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The Glass Menagerie Relationship Between Actor And Spectator Essay

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In this essay, the relationships between the dramatic character, actor and spectator will be the focus, as well as the role of the dramatic character, actor and spectator in plays that uses metadramatic techniques to represent the fictional world. To illustrate some of these relationships and roles, I will use examples from Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Bogatyrev (1938) refers to the most important aspect of the relationship between the dramatic character, actor and spectator is that the spectator always knows that the character is being played by an actor. Passow (1981:237-254) refers to the relationship between the dramatic character, actor and spectator as a vital part in the creation of the fictional world of drama. Passow also the …show more content…

The first relationship is the relationships and interactions between the characters in the fictional world, for example in The Glass Menagerie is the relationship between Amanda Wingfield and Laura Wingfield as mother and daughter and their interactions also show us this relationship. There is a relationship between the spectators and the fictional world being portrayed on stage, for example in The Glass Menagerie, Tom Wingfield speaks directly to the spectators in the beginning of the play. From the following, "I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion", it is obvious that he uses "you" in the collaborative mode, this is an example of a sign of this relationship. Another relationship being represented on stage is the relationship between the actors doing the portrayal of the fictional characters, which means that the actors knows and observes that they and the others on stage are actors and are only portraying fictional characters. A relationship between the actors and the spectators also exist, therefore the spectator knows that the actor is only portraying a fictional

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