Sound/music/light
(p.9) drum roll: the use of sound keeps the audience attention. In this case the sound of the drums is like in a circus, this shows how farcical the situation is.
(p.10) George and a telephone in a spotlight: the use of sound effects captures the audience attention.
(p.12) the music has stopped: emphasise what happened
Split stage
The stage is split into 3 parts:
Left: study
Centre: front door
Right: bedroom
Whilst the point of action is in one side on the stage, the other parts remain in darkness and then the spotlight will shine on another part of the stage leaving the other parts in darkness.
Comedy
There are numerous examples of visual, verbal and situation comedy in the play.
Visual humour: (p.10) “Crouch backs into the path of the swing and is knocked arse over...”
The entire play is a comedy.
Costume
There’s a contrast between Dotty’s and George’s costumes. Dotty appears with a beautiful white dress, whilst George wears a smoking jacket, flannels and a shabby. This could be a visual representation of his relativism. This also reflects the contrast between woman and husband and their lack of communication.
LITERARY TECHNIQUES:
Dotty
A.K.A. Dorothy, the name Dotty can also be understood as madness the colloquial interpretation of the name. The name foreshadows both her state of mind and the mental breakdown she is bound to suffer. She is dressed in a white dress in order to reflect either innocence or how she is trapped between two worlds: relativism and the opposition of George towards it.
Archie
Rhymes with dandy “Archie is a dandy” makes fun of the fact that he is a dandy but also a Rad-Lib. Also brings to mind the image of an archer which comes to have a meaning further on in the play.
George
The seriousness of the name is a mirror of his personality a contrast with the other characters, the only formal name.
Jumpers
- The symbol of the Rad-Lib party, they are dressed in yellow representing the Rad-Lib party, the yellow is a colour which represents death in many plays this can be seen also as the understanding of how the Rad-Lib movement ends up leading to death.
- The name shows their unstable state of mind, their jumping around concepts, not having a single mentality as they are relativists.
- When the pyramid stays intact after missing a piece this is a sinister idea, it demonstrates that the Rad-Lib philosophy prevails even though it has flaws in it. It also demonstrates the lack of moral sensibility of the party which doesn’t mind loosing a member, defying gravity just in order to maintain a philosophical position. They are indifferent to the death of another jumper.
- They are “not as young” as it would be expected showing too how their concepts already is an ageing mentality which is loosing power.
The Moon
- The moon is usually seen as a symbol of lunacy, madness.
- The songs related to the moon are reflecting the mental breakdown which Dotty is suffering.
- The conquer of the moon happens at the same time as Dotty’s mental breakdown happens, she can not live with the moon being another conquer for humankind as it is destroying the idea of infinite and her imaginations about the moon, the link between the moon and herself has been violated by humankind this being an image of how humankind has entered and destroyed the purity of her mind. The songs she sings are also another reflection of the link between herself an d the moon, and she confusing between the songs shows that only she can understand the moon, this being also her own mind.
Macbeth
The image of Lady Macbeth is seen by the use of quotes from Macbeth being this the ultimate conclusion of Dotty loosing her mind as she is quoting her “Woe…”
