Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Characters
- Milly
- Dishevelled 50 year old landlady
- Menopausal
- Life symbolized by Shorty's silkworms
- Eventually becomes a moth, is unwanted
- Shifts blame of unhappiness to Ahlers
- Dressed in a threadbare nightgown
- Constantly smoking
- Protests against her state
- "I demand justice"
- Fugardian heroine
- Recognizes part of herself in Shorty
- Full of innate pluck & tenacity
- Willing to
take action
- Ineffectual
- Don
- Cynical 20 year old student
- Pseudo intellectual
- Philosophising & glib psychoanalysis
- But his own neurosis isolates himself
- Given up his studies
- "Purpose is dead in me"
- Trying to find himself
- But just analises others
- Has acne, is unkept
- Blames his problems on life
- Secretly terrified of being happy
- Takes refuse in cynicism & illusion
- And of asserting himself & participating
- Passive to his own life
- Deliberately lethargic
- Emotional paralysis
- But still wants to make his mark
- Terrified of being forgotten
- "When things happen, I watch"
- Lacks self-confidence
- Chief spectator of Milly's catharsis
- Shorty
- Dim-witted, naive
- A "gutless little whiner"
- Keeps silkworms
- He's as vulnerable as they are
- Can't give Sissy sense of security/stability
- Extension of relationship with Sissy
- They belong to Sissy but she neglects them
- Likes to stick pins in them
- Doesn't want them, but doesn't want Shorty to have them
- 25 year old postman
- Dominated by Sissy
- Accepts it to please her
- But can't connect with her
- Seeks happiness in the wrong places
- Boxes
- Hopes it'll strengthen him
- Make him better equipped to handle life
- Sissy
- Married to Shorty (newlyweds)
- Unconsummated marriage
- Unfaithful to him
- Got married to escape unhappy youth
- "Got married - for a change"
- Shifts blame of unhappiness to Shorty
- 18 years old, mouse-colored hair
- Younger version of Milly
- Materialistic & selfish
- Secretly insecure
- Shies away from Don & Milly
- All lonely
- And fear being alone
- They have become strangers to their own lives
- There is a possibility of their salvation
- But they are withheld by their tragic flaws
- Each carrying their own Sisyphusian rock up the mountain
- Debilitating experiences & weaknesses
- Desperate to
break out of
isolation
- Stunted personal growth
- Lifelike, psychologically drawn
- But stereotypical in description
- Not stock
- Rounded, Stanislavski
- Personification of SA
- But also universal
- Operate in comic duos
- Milly & Don
- Observes Sissy & Shorty
- See themselves as superior
- Sissy & Shorty
- Waiting for Godot
- Team up against eachother
- Ahlers
- Milly's German ex-lover/boyfriend
- Never seen
- But presence felt strongly
- References made to him
- Catalyst of play's main action
- Arouses complex emotions in Milly