The Conduct of Life

Maria Irene Fornes made a huge choice by deciding to end each scene so randomly and leaving us with questions. But for her to end the entire play with unending questions was a huge choice on her part. It was so confusing! The entire play is about Orlando cheating on his wife, but then towards the end he blames Leticia of her scandals. We didn't see nor hear about Leticia doing anything wrong so for Fornes to spark up something new like this at the end was incredibly confusing to me. I feel like Fornes is trying to show her audience that yes, Orlando has a lot wrong with him, but maybe so does Leticia. The whole time we are accusing Orlando and pointing fingers at him, but maybe he has problems because of his wife.. Maybe he's handling things in a way he feels is best because his wife is just the exact same person as he is. Who knows.

I feel like the Conduct of Life is about how people go about life. Nena, for example, is very young and dealing with a lot more than most people. But she doesn't see it that way at all. She looks at it as though she has a better life than most and that she could be a better person and let her feelings and emotions out better than how other people let out their's on her. For instance, Nena's grandfather and Orlando bother let their problems out on Nena in a sort of rant and rage. They don't know how else to let it out. At one point in the play, Nena says how she wants to conduct her life in the best possible way. She's trying to venture off from the bad around her and this is a life lesson for Fornes' readers as well.

Trifles Blog

I really like the proposal of making the play completely abstract with no focus on the physical world, but instead more on the people. This means that every word is vital and the audience would completely understand everything without any distraction. This play is definitely mysterious and grabs attention to figure out who did what. Glaspell shows the reader in detail what the house looks like so that we as readers could try and figure out who the murderer is with the detectives. In a way, I feel by making the physical world with not much detail and color would be helping Glaspell get her point across. It's the people that matter in this case and it's the people they are trying to convict and learn more about.

Overtones Blog

In Overtones, Gerstenberg specifies very quickly that only the "trained" self can hear and see the inner self. From the beginning descriptions of their dresses, it shows that both Harriet and Margaret have deeper, conflicting beings within them. Harriet is wearing is wearing a green, but Hetty is wearing a darker shade of that green. The same goes for Margaret. She is wearing a purple while Maggie wears a darker purple with her face covered in a purple cloth. This shows that both Harriet and Margaret have very hidden people inside of them just waiting to burst out. Only can they hear their inner thoughts though. Hetty and Maggie obviously cannot hear or see each other, but towards the end they try so badly to be heard. They usually keep themselves together and their thoughts inside, but they can't stand it towards the end of the play. They even rip their veils off hoping to be seen.

Harriet can hear Hetty and Margaret can hear Maggie, but they never speak to their inner selves. They try to keep them hidden so deeply. On the outside, they are very proper, welcoming ladies. On the inside, they are heartless, rude women gripping at every word the other woman says because they despise one another. Harriet seems to be in more communication with Hetty than Margaret is with Maggie. Hetty, in the beginning of the play, is unveiled and is spoken to by Harriet a couple times. But not much. Margaret never speaks aloud to Maggie and this in a way shows the Margaret keeps her thoughts way more to herself than Harriet. A rule of the play is that the inner selves of these women must always be veiled and hidden if another woman is in the room. Gerstenberg shows that Hetty and Maggie can't actually be heard or seen when Maggie and Hetty begin to try and interact with the physical world, yet nothing can be touched or held by them. For instance, Maggie tries to grab a piece of cake but fails to do so.

Hetty and Maggie constantly bicker and say exactly what they're feeling throughout the play. They don't care what's going on or who's speaking or how rude they may sound; they just speak without thought or care. Margaret and Harriet try to make their lives seem beautiful, full with happiness and bliss, while their insides know deeply how troubled they are and jealous they are of one another. Hetty and Maggie show us and tell us readers their disappointments and hate towards people and things.

This play showed me that people truly do have inner thoughts. Most people keep things bottled up and hidden inside because they know that it would be hurtful and cause a lot of conflict if they ever said what they were really thinking or feeling.