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LITERATURA NORTEAMERICANA (UMA)

APUNTES

CURSO 13-
PROF.
14
AMERICAN THEATRE

American playwrights in the 20th c. wanted to expose new ideas and to reach great audiences.

The alternative to theatre is Broadway, it is run by business. Broadway is a place where money need
to be made, they want to earn as much money as they can in the performances. The themes they
exposed make the audience feel uncomfortable.

There are European influences in the American theatre.

The theatre in the 20th c is quite experimental, they also portrait the different faces of America and
they want to experiment with impressionism. This movement is opposed to realism, it brings the
emotions and feelings of the author, a subjective reality, it is not objective(reality). In this trend, they
introduce the different passions of the authors.

There was a high comment in naturalism in theatre. This movement was part of realism, it added the
idea of destiny, free will does not exist, the influences of the society that surround the humans. You
are trapped into your destiny. It is not positive, it has a pessimistic mood.

There are a movement called determinism inside of realism, in this determinism there is an extreme
use of naturalism, the characters always die at the end. The characters were trapped between life and
death, finally they died. There is no way out, don’t matter how you look at it.

The main themes in these context is frustration, questioning of life, the lost of virtue. Characters
suffer, but those who are good and virtuous, they are rewarded at the end.

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

This author wrote in the post-war American Theatre.

He wanted to speak about the fears of the epoch, the past is looked upon with sadness and fear. He
shows the south of America.

He wrote gothic tragedies, he wanted to show the horror of the soul (the lost of identity). Tragedies
are not ordinary, they happen in the reality distorted by the imagination of the writer, like
expressionism. He presents this kind of misfit heroines who escape from reality to a world of illusion.
Life means defeat, life is a war that humans can not win.

ARTHUR MILLER

He wrote about psychological drama, he is quite rational, he is not expressionist, although sometimes
there are expressionism in his portrait of the world (he world is shown through his owns feelings and
emotions).

He uses his plays for criticising moral conformism, especially during the 50s. This subject is shown in
the novel we are going to read, this idea of inconformity.

He was very much influenced by Henry Ibsen. This is the one who introduced psychological
expressionism in drama.

SUSAN GLASPELL
She wrote Trifles (represented in 1916). There is a good portrait of women, like middle-lower class
farmers. She wanted to show the world of the not so rich world. This is the type of plays that takes
you inside of the private life of people, in the 20th c. Audiences will not be prepared to see the
exposed of this themes that matters to society.

This is more a realistic play that an expressionist play. She was very realist in her portrait of the
reality.

Worksheet

1) Analysis:

4.Find out the different meanings of the world Trifles in this play:

The major meaning of Trifles is an irony, because the meaning of trifles is nothing serious, but the
play is about a murder, which is something of great importance. We are talking about privilege, about
what it is important in life and what is not, we are talking about control, about kitchen things which
represent women life and feelings. The kitchen is a symbol that represents women’s soul.

2) Comprehension:

1. What is the significance of the title?

The play is talking about the attitude of men towards women, men refer to women as having trifles
(things without importance). The significance of the title is an irony.

2. What are the signs of everyday life?

The signs of everybody life is that the kitchen things show everything because there is the place where
women are most time of the time. In the kitchen thing, there may be a metaphor for something else.
The kitchen is dirty and messy without control.

3. Who killed John Wright?

It was his wife, Minnie Wright, who killed him.

4. What was the motive?

It was because she was isolated and unhappy, so she wanted to become free and she thought it was the
only way according to the reader. Another reason is that her husband does not treat her well, he was a
cold and a violent man, he also was selfish and insensitive.

5. Why the rope and not a gun?

Because her husband killed her bird the same, he killed her bird with a rope, so she did the same to
him. Besides he has twisting her neck during more than twenty years. The bird is like the metaphor of
her soul.

6. How do people describe a “good man”?

People describe a “good man” as