Dinner With Friends Analysis Essay, Research Paper
As a wonderfully enjoyable play, Dinner With Friends delivers to audiences a very prevalent situation in relationships during this decade; The situation being, divorce. Set in a area of New England, Dinner With Friends shows a difficult period in two fourty year-old married couples, and long time friends lives. The character?s ethnic background is not brought into subject during the play, however, I assumed they were white of European decent. However, the roles could be performed by any race of actors. This scene contains one of the married couples, Tom and Beth. Tom is a lawyer and a fairly ?to the point? individual. He speaks what he feels and holds no emotions back. Beth, Tom?s wife, is a very ?free soul.? Beth has no set job. Her focus in life is set primarily on her art and her family.
The scene in which I am analyzing takes place at the end of act one, scene two. In this episode we have the character Tom, played by myself, confronting my wife Beth, played by Krista Musser, about a situation that took place earlier in the evening. Beth, along with her children, had dinner with the couples best friends, Gabe and Karen. At the conclusion of dinner Beth informed both Gabe and Karen that her husband has cheated on her with another woman. In fact, the reason Tom is not able to attend the dinner, according to Beth, is because Tom has a plane flight that night and is to meet up with his stewardess affairess Nancy.
Tom arrives to his and Beth?s house late that night; The kids are already asleep and Beth is ready for bed as well. Tom, coming in with heavy clothes, due to the snow falling down outside, enters the couples bedroom. After coming in Tom receives a cold welcome from Beth along with a confrontation on how he should not come and go as he pleases in the house once the two are officially divorced. Tom, however, is very interested about the dinner with Gabe and Karen and proceeds to ask questions about the conversation that took place over the process of the of the get together. Beth attempt
My emotions at the top of the scene, as Tom, is one of defence. Gabe and Karen are both my friends to. In fact, I knew the other couple before I even knew Beth. Krista, as Beth, knows that I am highly disturbed by the fact that I was not there with her when she ?spilled out? the news. My emotions come into play through the lines ?That?s not the point! You?ve got the adventage now!? Krista says, ?What?! I do not!? and I reply, ?Of course you do! You got to them first! They heard your side of the story first! Of course they?re gonna side with you, it?s only natural!? The obvious jealousy that Gabe and Karen could look down on me and think of me as the ?bad guy? scares me. At which point I turn angry and accuse Krista as plotting againest me.
Eventually the fight turns into slander of our two characters personalities. With heavy retorts back and forth we each try to upset the other more and more. The fight esculates to the conclusion where the battle suddenley takes an unexpected turn. Krista and I kiss and the fight ends with a wild stare. Then as the scene ends when we franticly begin to remove eachothers clothes. The hate that has come between us both when fueled gives both our characters such passion. I believe my goal in the scene is to push the female character. I still love her because she?s my long time wife but I do not want to be with her anymore. I am content that I have found my other lover, Nancy. The insinutated sex at the end is merely an outcome from an emotionally charged situation.
Bibliography
Dinner With Friends, the play.