Student: José Martínez Hernández e-mail: jomarhe5@alumni.uv.es
English Philology. First cicle,
first course.
English
Theatre XIX & XX Centuries Group B ( evenings ).
Play: Fog
Eugene
O'Neill Complete plays
Editor:
Travis Bogard. Publisher: Library of
The main
characters are:
The poet.
An
unwealthy poet with whom the reader has the tendency to identify himself with,
since he is unwilling and unflashy hero, in the line O'Neill is so good at portraying.
The exceptional within the most common or low. He
defends the position of keeping silent at his ( and
the other ) risk in order no to risk other people´s lifes. He thought of
committing suicide sinking with the boat, in the best way not to shame his
family, before the accident, but the urge for helping someone else triggers his
will.
The business man.
He is the
pragmatic character. Egoist, sort of a coward. He is
rather wealthy and he has never noticed or thought much of the other people,
the ones that haden't had his luck of being well fed, and healthy, and of going
to better schools and so on.
The polish peasant woman.
This
character, barely shown among the shades, is full of sore pain, full of broken
motherhood, the living face of grief, as she holds in her arms his child that
died in the sinking vessel's wreck.
The dead
child
A refrence
carachter of major importance, since he is the reason of the discussion of the
opportunities everyone has in life, plus he allegedly is the respondible
, in a unexpected twist, of the rescue of all of them.
The third
officer of a steamer
The
unportrayed character used mainly to introduce the unthinkable, who gets really
rocked and surprised ( along with the others ) when
the truth about the circumstances of the rescue come to light.
The plot.
A passenger
steamer has sank off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland
among dense fog and very cold weather. Inside a drifting life-boat are barely
distinguished three figures. On one side, the poet and the business man, and on
the other side the mother, that later on the play shows us holding a dead baby
in its arms. Then the two men talk lead us to know that all life-boats were
drifted away long ago when the business man was absoltulely helpless in the
sea, and when he was about to drone, the poet in his boat rescued him.
The reason
being that the poet was to commit suicide, but he noticed the mother carrying
his child and helped them by lowering to the sea a left life-boat and getting
the three of them on board, thus being the salvation of the fourth castaway,
the businessman. The child dies soon afterwards and a conversation over him (
and life in the wide sense ) takes place, indicating that probably his
unfortunate death was not so bad after all, since his health from malnutrition
was already bad, and his chances of survival ( on the ground ) in such extreme
poverty were scarce. An even if he did, it would be a suffering and horrible
existence. In opposition to some people's life, the whealty, as they are well
fed, healthy, have the best doctors, go to the best schools, and have the best
opportunities in life.
To make
things even worse, the boat hits an iceberg, and they nearly freeze, when they
heard the horn of a steamer in the distance. Then, the poet ask the business
man not to call the steamer as that would put into risks the life of all crew
inside the steamer if they it the iceberg in the terribly dense fog.
The
business man reacts like a coward, but the poet achieves the steamer passes by.
Despair is on tha air, but after some time, while the dense fog clears, the
steamer comes back and rescues them. The big twist being that the officer tells
them that he was only able to find them as he was guided all the time by the
cries of the baby, in spite of the fact that the baby was already dead for
about two days.