HUM 104 | Bethel University
Instructor: MJohn
agda Blumer
Sokolowski, MFA
Week V: Assignments #1 - #3 Assignment Guidelines and Grading Rubrics
For our final unit, we explore the world of drama. To begin, read “Death of a Salesman” by
Arthur Miller. Once you’ve read the play (hopefully twice!), look over the three COMPLETE
questions. Read them several times so that you’re sure what each question is asking.
These three reading questions will be evaluated according to the rubrics below, so please look
the criteria over closely so that you’re clear on what the expectations are. For more detailed
directions for each assignment, be sure to review the guidelines/directions listed under the
“Complete” section.
A couple key reminders:
●
●
●
Be sure to support your responses to each question using not only details from the play,
but quoted lines and quoted details. Remember: the play is your PRIMARY source, so
the more you can rely on it to develop your response, the stronger your answer.
You are required to make use of no fewer than THREE academic/scholarly sources in
this week’s Complete. I recommend making use of at least ONE source per question.
For each answer, be sure to cite the play and provide a reference as per MLA or APA.
Remember: academic integrity is the goal!
As always, let me know if you have any questions about the assignment expectations or grading
criteria.
Week II | Question 1 - 3 Grading Rubrics
Question #1
/10 - Content: In 400 words, student provides a thorough and well-detailed response to the
following questions: In what ways does the Willy Loman recognize his own shortcomings or
doesn't he and why does this matter? Is this part of the tragedy, that is, Loman's lack of
self-awareness?
/10 - Support: Student supports his/her response with details from the play, including q
uoted
passages that help to develop and support the student’s ideas. Student relies on at least ONE
scholarly/academic source to support his/her ideas.
/5 - Grammar & formatting: Student uses proper grammar, mechanics and spelling in his/her
response, makes use of proper in-text citations (1 point) and an end-reference (1 point).
TOTAL: /25
Question #2
/10 - Content: In 400 words, student provides a thorough and well-detailed response to the
following questions: What did you personally learn about human behavior from the historical
aspects of the play and does this play's commentary on American consumerism resonate with
what we see and experience in our society today?
/10 - Support: Student supports his/her response with details from the play, including q
uoted
passages that help to develop and support the student’s ideas. Student relies on at least ONE
scholarly/academic source to support his/her ideas.
/5 - Grammar & formatting: Student uses proper grammar, mechanics and spelling in his/her
response, makes use of proper in-text citations (1 point) and an end-reference (1 point).
TOTAL: /25
Question #3
/10 - Content: In 400 words, student provides a thorough and well-detailed response to the
following question: Is Willy Loman completely responsible for what became of him and his
keeping-up-with the Jones' obsession or can we also blame the social and cultural environment
in which he lived?
/10 - Support: Student supports his/her response with details from the play, including q
uoted
passages that help to develop and support the student’s ideas. Student relies on at least ONE
scholarly/academic source to support his/her ideas.
/5 - Grammar & formatting: Student uses proper grammar, mechanics and spelling in his/her
response, makes use of proper in-text citations (1 point) and an end-reference (1 point).
TOTAL: /25
HUM 104 | BETHEL UNIVERSITY
John Blumer
INSTRUCTOR: MAGDA SOKOLOWSKI, MFA
HOW TO WRITE DIALOGUE
After you’ve read through this week’s plays, your task is to write your own one-page of
dialogue or better yet, a one-minute play.
WHAT IS DIALOGUE?
When it comes to fiction or drama, dialogue is several things:
1. A conversation between two or more people.
2. Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative.
3. The lines or passages in a script that are intended to be spoken.
4. A literary work written in the form of a conversation
In this week’s assignment, you’re interested in writing a dialogue between several people.
In other words, you get to choose the characters in your play and how many characters you
want. Who knows, maybe you even feature yourself in the play! :)
TEN RULES WHEN IT COMES TO WRITING DIALOGUE:
1. Dialogue needs to have a point. It has to move the story along, reflect a character’s
inner character and conflicts, expose secrets, goals, and wounds. Often in dialogue,
it’s what’s not said that’s important.
2. Contains differing points of view. When two people are conversing, their dialogue
needs to reflect their characters and show they are at odds, with totally different
motivations. This is what makes dialogue interesting.
3. Has more content that ordinary conversation. It’s all about context. Use juicy verbs,
edit superfluous words and keep sentences simple. Reveal complex characters with
simplicity.Again, often what’s not said that is most important and revealing. Most
“real” speech contains fragments, “ums” and idioms. Don’t include those. Don’t have
your character say something unless it’s pertinent to the story or the character.
4. Avoid monologues. This is as true in dialogue as in life. Readers will get bored.
Break long bouts of dialogue with some action. Get a character to pour tea or clean
out an ear. This comes back to #1.
5. Show a character’s lack of self understanding in his/her dialogue. Dig into the
subtext of the dialogue and try to figure out what it is that you as the author knows,
but that the character doesn’t know about him/herself.
6. Don’t try and explain things in dialogue. None of us like listening to the “know-it-all”
person who has to explain everything along the way. Don’t let your dialogue or
characters be that person (unless that is their character). Let the reader have some
fun and try and figure it out by themselves.
7. Use dialogue to create tension. Dialogue is a great way to show characters in
crisis, which in turns shows a character’s true colors. There are several ways to
create tension in writing, and dialogue is one of the better ones.
8. Mix up the speech patterns to differentiate characters. One character might talk in
long sentences, another in one-word answers. Listen to people around you and try
and pick up ideas for differing the ways people speak in dialogue. This will make
your overall text more interesting to read.
9. Study the rhythms and repetitions of authors you admire. The best often repeat
words or sounds, and use rhythms and patterns to give dialogue interest.
10. Keep dialogue tags simple and use sparingly. “He said” is perfectly fine. Don’t try
and convey meaning in a dialogue tag by writing “He said, sadly.” Make your
dialogue convey the character’s sadness. Also, you don’t need to say “he/she said”
with every sentence of dialogue if it’s clear to the reader who is speaking. Take out
the extra ones.
FINALLY, A NOTE ON PROPER MECHANICS IN DIALOGUE:
When you revise dialogue, be sure to punctuate it correctly so that your readers can see
who is talking and where a line of dialogue begins or ends. The rules for using quotation
marks, commas, and end marks of punctuation are listed below.
● Use quotation marks before and after a character's exact words. Place a period
inside closing quotation marks.
e.g., "Peter and Esteban are joining us."
● Use a comma to set off the speaker's tag (he said) from the beginning of a
quotation. Place the comma inside closing quotation marks when the speaker's tag
follows the quotation.
e.g., Harry said, "Come on, Ray. It'll be fun."
"Let's go," Gilda said.
● Use quotation marks around each part of a divided quotation. Remember to set off
the speaker's tag with commas.
e.g., "I'm not sure," said Ray, "that I feel like it."
● Place a question mark or an exclamation point inside the quotation marks when it is
part of the quotation.
e.g., "When will we be back?" Ray asked.
"Hooray!" said Debbi.
● Place a question mark or an exclamation point outside the quotation marks when it
is not part of the quotation.
e.g., Did I hear Ray say, "Okay"?
I can't believe he said, "Okay"!
● Start a new paragraph when you move from one speaker to another.
e.g., "How long a hike is it?" Ray asked. "I don't know whether I have the energy."
"I think," said Iris, "that it's about seven miles to the top."
___________
Now, go back to the plays for this week and see what you notice about how dialogue is
crafted. Pay attention to the ten rules listed above. What do you notice? How does the
dialogue resemble real speech or not? Do different characters sound different? Does the
dialogue advance the plot of the play?
CHAPTER 25
UNDERSTANDING DRAMA
B
E
Dramatic Literature
N
The distinctive appearance of a script, with
N its divisions into acts and scenes,
identifies drama as a unique form of literature. A play is written to be perE take on the roles of the characformed in front of an audience by actors who
ters and who present the story through dialogue
T and action. (An exception is
a closet drama, which is meant to be read, not performed.) In fact, the term
T which means “to view” or “to
theater comes from the Greek word theasthai,
see.” Thus, drama is different from novels, and short stories, which are meant
to be read.
B
Origins of Modern Drama
A
R
The dramatic presentations of ancient Greece developed out of religious
B
rites performed to honor gods or to mark the coming of spring. PlayA Sophocles (496–406 b.c.), and
wrights such as Aeschylus (525–456 b.c.),
Euripides (480?–406 b.c.) wrote plays to be performed and judged at comR
petitions held during the yearly Dionysian festivals. Works were chosen by
A of judges. To compete in the
a selection board and evaluated by a panel
The Ancient Greek Theater
contest, writers had to submit three tragedies, which could be either based
on a common theme or unrelated, and one comedy. Unfortunately, very few
2
of these ancient Greek plays survive today.
The open-air, semicircular ancient Greek
8 theater, built into the side of a
hill, looked much like a primitive version of a modern sports stadium. Some
8
Greek theaters, such as the Athenian theater,
could seat almost seventeen
thousand spectators. Sitting in tiered seats,
2 the audience would look down
on the orchestra, or “dancing place,” occupied by the chorus—originally
T the choragos) who danced and
a group of men (led by an individual called
chanted and later a group of onlookers who
S commented on the drama.
802
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Origins of Modern Drama
803
B
E
N
N
E
T
. .), aT
Greek settlement in what is now Turkey
,
Grand Theater at Ephesus (3rd century B C
Da
v e G . Ho
u s e r/Do
c u m e n ta ry Va l u e /Co
rb i s
Raised a few steps above the orchestra was a platform on which the
B was a skene, or building, that origiactors performed. Behind this platform
nally served as a resting place or dressing
room. (The modern word scene
A
is derived from the Greek skene.) Behind the skene was a line of pillars
R
called a colonnade, which was covered by a roof. Actors used the skene for
entrances and exits; beginning withBthe plays of Sophocles, painted backdrops were hung there. These backdrops, however, were most likely more
A
decorative than realistic. Historians believe that realistic props and scenery
R Greek theater. Instead, the setting
were probably absent from the ancient
was suggested by the play’s dialogue,
Aand the audience had to imagine the
physical details of a scene.
Two mechanical devices were used. One, a rolling cart or platform,
was sometimes employed to introduce
2 action that had occurred offstage.
For example, actors frozen in position could be rolled onto the roof of the
skene to illustrate an event such as8the killing of Oedipus’s father, which
occurred before the play began. Another
8 mechanical device, a small crane,
was used to show gods ascending to or descending from heaven. Such
2 the myths that were celebrated at
devices enabled playwrights to dramatize
the Dionysian festivals.
T
The ancient Greek theater was designed to enhance acoustics. The
S
flat stone wall of the skene reflected the sound from the orchestra and
the stage, and the curved shape of the amphitheater captured the sound,
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804
Chapter 25 • Understanding Drama
enabling the audience to hear the lines spoken by the actors. Each actor
wore a stylized mask, or persona, to convey to the audience the personality traits of the particular character being portrayed—a king, a soldier, a
wise old man, a young girl (female roles were played by men). The mouths
of these masks were probably constructed so they amplified the voice and
projected it into the audience. In addition, the actors wore kothorni, high
shoes that elevated them above the stage, perhaps also helping to project
their voices. Due to the excellent acoustics, audiences who see plays performed in these ancient theaters today B
can hear clearly without the aid of
microphones or speaker systems.
E
Because actors wore masks and because males played the parts of women
and gods as well as men, acting methodsN
in the ancient Greek theater were
probably not realistic. In their masks, N
high shoes, and full-length tunics
(called chiton), actors could not hope to appear natural or to mimic the attiE
tudes of everyday life. Instead, they probably recited their lines while standing in stylized poses, with emotions conveyed
T more by gesture and tone than
by action. Typically, three actors had all the speaking roles. One actor—the
T
protagonist—would play the central role and have the largest speaking part.
, lines between them. Although
Two other actors would divide the remaining
other characters would come on and off the stage, they would usually not
have speaking roles.
B divided into five parts. The first
Ancient Greek tragedies were typically
part was the prologos, or prologue, in which
A an actor gave the background
or explanations that the audience needed to follow the rest of the drama.
R entered and commented on
Then came the párodos, in which the chorus
the events presented in the prologue. B
Following this were several episodia, or episodes, in which characters spoke to one another on the stage and
A Alternating with episodes were
developed the central conflict of the play.
stasimon (choral odes), in which the chorus
R commented on the exchanges
that had taken place during the preceding episode. Frequently, the choral
A which were recited or sung as
odes were divided into strophes, or stanzas,
the chorus moved across the orchestra in one direction, and antistrophes,
which were recited as it moved in the opposite direction. (Interestingly, the
2
chorus stood between the audience and the actors, often functioning as an
8 social, and moral views of the
additional audience, expressing the political,
community.) The fifth part was the exodos, the last scene of the play, during
8
which the conflict was resolved and the actors left the stage.
2 as a variety of architectural and
Using music, dance, and verse—as well
technical innovations—the ancient Greek
T theater was able to convey the
traditional themes of tragedy. Thus, the Greek theater powerfully expressed
S in which they first appeared:
ideas that were central to the religious festivals
the reverence for the cycles of life and death, the unavoidable dictates of the
gods, and the inscrutable workings of fate.
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Origins of Modern Drama
805
The Elizabethan Theater
The Elizabethan theater, influenced by the classical traditions of Roman and
Greek dramatists, traces its roots back to local religious pageants performed
at medieval festivals during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Town
guilds—organizations of craftsmen who worked in the same profession—
reenacted Old and New Testament stories: the fall of man, Noah and the
flood, David and Goliath, and the crucifixion of Christ, for example. Church
fathers encouraged these plays because
B they brought the Bible to a largely
illiterate audience. Sometimes these spectacles, called mystery plays, were
E
presented in the market square or on the church steps, and at other times
actors appeared on movable stages or
N wagons called pageants, which could
be wheeled to a given location. (Some of these wagons were quite elaborate,
N
with trapdoors and pulleys and an upper tier that simulated heaven.) As mysE were performed in series over several
tery plays became more popular, they
days, presenting an entire cycle of aTholiday—the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ during Easter, for example.
T
,
B
A
R
B
A
R
A
2
8
8
2
T
S
Performance of a mystery play
Art Resource
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806
Chapter 25 • Understanding Drama
Related to mystery plays are morality plays, which developed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Unlike mystery plays, which depict scenes
from the Bible, morality plays allegorize the Christian way of life. Typically,
characters representing various virtues and vices struggle or debate over the
soul of man. Everyman (1500), the best known of these plays, dramatizes the
good and bad qualities of Everyman and shows his struggle to determine what
is of value to him as he journeys toward death.
By the middle of the sixteenth century, mystery and morality plays had
B for this decline was that myslost ground to a new secular drama. One reason
tery and morality plays were associated with
E Catholicism and consequently
discouraged by the Anglican clergy. In addition, newly discovered plays of
ancient Greece and Rome introduced aN
dramatic tradition that supplanted
the traditions of religious drama. English
N plays that followed the classic
model were sensational and bombastic, often dealing with murder, revenge,
E
and blood retribution. Appealing to privileged classes and commoners alike,
these plays were extremely popular. (One
T source estimates that in London,
between 20,000 and 25,000 people attended performances each week.)
T
In spite of the popularity of the theater, actors and playwrights encountered a number of difficulties. First, they,faced opposition from city officials
who were averse to theatrical presentations because they thought that the
crowds attending these performances spread disease. Puritans opposed the
theater because they thought plays wereBimmoral and sinful. Finally, some
people attached to the royal court opposed
A the theater because they thought
that the playwrights undermined the authority of Queen Elizabeth by spreadR
ing seditious ideas. As a result, during Elizabeth’s
reign, performances were
placed under the strict control of the Master
B of Revels, a public official who
had the power to censor plays (and did so with great regularity) and to grant
A
licenses for performances.
Acting companies that wanted to put
R on a performance had to obtain
a license—possible only with the patronage of a powerful nobleman—and
A by the queen. Despite these
to perform the play in an area designated
difficulties, a number of actors and playwrights gained a measure of financial
independence by joining together and forming acting companies. These com2
panies of professional actors performed works such as Christopher Marlowe’s
8 Tragedy in tavern courtyards and
Tamburlaine and Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish
then eventually in permanent theaters. According to scholars, the structures
8
of the Elizabethan theater evolved from these tavern courtyards.
2
William Shakespeare’s plays were performed
at the Globe Theatre (a
corner of which was unearthed in December
1988).
Although scholars do
T
not know the exact design of the original Globe, drawings from the period
S The major difference between
provide a good idea of its physical features.
the Globe and today’s theaters is the multiple stages on which action could
be performed. The Globe consisted of a large main stage that extended out
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Origins of Modern Drama
807
into the open-air yard where the groundlings, or common people, stood.
Spectators who paid more sat on small stools in two or three levels of galleries
that extended in front of and around the stage. (The theater could probably
seat almost two thousand people at a performance.) Most of the play’s action
occurred on the stage, which had no curtain and could be seen from three
sides. Beneath the stage was a space called the hell, which could be reached
when the floorboards were removed. This space enabled actors to “disappear”
or descend into a hole or grave when the play called for such action. Above
B which protected the actors from the
the stage was a roof called the heavens,
weather and contained ropes and pulleys
E used to lower props or to create
special effects.
N alcove covered by a curtain that
At the rear of the stage was a narrow
could be open or closed. This curtain,
Noften painted, functioned as a decorative rather than a realistic backdrop. The main function of this alcove was
E
to enable actors to hide or disappear when the script called for them to do
so. Some Elizabethan theaters contained
T a rear stage instead of an alcove.
Because the rear stage was concealed by a curtain, props could be arranged
T
on it ahead of time. When the action on the rear stage was finished, the
, would continue on the front stage.
curtain would be closed and the action
On either side of the rear stage was a door through which the actors could
enter and exit the front stage. Above the rear stage was a curtained stage
B as a balcony or as any other setting
called the chamber, which functioned
located above the action taking place
A on the stage below. On either side of
the chamber were casement windows, which actors could use when a play
R leaning out a window or standing on
called for a conversation with someone
a balcony. Above the chamber was the
B music gallery, a balcony that housed
the musicians who provided musical interludes throughout the play (and
A
that doubled as a stage if the play required
it). The huts, windows located
above the music gallery, could be used
R by characters playing lookouts or sentries. Because of the many acting sites, more than one action could take place
A could stand in the towers of Hamlet’s
simultaneously. For example, lookouts
castle while Hamlet and Horatio walked the walls below.
During Shakespeare’s time, the theater had many limitations that chal2
lenged the audience’s imagination. First, young boys—usually between the
8 women’s parts. In addition, there was
ages of ten and twelve—played all the
no artificial lighting, so plays had to be performed in daylight. Rain, wind,
8
or clouds could disrupt a performance or ruin an image—such as “the morn
2
in russet mantle clad”—that the audience
was asked to imagine. Finally,
because few sets and props were used,
the
audience
often had to visualize
T
the high walls of a castle or the trees of a forest. The plays were performed
S interludes that occurred at various
without intermission, except for musical
points. Thus, the experience of seeing one of Shakespeare’s plays staged in the
Elizabethan theater was different from seeing it staged in a modern theater.
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808
Chapter 25 • Understanding Drama
B
E
N
N
E
T
T
,
B
A
R
B
A
R
A
2
8
8
2
The Globe Playhouse, 1599–1613; a conjectural reconstruction. From C. Walter
T Theatre. New York: Norton, 1973.
Hodges The Globe Restored: A Study of the Elizabethan
Source: C .W . Hodges . Conjectural Reconstruction of the Globe Playhouse, 1965 . Pen & ink .
S
9781337509633, PORTABLE Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, Ninth edition, Kirszner - © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Origins of Modern Drama
809
B
E
N
N
E
T
T
,
Aerial view of the reconstructed Globe Theatre in London
Source: ©Jason Hawkes/Corbis
B
A
Today, a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre (above) stands on the
south bank of the Thames River inRLondon. In the 1940s, the American
actor Sam Wanamaker visited London
B and was shocked to find nothing
that commemorated the site of the original Globe. He eventually decided to
A the Globe in its original location.
try to raise enough money to reconstruct
The Globe Playhouse Trust was founded
R in the 1970s, but the actual construction of the new theater did not begin until the 1980s. After a number of
setbacks—for example, the Trust ranAout of funds after the construction of a
large underground “diaphragm” wall needed to keep out the river water—the
project was finally completed. The first performance at the reconstructed
Globe was given on June 14, 1996,2which would have been the late Sam
Wanamaker’s 77th birthday.
8
8
2
Unlike the theaters of ancient Greece and Elizabethan England,
T theaters—such as the Palais Royal,
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
where the great French playwright S
Molière presented many of his plays—
The Modern Theater
were covered by a roof, beautifully decorated, and illuminated by candles
so that plays could be performed at night. The theater remained brightly lit
9781337509633, PORTABLE Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, Ninth edition, Kirszner - © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
810
Chapter 25 • Understanding Drama
even during performances, partly because there was no easy way to extinguish hundreds of candles and partly because people went to the theater as
much to see each other as to see the play.
A curtain opened and closed between acts, and the audience of about
five hundred spectators sat in a long room and viewed the play on a
picture-frame stage. This type of stage, which resembles the stages on
which plays are performed today, contained the action within a proscenium arch that surrounded the opening through which the audience
B seemed to take place in an
viewed the performance. Thus, the action
adjoining room with one of its walls cut
E away. Painted scenery (some of
it quite elaborate), intricately detailed costumes, and stage makeup were
N
commonplace, and for the first time women
performed female roles. In
addition, a complicated series of ropes,N
pulleys, and cranks enabled stagehands to change scenery quickly, and sound-effects machines could give
E
audiences the impression that they were hearing a galloping horse or a raging thunderstorm. Because the theatersTwere small, audiences were relatively close to the stage, so actors could use subtle movements and facial
T
expressions to enhance their performances.
, theater were quite basic. For
Many of the first innovations in the
example, the first stage lighting was produced by candles lining the front of
the stage. This method of lighting was not only ineffective—actors were lit
B fully illuminated—but also danfrom below and had to step forward to be
gerous. Costumes and even entire theaters
A could (and did) catch fire. Later,
covered lanterns with reflectors provided better and safer lighting. In the
R oxyhydrogen flame directed on a
nineteenth century, a device that used an
cylinder of lime created extremely bright
Billumination that could, with the
aid of a lens, be concentrated into a spotlight. (It is from this method of stage
lighting that we get the expression to be A
in the limelight.)
Eventually, in the twentieth century,Relectric lights provided a dependable and safe way of lighting the stage. Electric spotlights, footlights, and
A visible and enabled playwrights
ceiling light bars made the actors clearly
to create special effects. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (p. 960), for
example, lighting focuses attention on action in certain areas of the stage
2
while other areas are left in complete darkness.
8 innovations, such as electronic
Along with electric lighting came other
amplification. Microphones made it possible for actors to speak conversation8
ally and to avoid using unnaturally loud “stage diction” to project their voices
to the rear of the theater. Microphones 2
placed at various points around the
stage enabled actors and actresses to interact
T naturally and to deliver their
lines audibly even without facing the audience. More recently, small wireless
S wires and the “dead spaces” left
microphones have eliminated the unwieldy
between upright or hanging microphones, allowing characters to move freely
around the stage.
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Origins of Modern Drama
811
The true revolutions in staging came with the advent of realism in the
middle of the nineteenth century. Until this time, scenery had been painted
on canvas backdrops that trembled visibly, especially when they were intersected by doors through which actors and actresses entered. With realism
came settings that were accurate down to the smallest detail. (Improved
lighting, which revealed the inadequacies of painted backdrops, made such
realistic stage settings necessary.) Backdrops were replaced by the box set,
three flat panels arranged to form connected walls, with the fourth wall
B of looking into a room. The room
removed to give the audience the illusion
itself was decorated with real furniture,
E plants, and pictures on the walls; the
door of one room might connect to another completely furnished room, or
a window might open to a garden N
filled with realistic foliage. In addition,
new methods of changing scenery were
N employed. Elevator stages, hydraulic
lifts, and moving platforms enabled directors to make complicated changes
E
in scenery out of the audience’s view.
During the late nineteenth and
T early twentieth centuries, however,
some playwrights reacted against what they saw as the excesses of realism.
T
They introduced surrealistic stage settings, in which color and scenery
mirrored the uncontrolled images, of dreams, and expressionistic stage
B
A
R
B
A
R
A
2
8
8
2
T
Thrust-Stage Theater. Rendering of the thrust stage at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.
With seats on three sides of the stage area, the
Sthrust stage and its background can assume
many forms. Entrances can be made from the aisles, from the sides, through the stage floor, and
from the back.
Source: Alvis Upitis/Getty Images
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812
Chapter 25 • Understanding Drama
settings, in which costumes and scenery were exaggerated and distorted
to reflect the workings of a troubled, even unbalanced mind. In addition,
playwrights used lighting to create areas of light, shadow, and color that
reinforced the themes of the play or reflected the emotions of the protagonist. Eugene O’Neill’s 1920 play The Emperor Jones, for example, used a
series of expressionistic scenes to show the deteriorating mental state of
the terrified protagonist.
Sets in contemporary plays run the gamut from realistic to fantastic,
B a production of Tennessee Wilfrom a detailed re-creation of a room in
liams’s The Glass Menagerie (1945) to dreamlike
sets for Eugene O’Neill’s
E
The Emperor Jones (1920) and Edward Albee’s The Sandbox (1959). Motorized devices, such as revolving turntables,Nand wagons—scenery mounted on
wheels—make possible rapid changes of N
scenery. The Broadway musical Les
Misérables, for example, required scores of elaborate sets—Parisian slums,
E
barricades, walled gardens—to be shifted as the audience watched. A gigantic barricade constructed on stage at one T
point in the play was later rotated to
show the carnage that had taken place on both sides of a battle. Light, sound,
T
and smoke were used to heighten the impact of the scene.
, down the barriers that separate
Today, as dramatists attempt to break
audiences from the action they are viewing, plays are not limited to the
picture-frame stage; in fact, they are performed on many different kinds of
B stage (pictured on the previous
stages. Some plays take place on a thrust
page), which has an area that projects A
out into the audience. Other plays
are performed on an arena stage, with the audience surrounding the actors.
R theater in the round.) In addi(This kind of performance is often called
tion, experiments have been done withBenvironmental staging, in which
the stage surrounds the audience or several stages are situated at various
locations throughout the audience. PlaysA
may also be performed outdoors, in
settings ranging from parks to city streets.
R
Some playwrights even try to blur the line that divides the audience
from the stage by having actors moveA
through or sit in the audience—
or even by eliminating the stage entirely. For example, Tony ’n Tina’s
Wedding, a participatory drama created in 1988 by the theater group Arti2
ficial Intelligence, takes place not in a theater but at a church where a
8 hall where the wedding recepwedding is performed and then at a catering
tion is held. Throughout the play, the members of the audience function
8
as guests, joining in the wedding celebration and mingling with the actors,
2
who improvise freely.
A more recent example of participatory
T drama is Sleep No More, which
takes place in a block of warehouses (which has been transformed into the
S
McKittrick Hotel) in the Chelsea neighborhood
of New York City. The play
is a wordless production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Audience members, who
must wear white Venetian carnival masks and remain silent at all times, are
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Origins of Modern Drama
813
B
E
N
N
E
T
Arena-Stage Theater. The arena theater at the Riverside Community Players in
T the stage area, which may or may not be
Riverside, California. The audience surrounds
raised. Use of scenery is limited—perhaps to a single piece of scenery standing alone in
,
the middle of the stage.
Source: Courtesy The Arena Theatre, Riverside Community Players, Riverside, CA
B “hotel.” Once deposited, they are free
taken by elevator to various floors of the
to follow any of the actors, who appear
A and disappear at will, or to explore the
hotel’s many rooms. The action can be intense, with audience members chasRor up and down stairs to other floors of
ing actors down dark, narrow hallways
the hotel, and at times, being pulledB
into the action of the play.
A
R
A
2
8
8
2
T
S
Scene from the participatory drama Sleep No More
Credit: Lucas Jackson/Reuters/Corbis
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814
Chapter 25 • Understanding Drama
Today, no single architectural form defines the theater. The modern stage
is a flexible space suited to the many varieties of contemporary theatrical
production.
Defining Drama
Dramatic works differ from other prose works in a number of fairly obvious
ways. For one thing, plays look different on the page: generally, they are
B
divided into acts and scenes; they include stage directions that specify charE settings look like and how characters’ entrances and exits and describe what
acters look and act; and they consist primarily of dialogue, lines spoken by the
N
characters. And, of course, plays are different from other prose works in that
they are written not to be read but to be N
performed in front of an audience.
Unlike novels and short stories, plays
E do not usually have narrators to
tell the audience what a character is thinking or what happened in the
T only what characters reveal. To
past; for the most part, the audience knows
compensate for the absence of a narrator,
T playwrights can use monologues
(extended speeches by one character), soliloquies (monologues in which a
, alone on stage), or asides (brief
character expresses private thoughts while
comments by a character who reveals thoughts by speaking directly to the
audience without being heard by the other characters). In addition to these
Bcostumes, scenery, props, music,
dramatic techniques, a play can also use
lighting, and other techniques to enhance
A its impact on the audience.
The play that follows, Anton Chekhov’s The Brute (1888), is typical of
R
modern drama in many respects. A one-act play translated from Russian, it
is essentially a struggle of wills betweenBtwo headstrong characters, a man
and a woman, with action escalating through the characters’ increasingly
A
heated exchanges of dialogue. Stage directions briefly describe the setting—
R announce the appearance of
“the drawing room of a country house”—and
various props. They also describe the major
A characters’ appearances as well
as their actions, gestures, and emotions. Because the play is a farce, it features
broad physical comedy, asides, wild dramatic gestures, and elaborate figures
of speech, all designed to enhance its comic
2 effect.
Source: ©Bettmann/Corbis
8
ANTON CHEKHOV (1860–1904) is an important nineteenth-century
Russian playwright and8
short story writer . He became a doctor and,
as a young adult, supported the rest of his family after his father’s
2
bankruptcy . After his early adult years in Moscow, Chekhov spent
the rest of his life in the
Tcountry, moving to Yalta, a resort town in
Crimea, for his health (he suffered from tuberculosis) . He continued to
SMoscow Art Theatre, although he could not
write plays, mostly for the
supervise their production as he would have wished . His plays include
The Seagull (1896), Uncle Vanya (1898), The Three Sisters (1901), and
The Cherry Orchard (1904) .
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Glaspell: Trifles
867
A P Im a g e s
SUSAN GLASPELL (1882–1948) was born in Davenport,
Iowa, and graduated from Drake University in 1899 . First a
reporter and then a freelance writer, she lived in Chicago
(where she was part of the Chicago renaissance that
included poet Carl Sandburg and novelist Theodore Dreiser)
and later in Greenwich Village . Her works include two plays
in addition to Trifles, The Verge (1921) and Alison’s House
(1930), and several novels, including Fidelity (1915) and
The Morning Is Near Us (1939) . With her husband, George
B
Cram Cook, she founded the Provincetown Players, which
became theE
staging ground for innovative plays by Eugene
O’Neill, among others .
N Players, beginning with Trifles, which she
Glaspell herself wrote plays for the Provincetown
created for the 1916 season although she hadN
never previously written a drama . The play opened
on August 8, 1916, with Glaspell and her husband in the cast . Glaspell said she wrote Trifles
in one afternoon, sitting in the empty theaterE
and looking at the bare stage: “After a time, the
stage became a kitchen—a kitchen there all by itself .” She remembered a murder trial she had
T
covered in Iowa in her days as a reporter, and the story began to play itself out on the stage as
she gazed . Throughout her revisions, she said,Tshe returned to look at the stage to see whether
the events she was recording came to life on it . Although Glaspell later rewrote Trifles as a short
, her most successful and memorable work .
story called “A Jury of Her Peers,” the play remains
Cultural Context One of the main themes of this play is the contrast between the sexes
B In 1916, when Trifles was first produced,
in terms of their roles, rights, and responsibilities .
women were not allowed to serve on juriesA
in most states . This circumstance was in accordance with other rights denied to women, including the right to vote, which was not ratified
in all states until 1920 . Unable to participateR
in the most basic civic functions, women largely
discussed politics only among themselves and were relegated to positions of lesser status in
B
their personal and professional lives .
A
R
Trifles
A
(1916)
CHARACTERS
George Henderson, county attorney
2
Henry Peters, sheriff
Lewis Hale, a neighboring farmer
8
Mrs. Peters
Mrs. Hale
8
SCENE
2
The kitchen in the now abandoned farmhouse
of John Wright, a gloomy kitchen,
T
and left without having been put in order—unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf
of bread outside the breadbox, a dish S
towel on the table—other signs of incompleted work. At the rear the outer door opens and the Sheriff comes in followed
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868
Chapter 27 • Plot
by the County Attorney and Hale. The Sheriff and Hale are men in middle life,
the County Attorney is a young man; all are much bundled up and go at once
to the stove. They are followed by two women—the Sheriff’s wife first; she is a
slight wiry woman, a thin nervous face. Mrs. Hale is larger and would ordinarily
be called more comfortable looking, but she is disturbed now and looks fearfully
about as she enters. The women have come in slowly, and stand close together
near the door.
5
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (rubbing his hands) B
This feels good. Come up to the
fire, ladies.
MRS. PETERS: (after taking a step forward)EI’m not—cold.
SHERIFF: (unbuttoning his overcoat and stepping
N away from the stove as if to
mark the beginning of official business) Now, Mr. Hale, before we move
N
things about, you explain to Mr. Henderson
just what you saw when
you came here yesterday morning. E
COUNTY ATTORNEY: By the way, has anything been moved? Are things
T
just as you left them yesterday?
T When it dropped below zero last
SHERIFF: (looking about) It’s just the same.
night I thought I’d better send Frank out this morning to make a fire
,
for us—no use getting pneumonia with a big case on, but I told him
not to touch anything except the stove—and you know Frank.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Somebody should B
have been left here yesterday.
A
R
B
A
R
A
2
8
8
2
T
S
In this scene from the Provincetown Players’ 1917 production of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles
Trifles, the
three men discuss the crime while Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale look on.
Source: ©Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox & Tilden Foundations
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Glaspell: Trifles
869
SHERIFF: Oh—yesterday. When I had to send Frank to Morris Center for
that man who went crazy—I want you to know I had my hands full
yesterday. I knew you could get back from Omaha by today and as long
as I went over everything here myself—
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Well, Mr. Hale, tell just what happened when you
came here yesterday morning.
HALE: Harry and I had started to town with a load of potatoes. We came
along the road from my place and as I got here I said, “I’m going to
see if I can’t get John Wright toB
go in with me on a party telephone.”
I spoke to Wright about it onceE
before and he put me off, saying folks
talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet—I guess
N himself; but I thought maybe if I
you know about how much he talked
went to the house and talked about
N it before his wife, though I said to
Harry that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much differE
ence to John—
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Let’s talk aboutTthat later, Mr. Hale. I do want to talk
about that, but tell now just what happened when you got to the house.
T
HALE: I didn’t hear or see anything; I knocked at the door, and still it was
, be up, it was past eight o’clock.
all quiet inside. I knew they must
So I knocked again, and I thought I heard somebody say, “Come in.”
I wasn’t sure, I’m not sure yet, but I opened the door—this door
(indicating the door by which the B
two women are still standing) and there
in that rocker—(pointing to it) sat
A Mrs. Wright.
10
They all look at the rocker.
R
COUNTY ATTORNEY: What—was she
Bdoing?
HALE: She was rockin’ back and forth. She had her apron in her hand and
A
was kind of—pleating it.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: And how did R
she—look?
HALE: Well, she looked queer.
A
COUNTY ATTORNEY: How do you mean—queer?
15
HALE: Well, as if she didn’t know what she was going to do next. And
kind of done up.
2
COUNTY ATTORNEY: How did she seem to feel about your coming?
8
HALE: Why, I don’t think she minded—one
way or other. She didn’t pay
much attention. I said, “How do,
Mrs.
Wright,
it’s cold, ain’t it?” And
8
she said, “Is it?”—and went on kind of pleating at her apron. Well,
2 to come up to the stove, or to set
I was surprised; she didn’t ask me
down, but just sat there, not even
T looking at me, so I said, “I want to
see John.” And then she—laughed. I guess you would call it a laugh.
I thought of Harry and the teamSoutside, so I said a little sharp: “Can’t
I see John?” “No,” she says, kind o’ dull like. “Ain’t he home?” says I.
“Yes,” says she, “he’s home.” “Then why can’t I see him?” I asked her,
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870
20
Chapter 27 • Plot
out of patience. “’Cause he’s dead,” says she. “Dead?” says I. She just
nodded her head, not getting a bit excited, but rockin’ back and forth.
“Why—where is he?” says I, not knowing what to say. She just pointed
upstairs—like that. (Himself pointing to the room above.) I got up, with
the idea of going up there. I walked from there to here—then I says,
“Why, what did he die of?” “He died of a rope round his neck,” says
she, and just went on pleatin’ at her apron. Well, I went out and called
Harry. I thought I might—need help. We went upstairs and there he
B
was lyin’—
COUNTY ATTORNEY: I think I’d rather have
E you go into that upstairs,
where you can point it all out. Just go on now with the rest of the
N
story.
HALE: Well, my first thought was to getN
that rope off. It looked . . . (stops,
his face twitches) . . . but Harry, he went up to him, and he said, “No,
E
he’s dead all right, and we’d better not touch anything.” So we went
back down stairs. She was still sitting
T that same way. “Has anybody
been notified?” I asked. “No,” says she, unconcerned. “Who did this,
T
Mrs. Wright?” said Harry. He said it businesslike—and she stopped
, she says. “You don’t know?” says
pleatin’ of her apron. “I don’t know,”
Harry. “No,” says she. “Weren’t you sleepin’ in the bed with him?”
says Harry. “Yes,” says she, “but I was on the inside.” “Somebody
B
slipped a rope round his neck and strangled
him and you didn’t wake
up?” says Harry. “I didn’t wake up,”A
she said after him. We must ’a
looked as if we didn’t see how that could be, for after a minute she
R to ask her more questions but
said, “I sleep sound.” Harry was going
I said maybe we ought to let her tellBher story first to the coroner,
or the sheriff, so Harry went fast as he could to Rivers’ place, where
A
there’s a telephone.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: And what did Mrs.RWright do when she knew that
you had gone for the coroner?
Aone over here (pointing to a small
HALE: She moved from that chair to this
chair in the corner) and just sat there with her hands held together and
looking down. I got a feeling that I ought to make some conversation,
2
so I said I had come in to see if John wanted to put in a telephone,
and at that she started to laugh, and8then she stopped and looked at
me—scared. (The County Attorney, who has had his notebook out, makes
8
a note.) I dunno, maybe it wasn’t scared. I wouldn’t like to say it was.
2 came, and you, Mr. Peters,
Soon Harry got back, and then Dr. Lloyd
and so I guess that’s all I know that T
you don’t.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (looking around) I guess we’ll go upstairs first—and
S (To the Sheriff.) You’re conthen out to the barn and around there.
vinced that there was nothing important here—nothing that would
point to any motive.
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Glaspell: Trifles
871
SHERIFF: Nothing here but kitchen things.
25
The County Attorney, after again looking around the kitchen, opens the door
of a cupboard closet. He gets up on a chair and looks on a shelf. Pulls his hand
away, sticky.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Here’s a nice mess.
The women draw nearer.
B her fruit; it did freeze. (To the
MRS. PETERS: (to the other woman) Oh,
County Attorney.) She worried E
about that when it turned so cold. She
said the fire’d go out and her jars would break.
N Held for murder and worryin’
SHERIFF: Well, can you beat the women!
about her preserves.
N
COUNTY ATTORNEY: I guess before we’re through she may have something
E
more serious than preserves to worry about.
HALE: Well, women are used to worrying
T over trifles.
30
T
The two women move a little closer together.
, of a young politician) And yet, for
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (with the gallantry
all their worries, what would we do without the ladies? (The women do
not unbend. He goes to the sink, takes a dipperful of water from the pail and
pouring it into a basin, washes hisB
hands. Starts to wipe them on the roller
towel, turns it for a cleaner place.)ADirty towels! (Kicks his foot against the
pans under the sink.) Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?
MRS. HALE: (stiffly) There’s a greatR
deal of work to be done on a farm.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: To be sure. And
B yet (with a little bow to her) I know
there are some Dickson county farmhouses which do not have such
A
roller towels.
Ragain.
He gives it a pull to expose its full length
MRS. HALE: Those towels get dirty A
awful quick. Men’s hands aren’t always
as clean as they might be.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Ah, loyal to your sex, I see. But you and Mrs. Wright
2
were neighbors. I suppose you were friends, too.
8 seen much of her of late years. I’ve
MRS. HALE: (shaking her head) I’ve not
not been in this house—it’s more than a year.
8
COUNTY ATTORNEY: And why was that? You didn’t like her?
2 Farmers’ wives have their hands
MRS. HALE: I liked her all well enough.
full, Mr. Henderson. And then—
T
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Yes—?
MRS. HALE: (looking about) It neverSseemed a very cheerful place.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: No—it’s not cheerful. I shouldn’t say she had the
homemaking instinct.
35
40
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872
45
Chapter 27 • Plot
MRS. HALE: Well, I don’t know as Wright had, either.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: You mean that they didn’t get on very well?
MRS. HALE: No, I don’t mean anything. But I don’t think a place’d be any
cheerfuller for John Wright’s being in it.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: I’d like to talk more of that a little later. I want to get
the lay of things upstairs now.
He goes to the left, where three steps lead to a stair door.
B
SHERIFF: I suppose anything Mrs. Peters does’ll be all right. She was to take
E a few little things. We left in
in some clothes for her, you know, and
such a hurry yesterday.
N
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Yes, but I would like to see what you take, Mrs.
N that might be of use to us.
Peters, and keep an eye out for anything
MRS. PETERS: Yes, Mr. Henderson.
E
The women listen to the men’s steps on the T
stairs, then look about the kitchen.
T into my kitchen, snooping
MRS. HALE: I’d hate to have men coming
around and criticizing.
,
She arranges the pans under sink which the County Attorney had shoved out of
place.
B
50
MRS. PETERS: Of course it’s no more than their duty.
A
MRS. HALE: Duty’s all right, but I guess that deputy sheriff that came out
R of this on. (Gives the roller towel
to make the fire might have got a little
a pull.) Wish I’d thought of that sooner.
B Seems mean to talk about her
for not having things slicked up when she had to come away in such a
A
hurry.
MRS. PETERS: (who has gone to a small table
R in the left rear corner of the room,
and lifted one end of a towel that covers a pan) She had bread set.
Stands still.
A
MRS. HALE: (eyes fixed on a loaf of bread beside the breadbox, which is on a
2
low shelf at the other side of the room. Moves slowly toward it.) She was
going to put this in there. (Picks up8loaf, then abruptly drops it. In a
manner of returning to familiar things.)
8 It’s a shame about her fruit.
I wonder if it’s all gone. (Gets up on the chair and looks.) I think there’s
2 Yes—here; (holding it toward
some here that’s all right, Mrs. Peters.
the window) this is cherries, too. (Looking
T again.) I declare I believe
that’s the only one. (Gets down, bottle in her hand. Goes to the sink and
wipes it off on the outside.) She’ll feelSawful bad after all her hard work
in the hot weather. I remember the afternoon I put up my cherries
last summer.
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Glaspell: Trifles
873
She puts the bottle on the big kitchen table, center of the room. With a sigh, is about
to sit down in the rocking-chair. Before she is seated realizes what chair it is; with a
slow look at it, steps back. The chair which she has touched rocks back and forth.
MRS. PETERS: Well, I must get those things from the front room closet.
(She goes to the door at the right, but after looking into the other room, steps
back.) You coming with me, Mrs. Hale? You could help me carry them.
They go in the other room; reappear, Mrs. Peters carrying a dress and skirt, Mrs.
Hale following with a pair of shoes. B
MRS. PETERS: My, it’s cold in there.E
55
Nhurries to the stove.
She puts the clothes on the big table, and
N was close. I think maybe that’s
MRS. HALE: (examining her skirt) Wright
why she kept so much to herself.
EShe didn’t even belong to the Ladies
Aid. I suppose she felt she couldn’t do her part, and then you don’t
T She used to wear pretty clothes and
enjoy things when you feel shabby.
be lively, when she was MinnieT
Foster, one of the town girls singing in
the choir. But that—oh, that was thirty years ago. This all you was to
,
take in?
MRS. PETERS: She said she wanted an apron. Funny thing to want, for
there isn’t much to get you dirty in jail, goodness knows. But I suppose
B She said they was in the top drawer
just to make her feel more natural.
in this cupboard. Yes, here. AndAthen her little shawl that always hung
behind the door. (Opens stair door and looks.) Yes, here it is.
R
B
MRS. HALE: (abruptly moving toward her) Mrs. Peters?
A
MRS. PETERS: Yes, Mrs. Hale?
MRS. HALE: Do you think she did it?
R
MRS. PETERS: (in a frightened voice) Oh, I don’t know.
A
MRS. HALE: Well, I don’t think she did. Asking for an apron and her little
Quickly shuts door leading upstairs.
shawl. Worrying about her fruit.
MRS. PETERS: (starts to speak, glances up, where footsteps are heard in the
2
room above. In a low voice.) Mr. Peters says it looks bad for her.
Mr. Henderson is awful sarcastic8in a speech and he’ll make fun of her
sayin’ she didn’t wake up.
8
MRS. HALE: Well, I guess John Wright didn’t wake when they was slipping
2
that rope under his neck.
MRS. PETERS: No, it’s strange. It must
T have been done awful crafty and
still. They say it was such a—funny way to kill a man, rigging it all up
S
like that.
MRS. HALE: That’s just what Mr. Hale said. There was a gun in the house.
He says that’s what he can’t understand.
60
65
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874
70
Chapter 27 • Plot
MRS. PETERS: Mr. Henderson said coming out that what was needed for
the case was a motive; something to show anger, or—sudden feeling.
MRS. HALE: (who is standing by the table) Well, I don’t see any signs of
anger around here. (She puts her hand on the dish towel which lies on the
table, stands looking down at table, one half of which is clean, the other half
messy.) It’s wiped to here. (Makes a move as if to finish work, then turns
and looks at loaf of bread outside the breadbox. Drops towel. In that voice
of coming back to familiar things.) Wonder how they are finding things
B red-up1 up there. You know, it
upstairs. I hope she had it a little more
seems kind of sneaking. Locking her E
up in town and then coming out
here and trying to get her own house to turn against her!
MRS. PETERS: But Mrs. Hale, the law is N
the law.
MRS. HALE: I s’pose ’tis. (Unbuttoning her
Ncoat.) Better loosen up your
things, Mrs. Peters. You won’t feel them when you go out.
E
Mrs. Peters takes off her fur tippet, goes to hang it on hook at back of room, stands
T
looking at the under part of the small corner table.
MRS. PETERS: She was piecing a quilt.
T
,
She brings the large sewing basket and they look at the bright pieces.
MRS. HALE: It’s log cabin pattern. Pretty, isn’t it? I wonder if she was goin’
B
to quilt it or just knot it?
A
Footsteps have been heard coming down the stairs. The Sheriff enters followed by
R
Hale and the County Attorney.
Bquilt it or just knot it!
SHERIFF: They wonder if she was going to
A
R
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (rubbing his hands over the stove) Frank’s fire didn’t
do much up there, did it? Well, let’sA
go out to the barn and get that
The men laugh; the women look abashed.
cleared up.
The men go outside.
75
2
MRS. HALE: (resentfully) I don’t know as8there’s anything so strange, our
takin’ up our time with little things while we’re waiting for them to
8
get the evidence. (She sits down at the big table smoothing out a block with
decision.) I don’t see as it’s anything2
to laugh about.
MRS. PETERS: (apologetically) Of course they’ve
got awful important things
T
on their minds.
S
●
red-up: Spruced-up (slang) .
1
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Glaspell: Trifles
875
Pulls up a chair and joins Mrs. Hale at the table.
MRS. HALE: (examining another block) Mrs. Peters, look at this one. Here,
this is the one she was working on, and look at the sewing! All the
rest of it has been so nice and even. And look at this! It’s all over the
place! Why, it looks as if she didn’t know what she was about!
After she has said this they look at each other, then start to glance back at the door.
After an instant Mrs. Hale has pulled at a knot and ripped the sewing.
B
MRS. PETERS: Oh, what are you doing, Mrs. Hale?
E
MRS. HALE: (mildly) Just pulling out a stitch or two that’s not sewed very
good. (Threading a needle.) Bad N
sewing always made me fidgety.
MRS. PETERS: (nervously) I don’t think
N we ought to touch things.
MRS. HALE: I’ll just finish up this end. (Suddenly stopping and leaning
E
forward.) Mrs. Peters?
MRS. PETERS: Yes, Mrs. Hale?
T
MRS. HALE: What do you suppose she was so nervous about?
MRS. PETERS: Oh—I don’t know. ITdon’t know as she was nervous.
I sometimes sew awful queer when
, I’m just tired. (Mrs. Hale starts to
say something, looks at Mrs. Peters, then goes on sewing.) Well, I must
get these things wrapped up. They may be through sooner than we
think. (Putting apron and other things
B together.) I wonder where I can
find a piece of paper, and string.
A
MRS. HALE: In that cupboard, maybe.
MRS. PETERS: (looking in cupboard) Why,
R here’s a birdcage. (Holds it up.)
Did she have a bird, Mrs. Hale?
B
MRS. HALE: Why, I don’t know whether she did or not—I’ve not been
A around last year selling canaries
here for so long. There was a man
cheap, but I don’t know as she took
R one; maybe she did. She used to
sing real pretty herself.
A funny to think of a bird here. But
MRS. PETERS: (glancing around) Seems
she must have had one, or why would she have a cage? I wonder what
happened to it.
MRS. HALE: I s’pose maybe the cat 2
got it.
MRS. PETERS: No, she didn’t have a8cat. She’s got that feeling some people
have about cats—being afraid of them. My cat got in her room and she
8 it out.
was real upset and asked me to take
MRS. HALE: My sister Bessie was like
2 that. Queer, ain’t it?
MRS. PETERS: (examining the cage) Why, look at this door. It’s broke. One
T
hinge is pulled apart.
MRS. HALE: (looking too) Looks asS
if someone must have been rough
with it.
MRS. PETERS: Why, yes.
80
85
90
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876
Chapter 27 • Plot
B
E
N
N
E
T
T
In this scene from a 2010 production of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles
, Trifles, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale
discuss the discovery of a birdcage.
P ru d e n c e Ka tze
B
A
MRS. HALE: I wish if they’re going to find any evidence they’d be about it.
R
I don’t like this place.
MRS. PETERS: But I’m awful glad you came
B with me, Mrs. Hale. It would be
lonesome for me sitting here alone.
A her sewing.) But I tell you
MRS. HALE: It would, wouldn’t it? (Dropping
what I do wish, Mrs. Peters. I wish IR
had come over sometimes when
she was here. I—(looking around the room)—wish I had.
A busy, Mrs. Hale—your house
MRS. PETERS: But of course you were awful
She brings the cage forward and puts it on the table.
95
and your children.
MRS. HALE: I could’ve come. I stayed away because it weren’t cheerful—
2 I—I’ve never liked this place.
and that’s why I ought to have come.
Maybe because it’s down in a hollow8and you don’t see the road.
I dunno what it is but it’s a lonesome place and always was. I wish
8
I had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes. I can see now—
2
T
MRS. PETERS: Well, you mustn’t reproach yourself, Mrs. Hale. Somehow
we just don’t see how it is with otherSfolks until—something comes up.
Shakes her head.
100
MRS. HALE: Not having children makes less work—but it makes a quiet
house, and Wright out to work all day, and no company when he did
come in. Did you know John Wright, Mrs. Peters?
9781337509633, PORTABLE Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, Ninth edition, Kirszner - © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Glaspell: T
Trifles
877
MRS. PETERS: Not to know him; I’ve seen him in town. They say he was a
good man.
MRS. HALE: Yes—good; he didn’t drink, and kept his word as well as most,
I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to
pass the time of day with him—(Shivers.) Like a raw wind that gets to
the bone. (Pauses, her eye falling on the cage.) I should think she would
’a wanted a bird. But what do you suppose went with it?
MRS. PETERS: I don’t know, unless it got sick and died.
B
E
MRS. HALE: You weren’t raised round here, were you? (Mrs. Peters shakes
N
her head.) You didn’t know—her?
MRS. PETERS: Not till they broughtN
her yesterday.
MRS. HALE: She—come to think ofEit, she was kind of like a bird herself—
real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery. How—she—
did—change. (Silence; then as ifT
struck by a happy thought and relieved to
get back to everyday things.) TellT
you what, Mrs. Peters, why don’t you
take the quilt in with you? It might take up her mind.
MRS. PETERS: Why, I think that’s a,real nice idea, Mrs. Hale. There
She reaches over and swings the broken door, swings it again. Both women watch it.
105
couldn’t possibly be any objection to it, could there? Now, just what
would I take? I wonder if her patches are in here—and her things.
B
A
MRS. HALE: Here’s some red. I expect this has got sewing things in it.
R
(Brings out a fancy box.) What a pretty box. Looks like something
Bher scissors are in here. (Opens box.
somebody would give you. Maybe
Suddenly puts her hand to her nose.)
A Why—(Mrs. Peters bends nearer, then
turns her face away.) There’s something wrapped up in this piece of silk.
R
MRS. PETERS: Why, this isn’t her scissors.
MRS. HALE: (lifting the silk) Oh, Mrs.
APeters—it’s—
They look in the sewing basket.
110
Mrs. Peters bends closer.
MRS. PETERS: It’s the bird.
2
MRS. HALE: (jumping up) But, Mrs. Peters—look at it! Its neck! Look at its
8
neck! It’s all—other side to.
8
MRS. PETERS: Somebody—wrung—its—neck.
2
Their eyes meet. A look of growing comprehension,
of horror. Steps are heard
outside. Mrs. Hale slips the box under T
quilt pieces, and sinks into her chair. Enter
Sheriff and County Attorney. Mrs. Peters rises.
S
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (as one turning from serious things to little pleasantries)
Well, ladies, have you decided whether she was going to quilt it or
knot it?
115
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878
Chapter 27 • Plot
MRS. PETERS: We think she was going to—knot it.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Well, that’s interesting, I’m sure. (Seeing the birdcage.)
Has the bird flown?
MRS. HALE: (putting more quilt pieces over the box) We think the—cat got it.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (preoccupied) Is there a cat?
Mrs. Hale glances in a quick covert way at Mrs. Peters.
120
MRS. PETERS: Well, not now. They’re superstitious, you know. They leave.
B
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (to Sheriff Peters, continuing an interrupted conversation) No sign at all of anyone havingEcome from the outside. Their own
rope. Now let’s go up again and go over it piece by piece. (They start
N
upstairs.) It would have to have been someone who knew just the—
N
Mrs. Peters sits down. The two women sit there not looking at one another, but as
Eholding back. When they talk now it
if peering into something and at the same time
is in the manner of feeling their way over strange
T ground, as if afraid of what they
are saying, but as if they can not help saying it.
T
125
MRS. HALE: She liked the bird. She was going to bury it in that pretty box.
MRS. PETERS: (in a whisper) When I was, a girl—my kitten—there was
a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes—and before I could get
there—(Covers her face an instant.) If they hadn’t held me back I
B
would have—(catches herself, looks upstairs where steps are heard, falters
A
weakly)—hurt him.
MRS. HALE: (with a slow look around her) I wonder how it would seem
R
never to have had any children around. (Pause.) No, Wright wouldn’t
like the bird—a thing that sang. SheBused to sing. He killed that, too.
MRS. PETERS: (moving uneasily) We don’t
Aknow who killed the bird.
MRS. HALE: I knew John Wright.
MRS. PETERS: It was an awful thing wasR
done in this house that night, Mrs.
Hale. Killing a man while he slept, slipping
a rope around his neck that
A
choked the life out of him.
MRS. HALE: His neck. Choked the life out of him.
Her hand goes out and rests on the birdcage.2
8
130
MRS. PETERS: (with rising voice) We don’t know who killed him. We don’t
8
know.
MRS. HALE: (her own feeling not interrupted)
2 If there’d been years and years
of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful—still, after the
T
bird was still.
MRS. PETERS: (something within her speaking)
S I know what stillness is. When
we homesteaded in Dakota, and my first baby died—after he was two
years old, and me with no other then—
9781337509633, PORTABLE Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, Ninth edition, Kirszner - © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Glaspell: Trifles
879
MRS. HALE: (moving) How soon do you suppose they’ll be through, looking
for the evidence?
MRS. PETERS: I know what stillness is. (Pulling herself back.) The law has
got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale.
MRS. HALE: (not as if answering that) I wish you’d seen Minnie Foster when
she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the
choir and sang. (A look around the room.) Oh, I wish I’d come over here
once in a while! That was a crime! That was a crime! Who’s going to
B
punish that?
MRS. PETERS: (looking upstairs) We E
mustn’t—take on.
MRS. HALE: I might have known she needed help! I know how things
N queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close
can be—for women. I tell you, it’s
together and we live far apart. We
N all go through the same things—it’s
all just a different kind of the same thing. (Brushes her eyes; noticing the
E
bottle of fruit, reaches out for it.) If I was you I wouldn’t tell her her fruit
was gone. Tell her it ain’t. Tell T
her it’s all right. Take this in to prove it
to her. She—she may never know whether it was broke or not.
T
MRS. PETERS: (takes the bottle, looks about for something to wrap it in; takes
petticoat from the clothes brought ,from the other room, very nervously begins
winding this around the bottle. In a false voice) My, it’s a good thing the
men couldn’t hear us. Wouldn’t they just laugh! Getting all stirred up
over a little thing like a—dead B
canary. As if that could have anything
to do with—with—wouldn’t they
A laugh!
135
The men are heard coming down stairs.R
MRS. HALE: (under her breath) Maybe
B they would—maybe they wouldn’t.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: No, Peters, it’s all perfectly clear except a reason for
A
doing it. But you know juries when it comes to women. If there was some
R
definite thing. Something to show—something
to make a story about—a
thing that would connect up with this strange way of doing it—
A
The women’s eyes meet for an instant. Enter Hale from outer door.
HALE: Well, I’ve got the team around.
2 Pretty cold out there.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: I’m going to stay here a while by myself. (To the Sheriff.) You can send Frank out for8me, can’t you? I want to go over everything. I’m not satisfied that we can’t
8 do better.
SHERIFF: Do you want to see what Mrs. Peters is going to take in?
140
2
T
Oh, I guess they’re
S not very dangerous things the
The County Attorney goes to the table, picks up the apron, laughs.
COUNTY ATTORNEY:
ladies have picked out. (Moves a few things about, disturbing the quilt
pieces which cover the box. Steps back.) No, Mrs. Peters doesn’t need
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880
145
Chapter 27 • Plot
supervising. For that matter, a sheriff’s wife is married to the law. Ever
think of it that way, Mrs. Peters?
MRS. PETERS: Not—just that way.
SHERIFF: (chuckling) Married to the law. (Moves toward the other room.) I
just want you to come in here a minute, George. We ought to take a
look at these windows.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (scoffingly) Oh, windows!
SHERIFF: We’ll be right out, Mr. Hale.
B
Hale goes outside. The Sheriff follows the County Attorney into the other room.
E looking intensely at Mrs. Peters,
Then Mrs. Hale rises, hands tight together,
whose eyes make a slow turn, finally meeting
NMrs. Hale’s. A moment Mrs. Hale
holds her, then her own eyes point the way to where the box is concealed. Suddenly Mrs. Peters throws back quilt pieces N
and tries to put the box in the bag she
is wearing. It is too big. She opens box, starts
E to take bird out, cannot touch it,
goes to pieces, stands there helpless. Sound of a knob turning in the other room.
Mrs. Hale snatches the box and puts it in theTpocket of her big coat. Enter County
Attorney and Sheriff.
T
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (facetiously) Well, Henry,
at least we found out that she
,
was not going to quilt it. She was going to—what is it you call it, ladies?
MRS. HALE: (her hand against her pocket) We call it—knot it, Mr. Henderson.
B
*
A
R
Reading and Reacting
1. What key events have occurred before
Bthe start of the play? Why do you
suppose these events are not presented in the play itself?
A
2. What are the “trifles” to which the title refers? How do these “trifles”
advance the play’s plot?
R
3. Glaspell’s short story version of Trifles is called “A Jury of Her Peers.”
A
Who are Mrs. Wright’s peers? What do you suppose the verdict would
*
*
be if she were tried for her crime in 1916, when only men were permitted to serve on juries? If the trial were
2 held today, do you think a jury
might reach a different verdict? What would your own verdict be? Do
8 do the right thing by concealing
you think Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters
the evidence?
8
4. Trifles is a one-act play, and all its action occurs in the Wrights’ kitchen.
What do you see as the advantages 2
and disadvantages of this confined
setting?
T
5. All background information about Mrs. Wright is provided by Mrs. Hale.
S of information? Explain.
Do you consider her to be a reliable source
6. Mr. Hale’s summary of his conversation with Mrs. Wright is the reader’s
only chance to hear her version of events. How might the play be different if Mrs. Wright appeared as a character?
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Ibsen: A Doll House
881
7. How does each of the following events advance the play’s action: the
men’s departure from the kitchen, the discovery of the quilt pieces, the
discovery of the dead bird?
8. What assumptions about women do the male characters make? In what
ways do the female characters support or challenge these assumptions?
9. JOURNAL ENTRY In what sense is the process of making a quilt an appropriate metaphor for the plot of Trifles?
10. CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE In AmericanBDrama from the Colonial Period through
World War I, Gary A. Richardson
Esays that in Trifles, Glaspell developed
a new structure for her action:
N
While action in the traditional sense is minimal, Glaspell is nevertheless able
N wed the audience to their perspective,
to rivet attention on the two women,
and make a compelling case for the fairness of their actions. Existing on the
E
margins of their society, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale become emotional surrogates for the jailed Minnie Wright,
T effectively exonerating her action as
“justifiable homicide.”
T Glaspell’s subject matter—the action
Trifles is carefully crafted to match
meanders, without a clearly delineated
beginning, middle, or end. . . .
,
Exactly how does Glaspell “rivet attention on” Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters?
In what sense is the play’s “meandering” structure “carefully crafted to
B
match Glaspell’s subject matter”?
A
Hulton Archive/Stringer/Getty Images
Related Works: “I Stand Here Ironing” (p. 217), “Everyday Use” (p. 344),
R
“The Yellow Wallpaper” (p. 434), “Harlem”
(p. 577), “Daddy” (p. 589), A
Doll House (p. 881)
B
A
R (1828–1906), Norway’s foremost dramatist,
HENRIK IBSEN
was born into
Aa prosperous family; however, his father lost his
fortune when Ibsen was six . When Ibsen was fifteen, he was
apprenticed to an apothecary away from home and was permanently estranged
2 from his family . During his apprenticeship,
he studied to enter the university and wrote plays . Although
he did not 8
pass the university entrance exam, his second
play, The Warrior’s Barrow (1850), was produced by the
Christiania 8
Theatre in 1850 . He began a life in the theater,
writing plays
2and serving as artistic director of a theatrical
company . Disillusioned by the public’s lack of interest in theater, he left Norway, living with
T 1864 and 1891 . By the time he returned
his wife and son in Italy and Germany between
to Norway, he was famous and revered . Ibsen’s
S most notable plays include Brand (1865),
Peer Gynt (1867), A Doll House (1879), Ghosts (1881), An Enemy of the People (1882),
The Wild Duck (1884), Hedda Gabler (1890), and When We Dead Awaken (1899) .
A Doll House marks the beginning of Ibsen’s successful realist period, during which he
explored the ordinary lives of small-town people—in this case, writing what he called “a
9781337509633, PORTABLE Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, Ninth edition, Kirszner - © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
882
Chapter 27 • Plot
modern tragedy .” Ibsen based the play on a true story, which closely paralleled the main events
of the play: a wife borrows money to finance a trip for an ailing husband, repayment is demanded, she forges a check and is discovered . (In the real-life story, however, the husband
demanded a divorce, and the wife had a nervous breakdown and was committed to a mental
institution .) The issue in A Doll House, he said, is that there are “two kinds of moral law, . . .
one in man and a completely different one in woman . They do not understand each other . . . .”
Nora and Helmer’s marriage is destroyed because they cannot comprehend or accept their differences . The play begins conventionally but does not fulfill the audience’s expectations for a
tidy resolution; as a result, it was not a success when it was first performed . Nevertheless, the
B
publication of A Doll House made Ibsen internationally famous .
E
N
than it treated children . Women could not vote, and they were not considered able to handle
their own financial affairs . A woman could not borrow
N money in her own name, and when
she married, her finances were placed under the control of her husband . Moreover, working
E
outside the home was out of the question for a middle-class
woman . So, if a woman were to
leave her husband, she was not likely to have anyTway of supporting herself, and she would
lose the custody of her children . At the time when A Doll House was first performed, most
viewers were offended by the way Nora spoke toT
her husband, and Ibsen was considered an
anarchist for suggesting that a woman could leave her family in search of herself . However,
,
Ibsen argued that he was merely asking people to look at, and think about, the social structure
Cultural Context During the nineteenth century, the law treated women only a little better
they supported .
B
A Doll House
A (1879)
Translated by Rolf Fjelde
R
CHARACTERS
B Krogstad, a bank clerk
Torvald Helmer, a lawyer
Nils
Nora, his wife
The
A Helmers’ three small children
Dr. Rank
Anne-Marie, their nurse
R a maid
Mrs. Linde
Helene,
A Delivery Boy
A
The action takes place in Helmer’s residence.
2
8
A comfortable room, tastefully but not expensively furnished. A door to the right
8 to the left leads to Helmer’s study.
in the back wall leads to the entryway; another
Between these doors, a piano. Midway in 2
the left-hand wall a door, and further
back a window. Near the window a round table with an armchair and a small
T a door, and nearer the foreground a
sofa. In the right-hand wall, toward the rear,
porcelain stove with two armchairs and a rocking
S chair beside it. Between the stove
ACT 1
and the side door, a small table. Engravings on the walls. An étagère with china
figures and other small art objects; a small bookcase with richly bound books; the
floor carpeted; a fire burning in the stove. It is a winter day.
9781337509633, PORTABLE Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, Ninth edition, Kirszner - © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Ibsen: A Doll House Act 1
883
A bell rings in the entryway; shortly after we hear the door being unlocked. Nora
comes into the room, humming happily to herself; she is wearing street clothes and
carries an armload of packages, which she puts down on the table to the right.
She has left the hall door open; and through it a Delivery Boy is seen, holding a
Christmas tree and a basket, which he gives to the Maid who let them in.
NORA: Hide the tree well, Helene. The children mustn’t get a glimpse of it
till this evening, after it’s trimmed. (To the Delivery Boy, taking out her
purse.) How much?
B
DELIVERY BOY: Fifty, ma’am.
E change. (The Boy thanks her and
NORA: There’s a crown. No, keep the
leaves. Nora shuts the door. She laughs
N softly to herself while taking off
her street things. Drawing a bag of macaroons from her pocket, she eats a
couple, then steals over and listensN
at her husband’s study door.) Yes, he’s
home. (Hums again as she movesE
to the table right.)
HELMER: (from the study) Is that my little lark twittering out there?
T
NORA: (busy opening some packages) Yes, it is.
T around?
HELMER: Is that my squirrel rummaging
NORA: Yes!
,
HELMER: When did my squirrel get in?
NORA: Just now. (Putting the macaroon bag in her pocket and wiping her
mouth.) Do come in, Torvald, and
B see what I’ve bought.
HELMER: Can’t be disturbed. (After a moment he opens the door and peers in,
A that there? Has the little spendthrift
pen in hand.) Bought, you say? All
been out throwing money around
R again?
NORA: Oh, but Torvald, this year we really should let ourselves go a bit.
B had to economize.
It’s the first Christmas we haven’t
HELMER: But you know we can’t goA
squandering.
NORA: Oh yes, Torvald, we can squander a little now. Can’t we? Just a
R a big salary and are going to make
tiny, wee bit. Now that you’ve got
piles and piles of money.
A
HELMER: Yes—starting New Year’s. But then it’s a full three months till
the raise comes through.
NORA: Pooh! We can borrow that long.
2
HELMER: Nora! (Goes over and playfully takes her by the ear.) Are your scat8
terbrains off again? What if today I borrowed a thousand crowns, and
8 week, and then on New Year’s
you squandered them over Christmas
Eve a roof tile fell on my head, 2
and I lay there—
NORA: (putting her hand on his mouth) Oh! Don’t say such things!
T
HELMER: Yes, but what if it happened—then
what?
NORA: If anything so awful happened,
then
it
just wouldn’t matter if I had
S
debts or not.
HELMER: Well, but the people I’d borrowed from?
NORA: Them? Who cares about them! They’re strangers.
5
10
15
20
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884
Chapter 27 • Plot
B
E
N
N
E
T
T
,
B
A
Source: Nigel Norrington/ArenaPal/TopFoto/The R
Image Works
B
HELMER: Nora, Nora, how like a woman! No, but seriously, Nora, you know
A
what I think about that. No debts! Never borrow! Something of freedom’s lost—and something of beauty,
Rtoo—from a home that’s founded
on borrowing and debt. We’ve made a brave stand up to now, the two
A
of us; and we’ll go right on like that the little while we have to.
Scene from A Doll House with Toby Stephens (as Torvald
Helmer) and Gillian Anderson (as Nora) at The Donmar
Warehouse, London, UK in May 2009
25
NORA: (going toward the stove) Yes, whatever you say, Torvald.
HELMER: (following her) Now, now, the little
2 lark’s wings mustn’t droop.
Come on, don’t be a sulky squirrel. (Taking out his wallet.) Nora, guess
8
what I have here.
NORA: (turning quickly) Money!
8
HELMER: There, see. (Hands her some notes.) Good grief, I know how costs
go up in a house at Christmastime. 2
NORA: Ten—twenty—thirty—forty. Oh,
T thank you, Torvald; I can manage no end on this.
S
HELMER: You really will have to.
NORA: Oh yes, I promise I will! But come here so I can show you everything I bought. And so cheap! Look, new clothes for Ivar here—and a
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Ibsen: A Doll House Act 1
885
sword. Here a horse and a trumpet for Bob. And a doll and a doll’s bed
here for Emmy; they’re nothing much, but she’ll tear them to bits in no
time anyway. And here I have dress material and handkerchiefs for the
maids. Old Anne-Marie really deserves something more.
HELMER: And what’s in that package there?
NORA: (with a cry) Torvald, no! You can’t see that till tonight!
HELMER: I see. But tell me now, you little prodigal, what have you thought
of for yourself?
NORA: For myself? Oh, I don’t wantBanything at all.
HELMER: Of course you do. Tell meE
just what—within reason—you’d most
like to have.
NORA: I honestly don’t know. Oh, N
listen, Torvald—
HELMER: Well?
N
NORA: (fumbling at his coat buttons, without looking at him) If you want to
E
give me something, then maybe you could—you could—
HELMER: Come on, out with it.
T
NORA: (hurriedly) You could give me money, Torvald. No more than
T
you think you can spare; then one of these days I’ll buy something
,
with it.
HELMER: But Nora—
NORA: Oh, please, Torvald darling, do that! I beg you, please. Then
B paper on the Christmas tree.
I could hang the bills in pretty gilt
Wouldn’t that be fun?
A
HELMER: What are those little birds called that always fly through their
R
fortunes?
NORA: Oh yes, spendthrifts; I knowB
all that. But let’s do as I say, Torvald;
then I’ll have time to decide what I really need most. That’s very senA
sible, isn’t it?
HELMER: (smiling) Yes, very—that is,
Rif you actually hung onto the money
I give you, and you actually used it to buy yourself something. But it
A of foolish things, and then I only
goes for the house and for all sorts
have to lay out some more.
NORA: Oh, but Torvald—
2
HELMER: Don’t deny it, my dear little Nora. (Putting his arm around her
8 they use up a frightful amount of
waist.) Spendthrifts are sweet, but
money. It’s incredible what it costs a man to feed such birds.
8
NORA: Oh, how can you say that! Really, I save everything I can.
2 Everything you can. But that’s
HELMER: (laughing) Yes, that’s the truth.
nothing at all.
T
NORA: (humming, with a smile of quiet satisfaction) Hm, if you only knew
S have, Torvald.
what expenses we larks and squirrels
HELMER: You’re an odd little one. Exactly the way your father was. You’re
never at a loss for scaring up money; but the moment you have it, it
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50
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Chapter 27 • Plot
runs right out through your fingers; you never know what you’ve done
with it. Well, one takes you as you are. It’s deep in your blood. Yes,
these things are hereditary, Nora.
NORA: Ah, I could wish I’d inherited many of Papa’s qualities.
HELMER: And I couldn’t wish you anything but just what you are, my sweet
little lark. But wait; it seems to me you have a very—what should I call
it?—a very suspicious look today—
NORA: I do?
B in the eye.
HELMER: You certainly do. Look me straight
NORA: (looking at him) Well?
E
HELMER: (shaking an admonitory finger) Surely my sweet tooth hasn’t been
running riot in town today, has she?N
NORA: No. Why do you imagine that? N
HELMER: My sweet tooth really didn’t make a little detour through the
E
confectioner’s?
NORA: No, I assure you, Torvald—
T
HELMER: Hasn’t nibbled some pastry?
T
NORA: No, not at all.
, or two?
HELMER: Nor even munched a macaroon
NORA: No, Torvald, I assure you, really—
HELMER: There, there now. Of course I’m only joking.
BI could never think of going
NORA: (going to the table, right) You know
against you.
A
HELMER: No, I understand that; and you have given me your word. (Going
over to her.) Well, you keep your littleRChristmas secrets to yourself, Nora
darling. I expect they’ll come to lightB
this evening, when the tree is lit.
NORA: Did you remember to ask Dr. Rank?
A it’s assumed he’ll be dining with
HELMER: No. But there’s no need for that;
us. All the same, I’ll ask him when he
R stops by here this morning. I’ve
ordered some fine wine. Nora, you can’t imagine how I’m looking forA
ward to this evening.
NORA: So am I. And what fun for the children, Torvald!
HELMER: Ah, it’s so gratifying to know that one’s gotten a safe, secure job,
2
and with a comfortable salary. It’s a great satisfaction, isn’t it?
8
NORA: Oh, it’s wonderful!
HELMER: Remember last Christmas? Three whole weeks before, you shut
8
yourself in every evening till long after midnight, making flowers for
the Christmas tree, and all the other2decorations to surprise us. Ugh,
that was the dullest time I’ve ever lived
T through.
NORA: It wasn’t at all dull for me.
HELMER: (smiling) But the outcome wasS
pretty sorry, Nora.
NORA: Oh, don’t tease me with that again. How could I help it that the
cat came in and tore everything to shreds.
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Ibsen: A Doll House Act 1
887
HELMER: No, poor thing, you certainly couldn’t. You wanted so much to
please us all, and that’s what counts. But it’s just as well that the hard
times are past.
NORA: Yes, it’s really wonderful.
HELMER: Now I don’t have to sit here alone, boring myself, and you don’t
have to tire your precious eyes and your fair little delicate hands—
NORA: (clapping her hands) No, is it really true, Torvald, I don’t have to?
Oh, how wonderfully lovely to hear! (Taking his arm.) Now I’ll tell you
just how I’ve thought we shouldBplan things. Right after Christmas—
(The doorbell rings.) Oh, the bell.
E(Straightening the room up a bit.)
Somebody would have to come. What a bore!
Ndon’t forget.
HELMER: I’m not at home to visitors,
MAID: (from the hall doorway) Ma’am,
N a lady to see you—
NORA: All right, let her come in.
E
MAID: (to Helmer) And the doctor’s just come too.
HELMER: Did he go right to my study?
T
MAID: Yes, he did.
T
Helmer goes into his room. The Maid shows in Mrs. Linde, dressed in traveling
,
clothes, and shuts the door after her.
MRS. LINDE: (in a dispirited and somewhat hesitant voice) Hello, Nora.
B
NORA: (uncertain) Hello—
MRS. LINDE: You don’t recognize me.
A
NORA: No, I don’t know—but wait, I think—(Exclaiming.) What!
R
Kristine! Is it really you?
MRS. LINDE: Yes, it’s me.
B
NORA: Kristine! To think I didn’t recognize you. But then, how could I?
A Kristine!
(More quietly.) How you’ve changed,
MRS. LINDE: Yes, no doubt I have. R
In nine—ten long years.
NORA: Is it so long since we met! Yes, it’s all of that. Oh, these last eight
A me. And so now you’ve come in
years have been a happy time, believe
to town, too. Made the long trip in the winter. That took courage.
MRS. LINDE: I just got here by ship this morning.
2
NORA: To enjoy yourself over Christmas, of course. Oh, how lovely! Yes,
8 take your coat off. You’re not still
enjoy ourselves, we’ll do that. But
cold? (Helping her.) There now, let’s get cozy here by the stove. No, the
8
easy chair there! I’ll take the rocker here. (Seizing her hands.) Yes, now
you have your old look again; it2was only in that first moment. You’re a
bit more pale, Kristine—and maybe
T a bit thinner.
MRS. LINDE: And much, much older, Nora.
S tiny bit; not much at all. (Stopping
NORA: Yes, perhaps a bit older; a tiny,
short; suddenly serious.) Oh, but thoughtless me, to sit here, chattering
away. Sweet, good Kristine, can you forgive me?
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Chapter 27 • Plot
MRS. LINDE: What do you mean, Nora?
NORA: (softly) Poor Kristine, you’ve become a widow.
MRS. LINDE: Yes, three years ago.
NORA: Oh, I knew it, of course: I read it in the papers. Oh, Kristine, you
must believe me; I often thought of writing you then, but I kept postponing it, and something always interfered.
MRS. LINDE: Nora dear, I understand completely.
NORA: No, it was awful of me, Kristine. You poor thing, how much you
Byou nothing?
must have gone through. And he left
MRS. LINDE: No.
E
NORA: And no children?
N
MRS. LINDE: No.
NORA: Nothing at all, then?
N
MRS. LINDE: Not even a sense of loss to feed on.
E
NORA: (looking incredulously at her) But Kristine, how could that be?
MRS. LINDE: (smiling wearily and smoothing
T her ...
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