having a baby- “Image on screen: caller with bouquet”- “their movements formalized almost as a dance or ritual their moving forms as pale and silent as moths”

“Expressionism” : provides a sense of psychological realismMemory play

- “Tom [to the audience]” (in control of the play)

Staging Devices

* Music

Page 18: Paradise dance hall- “Dance Music: ‘All the world is waiting for the sunrise” relates to

the setting of the play, “…warty growths in overcrowded urban centres of lower-middle-class population”

- “The dance-hall music changes to a tango that has a minor an somewhat ominous tone” – happens when Tom talks about

Laura’s peculiarity

Development of characterization

• Laura– Doesn’t really know what she wants.

• “Amanda: A little silver slipper of a moon…make a wish. [Laura looks faintly puzzled as if called out of sleep.]” (pg. 24)– Her puzzled reaction shows that she seems content being in her

own world, even if she’s not supposed to be.– Sibilance

– “What should I wish for Mother?”• suggests Laura’s struggle with dependency on other people, showing lack of confidence.

Tom

• Desire for adventure / bored view on his current life.– “This was the compensation for lives that passed like mine,

without any change or adventure.” (pg. 19)• Negative connotation of “compensation” and views life as routine and

dull.

• Does what his mother tells him to do, but he also does it not just for her or his sister but for himself as well (to escape).– “We’re going to have one [gentleman caller].” (pg. 19)

• By doing so, it provides a means of escape for Amanda/Laura as it takes away the fear of Laura becoming an old maid, as well as for Tom, who can leave when Laura finds a boy.

Tom

• Gets annoyed/fed up by Amanda– “If you’re going to make such a fuss, I’ll call it off, I’ll tell him not to

come!” (pg. 21)• Punctuation

– “Amanda: And doesn’t he drink? / Tom: Shall I call him up and ask him right this minute?” (pg. 22)

• Shows how Tom’s getting annoyed by Amanda’s constant interrogation about the

gentleman caller.

• Finds means of escape by going to the movies– “I’m going to the movies.” (pg. 24)

• Link to how he said the movies gave him the sense of adventure that his dull life lacked.

Amanda• Overbearing

– “Comb your hair!” (pg. 18)• Relates to when she told Tom how to eat• Relates to opening comment: “…and though her foolishness makes her unwittingly

cruet at times, there is tenderness in her slight person.”

– Tom: “Any particular place you would like me to sit?” (pg. 21)• Rhetorical question: Mimicking tone of Amanda’s overbearing attitude.• Entrapment of Tom

• Wants what’s best for her kids– “Enough to give you a night-school course in accounting at Washington U. Just think what a wonderful thing that would be for you, Son!” (pg. 18)

• Idea that going to school means a successful life.• “I wished for…success and happiness for my precious children.”

Amanda• Living / Reminiscing in the past

– “A fire-escape landing’s a poor excuse for a porch.” (pg. 19)• Referring back to her old rich lifestyle and home with a porch

– “She spreads a newspaper on a step and sits down grace and demurely as if she were settling into a swing on a Mississippi veranda.” (pg. 19)• Shows how she cannot accept the transition from her high end life to her

current poor state.

– “When I was a girl…” (pg. 22)• Idea of “Back in the old days…”

– Connects to opening comment: “Amanda, having failed to establish contact with reality continues to live vitally in her illusions.”

• Illusions about life

Amanda• Repetitive person

– Tom: “Yes, you have made it repeatedly.” (pg. 19)• Referring to Amanda constantly asking Tom about a finding gentleman caller.• Shows she wants to get her message through.

• Perfectionist– “Amanda: Oh, Tom, Tom, Tom, of course I have to make a fuss! I want things nice, not sloppy! Not thrown together.” (pg. 20)– Tom: If you’re going to make such a fuss, I’ll call it off, I’ll tell him not to come!” (pg. 21)

• Refers to opening remark that “She is not paranoiac, but her life is paranoia.”

– “Tom: His name is O’Conner / Amanda: That, of course, means fish…” (pg. 21)

• It also shows her desperation to get a man for Laura as she wants everything perfect.• Connects to opening statement: “…and has so much love and pity as there is to laugh at.”

– Laugh at Amanda, not laugh with

Amanda• Regrets for marrying the father/Doesn’t want Laura to marry someone like her

father– “The last thing I want for my daughter’s a boy who drinks.” (pg. 21)

• The father was a drunkard, so she doesn’t want Laura marrying someone like her father.

– “Old maids are better of than wives of drunkards!” • Referring to how she was a wife of a drunkard and had to face the hardships of raising kids on her

own, and how she’d rather for Laura to be an old maid than end up like her.– Relates to opening comments: “There is much to admire in Amanda” admire that she raised kids on her

own.

– “I hope that Mr. O’Conner is not too good-looking” (pg. 22)• She fell in love with the father because he was good-looking.

• Thinks education = success– “Tom: [Jim] goes to night school / Amanda: [beaming] splendid!” (pg. 23)

• Amanda’s reaction shown through stage direction, dialogue and punctuation shows her high view on education. • Refer to how she thought Tom going to Washington U would be a wonderful thing.

Amanda• Refuses to accept reality / Only sees what she wants to see

– “Don’t say crippled! You know that I never allow that word to be used!” (pg. 23)

• Motherly• By not acknowledging that Laura is crippled, she refuses to accept such fact.

– “Amanda: Don’t say peculiar / Tom: Face the facts. She is.” (pg. 24)

• Conflicting views between Tom and Amanda• Contradicting to Amanda, Tom sees reality.• Repetition of “Don’t” shows her overbearing. • Shows Tom’s sensitivity towards Laura

– “Tom: Lots of fellows meet girls whom they don’t marry! / Amanda: Oh, talk sensibly, Tom – and don’t be sarcastic!” (pg. 22)• Tom is speaking the truth, but Amanda refuses to accept it.

– “Tom: Laura is very different from other girls / Amanda: I think the difference is all to her advantage.” (pg. 23)

• Instead of accepting the fact that Laura is different, Amanda chooses to see her “difference” as a positive thing. • Conflict between Tom and Amanda conflicting views

Symbols• Fire Escape

– Escape– Refuge

• Little silver slipper of a moon– Sibilance draws attention– Allusion to Cinderella

• Her glass slipper brought her to her prince.

– Hopes and wishes for the characters.

– Amanda: “A little silver slipper of a moon. Look over your left shoulder, Laura, and make a Wish!

Symbols

• Blue Mountain– A symbol for Amanda’s

past– Amanda: “When I was a

girl in Blue Mountain…”

• The Movies– Another symbol of

refuge and escape for Tom

– Tom: “I’m going to the movies.”

Connection to ‘The Visit’

• Theme of escape– Train (the visit); Fire escape

(GM)

• Theme of escape:• Visit (page 59) “All: Where are

you off to?• Ill : To the station”• • G.M. (Page 18) “Tom: [he

throws down the paper and crosses to the fire-escape”

Connection to ‘The Visit’

• Being jailed by the memory of past

- Claire and Amanda, regarding men and past life

G.M.: Amanda “The last thing I want for my daughter’s a boy who drinks!”

Visit:: (page 19) Claire “Life went on, and I’ve forgotten nothing,.”(page 52) To the World Bank President- “I’m not at home. Tell him to fly away again.”

Connection to ‘The Visit’• Poverty - Suffering of characters financially due

to economical situation of the play

Visit (page 11) “tumbledown wreck”, “Man one: Living? Man two: Vegetating. Man Three: and rotting to death”.

G.M. (page 18) Amanda : “You smoke too much. A pack a day at 15 cents a pack. How much would that amount to in a month?”

Connection to ‘The Visit’• Family falling apart

G.M. (page 21) “Tom: OH MY GOD!” (page 24) “Tom: I’m going

to the movies.”

Visit (page 67) Mrs. Ill “Clarie deserves a little

happiness, after all she’s been through.”

(page 81) “Mrs. Ill : quite expensive.”

Purpose of scene

• Introduction to gentlemen caller Jim O’Connor• Would the play make sense without it? No.– Jim would just appear into the scene without a

proper introduction. • Gives audience sense that characters will

finally get what they want.– Raises audience expectation and draws them into the story.