The Bald Prima Donna Literary Elements

The Bald Prima Donna Literary Elements

Genre

Theatre of the Absurd

Language

Romanian, French

Setting and Context

Middle-Class English Home, Evening - 1950

Narrator and Point of View

POV is that of Mr. and Mrs Smith.

Tone and Mood

Absurd, Comedic

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonists and Antagonists are Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Major Conflict

The Martins have shown up late to dinner with the Smiths, who have already eaten.

Climax

The Fire Chief visits and leaves, and the Smiths and Martins begins to scream statements and words at one another until the Martins take the place of the Smiths and restart the play by speaking the Smiths' lines from the beginning.

Foreshadowing

Mr. and Mrs. Martins' coincidences foreshadow that they are married.

Understatement

It is understated as to why the Martins were so late to dinner.

Allusions

The play is an allusion to how communication in society has broken down to the point that how we respond to one another makes no sense.

Imagery

The Martins restating the play with the Smiths' lines creates the imagery that this absurd inability to have an articulate conversation could happen to anyone. That people have become interchangeable in their inarticulateness.

Paradox

Mr. and Mrs. Martin realize they are married with a child. Paradoxically, they aren’t who they say they are; Mary reveals this.

Parallelism

The opening scene with the Smiths parallels the closing scene with the Martins speaking their lines.

Personification

The Fire Chief becomes the personification of putting out fires after the fire of his life was extinguished by Mary.

Use of Dramatic Devices

The absurdist nature of the entire play creates comedy out of apparent absurdity.

Mary’s speech to the audience revealing that Mr. and Mrs. Martin aren’t who they say they are.

The Martins taking the Smiths' place as the play starts over.

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