2nd Hornby Post on The Conduct of Life

A choice that caught my attention in The Conduct of Life was Fornes deciding to bring up what happened between Alejo, Orlando and Felo but not actually telling the audience/reader what occurred. The events aren’t portrayed on stage and I don’t believe they’re mentioned in detail again, they’re merely talked about. We can assume from the references made that what went down wasn’t pretty and was probably unnecessary; we could also assume that the men were just doing their job and Alejo bitched out. Unfortunately, we don’t know and I believe that’s significant to the rest of the plot. Not to question her choices because I respect that woman-she does what she likes and likes what she does, but she basically put rape on stage, so why not torture? Is that too much? Or does portraying whatever went down take away from the rest of the plot? This scene not only foreshadows what’s to come (possibly), it changes our perspective on the two men and Leticia. Keeping along those lines, I had some difficulty discovering an example of sequence that appeared irrelevant on the surface but full of value. I believe scene 8 fits this description, along with the choice thing as well. In this scene, Leticia is rehearsing something she memorized, apparently out of the book that Olimpia has. It seems like Olimpia is making sure she’s off book, but when Leticia asks her if she’s right, Olimpia struggles to tell and Leticia makes fun of her, claiming she can’t read. Initially, I didn’t understand why that scene was where it was, or its purpose. After reading it again, and seeing its position, I still don’t get it. It’s between a rape scene and the scene when Leticia is leaving-if anything, I guess it’s to show that Leticia isn’t very educated, but she knows more than her “masters” if that makes sense.