Emily of Emerald Hill

Stage directions
-

Character appearance and accessories

Time period
Settings
Staging and lighting, stage management and modernity

Kon wants fuller control of the stage thus the detailed stage directions
Kuo post-modern, relinquish control

Character-narrator
Similarities btwn kuo and kon
-

Emily main char, only teller of story

Much of the play is not enacted on stage with its cast of characters
actions are off-stage (Emily is the only on-stage character)
Other chars is not only named but more fully embodied in Emily than
coffin
Emily is less of a storytelling device than coffin, can image her on her own
as a full-fledged char

Feminist concerns
-

Before my breasts were grown (320)

Roles of women are determined by men, and roles are confined to wife
and mother
you have no value
Vengeful attitude (devil of a wife and mother)
Emily is usually acted by men for plays
Power and dominance
Is Emily really weak?
Only her domineering voice is heard in the play thus the monologue
Her dominance is only symbolic cus she has to succumb to her designated
role in society

History
-

Uses history as an instrument of nostalgia unintentional effect but

readers feel the effect
May give the work a special significance to ppl of an older generation
Will happen again in if we dream too long
Comparing to coffin story
o Postmodern has little to do with nostalgia and much to do with irony
o Coffin is more postmodern than Emily

Occasions and objects from a long-gone era

-

Reference to Cambridge exam

o Richard
o Senior Cambridge exam = o lvl
Charlie chaplin films
o Films are brought to the rich peranakans
o Silent films made by Charlie chaplin and they watched it

Soirees
o Practice of the upper and upper middle classes including some
Chinese Peranakan Chinese households
o Relatives come to enjoy and make music, like sing
Magic charms from Siamese priests
o Less prevalent than in the past
o Give magical and protective powers to owners

Places and companies

-

Whiteaways for the rich

Adelphi hotel
Singapore traction corporation
P & O carthage refers to the ship Carthage owned by Peninsular and
Oriental steam navigation company
Clubs Chinese swimming club, recreation club, island club, not the
clubbing dance floor kind
Legislative assembly (Singapore parliament)
Singapore free press daily newspaper
New modern flats from Singapore improvement trust
Ang mo kio the note found in the book is anachronistic but why ulu if its
a new town