Although we have just began reading The Skin of Our Teeth I cannot help but
realize how strange the play is. The characters and the age of some characters
is strange, plain and simple. First, two of the characters are a dinosaur and a
mammoth. Why would Thornton Wilder use a dinosaur and a mammoth as characters
in his play? These animals are extinct; therefore, why would he use them? I
believe Wilder wants the play to be extremely strange, which is why he included
a dinosaur and a mammoth as characters.
The play
is not only strange because of the dinosaur and the mammoth, but
because of the age of some characters. For example, Mrs. Antrobus says, “George,
he’s only four thousand years old.” Mrs. Antrobus is referring to Henry when
she states his age. I find it extremely strange that Wilder would make Henry
four thousand years old and also say that four thousand years old is young.
Why would Wilder not pick a normal age for the boy? Why would he choose four
thousand years old to be his age?
We are
only one act into the play and I cannot help but realize how strange the play
is. I feel like each page has something new, that I find strange. If the other
acts are similar to the first one, than we can be sure to find more strange things
about the characters, and just the play in general. Why is the play strange? I do
not know the answer to this, but I do know for sure, that the play is only going
to get stranger the more we read.
Matt- I definitely agree with you that upon first read, this play seems extremely weird, placing it in the Theater of Absurd. There are several elements which seem inexplicable, such as the dinosaur and mammoth, the impending ice age, the age of the characters, and the chronological placement of events. There are also several anachronisms; it's difficult to grasp that the alphabet and wheel have just been invented, yet the Antrobus' live in a modern suburban home and read Shakespeare.
ReplyDeleteSo what was Wilder's intention in creating this play? Are we supposed to understand it? I think Wilder wanted the audience to take a step back and realize that we take life way too seriously. Once the audience can do that, the play is really comical. Perhaps Wilder wanted to demonstrate that humanity has a tendency to place too much importance on trivial matters and too little importance on crucial matters.
I also think Wilder is trying to say that time doesn't matter; it doesn't matter if the play takes place in modern or prehistoric times because humanity does not change, and the fundamental nature of humanity has always been the same. This disregard for time also illustrates the presence of existentialism in the play. Throughout time, advancements have been made (alphabet, wheel), yet innate human nature will always remain stagnant.
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ReplyDeleteWhen we think back to all the plays we have read this year, such as Shakespeare’s The Tempest, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Pygmalion, I see The Skin of our Teeth as a refreshing change in style. Maybe Wilder took a look at the seriousness and darkness of plays and realized that sometimes we need to take a less serious approach to literature. We have analyzed intensely the plot and the characters in each play, and it is likely Wilder wanted to create a play in which one could not have such serious speculation over the characters and the plot. Maybe Wilder wanted to create a play that was more about enjoyment, one that would not leave the viewer depressed or contemplating the tragedies of life, feelings that I had after reading Streetcar and Pygmalion. The absurdity of a mammoth and a dinosaur in a living room and the wheel and alphabet being invented in New Jersey are what make the play more enjoyable. When looking for the lesson or the themes in the book, it is more enjoyable because it is communicated in a more humorous fashion. The level of absurdity also helps the viewer realize that in the end, life is not as serious as we make it out to be and our personal enjoyment is what matters more.
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