¶ … Papa's Waltz"
The Play as Literature
In an art form which imitates the lives of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, the star -- Kitty -- is a needy, insecure, and unstable actress. Putting the entire movie production at risk -- and her own reputation, as well -- her hysteria and fragile emotional state keep everyone on the edge of outright hostility. How can a world famous actress -- loved by millions -- not see what the rest of the world sees?
Flora, one of the star's acting coaches, makes several references to her emotional need for love, yet too often, "Love is the Great Impossibility." The well-meaning intentions of svengali-like coaches and a mild-mannered but well-respected writer husband do nothing to quell the fear living within Kitty's heart.
As Kitty lies prone and naked on her bed, prostrate with her own fear and power, Jerome -- one of several acting coaches -- looking like a Freud-imitating drugstore...
The speaker of Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” reflects on his abusive father. Using an ABAB CDCD rhyme scheme and fixed meter, the poet underscores the main motifs of music and dance. The titular waltz is a structured dance set to a specific type of music. Constrained by the form of the waltz, the speaker seems to have internalized guilt and complicity in his father’s behavior by suggesting that
And the phrase "I hung on like death" that denotes a child's fear of falling or tension. To the child "such waltzing was not easy." The phrase, too, "you beat time on my head" tells us something of the child's height, as well as the father's strength. The description about the hand is an evocative phrase. And 'sliding' is again consistent with the dance movements of a waltz. The waltz
Going further with the analysis, it could be stated that the Irish get answers to their dilemmas from their own cultural identity (which is nourished by the best values). The previous idea of Ireland being eternal is supported by the view according to which its history stretches to immemorial times: "Every layer they strip/Seems camped on before./The bogholes might be Atlantic seepage./The wet centre is bottomless" (Heaney, 25-28). The fact
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