Prompt 13: Three Viewings

After I read the prompt, I delved into the play for a second time, trying to create a chart of how the three stories overlapped. The most noticeable connection between them was that they all took place in the same town. Some of the funeral services mentioned in the first story are what the other two stories are based around. Also, certain people in the town like Bob O’Klock and Art Wise are mentioned in multiple stories. The three characters telling the story also all go to a restaurant called the Green Mill. I’m not sure if these are things that no one else would notice, however. The connections found in this play are quite plain to see, if someone reads the play thoroughly.  

Beneath the surface, there is an underlying theme that connects all three stories. Each character that speaks is never focused on the funerals themselves. Each person is trying to obtain something that they can’t possibly have. Emil is in love with a woman, but he is too afraid to tell her. He decides to say something by the end of the year, but she dies before he gets the chance. Mac wants to get over the guilt of her family’s death. At first we think all she really wants is the ring, but she then realizes that the ring isn’t what she really wanted after all. Virginia is in desperate need of cash, after receiving her late husband’s debt. She begins to lose faith in the man she married, questioning their relationship back to the point when they met. She realizes later that he had her back after all, and she learns that even when things are out of reach, there is always a solution.