MASARYK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

BACHELOR THESIS

Brno 2014 Gabriela Zemanová

MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

IDENTITY IN THE PLAYS BY JOHN GUARE

BACHELOR THESIS

Thesis Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. Gabriela Zemanová

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Declaration

Hereby I declare I have written the thesis entirely on my own and all sources used are attached in the references at the back of the thesis.

April 13, 2014 ______Gabriela Zemanová

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank to Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. for supervising my work, her valuable comments as well as supportive approach.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction ...... 6 A. JOHN GUARE ...... 6 B. THE PLAYS ...... 13 2. Constructs of Identity ...... 16 A. MODERNITY ...... 17 THE PILGRIM ...... 17 B. POSTMODERNITY ...... 21 IDENTITY PATTERNS ...... 22 THE STROLLER ...... 23 THE VAGABOND ...... 28 THE TOURIST ...... 36 THE PLAYER ...... 44 3. Conclusion ...... 48 Works cited ...... 50 Annotation ...... 51 Keywords ...... 51

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1. Introduction

The thesis focuses on two plays of contemporary American playwright John Guare, The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation, from the perspective of identity. The object of this thesis is to clearly demonstrate how the characters' features are highly in accordance with the seminal attributes of either modernism or postmodernism.

The thesis is divided into three parts; the first one introduces the personality of the playwright, crucial fragments of his life, his literary style as well as an overview of his plays. It aims not to be a biography only and provides an evaluation of various factors that have influenced Guare's work. The second part analyses the identity of characters with the focus on the plays. Thorough the whole chapter, five identity patterns, created by Zygmunt Bauman are respected. In each subchapter, key features of the Pilgrim, the Stroller, the Vagabond, the Tourist and the Player are first briefly listed, then illustrated on characters of both plays. Their values and their dreams are the prime focus that provides an insight into the characters‟ selves.

A. JOHN GUARE

John Guare, a contemporary American dramatist and an author of several award winning enterprises, remains relatively unknown to the Czech public despite the fact his work is both voluminous and extremely witty. This recognized author of more than forty plays does not mind using his own experiences of any sort and making the best out of them to get to the point. And that he does have a point is clear after a single encounter with any work of his.

Lucky for little John was it that his parents resided in New York City where he had plentiful opportunities to enjoy the experience of theatregoing. In combination with genes he inherited from his ancestors, it seems he was quite obviously predestined to became a playwright. “My parents liked to go see shows, and I went to see plays every time there was a birthday or a holiday. I also had two great-uncles who had toured in vaudeville,” adds John Guare to answer Jackson R. Bryer's question whether he fell in love with theatre as a boy (Bryer, 1995).

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Having read or heard over twenty interviews with John Guare, another fact appeared to me as clearly visible; it must be a reporter's joy to come across a man that combines a great deal of admirable features. At the age of 74, he is nimble minded, provides lengthy answers, has plenty to say in terms of passing the knowledge, is willing to talk and displays a surprising exactness in a language use. Not only the reporter has to think about what Mr. Guare is responding to, he or she also has to be alert and pick appropriate words when asking. Failing to do so, the reporter is being teased to rephrase his or her question before he or she gets an answer of qualities described above. Since it is words that are the only playwright's tool, it makes a perfect sense to pay attention to them.

That he was born to be a star was strangely enough clear to him at a young age. His mother's brother, a head of casting at MGM, came to visit his sister to relax from demanding work, which was finding a boy perfect for a part of Huckleberry Finn in a Hollywood production. Little John, spotting the unique chance, packed his bag ready to leave his parents for the big world at the age of eight, positive the success is guaranteed. Like most of what he mastered to perfection later, it turned out to be an exquisite farce, happening exactly as he describes it in The House of Blue Leaves, claims Guare for The Art of Theatre (Cattaneo, 2013).

I began dancing. And singing. Immediately. Things I have never done in my life- before or since. I stood on my head and skipped and whirled spectacular leaps in the air so I could see veins and sang and began laughing and crying soft and loud to show off all my emotions. And I heard music and drums that I couldn't even keep up with. And then cut off all my emotions just like that. Instantly. And took a deep bow like the Dying Swan I saw on Ed Sullivan. I picked up my suitcase and waited by the door. Billy turned to my parents, whose jaws were down to about there, and Billy said, “You never told me you had a mentally retarded child.” (Guare, 1987)

We can assume that it, if at all, influenced his ambitions only temporarily as at the age of eleven he did not deplore on a rejection of Life magazine to show interest in a play he had written and contacted a local newspaper to notify them that he and his friend would put it up. He admits the story describing their act might have been published in the newspaper only because they also announced the money they make would go to an orphanage (Cattaneo, 2013). Nevertheless, the impact it had on his parents was rather a decisive one for his future

7 as he got his first typewriter and he gained his parents' respect for his work. Out of a self- confident child he grew to be a self-confident teenager of self-confident parents. When his family had to move outside New York City to help his father recover from illness, his parents decided it would be better not to enrol their son at a local school because of the school's attitude during McCarthy period. A thirteen year old John spent a whole off-school year reading and writing, his “soul protected from the red menace. I'm the only person I know who benefited from the McCarthy period,” he adds (Cattaneo, 2013).

It suggests that growing up during McCarthism must have been difficult, yet John Guare seems to have been born in perfect times as after getting a degree at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., he continued his education in Yale Drama School. New Heaven, where the school resided, was close enough to New York, and the Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway theatres were just starting. In spite of this proximity, his route to theatre was neither straightforward nor arid; it got greatly spiced on its way until it reached the target. In 1963, hearing for the first time after the Huckleberry Finn fiasco from his uncle, who was clearly impressed that John managed a master's degree from Yale, he learnt that his uncle had arranged a job at Universal Studios for him (Cattaneo, 2013). Today, he feels to have been prevented from even starting it, as he got his draft notice and left for air force for six months during which another largely absurd story happened to him. He was promised ten thousand dollars by his aunt, on the condition of leaving California, going to New York, writing plays, going to Europe and sending her postcards (ibid). He fulfilled it to the last bit and after gaining experience through hitch-hiking in Europe he resided in New York City. It soon proved that fate and universe were pulling together as his first production in Caffe Cino would not have happened, had he been born under a different sign. Joe Cino refused him with apologetic words: “I'm sorry but we're only doing plays by Aquarians.” (Bryer, 1995). Having produced his drivers licence with a date of birth on in, which documented he was an Aquarian, guaranteed him a two-week run with a week extension, all that because of Saturn (ibid).

It was still during Caffe Cino period when he listened to his father's good advice for the second in life time. After the first one, that he claims decided to obey at a young age, “whatever you do, John, don't get a job”, he followed advice that his shocked father uttered when seeing artists in Caffe Cino passing the hat to make their money: “Why you don't write

8 a hit Broadway musical and then you can go back to Caffe Cino?” (Bryer, 1995). He wouldn't be the first one to do so as Edward Albee spent money earned by Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in a similar way (Cattaneo, 2013). That he would have a musical produced on Broadway was yet to come. First signs of success appeared shortly after.

His play Muzeeka, premièred in Eugen O'Neil Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut in 1967, received not only great reviews, but an Obie award, too. All his plays share wittiness but when thought about deeply, they also have a power to make the audience think about the state of society. Muzeeka was no exception to that. The author says: “How do we keep any ideals in this particular society? Vietnam was starting to become a specter that wouldn't go away.” (Cattaneo, 2013). Nor can one predict success, neither can be more wrong in assumptions regarding own work. Same year he got the Obie award, he experienced “a devastating blow” (McDonough, 2012) as the critics savaged his Cop-Out, a play that he liked. It taught him a lesson, yet he endangered his future stable position among the dramatists when expressing his ruthless attitude to contemporary production at rather an early stage of his career. Guare has always claimed his disapproval with kitchen-sink dramas (McDonough, 2012): “The theater should be a place of the big gesture, not a place where you turn on the sink and real water comes out. I hate domestic dramas. I like the theater to be a place of imagination and expansion. Theater is a place that is about illusion, trying to find reality in illusion.”

Likewise explicit is the way John Guare approaches the audience. “I like to make the audience crazy. I like to disorient the audience. I love chaos with a purpose, if that‟s not an oxymoron,” says he in an interview with David McDonough, which the interviewer comments: “Even if it is, it describes the work of John Guare perfectly.”(McDonough, 2012). There might have been too much of craziness in the last scene of Cop-Out; “The actress had to flee to stage, be shot and fall dead at the theater doors so the audience would have to step guiltily over her corpse in order to leave the theater.” (Cattaneo, 2013).

He had always aimed at a connection with the audience and because of it he temporarily worked as William Inge's assistant, whose tragic end helped him understand and handle the possible side of fame, the setback. So after Cop-Out failed to work, he kept himself working on regular basis. His mourning over the failure did not take long, as six weeks later, he was

9 voted the most promising playwright of the season (McDonough, 2012).

John Guare is well aware of what it takes to make a theatre and he prefers writing plays to writing for films. Unlike in film productions, the playwright holds the copyright and therefore all that is done to a play is more or less his responsibility. In a case of an actor miscast, the audience will not judge the miscast but will blame the part (Bryer, 1995).

He is not ashamed to admit that playwriting is an ongoing process of learning when he comments on The House of Blue Leaves: “I knew what I wanted the second act to be. I mean I knew what the events were, but it took me from 1966 to 1971 to develop the craft to deal with nine people on stage and to deal with the rigors of farce.” (Bryer, 1995). That the time spent on it was worth it was soon to be proved. The House of Blue Leaves succeed repeatedly; in 1971 it won Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play and an Obie Award for Best American Play and the revival of the play was Tony-nominated in 1986. He humbly comments on what a successful play means to him: “To me a play is a success if it generates more work, if you can't wait to get back to work.”(McDonough, 2012). Unimportant in terms of one's age, he is a work enthusiast: “I love to work. If I don't work I get sick.” (ibid).

The House of Blue Leaves made him a playwright recognized. During working on this play Guare met Mel Shapiro, a director and a writer, who witnessed his following success. Their friendship seemed to function very well, it generated a book that provided basis for a successful Broadway musical Two Gentlemen of Verona. Sadly enough, there was nothing like Caffe Cino existing any longer that he would support like his father had suggested several years before. Yet, there was another personal reward as Two Gentlemen of Verona was written in a way that reminded a vaudeville, so it might have provoked a certain level of sentiment with respect to his ancestors. Guare's great- uncles toured in vaudeville theatre for almost forty years around the break of 19th century (Bryer, 1995). The musical was awarded by New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical of 1972.

Despite his self discipline, even a skilled Yale professor that Guare had been in the past, can not predict how the work on a next play evolve and what the play would be like. “On a plane coming back from London in 1972, I got in panic because I had no new work and said to myself, Before this plane lands I'm going to have a first act of something.” (Cattaneo, 2013).

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He has a reasonable explanation to that: “If it's a success you're stuck with a terrible thing: Oh my god, how am I going to repeat that? Or, if it's a failure: How do I get back in the saddle again?” (ibid). What might be an example of a work in progress for a playwright is rewriting. In his interview for the Paris review he recollects re-writing of Marco Polo Sings a Solo until the lesson was learned: “I wrote fifteen drafts of that play. Then I realized that I shouldn't spend so much time trying to make something perfect.”(ibid).

Not only re-writing, or wounding personal experiences have been the springboards of plays as it happened in The House of Blue Leaves or a 1979 play Bosoms and Neglect. In order to find new themes, or in his words- to stop looking around his city and to draw water out of a different well, a well that was also his- he migrated to Nantucket (ibid). In spite of the fact he is in fact Irish, as both of his parents are Irish, he handles American history with ease. That his writing abilities reach beyond the boundaries of presence or a recent past, was proved in Lydia Breeze, a play set in 1895, which turn out to be another Guarean piece not in terms of plot but surely in terms of the content. There were another two historical plays born in Nantucket, Gardenia and Women and Water. Even though the set suggested a story that could have happened a century ago, John Guare proved to be a playwright whose “characters always tell a surprising, eventful story” (McDonough, 2012) . On the top of that, most of his stories feel extremely contemporary as the issues they deal with are those the mankind has been dealing with ever since its origin. All of that can be sheltered with words relationships, feelings and subdivided further into minor categories of security, identity, understanding, desperation, chaos and faith.

That he can write basically about anything he can imagine (Bryer, 1995) Mr. Guare proved repeatedly. He even admits that he uses writing as a tool to stretch imagination when he mentions Free Man of Color: “I was writing a story of a man of mixed race, which I am not. I was writing a story of a man in New Orleans at the time of the Louisiana purchase. I'm guy from New York.” (Wojczuk, 2012). He feels the importance of dealing unambiguously with racial issues: “The minute that the Louisiana territory became part of the United states of America, instantly you were either black or white. Suddenly the arrogance of racial laws, the arrogance of what is government's rights, what is state's right- all those thing that are still bleeding down to us today.” (ibid).

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Free Man of Color was launched on Broadway in 2010. Nevertheless, it was not the first time he embodies racial issues within a play. His so far only play that was filmed, Six Degrees of Separation, is twenty years older, yet displays a clear urge do deal with the same issue. Certainly there is more but the issue of race in that play, that got its author the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the third time, this time for Best Play of 1991.

The reader of his interviews realizes an importance of his journal writing, “we have to keep track of everything. Because we don't know what is going to be of value to us. They are workout books I use every day to keep the buzz going.” (Cattaneo, 2013). In addition to that, the material of highly successful Six Degrees of Separation is a fine example how the author can not predict when, if at all, will the material find its work to the surface (Bryer, 1995).

Regardless there have been two films only that John Guare participated on, both could be claimed to have gained success. Comparing the experience of writing a film script to writing a play, he claims the first one to be relatively easier as there are means the writer can rely on such as the music or a camera (Bryer, 1995). Rather than flattering himself, he sees things realistically light-hearted when talking about collaborating on Taking Off, Milos Forman's first American movie: “It was extraordinary, this wonderful movie that I don't think anyone ever saw.” (ibid). No matter certain art qualities as the film received a Jury prize in Cannes, it was a commercial failure.

The other achievement produced for the silver screen was a screenplay for Luis Malle's Atlantic City. Even an Oscar nomination did not convince him to pay more attention to that genre. And that there were moments he was heavily respected, adds he when recalls his work on the latter film: “Louis Malle said the immortal words that should be carved over every studio wall. He said, “If you have somebody here for the hair, why not somebody here for the words?” (ibid). That he approached theatre with devotion is apparent, “during a run, the playwright feels like the mayor of a small town filled with noble creature who have to get out there and make it brand new every night” (Cattaneo, 2013).

Naturally, a play is more likely to be seen as a writer's child, not only that he is responsible for his tremendous input, the words, he must think over steps when raising the baby. The

12 moments of joy surely outbalance the moments of pain, still these can appear basically at any age. He or she might also live through difficulties, yet must not lose faith in his or her work. “I can still remember throwing up when I realized what the ending of House of Blue Leaves would be like” (Cattaneo, 2013). When writing, Guare relies on sincereness of his message, not on cultural shorthand to make an argument. Clear and direct language help the actors realize their present condition. At the same time, there is a space left for the audience to participate as meaning of every line is not always spelled out (Wojczuk, 2012). But then, the play has reached the maturity and needs to be tactfully supervised by the protective parent. The process of repetitive production is comparable to a process of raising an adopted child where the playwright already has the material he/she works on with love and devotion, again and again.

The way I see John Guare's plays, there are strong chances this author would be understood by the Czech audience tremendously well. The issues his plays deal with are both timeless and boundaries less, yet at the same time they are race free and extremely contemporary. All that is dissolved to single units that are glued tough enough by the most appropriate language. What should make the plays even more alluring for the Czech producers is their financial modesty, as tight budgets are what many theatres experience today.

There was an opportunity for a Czech to see The House of Blue Leaves when is was running for six months in Mahen Theare in Brno in 1987. The same play was introduced to Slovakian public six years later.

B. THE PLAYS

The House of Blue Leaves is a two-act play that was first staged in 1966 by Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut and has been produced several times ever since. Out of many awards it received, an Obie Award and Drama Critics' Circle Award, for Best American Play are most prominent.

The play is a drama that shows a short period of life in one family. Artie Shaughnessy, a burnt-out man who dreams of being a famous musician, shares a New York flat with his wife Bananas who is gone bananas. The audience meets Artie experiencing rejuvenation originated

13 in a recent start of his love affair with his neighbour Bunny who enables Artie to take a rest from his present doom life and same perspective. Bunny has a vision and Artie with his connection from the past is her tool. She is determined to help Artie succeed, notwithstanding his limited abilities. The plan of moving to California can proceed after Bananas will have been moved to a mental institution. Artie's next task is to arrange his wealthy and successful friend Billy to accept him and his lover.

The central event of the play is the Pope's visit to New York which becomes a reason for Artie and Bananas' young adult son Ronnie to return home. Yet nothing like an elated reunion happens, Ronnie's presence remains undetected. He shares his intentions with the audience and lets his parents be spared from the fact that he is going to blow up the Pope. The son of a bungler proves that the apple does not fall far from a tree and instead of the Pope he kills his father's great expectations when he blows up Billy's fiancée Corrinna. Billy's solution is both quick and surprising and without hesitation he proceed in his plan with Bunny occupying the position of dead Corinna. Abandoned and broken Artie struggles Bananas in despair.

Six Degrees of Separation is a play that premièred in 1990 and was recognized as rather an outstanding achievement since in 1991 it was among nominees for Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play and received New York Drama Critics' Circle Award the same year. The play introduces a posh couple that is very much concerned with its appearance. All that is shown on a key event of an intruder penetrating to the family on the basis of false pretences. A couple consisting of a successful art dealer Flan Kittredge and a devoted housewife Quisa is getting ready to dine with their wealthy friend Geoffrey who pays a visit to them. Closing of a profitable business deal that is hanging in the air is interrupted by an appearance of a wounded young man Paul claiming to be a friend of the couples' children. He is a black and a homosexual. All three people are thrilled to hear about Paul's past, which is a masterful presentation of a childhood of a neglected son of Sidney Poitier who wants to requite for their kindness by fixing their appearance in the movie of Cats. Nevertheless, Paul manages to get deprecated even faster than he gains the adoration. The same night the Kittredge couple shelters him, he invites a hustler to their apartment. Not long after that, Flan and Quisa find out that Paul's visit was a great fraud which he had performed repeatedly with their children's schoolmates' parents. During their intense search for Paul's real identity, all couples openly display crippled relationships with their children. They are left to help

14 themselves. Paul's exuberance was not yet fully satiated and the Police is only willing to open a case after finding out that the same con man was the crucial person standing behind another young man's suicide. In the end the audience realizes that despite Paul's actions, Quisa is very much fond of him and inclines to prefer him to her own children.

Six Degrees of Separation is a play that spread the idea of connectedness of all the people on the Earth; three years after the launch of the play, in 1993, it was turned into a film which popularized the thought even more. It was was massively developed in the years that followed with the accessibility of the Internet, and the theory has become a base for work of other artists.

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2. Constructs of Identity

Overall, it can be said that the whole play The House of Blue Leaves is about character's dreams. Some are closer than others to realization that their fulfilment is distributed among population extremely wrongfully. Although every single character has an explicit dream, there is nothing the man, the woman, or a growing teenager can do to make the dream come true. The audience witnesses the despair of a boy who is convinced that only a bomb can help him become a star, or his father who plunges headlong into a love-affair. It would be more caring of John Guare not to let his characters suffer by other conditions necessary for completion of a dream, yet the audience, the postmodern people, crave to see a total deconstruction of an identity, and they would not be satisfied with a milder plot. The dream, the dream, the dream becomes a magic formula for those heroes who failed to accept their life.

Naturally, there might be hundreds of purposes for dreaming, still it seems that members of a group sharing the same dream are variously connected. Either the geographical location, the historical placement or even a sublime spiritual one can become the linking element among people. The aim of this thesis is not to explore dreams scientifically, but to show that what people dream can tell who people are and how they are what they are. By what people are the identity of an individual is meant, by how people are what they are the distinctive differences that are apparent without a deeper scrutinising will be analysed.

An interesting perspective to explore identities offers Zygmunt Bauman's typology. Bauman is a British sociologist with a Polish origin that had spent years studying the postmodern consumerism (wikipedia). To be able to fully understand and appreciate what came along with postmodern constructs, we have to focus on the preceding period, the modernity, and be aware of both similarities and differences of the two stages. In his study From Pilgrim to Tourist Bauman (n.d.) introduces his viewpoint according to which an identity “continues to be the problem” in post modern times. Bauman summarizes the basic principles:

The modern 'problem of identity' was how to construct an identity and keep it solid and stable, the postmodern 'problem of identity' is primarily how to avoid fixation and keep the options open. In the case of identity, as in other cases, the catchword of modernity was creation; the catchword of postmodernity is recycling. The main identity-bound anxiety of modern times was the worry about durability; it is the 16

concern with commitment-avoidance today.

Both The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation show us that characters have constructed their identities and basically keeping them stable is not problematic, but it is clear that either a fixation or ensuring options opened is of a prime importance for many of them.

Bauman (n.d.) analyses the most widespread aspects of human behaviour, the features and attitudes of it and offers the reader a broader background to fully understand the process of identity development. In spite of his detailed explanation, we still should bare in minds that “identity as such is a modern invention”.

A. MODERNITY Cambridge online dictionary tells us that modernity means “the condition of being modern” which should be understood as “a stark contract between traditional”. Hence, according to Rick Wade “modernism is the name given to a way of thinking born in the Enlightenment era”. He also explains that “it was a very optimistic outlook buoyed up by the successes of the sciences which produced some truly wonderful technology.” What mattered from an individual point of view was that people could understand themselves and their world, and by cooperating they could fix what was broken in nature and in human life. The lifestyle of people kept changing with a fast pace but people accustomed the new conditions quite naturally. Their perception of reality modified, too. The way they approached life and dealt with problems shared some similar features, and because of that distinctive resemblance Bauman could explore them as a group for which the changes were a never ending process to which majority assimilated without difficulties. The latter development of human identities was even more precipitate and resulting if formation of several distinct yet related patterns that Bauman titles as The Pilgrim, The Vagabond, The Tourist and The Player. All of them will be specified and illustrated on characters of John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation.

THE PILGRIM Crucial for the latter understanding of the specific identity patterns is the period of modernism and the concept of life as a pilgrimage that was prevailing during that period by all means. Examining stages of a life with many metamorphoses can be easily compared to a pilgrimage; 17 people, the Pilgrims, follow routes all the way to the final destination. All Pilgrim's actions lead to the target, no matter how complicated they get on the way. Pilgrimage is not a fate or a choice, it simply is a state, a fact. During the past three hundred years not many changes have occurred, no dramatic turnovers were experienced. Today's destination is certainly modified, yet it shares the same principal features with the destination people had a long time ago. While a desire for immortality was common some centuries ago, present day folk live in a society whose members have the same yearning but have modified the means to achieve that state. To stay immortal involves leaving the traces of their existence behind them. The concept of The Pilgrim applied to majority, to the broad middle class people, not only to the predestined top ones or the hopeless bottom ones. Bauman (1995) concludes with a simple explanation that a long-lasting orientation towards coherence and consequence eventually leaves permanent records in minds of people and that past human actions would serve a purpose of a solid corner stone for those deeds of tomorrows. Basically all Pilgrims should be able to project their future based on the actions that have happened so far. Once this condition fades, people cease to be the Pilgrims.

Both plays, The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation are written by a contemporary author and are set in the second half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, one character fits this “archaic” category well. I believe it is not a coincidence, that Guare chose the character to be a woman. A woman, that not only represents a traditional role appropriate to women but also lives according to her belief what is correct. If a woman is absolutely devoted to her husband and her husband is the corner stone of her life she can not possibly be any other pattern but the Pilgrim.

Quisa is the part of the Kittredge couple who thinks with her heart aside of her brain. In fact, she does not show that much thinking thorough the play; she is a perfect completion of her husband, though. She shares his success and considers that of her own, too. If there is anything she can do, she will surely do it to support Flan, whom she both respects and admires. How she perceives herself is unclear as Quisa is what Anderson calls “self-in- relation” (Wade, n.d.) which he explains as a “tendency to live in relation to people and to certain cultural context”. Not surprisingly this issue is frequently debated in feminist studies. Even without this knowledge, the reader realizes that Quisa seems to be lacking the purpose of life. Her lonely motherly heart is deeply wounded and so when given a chance to relieve it,

18 she uses instincts instead of her head and acts the way her brain together with her husband disapproves of. Without the audience being told, it is obvious that all the parents versus their children relationships are utterly crippled in all families that appear in the play Six Degrees of Separation. When parents want their children's help in order to find the con man, they are lavished with reproaches.

Woody: You gave him my pink shirt? You gave a complete stranger my pink shirt? That pink shirt was a Christmas present from you. I treasured that shirt. I loved that shirt. My collar size has grown a full size from weightlifting. And you say my arms had grown, you saw my neck had grown. And you bought me that shirt for my new body. I loved that shirt. The first shirt for my new body. And you gave that shirt away. I can‟t believe it. I hate it here. I hate this house. I hate you. Dough: You never do anything for me. Tess: You've never done anything but tried to block me. Ben: I'm only this pathetic extension of your eighth-rate personality. Dough: Social Darwinism pushed beyond all limits. Woody: You gave away my pink shirt? Tess: You want me to be everything you weren't. (Guare, 2010)

The generational relationships are decomposed without the slightest hope for a reconstruction. That is what not only Quisa experiences. Yet it is only Quisa who suffers from it, who feels the fact her children neglected her is preying her soul. No other character, in spite of being profoundly equipped by other characteristics that differentiate the human nation from other species, ignores this erosion. The same thing causes Quisa's ambivalence. Although her current behaviour indicates a strong aspiration to ingratiate herself with almost anyone on the planet, her true intentions can be decoded as a hope for a recovery of a long lost love of her children, a personal failure in other words. Regrettably, when given a clear option, Quisa prioritizes a stranger to her own child who is jealous of her mum devoting her affection to an alien. An inability to cope is manifested by Quisa's daughter when the desperate young adult, realizes her mum violates her wishes and not only continues following her own instincts, but even prioritizes Paul to her. That is demonstrated in a telephone conversation:

The other line rings Quisa: I'm putting you on hold. Tess: No one ever calls that number. Quisa: Wait. Hold on.

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Tess: Mother! Quisa: Hello? Paul: appears, frightened. Paul: Hello. Quisa: Paul? Paul: I saw the story in the paper. I didn't know the boy killed himself. He gave me the money. Quisa: Let me put you on hold. I'm talking to my child. Paul: If you put me on hold, I'll be gone and you'll never hear from me again. Quisa: pauses, continues talking to Paul after a while (Guare, 2010)

But to understand Quisa and her relationships we must take into account that Flan taught her to value other things but family and its members. This was in accordance to what Turnau (n.d.) thinks: “Traditional ethics (a source of the self) was replaced by the value of efficiency and technique.” When the couple introduces their children to the audience, no words revealing feelings are there, it is clear from the description that children, “two at Harvard and one at Groton” (Guare, 2010), are an investment, something to be proud of. Naturally, those puppets are raised in a similar esprit so they should not be surprised to hear names of famous institution instead of dear personal features when their parents describe them. On one occasion, Quisa's daughter, fed up with her parents attitudes, who are clearly interested only in finding Paul, mentions her plan to her parents:

Tess: That's why I'm going to Afghanistan. To climb mountains. Quisa: You're not climbing mountains. Flan: We have not invested all this money in you to scale the face of K-2. Tess: Is that all I am? An investment. Quisa: All right. Track down everybody in your high school class. Male. Female. Whatever. Not just homosexuals. Drug addicts The kid might be a drug dealer. (Guare, 2010)

It is for the audience to decide why Paul has Quisa in his pocket. Paul is a charming young man and at a very beginning he gave Quisa what no one had ever done. He provided soothing words she longed to hear and indicated she must have been a perfect mother as it is what he understood from numerous conversations with her children. Notwithstanding it was a great fraud, it might have been the illusion of the world he suggested that made Quisa inclined to 20 him. To sum up this sad relationship, Paul and Quisa complement each other perfectly. While she wants to be helpful and caring, he seeks attention. A perfect match as Quisa has plenty of attention to offer which has been piling inside her as the potential receivers could not imbrace it. Quisa is a person who introduces a striking idea of separation that outreaches the boundaries of the play:

I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation. Between us and everybody else on this planet. The president of the United States. A gondolier in Venice. Fill in the names. I find that (a) tremendously comforting that we're so close, and (b) like Chinese water torture that we're so close. Because you have to find the right six people to make the connection. It's not just big names It's anyone. A native in a rain forest. A Tierra del Fuegan. An Eskimo. I am bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people. It's a profound thought. (Guare, 2010)

As the time development proceeded, the society changed and modernity evolved in postmodernity.

B. POSTMODERNITY According to Oxford dictionaries, postmodernism means, apart from others, “general distrust in theories”. Rick Wade (n.d.), a Christian minister, sees postmodernism to be a mood. He also contemplates how that mood contrasted the solid preceding modernity.

Not only have we not been able to fix everything, the technology we do have has had some bad side effects. For example, the mobility which has resulted from modern transportation has removed us from stable communities which provided standards of conduct, protection, and a sense of continuity between ones home, work, and other activities of live. Add to that the globalization of our lives which brings us into contact with people from many different backgrounds with many different beliefs and ways of life, and we can see why we struggle to maintain some continuity in our own lives. We feel ourselves becoming fractured as we run this way and that; and at each destination we encounter different sets of values and expectations.

Ted Turnau (n.d.) suggests that “postmodern philosophy have conspired to destabilize our sense of self”. He supports his approach by multiple facts and like Wade blames urbanization,

21 work patterns and modified public values. The first “undermined traditional community”, the second resulted in “split between the private (home) world and the public, (work) world; the third meant that “traditional ethics were replaced by the value of efficiency and technique”. Overall, the most significant feature of human nature is the shift of “ the modern, stable self to the postmodern, fragmented, shifting self.”

Forced to face the obvious absence of social structures in the years that followed the modern period, people lost the credence and allowed themselves to grow into identities that fitted the changed society better. Bauman (1995) suggests that human actions remain rather unchanged, whereas the dramatic twist was caused by the fact that separate actions, which eventually make the total, do not necessarily precede and follow. The linear structure subsided, the foreseeability of the life cycle was no more to be found. Events occur at random instead, in no predictable sequence. Each chapter has own peak which bares significance for the given chapter only. In order to succeed a man does not need to stick to his own principles, it is advisable to be flexible, adapt to new circumstances. Society sets the rules, everyone is aware of his own replaceability on the job market and tend to do what is required of him. Whereas a few generations ago, a good craftsman was considered that one whose ancestors taught him everything in a family business, 21st centurians neglect him easily if he's not according to their liking. Bauman (n.d.) observed that “the real problem is not how to build identity, but how to preserve it”. In other words it is highly recommended not to have a single identity, the ability to pick up a back up one is definitely preferable. The pre-requisite of a success in postmodernity is a total fluidity of the self. Unfortunately, the changes from lasting to temporal can be easily applied to interpersonal relationships, too. People marry until death do them part for two or three times without experiencing a burial in between. Within a family circle or at work, once the satisfaction of any party concerned fades, the whole enterprise is over. Sometimes it is arduous to distinguish between fiction and reality of the vicious circle the fluid self finds itself in. It is not surprising that the sole pattern of the Pilgrim differentiated. This thesis will respect Zygmunt Bauman's categories which will be further explored.

IDENTITY PATTERNS Bauman (1995) distinguished four major personal patterns: the Stroller, the Vagabond, the Tourist and the Player; each pattern carrying features that define it. It is important to be aware 22 of the fact that none of the patterns described below occurred only recently, and that neither they were part of the process of the evolution or a part of an identity big bang. On the whole, there have been Strollers, Vagabonds, Tourists and Players walking the Earth ever since the beginning of a society. The need to define them is what evolved and focusing the attention to the identity was the approach that had not been explored yet; the roots of it can be traced at the period when people started to realize that a large quantity of people bearing the unique characteristics ascribed to each pattern shifted from rare to prevailing. Had we found an answer to Bauman's question how to choose from the range of optional episodes, how to compare the separate ones and how to distinguish the significant from the petty ones (1995), we would not have read about postmodern types at all.

THE STROLLER A man of many social key features, yet all of them are extremely unobtrusive. The Stroller loves the society, though not as one might have expected. He is “in the crowd but not of the crowd”. Therefore, he has no ambition to be a dominant member; he is hiding in the audience, secretly observing stories without a need or a want to know events preceding or following. What is more, even his presence can be redundant as the stroller is a man with a fantasy. He creates his own stories and is very happy when remaining invisible so no traces of him are sometimes found whatsoever. Tons of events in everyday life such as brief encounters of our own or these we witness make us Strollers. In case of a literary work, it depends on the writer's decisions whether or not he/she decides to reveal more Strollers to the reader. On the other hand, there are Strollers connected with any piece of writing with no exception as every person showing interest in the work becomes one automatically. Had there be no readers, only then the Strollers would be missing. This thesis explores Strollers in both plays.

Ronnie of The House of Blue Leaves is The Stroller at times too, yet with modified features. While Geoffrey openly expresses his wish (which makes him a bit of the Tourist), Ronnie intends not to be discovered and his desire to keep the distance can not be missed. He hides to be a part of the picture which is completely in accordance with features of this archetype. This third member of Shaughnessy family, Artie and Banana's teenage son, is driven by a powerful force. Even as a child, he had a crippled relationship with his parents. The question is whether he could have had another choice considering many factors that Wade (n.d.) mentions as crucial for Thiselton: 23

the losses of stability and identity and confidence 'breed deep uncertainty, insecurity and anxiety... The postmodern self live daily with fragmentation, indeterminacy, and intense distrust'. This result in defensiveness and increasing preoccupation with self- protection, self-interest, and the desire for power and the recovery of control. The postmodern self is thus predisposed to assume a stance of readiness for conflict.

So Ronnie's revengeful nature is not necessarily a product of his upbringing. Still, as many others from his or the previous generation, he was brought up as on only child of busy parents who if not working were trying hard to live according to the standards of the heartlessness of their times, ignoring all emotional needs within the family. Consequently Ronnie, aged twelve, auditioned for a part of Huckleberry Finn, with a clear intention in his mind; profoundly confident he knew that getting the part brings along moving to California, his father's dream destination, made him pack his suitcase and get ready to leave, thinking about his parents: “I didn't want tears from them- only trails of envy...” (Guare, 1987). On hearing he was not great at all from a competent person, he collapsed. Sadly, the relationship with his parents was not deep and cordial enough to recover the wounded mind. A famous Hollywood producer and his uncle commented his unexpected performance to surprised parents with savage words: ”You never told me I had an idiot for a godchild.” Ronnie is determined to succeed and desires his fifteen minutes of fame and to prove his father wrong to think his son was nothing (ibid). This is in accordance to what Wade states in his contemplation about the postmodern self: “The protean self if capable of changing constantly to suit the present circumstances. 'It may include changing political opinions and sexual behavior, changing ideas and ways of expressing them, changing ways of organizing ones life.'” Simply, he would do anything to make his plan work.

Ronnie is one of several heroes that have a clear vision. This nevertheless does not remind the dream that can be sheltered under the category of the American Dream which is the case of dreams of others, no matter the accomplishment. He is not really trying to achieve anything apart from one sad thing which we may perceive like a sick variation of the American Dream. Ronnie's intention is a revenge on his father for being a hopelessly bad dad, yet he seems to fail to realize he is similarly selfish just like him. His determination links him to the modern fore- pattern of the Pilgrim. That very night he is going to blow up the Pope, who happens to visit New York, with a home-made bomb. Unaware of a predisposition to blow up (not meant 24 literally here!), as he can not shake off the genes inherited from his father, the untalented looser, he is convinced of own uniqueness. In reality, the act of blowing up the Pope is a cry for help that Ronnie's father fails to recognize. Despite several tries, Artie remains thoroughly ignorant to everything that bothers his son.

Apart from those two most prominent Strollers in the two of John Guare's plays there is always a significant group of Strollers sitting in the dark, hiding, remaining silent, longing not to be a part of the play and not to cause the characters any harm by their vivid imagination. One characteristic feature of this pattern is no control over the events and that is exactly why the audience belongs to it. Their appetence is satiated when the curtain goes down, no one inquires the past or the future of the characters.

The Stroller, being aware of the fact that his life is a jigsaw consisting of independent episodes, is on a constant search for answers that would make the living more understandable, thus easier. Ronnie, a child whose father has been deeply depressed for not being able to fulfil his dream, could hardly understand that there is no way he can possibly act in order to ingratiate himself with his father. Likewise void is his try to draw attention to himself in his sick vision of the American Dream. Despite witnessing how such cogitations can harm a human being, he went the same path as his insane mother, the only human being on Earth who accepts and respects Ronnie just the way he is. Bananas' mental state was a direct consequence of the event that made her realize her smallness. She was a part of the anonymous city where people coexist. It is the fantasy that secures Bananas a place in this category, still it is the fantasy that excluded her from the world of the sane. Strollers are observers with a fantasy that finishes their stories, never the interfering individuals. Instead of being a person with no control over the events, she acted and that unexpected motion destroyed her. She tried to change the scene she had been witnessing to her liking and attempted to kidnap Jackie Kennedy and President Johnson. Sadly, it was the result of her inability to understand her life which is an utterly common feature emerging quite frequently in postmodernism, yet it is rarely recognized by the characters. Had she discovered the Stroller within her earlier, she might have been Ronnie's sane shelter now while back when the crucial even of her life took place, she would have only observed the situation on the forty second street, letting the scene unreel in front of her eyes without the slightest idea to intervene.

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Ronnie's mother has nothing to hide, and between the first and last curtain the audience witnesses her faltering between a total sanity and a total madness. On one hand she reasons about the similarity of concentration camps and mental institutions; on the other she serves fried Brillo pads instead of hamburgers. Regarding her husband's love affair, she approaches is ambiguously as ordinary people would have. She rationally accepts it at one point “I'm glad you're making friends, Artie. I'm no good for you.” while some time later she is overall bitter and full of hatred trying to give blisters to Bunny, her downstairs neighbour and her husband's lover, by running hot water through her ceiling (Guare, 1987).

Bananas Shaughnessy reveals a lot about herself and her yearning and she sounds very sane no matter how brain-sick it in fact is. She is a very poetic lady. Nevertheless her actions can be decoded one way only and Bananas must be classified as mentally ill. Yet she has retained certain nobility and proper manners. She is the everything that Bunny, her husband's mistress, is not. Even when emotionally disturbed by being forced to take the medication she hates, she calmly expresses her attitude:

For once could you let my emotions come out? If I laugh, you give me a pill. If I cry, you give me a pill... no more pills... I'm quiet now...No! No more- look at me- I'm peaceful forest, but I can feel all the animals have gone back into hiding and now I'm very quiet. All the wild animals have gone back into hiding. But once- once let me have an emotion? Let the animals come out? I don't like being still, Artie. It makes me afraid... (Guare, 1987)

Not only she reveals the tenderness of her soul, she unconsciously shows the persisting bond to her flirtatious husband, who is a zoo keeper by profession and deals with wild animals that have gone back to hiding on every-day basis. Bananas wants to be a dog and already feels like one. It is not explicitly stated in the play, yet her behaviour indicates it clearly. When being served food, she “sits up on her haunches and puts her hands, palm downward, under her chin” (Guare, 1987) and urges her request by barking. The audience feels that even in her mental instability she is constantly stressed by her husband. Unfortunately no-one cares for her to that extent that would be there for her with a help, solving her dilemma: how does a dog behave when aiming to elate the mood of his low-spirited owner? It's not rare for Bananas to turn her attention to the audience and the anonymous people seated in the dark are the 26 intended recipients of her explanation for her unusual yearning: “I like being animals. You know why? I never heard of a famous animal. Oh, a couple of Lassies- an occasional Trigger- but, by and large, animals, weren't meant be famous.” Bananas shares household with Artie, a man who has been desperately aiming at American Dream for which he is lacking more than a talent, it seems that he is not really a man who is working his way. Rather than that, he seems to be talking his way. No wonder Bananas quite unconsciously rebels against this vision of her husband. Instead of a rebellion inside her marriage, she had kept following her policy of a „peaceful forest‟ as she calls herself; that is why her self-denial transformed the healthy mind into the inhuman, irresponsible soul as there was too much for her to bear. Her current state is an outcome of ongoing paralysis. She is most likely lacking to see the sense in all that trying that is devastating her husband. After all, it is not surprising that a mental condition would not sustain all the pressure of postmodernity. Turnau (n.d.) sees the devastating effects of prevailing dominance of consumerism, due to which the identity has two aspects. Firstly, the “plastic self” forces us to “make identity as flexible as possible to experience as much as possible” and secondly, “the “expressive self” that seeks authenticity and completion”. An impact of those two opposite tendencies can have an aftermath effect on identity which may turn rather feeble. “This is both a source of exhilaration (we are free to construct ourselves) and anxiety (we really don't know who we are at the deepest level).”(ibid)

Bananas is almost a text book example of the phenomena that Roudane (the author of The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights) describes as follows: “the confrontation embodied in contemporary plays reflect the playwright's response to culture whose identity radically transformed itself after World War II” (Roudané, 1997).

Six Degrees of Separation display Strollers of different quality to those described above. So far, this thesis aimed at “losers”, the Stroller chapter will introduce some of the “achievers”, those who epitomize the American Dream, those who have succeeded. Geoffrey is not respected only because he is a guest, he has worked his way to be respected. Yet he behaves with ideals of the American Dream and does not swagger. We identify with him when, during his visit to a friend's house, he prioritizes staying in and enjoys a perfect entertainment when a wounded Paul enters the apartment and starts a marvellous performance. Having the choice, he refuses the dinner in the restaurant, an event he has been a part of so many times and lets the Stroller within him to utter his wish. He remains silent most of the time during Paul's

27 speech, indicates he is having a good time as an observer, a completely satisfied being man who relaxes by strolling into other people's lives. By his decision to let himself be entertained, he creates himself a director of the events he voluntary observes. Geoffrey is on the stage and visible thus a bit extraordinary Stroller, still he is driven by the desire to “feed the eyes“ (Bauman, 1995). He is the one who interprets the events he witnesses and that is one of the crucial features of every Stroller. There are no universal truths, every Stroller views a certain event his way while another one, witnessing exactly the same situation, could provide very different description of the situation observed. “The Strolling” is deeply personal bargain very much dependent on past and present life as well as on the current state of the person interpreting the event. The absence of universal truths does not apply to one personal pattern only, it is frequently referred to and thus seems to be one of the corner stones of postmodernism. We, the Strollers, experience a few brief encounters with children of the conned parents in Six Degrees of Separation. All of them, without single exception, behave in a similar way. They are angry with their parents without any obvious purpose. The audience naturally judges the four rude ungrateful young adults as well as takes into consideration their behaviour as an after-effect of their upbringing within the environment they were born into. The Stroller inside every spectator can provide an explanation, but the fact is, no-one will ever be sure how far from the truth it is.

THE VAGABOND Focusing on a Vagabond's lifestyle we are surely to understand why from all four patterns he was the feared one for centuries that had passed. To get the Vagabond's experience meant to live freely, not to get attached to a place, to stroll without a destiny, to stay “settled” as long as a person enjoys the place, and leave it the minute he/she gets bored with it. That is how he diversified from the self determined Pilgrim, and it is precisely how Bunny differentiates from Quisa. Naturally, the wandering people were not used to abide to local customs and hence were seen as a certain threat particularly for those Pilgrims in charge whose believes were anchored in obedience to rigid principles. These were accepted, not debated. Having no bound, Pilgrims would not restrain themselves from expressing his ideas. On the other hand, perceiving the Vagabond from the evolution principles, he was of an extremely useful species as his presence was crucial for the healthy reproduction of population (Bauman, 1995).

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In The House of Blue Leaves there are features for the Vagabond archetype embodied in several characters, one of them is previously mentioned Ronnie. The trajectory of his movement is limited, it is only of a limited duration with the given start and a supposed end. Entirely peripheral is the next step, which is never bethought in Vagabond's case, what matters is defined at the beginning and it has to happen within a field of vision (Bauman, 1995). Ronnie, an ulterior character of the play, is only obsessed with succeeding in blowing up the Pope, not for a moment considers consequences of his plot as they are of no importance. That is exactly the nature of any Vagabond for whom the movement is limited from one point to the other. The future is not necessarily to be found at the end of a neat time line, it can be discovered at any part of a tangle. Incoming affairs need not to be a step forward, a continuing part, the Vagabond's ways differ from the Pilgrim's ones and can be matted, crinkled and absolutely dishevelled.

Focusing on the qualities related to Vagabonds inside The House of Blue Leaves, Miss Bunny Flingus must be introduced. For her, unlike for any other character, Wade's description of a postmodern person is the most appropriate: “What I am today means nothing for tomorrow.” One has a wide range of choices when considering introducing her; she is the possessor of the most superlative qualities, most of which are of a negative tenor though. But as Wade remarks, “change is fundamental, and changes come often and do not always form a coherent pattern”. So for all a man might want Bunny to blame, there is an explanation. This lady definitely provides numerous reasons for judging the coherence of her actions. Considering her job history list and its numerous entries, the reader of the play realizes how strong must her yearning for changes be. A simple try to organize the jobs turns void: Bunny worked as an usher, as an operator in a lending library, for Con Edison, or for an astronomer. Accordingly, a reader does not miss the fact that Bunny is only satiated for a limited period of time. The question is whether she can ever be that following Dumitrescu's opinion that “identity is no longer viewed as singular and stable, but rather as plural and mutable, and ultimately impossible to grasp through the usual exercise of reason”(2001). To clarify that, Bunny's behaviour will be scrutinised.

Several aspects of her are depicted thorough the play and all of them are true at the moment of speaking despite an enormous level of antagonism within them. At the beginning of the play the audience learns she is determined: (to Artie) “I spent two months building you up to be

29 something.”, in love and selfish, yet undoubtedly she pictures Artie's success: “Within the next two years, you could be out there in a black tie waiting for the lady- Greer Garson, to open the envelope and say as the world holds it breath: And the winner of the Oscar the this year's Best Song is … of course Mr. Arthur M. Shaughnessy.” (Guare, 1987).

Her passion for Artie is changed for passion for another man literally in a minute as that is how long she considers Billy's unexpected proposal to abandon Artie for him. Spotting the chance for a change at Billy's arrival she may have modified her behaviour in order to impress unintentionally. Her subconscious is of a Player who targets his actions to the goal and will be described later in details. All the same, Bunny can be seen as a living example of the only modern pattern, the Pilgrim, who does have a target. That is in the contradiction with Vagabond's actions, yet what is emphasised mainly is her behaviour that is perfectly mated and in accordance with this archetype. That is why her character may be misinterpreted easily. Without bearing the Vagabond in mind, it could seem that Bunny is seeking a long lasting satisfaction and yet none of her positions has brought her that. All she gets in life seems to be built of fugitive bricks on temporal foundations, no traces of persistent ones. Being aware of such a strong Vagabond, which Bunny by no means is, all her interim deeds were never intended a part of some more significant or more durable enterprise. The fickleness is the Vagabond's advantage, never a weakness. She only occupies herself with whatever makes her happy until it fades and a new allurement appears. Bauman (1995) states that “what matters is not to lose the ability to move”. That is something Bunny proves to possess perfectly well, when at the very end of the play she abandons Artie, with whom she's been planning her future thorough the whole play and leaves in the arms of Artie‟s best friend. The Vagabond never stops moving, the direction is unimportant though. Unambiguously, Bunny is the great Vagabond in The House of Blue Leaves.

There are elements of her personality that an onlooker can not miss even if he or she does not scrutinise her character thoroughly, simple because she is: the noisiest, the most experienced, the most talkative, the most selfish, the most supportive, the most narrow-minded, the most emotionless and the most disrespectful from all. Determined to survive, she sticks to the most prosperous person within her reach. She will not express with words what she yearns but being an easily readable extrovert, she does not need to. There is something else for the audience to resolve: will she stop her chaotic husbandhunt and remain content if she attaches

30 herself to a man of her dream qualities? She devotes the passion she is full of to Artie, who describes the very first time they met to his old and great friend Billy:

It's kind of funny, a chimpanzee knocked me in the back and kinked my back out of whack and I went to this health club to work it out and in the steam section with all the steam I got lost and I went into this steam room and there was Bunny- yeah, just towels- I mean you could make a movie out of this, it was so romantic- She couldn't see me and she started talking about the weight she had to take off and food she had to give up and she started to talking about duckling with orange sauce and oysters baked with spinach and shrimps baked in the juice of melted sturgeon eyes which caviar comes from well, you know me and food and I got so excited and the steam's getting thicker and thicker and I ripped off my towel and kind of raped her … and she was quite for a long time and then she finally said one of the greatest lines of all time … . She said, “There's a man in here.” (Guare, 1987)

Not only thanks to that, she is perceived modest rather than ambitious. Nevertheless, the moment a man already famous enters her life, she flings her existing life in an instance and cares not who she caused a deep wound to. Since we know the circumstances of their first meeting and are certain why was Artie charmed by her, we are left without an explanation what drew her to Artie. Despite the effort, Artie is only a tolerable companion, yet there is a certain logic what made her stay with him once she began the relationship; her reasons for that follow. Within her reach, there are success prone men that Bunny, the hurricane, missed with her eye for one and only reason: Bunny is a perfectionist and a traditionalist in a way and once there is a person occupying the partner's position in her life, she feels an urge to do absolutely everything for the current boyfriend. She has no difficulty to fulfil even the most secret dream. With a slight exception. There is an area in which she lets her partner down and would not allow herself do for anything in the world prior to the marriage. She is a very traditional person; quite surprisingly the area previously described is cooking. Bunny is the one who understands the importance of cooking in a relationship: ”My cooking is the only thing I got to lure you on with and hold you with. Artie, we got to keep some magic for the honeymoon.” (Guare, 1987). That she is not so touchy in other areas, she explains, too: “I'll sleep with you anytime you want. Anywhere. In two months I've known you, did I refuse you once? Not once!” Bunny was devastated when found out she was a poor lover but as she considers herself a candid person, she shares her feelings with Artie: “I'm not good in bed. It's

31 no insult. I took that sex test in the Reader's Digest and I scored twelve. Twelve, Artie! I ran out of that dentist office with tears gushing out of my face.” (ibid). I believe the audience fails to recognize what Bunny really wants due to the strange logic she uses and of which the example has been just provided. Truth to say, the Vagabond does not really know. She is a nice example of a modern self-contained American woman. Stereotypes applied to her personality only confirm that despite her qualities and abilities, she does not exceed the average. She is very well capable of taking care of herself, she is determined and also supportive. Still, without a partner, she is rather incomplete. A charming lady and all she seeks is security.

Yet Bunny has even a greater challenger in Paul of Six Degrees of Separation. He is thoroughly postmodern “de-centered self”, which Anderson sees as a self that is “constantly redefined, constantly undergoing change”(Wade, n.d.). That definition is in accordance with Bauman's description of the Vagabond. It seems that every single Paul's action is a profound manifestation of features embodied in this archetype; he is constantly on the move, his movement is limited and nothing can satisfy him for a longer period of time. Paul's ambition to change his lifestyle is obvious thorough the whole play, still the reader remains rather unsure where he is heading. And that makes a perfect sense for the Vagabond: he is not aware of that as it does not matter at all. We meet Paul during his visit to the Kittredges. The play has a very good dynamism; at the beginning we witness an accidental encounter of the couple with a wounded young man who has just happened to experience a great misfortune. Robbed and stabbed in the Central Park, he searched the help at his schoolmates' parents' apartment. The audience does not speculate about the credibility of the character. The distressed man acts with a great level of developed manners that are perfectly appropriate, yet without traces of a snobbish upbringing. Later the reader finds that there was absolutely no spontaneity within his behaviour. Paul's driving force was the need to keep moving that Bauman associates with the Vagabonds. Together with Quisa, an outsider might feel sorry for Paul. Had he managed to stop his “performance” at a certain time, he would not have been rejected. He would have experienced the acceptance as a popular young man of unique features: insight, respectable breadth of views and astonishing opinions. We do not get Paul's point of view so the answer whether he ever has reproaches about the Vagabond that is destroying him is left unanswered. Obviously for Paul, as for any other Vagabond, the stroll is much more important than the target (Bauman, 1995). After a great impression he has made on his hosts, he sets off for new

32 adventures and new encounters. Bauman defines it that every situation is a shelter but the Vagabond never stays long (ibid).

Paul has not only charmed Flan and Quisa Kittredge, he also helped Flan to make a great business deal. After his unexpected appearance, the Kittredge's family wealthy friend Geoffrey voted not to go out. In fact, it was him who ensured Paul the stage. Provided they stuck to an original plan and went to a restaurant, Paul's charms would not have had a chance to be revealed. Only by staying in he fully used his potential and performed the stunning speech. Hard to guess is if it was the fact he presented himself as a level-headed son of Sidney Poitier or his analysis of Catcher in the Rye that made his show so effective. Had the Kittredges been aware of the fact Paul's impressive identity was a fraud, they would have realized that in a part of his speech devoted to J. D. Salinger's novel he actually describes himself: “It's a touching story, comic because the boy wants to do so much and can't do anything. Hates all phoniness and only lies to others. Wants everyone to like him, is only hateful, and is completely self-involved. In other words, a pretty accurate picture of a male adolescent.” (Guare, 2010).

Soon enough, the Vagabond drew attention again and proved that there is no sense to make an effort to ingratiate (Bauman, 1995) when there are no intentions to stay. Astonished by him and by the deal Geoffrey facilitated Flan to make, the Kittredges offered Paul to spend the night in their son's room. Early in the morning the idea of a decent young man that a posh couple affiliated so well with, melts away on the occasion of having discovered that Paul invited a male hustler into their apartment. Paul surely handled the situation with a greater ease than Flan. In every situation, let along this intense one, the Vagabond aka Paul knows far better than the Tourist aka Flan that he can be treated one day but banished the next (ibid). Bauman offers another definition: “He grazes down the the grass while he can, he is not concerned whether there will be any other to grow.” (ibid). Had Paul possessed more of other personal patterns, the sequential thoughts would have made him act differently in future. The Vagabond can not resist any unfilled yearning, they lure so much (ibid). Surely Paul is not aware of where he is heading as it is not the Vagabond's concern at all, he is driven by the urge to act. Therefore Flan and Quisa must find out in an astonishment that if they were witnessing the first release of his flawless scenario, their acquaintances Kitty and Larkin must have participated in a rehearsal a week before. Thanks to the only slight modification in the

33 end of Paul's “ready-made entertainment pack” which clearly was the intended one, Kitty and Larking felt grateful to Paul instead of the bitterness that was left at the Kittredges. Kitty and Larkin have every right to believe Paul has helped them to a great extent experiencing that it was him who had discovered the very late night burglar in their apartment. They were prevented from the true profession of the so-called burglar and stayed in charge. Paul was bewildered by the atmosphere and the stage of the Kittredge's home that he lost control over the situation and decided to culminate a fantastic evening by a fantastic climax.

Despite an enormous level of incredibility, Paul is the most willing to share his visions. Still, like all the other characters, he does not deal with the future and is entirely concerned with the present. Considering all the people described so far in both plays, Paul is the one who is trying to change his status the hardest. He seeks possible ways, prepares carefully and is very innovative; his motivation together with an elaborated preliminary stage pays off well. While Flan has a talent, Paul is the man with a charisma and a charm. Paul wants to impress and being a born extrovert is not ashamed to admit it: “It gives me a thrill to be looked at.” (Guare, 2010). Inspired by various scholars, he uses his knowledge purposefully in order to guarantee himself some fame. Speaking of Freud, being a fraud, non intentionally he reveals a lot about himself, too: “Freud says there's no such thing as luck. Just what you make.” (ibid). In a contemplation aimed at reasons that preceded his actions, one comes close to thinking that such statement can be a crucial in his decision to become a con man. If a higher authority suggests that a person is a sole creator of his/her universe, and ones ability supports it, this profound though can be followed to the details. One does not know whether it is his immaturity which makes him behave like a man with strongly underdeveloped conscience. Not only his inability to be compassionate helps to convince the audience he is of a dangerous and immature personality. Paul himself confirms it when he is taken away by the analysis of The Catcher in the Rye, the book he uses as a tool to impress. Performing in front of the target audience- Flan, Quisa and a family friend Geoffrey- he summarizes J.D. Salinger's work by words:

It's a touching story, comic because the boy wants to do so much and can't do anything. Hates all phoniness and only lies to others. Wants everyone to like him, is only hateful, and is completely self-involved. In other words, a pretty accurate picture of a male adolescent. What alarms me about the book – not the book so much as the aura about it – is this: the book is primarily about paralysis. The boy can't function. (Guare, 2010) 34

The audience will never learn whether what was said was purely from Paul's head or only masterfully presented. Unfortunately, in the theatre it is uttered in a fast flow of speech and so it might even not get recognized that Paul is actually speaking about himself. It is clear when reading the play though. While the first paragraph may evoke sympathy of others as it can be viewed as a cry for help, the other suggests that the dysfunctional male adolescent ended up lonely and his state is pathological rather than recoverable. But there is more that arises from this quotation; why did Paul include this powerful piece to his performance? His intentions will remain blurred but the readers will ponder on it in order to find an answer to the question whether such “coincidental” description of himself had some hidden meanings and could be decoded.

Unlike his intentions, Paul's actions are straightforward and thus there are no doubts regarding their interpretations. He is a multilevel intruder with intentional behaviour the boundaries of which overreach the teasing and fit the category of hurting. It could be even said that he schedules his victims. Even though he is not after any property or corporeal chattels, what he takes away is the only thing his victims may even suffer from for the rest of their lives. Unless they are totally ignorant and self-concern, they may be depressed by the behaviour of their children. The mirror that a member of one generation younger provides reflects pathetic beings who let themselves be publicly humiliated by those they brought up. Paul is a part of the merciless generation and his behaviour actually resembles his contemporaries very well: he strongly resents criticism, is egoistic and uses immature means when trying to get what he wants. Paul, the Vagabond, is not decoding the purpose of such actions in his life as it is of no importance to him. The audience, if searching any answers, must produce them on their own. Paul's fate was simply not to fit the society he was born into but that is a problem more and more common in the society and origins in that time. But along with relatively dangerous situations he exposes himself to, his life resembles the life of the heroes of Lost Generation authors. Only instead of proving that they have moral values and unbreakable character, Paul proves he has wit and extreme level of moral adjustability. He made himself a self- condemned hero of one life.

It is extremely difficult to judge Paul as a subjective judgement is always influenced by the

35 situation that helped a character to get to know Paul. Regrettably for him, people tend to draw conclusions based on own experiences. Since he is a perfect example of fragmented identity, the positive is replaced by the negative. Unfortunately the audience witnesses the positive only as a limited sequence until a certain breaking point. That can explain why Paul remains a nightmare for those he encounters. As Wade (n.d.) suggests, in postmodernity, “there is no enduring 'I'. we are what we are described to be.” Had we believed it, Paul would remain the hopeless case of Six Degrees of Separation.

THE TOURIST Despite certain level of similarity in characteristics with the Vagabond, the Tourist possesses seminal differences (Bauman, 1995). The reader must agree with Bauman that both of the personal patterns share the importance of being on the move (ibid). Unlike the Vagabond, the Tourist does not need to travel, he is an experience seeker with a back up plan. If he decides to withdraw from a situation, there is always his home that shelters him. Not only that, the home is also a reference place, something that provides the fixed basis for the comparison with whatever he encounters (ibid). The Tourist knows where his roots are and under no circumstances he considers changing them. This is the way is which Flan must be understood. Whereas the Vagabond goes anywhere his feet take him, the Tourist thoroughly chooses his destinations and carefully picks these of such type where there is no danger. He travels the safe tourist routes. He travels with expectations. He travels with sufficient financial means. He is the one who pays and it is Geoffrey who exhibits it in Six Degrees of Separation. Because of that he requires his expectations are met (Bauman, 1995). Since he pays, he feels the money gives him every right to impose conditions. The Tourist does not want to be revealed but is in quest of revelation in others. As all the post modern personal patterns evolved from a single modern one, there are bonds to the original one- the Pilgrim- in all of them; the Pilgrim must travel to change his fate which is unlikely to be a good one, the Tourist has a place where he can be safe and sound and only travels because of the experience. With respect to the Tourist archetype, Flan possesses more of the defining features for this category as he enjoys benefits of life that money have guaranteed him. What he shares with Artie is a strong bond for the place of living; the cult of home and family is a lead that shows that not only successful businessman Flan but ordinary man Artie can represent the American Dream. As far as the Tourist is concerned, neither play offers a spectacular manifestation of relevant key characteristics. Yet there are traces to be discovered after an overall though. 36

Coincidentally, the attention needs to be focused on two males of several similar as well as dissimilar features. What both of them have in common can be qualified as a social function. Like Artie, Flan is a husband and a head of the family which happened to fall apart because a child neglected the parents. Unlike Artie's, Flan's relationship is functional and thus he is happy.

The reader meets a central character of The House of Blue Leaves, Artie Shaughnessy, at home. In fact, there is no other place but Artie's apartment thorough the whole play. Artie belongs here and that is an obvious fact. However deeply enrooted he is, the man has a strong desire for a change, for an experiment. He has recently started a love affair with his downstairs neighbour Bunny and is ready to abandon not a totally sane wife of his. Bauman points that when the Tourist stance has grown into the character once, it is less and less clear which one of the visiting places is the home (1995). That is in agreement with Turnau's claim that the modern changes of the society resulted in the “corrosion of identity” (n.d.). The audience has every reason to believe Artie is confounded by the environment in which these two women meet. Despite of Bunny's ceaseless insistence to leave New York for California, he acts rather reluctantly for a simple fact: the hidden Tourist rules him only to experiment, never to burn bridges though. It is the Tourist that strikes Artie at the very surprising end of the play and makes him struggle Bananas, his wife. Bauman explains appropriately that “the fear of home-boundedness, of being tied to a place and barred from exit is one of two Tourist sentiments” (Bauman, n.d.). That is exactly what Artie felt after his mistress had cruelly and unexpectedly left him for his friend. Cut off from a promising future, locked in his old life, with emotions bursting out of him, the murder itself was actually not to show the blame, but the last cry of a despair of a deeply hurt human being.

Ever since the inglorious start of the play, an onlooker has every reason to feel sorry for Artie and experience his misfortune. John Guare realizes the importance of the first fifteen minutes of any play (Cattaneo, A. 2013) and actually needs just a fraction of that time to present Artie's main features. Two minutes after the curtain opens on The House of Blue Leaves, it is clear that the man who is old enough to face the middle age crisis, has not fulfilled his dream yet. Rather a poor performer as his singing and composing abilities are clearly limited, introduces himself to the audience, claiming to be not only a singer, but a composer and a lyric writer, too. The stage background supports some of the facts he has mentioned as he is

37 sitting behind a piano in a bar, so at least the musical environment is present. First doubts arise after an announced launch of his greatest hit. It fails to be good in any regard. What may seem to be a slip of the stage preparation, ignoring Artie's plea to turn the stage lights on, affirms the audience about his underachievement. The stage remains unlit and the man, who introduces himself as Artie Shaughnessy, supports the feeling that he fails to have even Guare's respect: the play starts unexpectedly at the point when the audience is not fully seated and disrespect to Artie is even amplified. Experiencing that it actually works really well, the auditorium is being convinced that the exploration of relationship between the audience and actors during the first half of the 20th century (Roudané, 1997) was perfectly established as one of the theatrical means in the 1960s. That is how The House of Blue Leaves starts:

While the house light are still on, and the audience is still being seated, ARTIE SHAUGHNESSY comes onstage through the curtains, bows, and sits at the upright piano in front of the curtain. He is forty-five years old. He carries sheet music and on opened bottle of beer. He scowles into the wings and then smiles broadly out front. ARTIE, out front, nervous: My name is Artie Shaughnessy and I'm going to sing you songs I wrote. I wrote all these songs. Words and the music. Could I have some quiet, please? He sings brightly. Back together again, Back together again. Since we split up The skies we lit up Looked all bit up Lide Fido chewed them, But they're back together again You can say you knew us when we were together Now we're apart. Thunder and lightning's Back in my heart, And that's the weather to be when you're back together with me.

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Into the wings: Could you please turn the light down? A spotlight on me? You promised me a spotlight. Out front: I got a ballad I'm singing and you promised me a blue spotlight.

The house light remain on. People are still finding their seats.

ARTIE plunges on into a ballad sentimentally. (Guare, 1987)

Ever since this inglorious start, poor Mr. Shaughnessy continues to be humiliated thorough the whole play. Artie has a simple vision, to be successful. As contrasted to what a member of the audience may only feel, the reader of The House of Blue Leaves learns that the play is set in Queens. John Guare attaches a description of this New York borough in order to make sure the reader can sense the blandness of it. The self is being constantly formed as one's identity “is always multiple, shifting, provisional” (Dumitrescu, n.d.), a part of Artie was formed in an suburban not balanced environment whose lacking community helped to establish “fluid sets of relationships” (Turnau, n.d.). To sum up, Queens is a place of temporary dwelling, which the inhabitant changes the minute he/she does the big thing, as it is the big thing that would provide sufficient financial means to move to Manhattan, the dream destination (Guare, 1987). In other words and as with regard to identity, in Queens a person does not really have one as the residents hope the current stage of life will be changed for another as soon as they can afford it. Naturally, a promoted social status means a promoted viewpoint which might result in a modified identity. Had Artie lived elsewhere but in Queens, he might have been happier. Also Wade (n.d.) comments on this when suggests that who a person is partially determined by his/ her surroundings . He also claims that it is his/her surrounding that defines a person as identity is inseparable of environment. Poor Artie is not aware of the vicious circle he planted himself in; occurrence of this phenomenon is a typical test that postmodern heroes have to endure but not necessarily overcome. Artie is not greatly retreated from leading a content life. His only misfortune is that his dream is greater than his abilities. As there is not much one can do with type of abilities crucial for achieving a fame under a stage light, Artie should have modify his view point. Had he set the target to appear and perform in a bar, he could have been full of pride and the play would lose the plot.

The reader knows the obstacle in Artie's trying as Guare places a crucial question in the Introduction to the play: “How do you run away to your dreams when you're already there? I 39 never wanted to be any place in my life but New York. How do you get there when you're there?” It works for the author well, as he has been a long-term, satisfied resident of New York, not really for those he has created, e.g. Mr. Shaughnessy. One thing can comfort Artie in his living misery: he has many buddies sharing not exactly the same fate as he does, but definitely sharing the ongoing process of humiliation that no way leads to accomplishing their dreams. But Mr. Shaughnessy is a typical product of mass-society, in which far to many members consider themselves unique. However, their sense of uniqueness originates not in their deeds but in their address. Living in a hub of the world only supports their notion of self- importance while there is none if fact. Artie's middle age crisis only amplifies what has been cumulating inside him for a long time: “I'm too old to be a young talent.” (Guare, 1987). Artie has simply failed to realize that for him, unlike for some other characters, there is a dozing hope that might be awakened any moment. Wade (n.d.) claims that “if we aren't happy with our own individual 'story', we should rewrite it. He has soothing words for Artie who only needs to accept inner multiplicity and devise a story that accounts for it.

As for other Tourists that would accompany Artie in The House of Blue Leaves, there is literally a chip of the old block in Artie's single offspring. Even though Ronnie, Artie and Banana's son, is not given much space in the play, he manifests some of the Tourist features well. Yet he can not be said to belong solely to this category and was described previously as the Vagabond. Bauman (n.d.) considers it normal to belong to more that one category. If scrutinised rigorously, some of the things he demonstrates would exclude him from this category, too. The Tourist is the wise one, the possessor of a back up plan, which Ronnie does not have; or the home is the only safe destiny, a place of Tourist's refugee, the absolute security. Artie's son despise his home. On the other hand, The Vagabond goes anywhere his feet take him without even preliminary project in mind. Ronnie's elaborated aim is the destination he carefully chose, just like any other Tourist would have. And that is not the only profound sample of the behaviour ingenious to this archetype. Of the additional ones the “movement 'in order to', not 'because of' prevails (Bauman, 1995). Ronnie is determined to blow up the Pope with a hand made bomb during the papal visit of New York City and outlines an explanation: “My father thinks I'm nothing.... I'm going to fool you all. By tonight, I'll be on headlines all over the world. … I'll be too big for any of you.” (Guare, 1987).

Although there are more Tourists in the play Six Degrees of Separation, Flan Kittredge is

40 given the most space to exhibit. A theatregoer realizes his instability when the successful art dealer starts panicking after he had been exposed to things not planned by him. It has been mentioned earlier that Paul, the visitor, brought a hustler to the Kittredge's posh apartment. Naturally, such incident was beyond anybody's expectation as Paul was believed to be a man of a fair standing at that point. Yet the audience is surprised when a decent and otherwise well composed man acts like a hysterical woman. It seems that his non standard behaviour origins in his wealth; it is beyond question that Flan possesses money. He has accomplished his dream and his home is a personification of the American Dream, and this unique vision helps to explain the Tourist's obsession. Representatives of this personal pattern can't help themselves. The importance of home is undeniable. Home is a reference place to which all adventures are compared to, thus it must be a safe shelter. There is hard work behind the accomplishment and that is why the possession is valued so much. Flan disposes of things to show as well as of finances. Since he pays, he feels privileged to dictate conditions. It's like a spell of the Kittredge couple. The Tibetan Buddhists spin the prayer mills, Flan and Quisa repeat several variations of the magic word: dollars, bucks or millions. As if the sound of it was circulating in the air, the likelihood of wealth would be more presumable. Following the incident, Flan gets obsessed with checking things; the treasured articles include an inkwell or a watercolour of their dog. He would not have done it if his home was less important, yet it is not and that makes him the Tourist. The importance of home is undeniable. With a little reflection to history, we might understand Flan's sick urge for security which is performed by maintaining the style. Wade (n.d.) notices what actually creates one's status over the period of time: “In traditional societies one's status was determined by one's role, and in modern societies one's status was determined by achievement, in postmodern times ones status is determined by fashion and style.” It is a requisite for Flan to keep his social status in order to be able to keep his self.

With no doubts, there are things that even Flan Kittredge, the achiever, hopes to get. He would not be frank enough to tell us though. That is one of the things a theatregoer that is acquainted with both plays concerned considers. Nearly all characters in The House of Blue Leaves tell us, on the contrary no-one does in Six Degrees of Separation. This phenomenon can be seen as one of the crucial things. If a person has a dream and shares it with others, he/she believes it can come true. Provided he/she fails to do so, an extrinsic observer has to wonder what caused that change, why a person keeps it for himself/herself. One of the reasons that supports

41 the 'holding it a secret theory' would be that people tend to lose the belief over the years and could not see the fulfilment of their dream realistic. Another, reciprocally sceptical one suggests that people were ashamed to reveal their dreams publicly in a fear that they would be laughed at. A careful spectator knows what power can a fact that one is laughed at have when remembers Bananas Shaughnessy. Being aware of that, one's self-consciousness is surely wounded and leads to the same conclusion: a person does not trust himself/herself and to some extend realizes the fact that the dream is actually not a realistic one. Reasons for that can be numerous, once there had been the time and a person would definitely have made all the effort to succeed in one thing, the very same thing is less appalling twenty years later as simply either the energy for the effort is nowhere to find or the dreaming itself is sufficient and makes a person content. And it can be a dream that fills a suddenly disengaged space in one's soul, what's more: if that space will not get occupied, it might end up with a wound that is hard to heal. Fails a “middle ager” suffering from the empty nest syndrome to remain content, he/she is one step ahead of others from the same generation to end up a pessimistic or depressed person. Finding something of a light obsession in life means rejuvenating the lost sense of it and can prevent the character from feeling hurt or going crazy. Unfortunately, it is not solely during the postmodern times that proved that some people have no dreams at all. Whereas it appeared in the past with no apparent link or reason, people who were brainwashed not to have any dreams started to occur on the verge of modernity and definitely in postmodernity. Flan Kittredge belongs among those lucky ones as there is something that he sees as purposeful in his life, still he holds it as a secret. When he first mentions Geoffrey, he refers to him as of a “friend of South Africa” and tells the audience that “he was here in New York briefly on business and asked us to ask him for dinner”. Yet he rephrases himself later: “I needed an extra two million, Geoffrey called. Invited him here for dinner.” (Guare, 2010). To understand the change between announcing the dream publicly and keeping it for oneself, the phenomenon of the American Dream could be considered. Despite not knowing any facts from Flan's past, it is clear that the strategy of success making can be applied to him; he seems to be prosperous in all obvious parts of his life. Owning an apartment overlooking the Central Park can be decoded as possessing enough financial means to secure his family. During the play we are to realize that his job reaches beyond a standard knowledge and interest of the field he works with; one of the crucial factors that will guarantee him the same position he has today is a nose accustomed to spotting opportunities, grabbing them and never letting them go. It is more than just the ability, it is the talent, and the talent is what Artie from

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The House of Blue Leaves is lacking. With Flan, we realize it is only him who knows fully what steps got him to the position he has now. And it is the same Flan who is not willing to share. Being the businessman, it would be foolish of him to reveal his secret. The competitors are omnipresent and eagerly waiting for him to make a mistake. The keeping of the secret is deeply embodied in him so he may not even realize that he strongly protects even the ordinary things that are not worth all the effort he puts into it. What seems to be a well-composed man at first sight is revealed to be only a peel covering a shattering soul when his possession is endangered. Flan exemplifies his inner fear in a rather unique occasion during which he meets a male hustler in his very own apartment. Despite the fact that the unwelcome person's behaviour is not of a dangerous kind, Flan's response to the situation is totally irrational and hysterical. He continues panicking even after “the thing” (Guare, 2010), the name he uses for the hustler, leaves, and starts checking whether there has anything disappeared from the apartment. After he makes sure the silver Victorian inkwell as well as one particular painting are at their places, he admits to himself his wife's fear who is concerned with the fact that their lives were endangered. It is his obsession with possession exemplified by his fear that makes it clear that Flan Kittredge dream of no changes in his life which can be “translated” as a hope for an ongoing success.

Another example of the Tourist provides Geoffrey, a South African businessman, a source of Flan's future income, hence the one who does not need to adjust. He makes the decisions and others willingly conform, not only for the fact he is a guest, for he is a friend, too. Geoffrey is definitely interested in the self-revelation of others, not of his own one. Charmed by charismatic Paul, he wants to see more when refuses going to a booked restaurant and prioritizes staying in the Kittredge's apartment instead. He, just like everybody else, is not aware of the fact that he is being mercilessly cheated on and instead of the real stuff he is only getting an imaginary performance. That could be a highly upsetting moment for any Tourist that never wants to see a theatre performance, the satisfaction only comes after having seen the real life (Bauman, 1995).

There are traces of the self-centred Tourist in Quisa who otherwise does not fit the description of that pattern. A person of a gentle nature may be surprised by hearing this subtle woman's reply to Geoffrey's invitation to South Africa which manifests the Tourist profoundly: “But we'd visit you and sit in your gorgeous house planning trips into the townships demanding to

43 see the poorest of the poor. 'Are you sure they're the worst off? I mean, we've come all this way. We don't want to see people just mildly victimized by apartheid. We demand shock.'” (Guare, 2010).

THE PLAYER Unlike the Tourist who demands reality, the Player is well aware of a game. THE GAME. Focusing on the game, it is easy to define features the Player possess. A person may plan various factors of the game such as strategy but he can never plan the result of it, nor can he plan the cards he is dealt. An important factor that shuffles the cards is an inscrutable coincidence. What a person gets, must a person play with. As Bauman strikingly well remarks, the shrewdness is the one and only equipment of the player (1995). It's up to the man how he plays his cards. The point is to anticipate the moves of the adversary (n.d.). Naturally, what every Player is after is the victory and every single action of his is conformed to it. Still, an awareness of the game must be bore in mind at all times. When two or more people meet at the occasion of the game, specific fixed terms or set of rules have been agreed upon, and they are not to be impugned by any party concerned during the game. By doing so, one ceases to be the Player. A significant comforting attribute of each game is that the loss is never ultimate, each game brings new beginning and an open end.

Locating the Players in The House of Blue Leaves is simple enough for strikingly straightforward features in one character and that is Bunny. A lady who uses coincidences to her advantage and is well aware of the fact that everything on the Earth happens with a bit of luck. Handling the luck for one's benefit means to use chances and that is where the Players verify they belong to postmodernism as using chances results in temporality which has been discussed previously. She is determined to help Artie launch his musical career. She pictures their future vividly and to guarantee the plan work she is determined to seek the Pope on his visit to New York:

And when he passes by in his limousine, I'll call out, “Your Holiness, marry us- the hell with peace to the world- bring peace to us.” And he won't hear me because bands will be playing and the whole city yelling but he‟ll see me because I been eyed by the best of them, and he‟ll not and I'll grab your hand and say, “Marry us, Pope,” and he‟ll wave his holy hand and all the emeralds and rubies on his fingers will send Yes beams. In a way, today's my wedding day. I should have something white at my 44

throat! Our whole life is beginning- my life- our life- and we'll be married and go out go California and Billy will help you. You'll be out there with the big shots out where you belong- not in any amateur nights in bars on Queens Boulevard. Billy will bet your songs in movies. It's not too late to start. With me behind you! Oh, Artie, the El Dorado Bar will stick up a huge neon sign flashing onto Queens Boulevard in a couple of years flashing “Artie Shaughnessy Got Started Here.” And nobody'll believe it. Oh, Artie, tables turn. (Guare, 2010).

Yet only the reader fully realizes the vain of such tries as Artie, a carer in the local ZOO by profession, is a hopelessly bad musician. Unfortunately this disappointing fact is masterly combined with other attributes of his rather hopeless nature, and he is guaranteed not to ever succeed. Bunny has crushed into Artie's life like a comet and enamoured him with the glare he has not happened to witness for a long time. He is a whining realistic middle ager. Regrettably for him, his home does not provide a welcoming, warm nest as his wife Bananas has been mentally alienated for some time. He is the only planet occurring rather than moving in his universe when Bunny bursts in; he experiences a rejuvenation that was not even hoped for. The man is left devastated when realizes the merge was only temporary. Had Guare created Artie the Player, there would be no tragic end of the play. He would have shook off the negative experience easily with the game over and got ready for the new one.

Without realizing it, Bunny always aims at winning the game. She approaches life with ease, being aware of the fact that the time spent on the Earth is nothing but a game. One must either enjoy it or quit it. No wonder she leaves Artie when she finds Billy, Artie's wealthy and extremely successful friend, within her reach. Light-hearted without traces of bitterness she is ready to leave Artie's apartment without delay and set off for the new adventure the minute Billy suggests that she joins him on his trip to Australia.

The Pope saw my wish today. He looked me right in the eye and he winked. Hey! Smell- the bread is starting again and there's miracles in the air! The Pope is flying back through the nighttime sky and all the planets fall back into place and Orion the Hunter relaxes his bow... and the gang war in Vietnam will be over and all those crippled people can now stand up and walk back to Toledo. And, Billy, in front of all these people, I vow to you I'll be the best housekeeper money can buy... and I'll cook for you and clean and, who knows, maybe there'll be a development... (Guare, 2010)

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Bunny, the most communicative of all characters in The House of Blue Leaves, shares at any possible occasion her life experience with the audience, which learn about her constant job changes that are typical for the Vagabond. Yet it is in accordance with the Player to have no reproaches about quitting either a job or a relationship. While she is a part of the game, she is very devoted to it. The moment she realizes it is over, she moves on care freely. Although this thesis offers Bunny from the perspective of The Player, it is crucial to realize that she is a mixture of various characteristics with more or less typical features belonging to every pattern. Rigid Players anticipates the counterpart to be the adversary (Bauman, 1995). The word that describes Bunny the best is devotion and surely she protects the colours of her team, never her own ones. Within the category of Players she with no doubt belongs to the subcategory of Team Players.

The Player's traits are portrayed in Six Degrees of Separation, too. Once more they are manifested in the most prominent personage of the play and that is Paul. Sharing the same category, still he can not be compared to Bunny reviewed above as his motives are diametrically different and never a man could consider him a team player. Paul, the sole individualist, is never defeated. No loss does weaken his courage to take up another game. Why should it? Had that been the matter, he would have been a Player disqualified for ever, game is a series of encounters with each encounter viewed as a separate unit. Paul proved to be the Player the third time he performed his stunning piece of wounded schoolmate to Dr. Fine. He had been hugely successful with the Kittredges, yet he made a move in order to participate in another game. To play it, the playmates were needed and that is where the coincidence is expected as the additional, hidden player. Nevertheless, he was not a fair player as he never revealed to his counterparts they were a part of a game. Towards the end of the play he appears to be losing his credence in himself and his playing abilities. It is well displayed in the telephone conversation, that takes place shortly before his arrest, with Quisa. There are several explanation for the process but their interpretation belong to a category of the Stroller.

Naturally, the number of characters as well as a list of descriptive situations could be much longer. Bearing in mind the postmodern instability, all of them may be analysed endlessly despite the fact there are only three main heroes in both plays. Moreover, this thesis offered Bauman‟s categorization only and tried to cover some of the straightforward features. Further

46 key traits, either of characters previously mentioned or those left without any attention will remain hidden in the plays and wait for another person to put them in a spotlight.

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3. Conclusion

On the background of the two John Guare‟s plays, The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation, the issue of identity of the characters was studied. Both literary works were assessed diachronically as well as synchronically. Moreover, five crucial identity patterns defined by Zygmunt Bauman were taken into consideration for the outcomes from the perspective of sociology; these are the Pilgrim, the Stroller, the Vagabond and the Tourist. Reasons for social behaviour of the characters including their development were scrutinized in the sectional analysis of particular identity patterns.

During the process of evaluation of the characters, it became strikingly apparent how great number of difficulties the characters had to overcome originated in several features, all of them typical for postmodernity. Suddenly, the fluidity, fragmentation, instability and temporariness of the postmodern selves happened to be a linking element among the characters. The analysis provided an explanation of the issue that although dreams and problems are not necessarily generally applicable to identity patterns, the way characters deal with them can be categorized. With respect to that, the reader is able to understand and accept the character the way he/she is. The motives that are deeply embodied in the patterns help to predetermine the character's approach to multiple issues that each of them encounters: success, failure, relationship or a confrontation of his/her dream versus reality. It has been exemplified that possessing typical postmodern features such as instability, insecurity, temporariness and fragmentation make characters predestined to higher occurrence of problems originated in these, e.g. paralysis or failure. Whether each character is inclined to malfunction partly depends on his/her identity pattern valid for that particular time as well as on his/her social role. The thesis also demonstrates that almost all characters are deeply postmodern, which means they can not be listed solely within the frames of one category. The traces of several identity patterns inside of one character are illustrated on multiple examples; but they vary, too. Whereas sometimes the prevailing pattern may be identified, often none dominates and the shifting identity strikes apparent.

Based on the way the reader approaches this thesis he/she may be categorized according to Bauman, too. The Stroller only wishes to feed the eyes, uses his/her fantasy but does not go beyond the shell of the characters, the Vagabond wants to read something he/she has not come

48 across before and will enjoy the thesis the way it is, the Tourist will consider whether certain thesis principles have been adhered to and the Player will contemplate if the writer of this thesis hoped for her bit of luck and all she was interested in was winning the game. On the condition the reader has continued all the way to here, it unambiguously makes him/her the Stroller as showing interest in others without interference is highly appropriate to that identity pattern.

To conclude, the thesis introduced John Guare, the author that has been so far overlooked by not only publishers and theatres but by the whole section of English studies within the Czech Republic. It tried to pay off a debt to a world famous playwright by presenting a subjective perspective of his life and work.

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Works cited

Bauman, Z.(n.d.) From Pilgrim to Tourist- or a Short History of Identity. Retrieved July 24, 2013 from: https://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/tourist/Baumann-pilgrim-tourist.pdf Bauman, Z. (1995). Úvahy o postmoderní době. (1. vyd., 165 s.) Praha: Sociologické nakladatelství. Bryer, J. R. (1995). The Playwritght's Art. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press

Cattaneo, A. (2013). John Guare, The Art of Theater No. 9. The Paris Review. Retrieved July 2, 2013 from http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1993/the-art-of-theater-no-9- john guare Dumitrescu, M. Modernism, Postmodernism and the Question of Identity. In: Dialogos. (3/2001). Retrieved November 7, 2013 fromhttp://www.romanice.ase.ro/dialogos/ 03/7- Dumitrescu.pdf

Guare, J. (2010). Six Degrees of Separation. (3rd ed.). London: Methuen Drama.

Guare, J. (1987). The House of Blue Leaves and Two Other Plays. New York, NY: First Plume Printing. McDonough, D. (2012, May 2). US1 Home. Retrieved January 12, 2014, from http://www.princetoninfo.com/index.php?option=com_us1more&Itemid=6&key=5-2- 12mcphee Roudané, M. C. (1997). American Drama Since 1960: A Critical History. New York, NY: Twayne Publishers.¨ Turnau, T. (n.d.) Post-modernity and the Question of Identity. Retrieved January 15, 2014 from: http://www.bethinking.org/human-life/postmodernism-and-the-question-of- identity

Wade, R. Where did "I" Go? The Loss of Self in Postmodern Times. Retrieved January 15, 2014 from: http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4224701/k.E534/Where _Did_I_Go_ The_Loss_of_Self_in_Postmodern_Times.htm

Wojczuk, T. (2012, March 19). Strangers in the Dark: Tana Wojczuk Interviews John Guare - Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. Retrieved December 18, 2013, from http://www.guernicamag.com/daily/strangers_in_the_dark_tana_woj/ Zykmunt Bauman. (2001-). Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia [online]. Retrieved from: http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygmunt_Bauman 50

Annotation

The thesis objective are plays The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation by contemporary American playwright John Guare. Against the background of American society of the second half of the 20th century, the thesis aims to view concept of identity as a results of postmodern society. It summarizes the values as well as the dreams the plays generate and explains their connectedness. The analysis respects five identity patterns according to Zygmunt Bauman and illustrates key features of each on the characters of the two plays.

Anotace

Předmětem práce jsou hry současného amerického dramatika Johna Guare The House of Blue Leaves a Six Degrees of Separation. Na pozadí stavu americké společnosti ve druhé polovině 20. století se práce zaměřuje na koncept identity jako výsledek postmoderní společnosti. Shrnuje hodnoty a sny postav a vysvětluje jejich propojenost. Analýza respektuje pět typů identity podle Zygmunta Baumana a jejich klíčové vlastnosti ukazuje na jednotlivých postavách.

Keywords

American Dream, coincidence, deconstruction, fluidity, fragmentation, identity, personal patterns, posmodernism, relationships, The Pilgrim, The Stroller, The Vagabond, The Tourist, The Player.

Klíčová slova

Americký sen, náhoda, rozklad, nestabilita, fragmentace, identita, osobnostní vzorce, postmodernismus, vztahy, poutník, zevloun, tulák, turista, hráč.

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