Blasted: Difference between revisions
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A couple |
A couple,Ian and Cate, enter a hotel room in Leeds. Ian, a middle-aged and foul-mouthed journalist, tries to seduce and later rapes the 21-year-old Cate. Next morning, a soldier enters the room. He rapes Ian, eats his eyes and then kills himself.Im the meantime, Cate has run away. While Ian slowly dies, Cate returns to him. |
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Cate is the light character of the play. In the beginning it seems that she is very weak but in the end she shows that her heart is filled with humanity and love - she did not forget what Ian did to her; but she sees in him a human being who requires her help. |
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===Play Structure=== |
===Play Structure=== |
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===Ian=== |
===Ian=== |
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Ian is the protagonist of the play, since he is the only character who is always present on the stage. |
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Ian's occupation is writing articles for a local tabloid. What these articles are like, we learn in {{cn}}, when he dictates a new article to one of his colleagues over the phone. |
Ian's occupation is writing articles for a local tabloid. What these articles are like, we learn in {{cn}}, when he dictates a new article to one of his colleagues over the phone. |
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Symbolising the war entering the scene, the soldier comes like a storm over Ian. The soldier is the punishment for the violence which Ian exerted on Cate. What is more, the soldier depicts the ongoing fall of morale of the play. He is the incarnation of the deepest dehumanisation thought possible. The deeds he boasts of committing seem like the cruellest things one can imagine. His mind is completely destroyed by the impressions war has made on him. And this is where he begins to be pitiable. War is now the guide of the soldier's actions, and war destroys him in the end as he cannot bear his memories any longer and kills himself, leaving Ian completely corrupted. |
Symbolising the war entering the scene, the soldier comes like a storm over Ian. The soldier is the punishment for the violence which Ian exerted on Cate. What is more, the soldier depicts the ongoing fall of morale of the play. He is the incarnation of the deepest dehumanisation thought possible. The deeds he boasts of committing seem like the cruellest things one can imagine. His mind is completely destroyed by the impressions war has made on him. And this is where he begins to be pitiable. War is now the guide of the soldier's actions, and war destroys him in the end as he cannot bear his memories any longer and kills himself, leaving Ian completely corrupted. |
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==Ideas on Interpretation== |
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===Morale=== |
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Morale is constantly declining throughout the play. In the first act, Ian makes clear that he wants sex with Cate, but yet does not force her to do it. Meanwhile, he expresses racism and hostility against the disabled. Then, Cate performs oral sex on Ian. Shortly after that, she is raped twice by him. The soldier arrives, talks of his killings and in turn rapes Ian. By blinding Ian and eating Ian's eyes, the soldier degrades him even further. Then, suicide is the soldier's last action. But still, Ian is sinking below humanity. He is seen masturbating and eating a dead baby. He suffers all horrors one can imagine: hunger, thirst, fear, nightmares and isolation. However, in the end there is even hope for him, when Cate returns and brings him food, takes liability for her former torturer, who couldn't look after himself. |
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==Bibliography== |
==Bibliography== |
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Revision as of 21:40, 13 December 2006
Blasted is the first play by English playwright Sarah Kane.
The Play
Plot
A couple,Ian and Cate, enter a hotel room in Leeds. Ian, a middle-aged and foul-mouthed journalist, tries to seduce and later rapes the 21-year-old Cate. Next morning, a soldier enters the room. He rapes Ian, eats his eyes and then kills himself.Im the meantime, Cate has run away. While Ian slowly dies, Cate returns to him.
Play Structure
"Blasted" consists of three acts:
- Ian and Cate staying in the hotel room
- Ian rapes Cate, she escapes and the soldier enters the room
- Scenes in a destroyed setting: Ian, Cate and the soldier after a bomb has hit the hotel room
Characters
Ian
Ian's occupation is writing articles for a local tabloid. What these articles are like, we learn in [citation needed], when he dictates a new article to one of his colleagues over the phone. Before writing articles he worked for a secret organization by carrying out missions which also involved killing people. However, Ian now fears that the organisation wants him dead for unknown reasons. His persecution mania is the reason for him to carry a revolver (which he checks regularly) and it also makes him jump with fear every time there is a knock on the door. The threat the organisation poses to Ian is always looming at the outside of the hotel room, symbolizing the superordinate powers Ian is subject to and anticipating the coming of the soldier and the war.
However fearful of the distant power, Ian exercises his own power over Cate. He and Cate had a relationship once, which Ian tries to reinstall no matter whether he is married or short from death. He has bought flowers for Cate, has rented an expensive hotel room and tries to make Cate sleep with him. Cate refuses, but at some point when Ian falls into grieving she gives in and has oral sex with him. Being still unsatisfied, Ian rapes Cate at the transition from act one to act two and again when she falls into an epileptic fit in act two.
Ian's health is in a state of decline. From his statements we learn that he is well aware of this, but still he doesn't care. While quarrelling with Cate over his excessive smoking he tells her about his stay at a hospital: "[...] physician brought in a lump of rotting pork, stank. My lung." Ian's inward corruption also begins influencing his outer appearance, which he also notices: "Sweating. Stink." Of course, his indifference concerning his illnesses may hide a deeper fear of being close to death. This may also be a hint on why he tries to keep Cate with force.[1]
Cate
Cate is bringing light into the dark and violent actions of "Blasted". She looks like she is engrossed by her surroundings, constantly suppressed by Ian and helpless ("sucking her thumb"). But describing her as weak and naiïve would be superficial. Instead, at some points she even caps Ian's statements. For example, when he says that football fans should be bombed to wipe them out, Cate confesses that she is also a football fan and asks Ian, whether he would bomb her, too. She also does not simply accept the violence exerted to her by Ian. In response to his actions, the answers back with her means: Biting Ian's penis while performing oral sex, destroying his jacket and beating him. In act three she demonstrates her ability to survive even in the chaotic war which rages outside the apartment: While Ian suffers from hunger, she gained some food by selling herself to a man in the street. Of course, prostitution isn't the best solution to all problems arising from poverty, but in her case it means that she is able to act to protect her life and even that of Ian. Additionally, she does not fall into her fits while in danger of life, but shows cool, controlled acts.[2]
The Soldier
Symbolising the war entering the scene, the soldier comes like a storm over Ian. The soldier is the punishment for the violence which Ian exerted on Cate. What is more, the soldier depicts the ongoing fall of morale of the play. He is the incarnation of the deepest dehumanisation thought possible. The deeds he boasts of committing seem like the cruellest things one can imagine. His mind is completely destroyed by the impressions war has made on him. And this is where he begins to be pitiable. War is now the guide of the soldier's actions, and war destroys him in the end as he cannot bear his memories any longer and kills himself, leaving Ian completely corrupted.
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Bibliography
- Saunders, Graham: Love Me or Kill Me: Sarah Kane and the theatre of extremes, Manchester University Press 2002