The American Dream Summary

Work: The American Dream

Author: Edward Albee (1961)

Characters: Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Ms. Barker, The American Dream

Setting: Mommy/Daddy’s apartment

Summary: The play opens with Mommy and Daddy sitting on two chairs, not facing each other, waiting for a mysterious visitor. Grandma wanders about being generally cantankerous and carrying lots of boxes. Mrs. Barker, the visitor, shows up, although no one can remember why she is there, and talks with Mommy and Daddy (Daddy likes Mrs. Barker very much, mommy does not). Grandma gets Mommy and Daddy to leave the grownups alone for a while, sending them for a glass of water (nobody besides Grandma can find anything in the apartment). They discuss Mommy and Daddy’s adopted bumble/bundle and the various limbs/sensory organs they removed from the baby out of spite. Not too long later, a handsome, dumb stranger visits the apartment and talks with grandma. He is blind deaf, impotent, and the twin of a certain bumble weve met before. Grandma gets her boxes together and decides the play had best stop where its at.
            Analysis: The American Dream is Albee’s critique on the shallow perversion that we call a dream. Mommy and Daddy are obsessed with appearances and appearances only, and define themselves by others opinions, compromising even their sense of sight (beige vs wheat). Rather than seek meaning or truth, Mommy and Daddy wander blindly, unable to find anything in their own apartment let alone life. Language is deliberately vague (lots o’ pronouns) with any them’s and they’s. Grandma, the voice of traditional old pioneer America is the voice of reason and critique. All the males in the play are either literally or metaphorically dickless, and the theme song of Mommy and Daddy’s apartment is “I Can’t Get no Satisfaction” (physical, spiritual, or otherwise). Not only have Mommy and Daddy ruined themselves, but the next generation too.

Theme: “I no longer have the capacity to feel anything. I have no emotions. I have been drained, torn asunder disemboweled. I have, now, only my person, my body, my face. I use what I have I let people love me I accept the syntax around me, for while I know I cannot relate;I know I must be related to.” –American Dream (the guy)

Hamlet Summary

Work: Hamlet

Author: Willy Shakespeare (late 19^th century/early 20th)

Characters: Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, Horatio, Ophelia, Polonius, Laertes, Fortinbras

Setting: Denmark (middle ages ish), Elsinore and surrounding area

Plot: Old King Hamlet and Old Fortinbras, in a duel to the death, wagered their respective countries. Hamlet won, killing Fortinbras and winning Norway. Old Hamlet is dead when the play opens and his brother Claudius has assumed the throne and his wife. Hamlet is told by a ghost claiming to be Old Hamlet that he was poisoned by Claudius and Hamlet must seek revenge. Hamlet is in a relationship with Ophelia, which Ophelia’s father Polonius tries to diffuse and hide out of fear of political fallout. Hamlet is depressed after his father’s death and acts/pretends to act insane, which Polonius Gertrude and Claudius believe to be madness for Ophelia. Hamlet puts on a play with events similar to those that the ghost described to him, in order to gauge Claudius’ reaction and determine his guilt. Claudius is deeply startled by the play, confirming his guilt in Hamlets mind. Hamlet rejects Ophelia which causes her to kill herself in grief. Claudius realizes Hamlets intentions and attempts to have him killed, first by sending Hamlet to England where he would be killed, and then in a fencing match with Laertes, who fights with a real sword that has been poisoned instead of a not poisoned dull sword. Through a series of unfortunate events, Hamlet, Laertes, Claudius, and Gertrude all die and Fortinbras becomes king of Denmark and Norway.

Analysis: Hamlet is a play about the dangers of revenge and obsession.

Theme: Actions of violent passion, un tempered by thought or reason, lead to equally violent ends.

Quote: : “To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether tis more noble in the mind to suffer the To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them”

Pride and Prejudice Summary

Work: Pride and Prejudice

Author: Jane Austen (1813)

Setting: Early 19^th century England, Netherfield (Darcy, Bingley, and co), Pemberly (Darcy’s estate),

Characters: Bennets: Elizabeth, Jane, Mr/Mrs. Bennet, Lydia, Mary, Catherine

Others:  Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Charles Bingley, William Collins, Charlotte Lucas, Wickham

Plot: Due to their unstable financial state, the Bennet women will lose their home and financial security as soon as the aging Mr. Bennet dies. The estate will go to Mr. Collins by default, if there is no male heir. Thus, the Bennet sisters are to be married off (primarily Jane or Elizabeth). The incredibly wealthy Misters Darcy and Bingley come to visit Netherfield Park, where they throw a ball attended by the Bennet women. Jane and Bingley immediately hit it off, while Darcy appears grumpy sullen and arrogant, clashing with Elizabeth. Mr. Collins attempts to marry Elizabeth, ensuring her family’s financial security, but she rejects him. Elizabeth prefers Darcy’s former friend Wickham, who claims that Darcy cheated him of his inheritance. Eventually, through much discussion and witty repartee, Darcy falls in love with Elizabeth and proposes, but she rejects him because of his mistreatment of Wickham and the fact that he advised Bingley against marrying Jane. Elizabeth learns that Wickham lied to her and that it was Wickham that tried to cheat Darcy and marry his sister for the money (explaining his suspicions against Jane). Wickham runs off with Lydia, the frivolous foolish youngest Bennet . Darcy pays the dowry, saving the Bennets from public shame. Elizabeth and Darcy reconcile and marry, as do Jane and Bingley.

Analysis: Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners, exploring the difference between social classes and their prejudices during early 19^th century Britain. The busy body ambitions of Mrs. Bennet and frivolous nature of Bingley’s sister seems to point to a light satire of the upper classes and their prejudices especially. There is some exploration of feminism and gender roles as well, with the main protagonist being an unusually educated and outspoken female (Elizabeth). There are few symbols, and instead characters are meant to represent viewpoints and examples of different classes and backgrounds.

Theme: True happiness and compatibility in a relationship comes only when both people fundamentally understand and accept each other.

Quote: “Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his making friends— whether he may be equally capable of retaining them, is less certain.” -Darcy

Ceremony Summary

Work: Ceremony

Author: Leslie Marmon Silko (1977)

Setting: New Mexico, Laguna Reservation, late 1940’s

Characters: Tayo, Emo (Geronimo), Rocky (Tayo’s cousin), Josiah, Ts’eh Montano, Night Swan (dancer), Betonie

            Plot: Tayo is suffering from what we would now call PTSD after returning home from WWII, where he was a Japanese prisoner of war. He is depressed, confused, and vomits a lot. The other Laguna that fought in the war alongside Tayo cope with their return home by drinking heavily. Eventually Tayo attempts to ground himself and become whole again by going through a ceremony with a medicine man Betonie. Tayo forms a romantic relationship with a mysterious woman named Ts’eh Montano (woman mountain). By the end of the novel, Tayo is able to complete his ceremony and cure himself, reckoning the cyclical nature of time and events with his Indian and white cultures.
            Analysis: Ceremony incorporates many core cultural beliefs of the Laguna and Native American’s in general, such as the notion that time is not linear but cyclical, forming a web where all events and people are connected. This is linked to the belief in the central deities of Native American Culture Spider Woman or thought woman who wove the world into being. Tayo has suddenly seen the true nature of time and the world and he cannot handle his realizations in tandem with the horrors of WWII and the death he has seen. The story of Ceremony is really Tayo coming to grips and synthesizing all of his different realities, learning the true nature of the world (for instance, that Emo is witch that uses his powers for evil). Symbols include Ts’eh Montano, the mixed breed cattle that Tayo searches for.

Theme: Time is not linear, but cyclical, forming a web that connects all places people and events.

Quote: "It seems like I already heard these stories before—only thing is, the names sound different." –Grandma

Death of a Salesman summary

Work: Death of a Salesman

Author: Arthur Miller (1949)

Setting: New York City, Lowman House

Characters: Willy Loman, Linda, Biff, Happy, Ben (older brother), Bernard (Biff’s school friend), Charley (Bernard’s father)

Summary: Death of a Salesman is a Tragedy of the Common Man as Arthur Miller describes it. It is the story of a man who is hard working, determined, and severely deluded. Willy Loman is an elderly, out of health salesman who has fallen on tough times. He doesn’t do much selling anymore. His wife, Linda, and sons, Biff and Happy, are concerned about him and his health. The plot of the play is minimal, mostly discussions and Willy’s flashbacks. It is eventually revealed that the reason Biff did not complete the summer math course he needed to go the University of Virginia to play football was that he discovered Willy with another woman. Willy is obsessed with being “well liked” and explains that it is the ultimate goal in life and the reason he became a salesman. Biff is fundamentally opposed to his father’s view by the end of the play. Eventually. Willy kills himself in a deliberate car crash to try and win insurance money for his family.
Analysis: Death of a Salesman is Arthur Miller’s description and condemnation of what he believes the current state of the American Dream is. Willy is hard working and earnest, but has the fundamental delusion that success is measured in material wealth and popularity. Thus, despite his best efforts, he as been chewed up and spat out by the world. He cannot stop obsessing over the past, trying to figure out where it all went wrong, but fails to see even straightforward truths (his role in Biff’s failure). Symbols include his brother Ben, the flute music that draws him to the past, and his once healthy fertile house that is now run down and does not support life.

Quote: "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit." –Willy
Theme: The American Dream has become a perverted vision of material wealth and popularity that is unobtainable and toxic to those who try.