The House of Blue Leaves Literary Elements

Drama

English

The play takes place in the October 1965 in New York.

Because this is a play, there is no narrator or point of view, the events being presented through the dialogues the characters have with one another.

The tone in the play is a desperate and frustrating one, brought on by Artie’s desire to be accepted and to become famous and the way he is treated by those around him.

It is hard to determine the protagonists and the antagonists as all characters are presented in a rather negative manner. The only character who is portrayed in a positive light is Corrinna and maybe Bananas who can’t be held accountable for her actions while Artie and Bunny are the antagonists of the play.

The major conflict in the play is caused by Artie’s desire to be famous and live a life which he will find meaningful and the limitations imposed on him by his wife, who needed constant care.

The play reaches its climax when Corrinna is killed by the bomb constructed by Ronnie.

Banana’s death at the end of the play is foreshadowed in the first act of the play when Bunny expresses her hope to see Bananas dead.

When Artie claims in the plays he want to see his wife gone is an understatement as it is later proven he will do everything in his power to make sure his wife is comfortable and go with her if there is any chance of getting the treatment she needed.

One of the greatest allusion in the play is the idea that America was no longer the place where dreams come true but rather but place which dreams are crushed in the end.

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A paradoxical idea appears in the first act towards the end when Bananas tells Artie about the first time she felt something was wrong with her and about the moment which marked the beginning of her insanity. In that moment, Artie becomes loving towards Bananas, consoling her and wanting to do everything he can to make her comfortable. This image is important because up until that point, Artie treated Bananas as a menace, someone he wanted to get rid himself off. This scene however reveals that Artie loved Bananas and his feelings for her changed just because she was affected by the mental illness plaguing her.

A parallel can be drawn between Artie and his son Ronnie, both being extremely similar when it comes to analyzing their behavior and their dreams for the future. This parallel may be used in this context to show just how much the environment in which a person lives can influence their life completely, even years after they grew up and left the home where they grew.

We find a personification in the last scene of the first act when Bananas uttered ‘’the walls have spoken to me’’.

One element which can be found in the play is parabasis, the act through which the characters speak directly with the audience. This is one of the major dramatic devices used in the play apart from the monologues through which the characters give to the audience additional information and allow the audience to get a glimpse into their private lives.