Saturday, April 27, 2013

Three Viewings

In Three Viewings, the Green Mill was a common location in each of the three pieces. I thought about this while reading but talking in class really brought it to my attention. I had no idea that the town the characters reference was a real place. I know this isn’t right, but I sort of made everyone go to all the funerals in my head because I felt like at some point in time, these people interacted with each other in some way (sense they were all from the same place). It says in the stage directions that the pieces are connected, so I think everyone knew everyone; it was one of those towns. Something each piece has is discovery. For example, the audience discovers that Emil is a married man at the end of his monologue. The audience also discovers with the characters in the pieces, like when Mac finds out that she accidently killed her family and when Virginia realizes that her husband wasn’t as crappy as he appeared. I think it’d be easy to say this piece is about death, but I took it as a work on life. It’s true that the characters are dealing with the aftermath of deaths to friends/family/loved ones, but none of the monologues are really about mourning. I saw each one as a brighter day, more like the “yolo” foolishness that everyone is on. Each piece shows the results for the living because of the dead (which do suck for the most part), but the living are still living and things can get better.

6 comments:

  1. I like the idea of each piece containing discover. I think I touched on this idea but drifted off to another word. Your ending statement," Things can get better," I think was the strongest, although I wish you were a little more specific about what you meant. The reason I say this is because I felt similarly, I think, based on what you are trying to say. I feel the characters all get a fresh start and are optimistic toward the future.

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  2. I also chose the Green Mill Luncheonette as a common location in all three monologues. It was a place that everyone went to do do a similar action: they all met with someone, whether it was someone they knew or someone they were meeting for the first time. You're idea of discovery is really interesting because thinking about it, yeah there is something super dramatic that we don't find out until the end. I know each one you discussed I couldn't believe. I think Mac's made me sad while Virginia's made me smile. I just thought about how wrong Emil was. But yeah, it is easy to think about this play as only about death, but there is a lighter tone to it than just about death.

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  3. Hey Donovan. Everything you said was wrong. Just kidding. I really liked that you talked about the relationships between the three characters. I think it's very interesting. I also agree with you, I feel like because they reference the same places, we can conclude that it is a smaller town. With that being said, it's a huge possibility that these characters know each other! I also agree with you when you say that although there is death in all three plays, I don't think that is the main focus of the plays. I think it is about the aftermath. I also think it's a play about relationships. All three characters are changed by a relationship they have with someone else, whether it be one of the deceased characters or an alive character.

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  4. I agree, I think all the characters somehow knew one another, especially because of the whole Mary-Maragret character, she's a doozy. I for some reason did not even think about the Green Mill because I guess it was a little too generic, but I had also said something along the lines of discovery. Just the element of surprise.

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  5. I agree with everything you just said. I especially liked the way you worded one of your sentences, "the living are still living and things can get better." This is a thought that i wouldn't have come up with on my own when reading the plays. Nice work!

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  6. I like that you talked about the three characters' relationships within the script. I agree that because the same places are mentioned throughout the different monologues but same play showed similarity. It's crazy how much these characters are dealing with, yet they're in the same town. It's crazy to think that everyone has trouble in their life even if we don't recognize it and these characters had some serious troubles. I'm sure all of the characters did know one another in some way, even if they didn't know each other, I'm sure they knew of that person. It seems like a small town.

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