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The Necessary Ruhl Analysis

Decent Essays

In Ruhl’s essay “The necessary,” she uncovers that often the detail that seems awfully unnecessary in a play is veritably the item of uttermost importance. This theme in her own plays is found in the ways in which she brings up complex issues. Tendencies such as lack of intimacy, loneliness, and use of lightness in her plays are frequently displayed to us in ways we do not even pick up on. In my eyes, that is what renders Ruhl fascinating. I will have read an entire play of hers, not realizing the emotion she is dragging out of me until after she has already accomplished just that. I have confidence that she has never set out to manipulate us into laughing or into feeling the shattering pain of a certain prodigious tragedy—and that is precisely how she yanks it out of us. For example, I read In The Next Room comically, which is a sliver of what she may or may not have intended for us as readers. As I read, my brain was …show more content…

Despite her not knowing who he is, her father still wishes to take care of her as best he can in the underworld. Ruhl writes in the stage directions: “The Father creates a room out of string for Eurydice…Every so often, the Father looks at her, happy to see her, while he makes a room out of string. She looks back at him, polite.” This is one of the first times Eurydice experiences a form of intimacy within one of her relationships. She is oblivious to how intimate this moment is because she thinks the Father is just someone whose job it is to build her a room, but the intimacy comes from the effort her father puts into assuring her maximum comfort. The idea of a room of string seems ridiculous and laughable, but he takes the time to put together this extremely intricate object out of his love for his daughter—and through this silly action, Ruhl has shown me profound emotion without just coming out and saying “her father really loved

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