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Muriel's Wedding

Decent Essays

Muriel’s Wedding (1995), written by P.J. Hogan, explores the central notion of relationships. Relationships can be defined as the connection between people and others, and it is these relationships that allow an individual to find and/or reaffirm their identities. More specifically, Hogan conveys that individuals will always seek out others who they can form positive relationships with, which in turn can reaffirm their sense of identity. He also portrays that the outcome of a relationship is not always what individuals expect when they initiate them, and social labels such as marriage may fail our expectations and do not always indicate the true nature of a relationships.
In Muriel’s Wedding, Hogan successfully discusses that when …show more content…

(note: I would probably add an example from the end of the play to show that Muriel has in fact grown from this relationship into a better person.)
The play also highlights that individuals may enter their relationships with certain expectations. However, what they gain from these relationships may not always be as they initially expected. This is shown as Muriel catches the bouquet of pink and white flowers, which symbolises marriage, happiness and success. The stage directions “Muriel pulls a face, something she does when she’s feeling self-conscious” reveals how Muriel believes that marriage will help her attain an identity she desires and lead her to a successful path in life. Furthermore, her statements after her wedding with David, “…and here I am famous and they’re at my wedding. I showed them.” and “I’m as good as they are” convey how Muriel believed marriage to be a sign of success, which was her expectation. However, her realisation “I thought I was so different. A new person. But I’m not. I’m just the same as him” indicates how Muriel finds out that marriage itself has not changed her nor lead to the success which she desired. (needs evaluation sentence to conclude paragraph like “Hence we are shown how expectations of a relationship…blahblahblah)
Even through all negativity, Hogan shows us that we can only feel like we have found our identities when we paradoxically choose to accept ourselves and our flaws. In the end of the play, Muriel

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