Inadmissable Evidence Literary Elements

Inadmissable Evidence Literary Elements

Genre

Drama

Language

English

Setting and Context

Bill's Courtroom Dream and His law office in London - 1964

Narrator and Point of View

POV is that of Bill Maitland

Tone and Mood

Serious and Dramatic

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist (as well as Antagonist) is Bill Maitland.

Major Conflict

Bill Maitland's life has not become what he hoped for, and he attempts to get through a series of days with more pills and more affairs.

Climax

In the end, Bill's mistress, business partner and wife all leave him. He's left alone in his law office.

Foreshadowing

Bill's dream foreshadows the wreckage of his life that is to come.

Understatement

It is understated that Hudson has left Bill for another firm until Act II.

Allusions

The play is an allusion to someone who has lived their life in a way that has born no fruit, and thought they comprehend that they are the problem they allow themselves to blame others for what they have created. The pills, the sleeping around, the insecurity is all a result of feeling and believing that his life has amounted to nothing and there is no escape.

Imagery

The dream sequence is one prominent example; Bill prosecutes himself for a life lived unwell.

Paradox

Bill has built up a long-term law practice; paradoxically, he knows that he is a failure.

Parallelism

The dream sequence at the beginning of the play parallels the internal battle Bill suffers moment to moment in his everyday reality.

Personification

Bill becomes the personification of a man who has lost his way at the end of the play. He has no one to turn to and nowhere to go. The only place he has left is the emptiness of what he has built, represented by his law office.

Use of Dramatic Devices

Opening scene is set as a dream sequence. It allows the reader to understand the internal conflict within Bill before the reality of the play begins.

Intercut monologues where each character responds to the other, but during their speeches neither is really talking to the other.

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