He is perfectly well aware that he possesses 'star quality', which is the lodestar of his life. In his case, it might be defined as the ability to project, without effort, the outline of a unique personality, which had never existed before him in print or paint." (Eller, p. 1)
So to an extent, the various characterizations used to present the Bliss family may in some manner echo the various personas between which Coward could move so easily. In the Bliss children especially, we can speculate that Coward is of a mixed sentiment regarding his entrance into high society in spite of his low society birth. A spot of dialogue between Simon and Sorel underscores this sentiment. Here, Sorel asserts, "I sometimes wish we were more normal and bouncing Simon." When Simon presses her on this proclamation, she tells, "I should like to be a fresh, open-air girl with a passion for games.." Simon retorts, "Thank God you're not." (Coward, p. 6)
In this rather humorous exchange, Sorel actually shows some level of self-awareness, suggesting that the insular and dysfunctional nature of the family -- generally couched in its elitist sense of artistic intellectualism -- does detain her from a certain freedom and abandon. Still, as the unfolding of events thereafter will demonstrate, this self-awareness is not strong enough to prevent her from performing to the will of her eccentric mother. In fact, one might argue that she and the rest of the Bliss family are only intensified in their desire to display their eccentricities by the presence of their unsuspecting guests. This is a type of familial dysfunction that is actually quite familiar within the scope of public life today. In fact, the prescience of Coward's work is not so much in his exploration of high society but in the way that he deconstructs the oddness of family dynamics.
Certainly, the degree to which this subject continually generates interest in public discourse may account for the...
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