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Comparably, There Is Also A Miscommunication In Six Characters

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Comparably, there is also a miscommunication in Six Characters Looking for an Author between the actors and the ‘characters’. It is implied that a reason for the ‘characters’ paralysis is the actors’ failure to truly express them. Pirandello highlights the tension between the ‘characters’ and the actors as they attempt to recreate the scene between the father and the stepdaughter. ‘FATHER: That’s precisely it! Our way of expressing ourselves, you see, is unique… DIRECTOR: Unique? No. It’s material to us, the way you express yourselves. The actors take it and make it their own. (Pirandello 2001: 26) FATHER: Exactly. Actors. And they play our parts well. But it has a completely different feel. It’s trying to be the same but it isn’t. …show more content…

In contrast to the two plays, Joyce uses a voiceless character in ‘Eveline’ to portray a total breakdown of expression in the protagonist. The most poignant part of Eveline’s paralysis is in the concluding paragraphs of the story, where the repetition of Frank’s voice shouting ‘–Come! […] –Come! […] ‘–Eveline! Evvy!’, is met with silence (Joyce 2000: 34). Trevor L. Williams, in his discussion on loss of linguistic ownership, uses Eveline as an example to show ‘the tendency (frequent in Joyce) for characters not to be in control of language […] for characters simply not to possess a language, to be, like Eveline, voiceless’ (1989: 438). He argues, as a response to this, that ‘most females, like most males, in Dubliners are […] complicit in their own oppression’ (438). Expanding on what Williams states, it can be maintained that Eveline is ‘complicit’ in her own oppression, because of her inability to explain herself to either Frank or her family. Also, the only opportunity she is given to escape is wasted through her inability to express herself. However, her failure to reply to Frank can also be read as literal speech paralysis. The final line of ‘Eveline’ is ‘[h]er eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition’ (34), showing how Joyce even uses her body language to show that she is physically incapable of replying. Using this, in relation to my previous argument, it can be

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