The marriage between Troy and Rose was shown differently in Denzel Washington’s production of Fences and the 1985 original play by American playwright, August Wilson. August Wilson’s play centered around the Maxson family, the life of Troy Maxson and the decisions he made that affected his marriage and family. The Maxson marriage was depicted on the 1950’s era whereby a woman’s place was in the home. While Rose was home tending to the house and children, Troy provided for the family. Throughout the movie and play, we see how Troy’s actions and decisions affected the relationships with his friends and family. The primary relationship highlighted in both the play and movie is that of Troy and Rose and how it completely disintegrates towards the end of the story. In August Wilson’s portrayal of Rose, she is described as one that has been challenged throughout her life, but still manages to be a strong centerpiece for the family. Denzel Washington’s movie conveys the …show more content…
As Rose Maxson, Viola Davis performs a powerful performance and justifies all of her sacrifices she has made for her husband. Described in the story, Troy reveals his affair with another woman as well as his child with her. In analyzing the play Fences by August Wilson, the movie is an important way to understand the emotions behind the complex marriage of Troy and Rose. There is often a disconnect between the true emotion portrayed by the characters and the dialogue in the play. It is the words of the play that do not convey the emotion. Rose’s facial expressions help to conveyed the pain in which she is feeling. As well as her facial expressions, her body language characterized the anger she had felt towards Troy. Often her true thoughts and feelings were distorted or flat in the play but they were clear in the
Fences written by August Wilson is an award winning drama that depicts an African-America family who lives in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania during the 1950’s. During this time, the Mason’s reveal the struggles working as a garbage man, providing for his family and excepting life as is. The end of segregation began, more opportunities for African American people were accessible. Troy, who’s the father the Cory and husband of Rose has shoes fill as a working African America man. He is the family breadwinner and plays the dominant role in the play. Troy’s childhood was pretty rough growing up on a farm of 11 children. Overtime, he realizes the change of society. He builds a friendship fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono while in the penitentiary. Troy planned to build a fence around his house to control the number of people on his property. The fence also plays a symbolic role throughout the drama. These motives and characteristics control is what makes Troy the friend, father, worker, and husband he is today.
In addition, the characters in Fences were dynamic and demonstrated powerhouse performances from its leads. The overall movie is good, although it doesn’t provide the same aesthetic quality that the playwright does, yet it does have strong casting and important themes. Denzel Washington, who plays Troy Maxson, delivers a fiery performance to the audience, leaving no emotion untouched. Like many of Washington’s movies, he has the mysterious gift of absorbing his fictional character from the script and making viewers believe his character is palpable. His delivery of lines are powerful thus forcing me to recollect events that revealed similar emotions he felt in past time, “See? I’m gonna build me a fence around what belongs to me. And then I want you to stay on the other side. See? You stay over there until you’re ready for me,” his expression of anger and sadness is something familiar to my own. (Wilson 108). I had experienced a death in my own family, with the aid of Washington’s fervent delivery of his lines hence, I was able to remember similar unpleasant moments similar to the characters. Also, Viola Davis, who plays Rose Maxson, reminds me of my own mother. The vivacity in her acting allows to indirectly provide characteristics for Rose, she was strong, independent, selfless and practical. Rose Maxson was a mother that
In Fences, August Wilson introduces an African American family whose life is based around a fence. In the dirt yard of the Maxson’s house, many relationships come to blossom and wither here. The main character, Troy Maxson, prevents anyone from intruding into his life by surrounding himself around a literal and metaphorical fence that affects his relationships with his wife, son, and mortality.
Fences, by August Wilson takes place in the 1950's; a time where gender roles where strict. Wilson sets the issues that transpire within the play in a time period that wasn’t ideal for women to speak out. The irony of the play's setting correlates to the issues that the women characters within the story face. Fences can be viewed as a one-sided male perspective that gives little acknowledgement to the woman characters. Wilson's plays have been controversial because some say that he depicts woman as subservient and subordinate. However, taking a closer look into the character of Rose, I can argue that Wilson does not paint a stereotypical depiction of woman. Instead Wilson uses the woman's sexuality, maternal instinct, and intuition, to insinuate their strength and empowerment through the woman’s actions contrary to the belief of the woman in his plays being seen as weak and voiceless.
When Troy sheepishly says, “...we can figure it out” (Wilson, Fences, 68) when it comes to him impregnating another woman, she boldly fires back, “All of a sudden it’s ‘we.’ Where was ‘we’ at when you was down there rolling around with some god-forsaken woman? ‘We’ should have come to an understanding before you started making a damn fool of yourself.” (Wilson, Fences, 68) Rose is a strong woman whose definition of a Good Life is one dedicated to protecting her family so even though she can boldly tell Troy everything he has done wrong she still puts family first and helps raise Troy’s baby and lets Troy live in the house.
In the play, Fences by August Wilson, Troy Maxson was a man with many good intentions but wrong choices. Troy was simply trying to do whatever he thought was right. He was stubborn, persistent and in some ways selfish. Most of all Troy was very domineering. Despite everyone’s warnings and advice he still continued to follow his own choice of action, regarding the consequences. Throughout the story, Troy’s actions portrays his need to control everyone’s life.
Conflicts and tensions between family members and friends are key elements in August Wilson's play, Fences. The main character, Troy Maxon, has struggled his whole life to be a responsible person and fulfill his duties in any role that he is meant to play. In turn, however, he has created conflict through his forbidding manner. The author illustrates how the effects of Troy's stern upbringing cause him to pass along a legacy of bitterness and anger which creates tension and conflict in his relationships with his family.
Flowers, seeds and planting comprise a motif that Wilson uses in Fences to represent nurturing, loving, kindness, and care because of the parallel qualities these attributes share with all living things that need nurturing to grow or change, like love and patience and forgiveness. Rose Maxson exemplifies these traits of compassion in all of her relationships, especially as a parent. "She is ten years younger than Troy, her devotion to him stems from her recognition of the possibilities of her life without him: a succession of abusive men and their babies, a life of partying and running the streets, the Church, or aloneness with its attendant pain and frustration, She recognizes Troy's spirit as a fine and illuminating one and she either ignores or forgives his faults, only some of which she recognizes. Though she doesn't drink, her presence is an integral part of the Friday night rituals." (Wilson, 1550). Unlike Troy, Rose is a fair judge of character. She puts her faith in her husband and son and hopes for a better future while not begrudging the stagnant present situation. Rose learns the value of family and the fact that the woman takes responsibility to stay with her man and her family no matter how difficult circumstances may be. She learns respect for a home and family because she doesn't have one before he met her husband. Her whole family is half; everybody got different fathers and mothers. She valued the lasting
Fences, by August Wilson, was originally performed at the Forty-Sixth Street Theatre on Broadway in 1987. Directed by Lloyd Richards, the historic run consisted of 11 previews and 525 performances. The play featured actor’s such as the incomparable James Earl Jones as Troy Maxon and Mary Alice as Rose. According to Moira Macdonald’s review in the The Seattle Times, ““Fences” wraps you and whirls you in a heady cyclone of words, ultimately dropping you gently on the ground, moved and changed and unexpectedly uplifted by the journey.” Fences eventually developed into film, the rave reviews and success bringing the spotlight back to the engaging work of sentiments on stage.
Fences by August Wilson is a play that covers the life of Troy Maxson from the 1950s through the mid 1960s. The main character Troy is an aging man who formerly played in the negro leagues and is now working as a garbage man. Troy struggles with racism, taking care of his family and dealing with the reality that times have changed. Maxson is a strong character with very prominent traits displayed throughout the play. He can be described as hardworking, responsible, and troubled. Those traits attest to who he his, how he lives and play a role into his relationships with family and friends.
August Wilson is a well-known playwright from the 1980s, in which he wrote and published the “Pittsburg Cycle”, a series of plays about struggling black families in the city. In Wilson’s 1983 play, “Fences”, the topics of oppression and betrayal are discussed through the trials of a family living in Pittsburg whom the odds are seemingly stacked against. This play was made into a movie, where the trials and tribulations of this family are brought to life. Troy and Rose, husband and wife of eighteen years, share one climatic scene in which all the issues they face bubble to the surface. In this scene, Wilson utilizes rhetorical strategies to enhance the emotional appeal for the audience.
The play Fences is about a family living in the late 1950s-1965. Troy is a garbage truck driver his wife is Rose. I see Rose Maxson as a strong character because she defends the people she cares about and she doesn’t allow Troy to control her or alter her beliefs. Rose is a caring Mother to Cory and demonstrates she loves him very much. She also cares for Lyons who she did not birth, but she considers him family would consider family.
In August Wilson’s Fences, it showcases a play about the main character and protagonist, Troy Maxson (African-American) who is fifty-three years of age, working for the sanitation department, and was a former baseball star player from the Negro Baseball League. He is the father of Lyons, Cory, and Raynell; also, husband to Rose Maxson. The play is mainly focused on Troy since his character changes throughout the entire story. In the beginning of the play, it starts out with Troy and his longtime friend, Jim Bono, in the year of 1957.
Moreover, to evaluate the role of Rose Maxson in fences, you have to keep two words in mind strong and resistant. Rose I believe is the strongest character in Fences. She deals with suffering and hardship but never wavers. She deals with racial discrimination and the societal ideal of submitting to men even though she is the real person running the household. Her strength is seen with managing her husband's insecurities, his betrayal and her response to Raynell's arrival at her home. Rose is a caring, loving mother and has worked very hard to raise two children while also taking care of Gabe. She has no say in big decisions such as Cory playing football or not, even though he is her son too. Another consequence of Troy’s predisposition is that he sees women as a sort of object that performs services. Is the fact in the end Rose sees Troy as a taker and never giving. Rose as the woman of the house represents the maternal gentleness opposing to Troy’s toughness and disrespect
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” Leo Tolstoy. There are many different themes within the play of Fences, what will be focused on in this work is the theme of family. In the great play of Fences, we are introduced to the Maxson family, this particular family goes through many trials and tribulations as all families may. The main character Troy sets the tone for all that his family is put through throughout the play. Fences depicts a family conflict or can be looked at as a family drama based on Troy’s decisions in his life. The play also supports how families can be ruined because of certain decisions made by one particular family member. Within study of Troy’s relationship with his son Cory, wife