analiz_Thursday_Evening

Analysis of Thursday Evening

The text under analysis is written by Christopher Morley, an American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet. The scene is set in the small kitchen of Laura and Gordon. The extract is about a usual quarrel between the newlyweds: a young couple has a dinner with their mothers-in-law. After it Gordon and Laura wash dishes and talk about food odds. They begin to accuse each other in wrong behavior as a wife or husband. They even argue about their child’s future and what kind of person he should be and it is heard by their mothers. They admit their guilt in not proper bringing up of Gordon and Laura and try to reconcile them. Each mother praises her child and criticizes the other. As a result, Gordon and Laura realize their own faults and forgive each other.

The atmosphere of the extract is emotional. The language of the play is entirely a dialogue, that is why there are a lot of characteristic of real conversation, for example colloquial words “My Lord, Oh, ye gods, Well”, the use of aposiopesis “Your mother –, Now listen –etc.” elliptical sentences “Very sensible. Splendid. Exactly.”, moreover the author uses declarative sentences to emphasize the tense during the quarrel “Waste! I didn’t find fault! The expectant mother-in-law!”. The play is written in ironical tone and this humorous effect is achieved by using jokes and irony. For example, “In handcuffs, I suppose. Her poor, overworked boy, the Garden of Eden has its name because there is no mother-in-law there etc.”. Moreover, the text is full of epithets. In the first part they are used by the couple to humiliate each other, Laura calls her husband “vulgar [ ˈvʌl.ɡər ], selfish, conceited [ kənˈsiː.tɪd ] man, too common, too ordinary” while she sees herself as “charming, aristocratic wife”. In the second part, two mothers-in-law employ epithets to describe the terrible character of their children “Laura is so dreadfully sensitive, He is dreadfully stubborn and tactless”. In the end the newlyweds use epithets in relation to themselves because they feel guilty and want to set themselves right with each other, Laura says that she is “spoiled, silly, extravagant”, Gordon admits that he is “obstinate and disagreeable”.

The quarrel begins with the waste topic: Laura does not want to keep the food odds, while Gordon thinks that it is the unforgivable sin, and here we see allusion to the Bible, the author uses it to emphasize Gordon’s attitude to saving. The author also employs simile to underline the fact that Gordon is the only bread-winner in the family and he has to work hard “working like a dog”. He calls Laura a bad house-wife, and here we can see the simile again, Laura does not agree with Gordon’s image of good wife who has to grub along like a washerwoman. After the quarrel, the mothers-in-law go to the kitchen to finish the work and here we notice another example of irony that is performed with the help of parallel construction and antithesis “If it wasn’t so tragic I’d laugh. If it wasn’t so comic I’d cry.”. The mothers understood that this silly disagreement can destroy the marriage. They admit that it is the parent’s fault because Gordon’s father brought him up to have a terror of wasting a nickel while Laura’s father let her enjoy herself and did not make her think about money. They agreed to do something to safe their marriage even if it means to spoil the relationship between the mothers and their children. The author emphasis this idea of cooperation by using metaphor “Every marriage ought to be preceded by a treaty of peace between the two mothers”. They pretend that it is their plan to break up the marriage because Laura and Gordon are do not fit each other. The couple hears them and they realize how stupid they have behaved. Laura and Gordon love each other and can weather any storm together.

In this extract we can see different topics such as generation gap, life of newlyweds and the hard work of husband and wife in general, however, in my opinion the most significant theme is the sacrifice of mothers for the good of their children. Two wise women realize that the only way to save the marriage of Laura and Gordon is to make them think that they do not approve this union. The mothers-in-law spoil their good relationship with Laura and Gordon, and they make this sacrifice for the happiness of their children and it is the burden of every parent.