Scene 5

1. Scene 5 Julie, Mic, Manu and Tae Jong

2. Summary Scene 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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 realism Memory play - “Tom [to the audience]” (in control of the play)

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.”

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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

16. 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!

17. 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.”

18. 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”

19. 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.”

20. 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?”

21. 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.”

22. 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.