Style
In considering the style in which this play was written, it could be helpful to place it in a time period. It was published in 1997, and takes place from 1979 to 1995. It is clearly set in the modern era. Interestingly enough, it does not follow a modern model. It is much more pre-modern, in that the subject of the play is stable, we understand it, whereas modernism would present certain problems in our viewing. There are also clear cause and effect relationships, and it is generally unified and linear. The play does stray slightly into modernism in that there are questions of morality when Dominic leaves Amy, and the social order is challenged when Esme is forced out of theater and into television. Esme also loses her savings through Lloyd's investing misfortunes, and Dominic rises from a nobody-critic to a big-time film director.
In terms of more specific styles, each address author concerns, comprehensibility, plot construction, character substance, setting, and language. In looking at realism, the author is most concerned about "the impact the evils of society will have upon the human spirit." This can be either issue driven, where there are specific references to societal issues and historical events, or character driven, where the play follows the change in characters more closely than related facts. Amy's View is actually sort of a mixture of these, addressing the conflict between theater and new media, but also drawing on the growth of the characters as they navigate this changing culture.
Comprehensibility, of course, deals with the way in which the world is presented and how easy it is for us to understand. A realistic play must be logical and probable, which Amy's View certainly is. Plot construction must also be logical and linear. Amy's View is just this, following a cause and effect pathway, despite being broken up over time. Characters of a realistic play should naturally be realistic as well – lifelike and believable as real people. The only place where this is stretched is in Dominic's role, where some critics find the actor struggling to "make the character human." Setting and language obviously need also be realistic, perhaps set in a limited space (Esme's living room) and using dialogue that "reflects the lives of the audience."
After analyzing each component of a realistic play, it is clear that Amy's View follows a realistic model.
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Famous quotes containing the word style:
“Everything ponderous, viscous, and solemnly clumsy, all long- winded and boring types of style are developed in profuse variety among Germans—forgive me the fact that even Goethe’s prose, in its mixture of stiffness and elegance, is no exception, being a reflection of the “good old time” to which it belongs, and a reflection of German taste at a time when there still was a “German taste”Ma rococo taste in moribus et artibus.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“A cultivated style would be like a mask. Everybody knows it’s a mask, and sooner or later you must show yourself—or at least, you show yourself as someone who could not afford to show himself, and so created something to hide behind.... You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being.”
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980)