by Will Dunne
It is Virginia’s cleaning addiction that draws her back into Lane’s life, frees Matilde to think up jokes, and leads to her getting fired and working part-time for Ana and Charles. By concocting a scheme to secretly clean Lane’s house, Virginia sets into motion a chain of events that affects all of the characters. She is thus a key architect of the story’s throughline.
From a thematic perspective, Virginia is the character who undergoes the greatest shift in her perception of cleaning when, after years of obsessive housework, she learns to embrace the joy of messiness. This transformation culminates in act two, scene 9, when she wreaks havoc in Lane’s living room and adopts a new mindset that empowers her to start getting her sister’s attention.
Ana
Personal description. Originally from Argentina, Ana is an “impossibly charismatic” older woman who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and finds herself in love with her surgeon, Charles. This is a startling development, since Ana has always hated doctors. “I don’t like how they smell,” she tells us in act two, scene 2. “I don’t like how they walk. I don’t admire their emotional lives.”
Ana has not been in love since her marriage decades ago to an alcoholic geologist who peed on lawns and died of cancer when he was thirty-one. She is a passionate woman who relishes life’s pleasures, throws things when she gets mad, and once went to Brazil just to study rocks. To Charles, her free spirit is embodied by the magic of her name: “Ana, Ana, Ana, Ana,” he tells her, “your name goes backwards and forwards.”
One example of Ana’s fierce nature is her response to the news of her breast cancer. Rather than discuss treatment options with Charles, she demands: “I want you to cut it off.” She is a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to ask for it.
Burning desire. Ana’s primary goal is to enjoy the highest quality of life possible for one in the late stages of a terminal disease. For her, this means no hospitals, debilitating medical treatments, or toxic medications that would rob her of her final pleasures.
Dramatic function. Ana is the oldest, most beautiful, and most passionate character in the play and the one least bound by traditional roles and expectations. Such factors contribute to the exotic impression she makes on both Charles and the audience. As a free spirit, Ana is the opposite of Lane and brings into the play a different worldview, one that celebrates the joy of living and advises us to be brave in the face of adversity.
By falling in love with Charles, Ana functions dramatically as an antagonist to Lane and a catalyst for the changes that take place among Lane, Virginia, and Matilde in act two. Though Ana does not physically appear in the play until the start of act two, her cancer is a core plot element that explains how she and Charles met and that eventually motivates the other women to rise above their differences and care for her as she nears death.
By giving Ana an Argentine background, the playwright emphasizes the cultural contrast between her and Lane and thus widens the divide that must be crossed for them to connect. At the same time, Ana’s roots help create a bond between her and Matilde, who is also from South America and, like her, speaks Spanish and Portuguese. Ana contributes to the untranslated language of the play as she and Matilde engage in friendly chats about life, death, jokes, and apples. Their friendship is important dramatically because it spurs Matilde to seek medical help for Ana and thus bring Lane into Ana’s final days.
Charles
Personal description. Lane’s husband, Charles, in his fifties, is a busy but compassionate doctor who performs nine surgeries a day. Faithful to his wife since they were married decades ago, he has recently fallen in love with Ana, one of his cancer patients. Though he is not Jewish, he comes to embrace the Jewish concept of bashert, or soul mate, and uses it to justify his need to be with Ana. “There are things—big invisible things—that come unannounced—they walk in, and we have to give way,” he tells Lane in act two, scene 5, as he tries to explain why he must leave her for Ana.
When not being professional, Charles is a childlike man whose newfound love has filled him with a passion for life. He is a devoted lover who would learn to swim just to accompany Ana into the sea or would go to the ends of the earth just to find a yew tree to treat her cancer. Charles means well, but does not always understand what others really need.
Burning desire. What Charles wants most is to be with Ana, who has ignited in him a new appreciation of life. He explains this rebirth to Lane in act two, scene 5: “I want to live life to the fullest.” For him, this means sharing with Ana what the world has to offer, whether it’s apple picking in the country, a trip to the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, or a day in bed making love while the responsibilities of his medical career go neglected.
Dramatic function. The only male in the cast, Charles is oblivious to cleaning, since the women in his life do it for him. He functions primarily as an antagonist who generates conflict by falling in love with Ana. Though he is often relegated to the offstage world, Charles plays a pivotal role in the chain of events that bring Lane, Virginia, and Matilde together. If Charles had not fallen for Ana, for example, Lane might have remained estranged from her sister and never grown beyond her strained relationship with her maid.
Charles’s good looks have not escaped the attention of his sister-in-law, Virginia. Her attraction to him is useful dramatically because it adds to the conflict between her and Lane. His decision to go to Alaska is a key plot point because it leaves Ana alone while she’s ill and challenges Lane to attend to her medical needs. Dealing with this messy situation is what weakens Lane’s need for perfection and enables her finally to connect with her sister by asking for help.
As with Lane, the playwright chose to make Charles a doctor, a profession that establishes his upper-class status, helps explain the history he shares with his physician wife, and provides the opportunity for him to meet and fall in love with a beautiful stranger with cancer.
ANALYZING YOUR STORY
You can learn a lot about characters by simply describing them. Warm up by answering the following questions. Then write a telling description of each character in your play. This description does not need to be lengthy if it focuses on what matters most.
FOR EACH CHARACTER . . .
• What is the character’s name? Does this name have a significance that is relevant to the story? If so, how is it significant?
• What are the character’s key physical traits? Psychological traits? Social traits?
• What single trait, positive or negative, most strongly defines this character?
• What makes the character unique?
• What is the character’s most universal trait, that is, what makes him or her similar to most other people, including yourself?
• Are any other characters similar to this one? If so, could they be combined?
• What is this character’s greatest strength? Greatest weakness?
• What do you personally like best about this character? Dislike the most?
• What was the most significant turning point in his or her life before the play begins?
• How has that past turning point affected the character in a good way? In a bad way?
• Who matters most in this character’s life when the play begins? When the play ends?
• What does the character want most in the story? Identify his or her burning desire.
• What is the character’s dramatic function? Identify the main role that he or she plays in the dramatic journey.
• Why is the character essential to the story? Identify at least one reason that he or she cannot be removed.
OFFSTAGE POPULATION
In addition to the characters we meet onstage, a dramatic story often features characters whom we don’t meet. This offstage population exists beyond the walls and vistas of the settings we enter. In some cases, characters are relegated to the offstage world because they are not important enough to be onstage. In other cases, they are kept offstage because their absen
ce is more dramatically powerful than their presence, as in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot where the title character’s unknown whereabouts is a central problem of the play.
Offstage characters may be deceased (the antiwar activist Henry in Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz), missing (the Donnelly twins in Faith Healer by Brian Friel), fictitious (the unidentified person whom Gus and Ben are waiting to kill in The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter), or simply elsewhere (Grace and Ruthie in American Buffalo by David Mamet). Whether the influence they exert is positive or negative, the importance of such characters is measured by how much they affect the dramatic action of the story. Sometimes an absent character can be so significant that the play is named after him (Hughie by Eugene O’Neill).
■ DOUBT: A PARABLE
The offstage characters of Doubt are primarily the students and staff of St. Nicholas church and school. In scene 2, for example, as Aloysius and James confer about classroom issues, student names are sprinkled throughout the dialogue: William London, Donald Muller, Linda Conte, Stephen Inzio, Noreen Horan, and Brenda McNulty. Something is said about each one so that he or she feels distinct. Other offstage characters include Mrs. Bell, the art teacher; Mrs. Shields, the dance teacher; and Mrs. Carolyn, a strange woman with a goiter who plays the portable piano. Most of these invisible characters are of minor importance. Their purpose is to create the ambience of a busy school. Some, however, have vital functions:
Donald Muller
The first and only black student in a school full of warring Irish and Italians, twelve-year-old Donald Muller is a pivotal character in the play. He is the boy who returned to James’s class with the smell of wine on his breath after a visit with Father Flynn and thus serves as the catalyst for Aloysius’s campaign to bring the priest down. As the story unfolds, we learn that Donald is gay and that this has led to beatings from his father at home and threats on his life from students at the public school he previously attended.
The fact that Donald remains offstage is essential to our experience of story events: it forces us to evaluate the reactions of the adults around him. Donald’s absence also adds to the uncertainty of Aloysius’s allegations against Flynn since we are not able to observe the boy’s behavior or hear his version of what happened, such as how he acquired the altar wine.
William London
Eight grader William London triggers the play’s second scene. He was sent to the principal’s office earlier by Sister James because he had a nosebleed in her classroom during the Pledge of Allegiance. When she comes to the office now to find out how he is, we see the contrast between James, who is worried about the boy’s well-being, and Aloysius, who believes he induced the nosebleed to escape school. It is thus a problem that introduces Aloysius’s suspicious nature. The focus on William here is also important because it helps us remember him later, in scene 8, when Aloysius reveals to Flynn her initial reason for mistrusting him: “On the first day of the school year, I saw you touch William London’s wrist. And I saw him pull away.” William is thus a key figure in the backstory.
Mr. McGinn
The Irish caretaker is introduced at the beginning of scene 5, when Aloysius speaks to him on the phone about removing a fallen tree limb from the church courtyard. His primary role in the story emerges later in the scene, when Flynn claims it was McGinn who found Donald in the sacristy drinking altar wine. After the meeting with Flynn, James suggests to Aloysius that they corroborate Flynn’s story with McGinn, but Aloysius resists, suspecting deception of some kind. Since McGinn is an offstage character, we are unable to hear his account of what happened and draw our own conclusions. This adds to the uncertainty surrounding Flynn’s innocence or guilt.
Monsignor Benedict
Aloysius first refers to the monsignor in scene 2 as she lectures James about the chain of command in the Church. Aloysius introduces him by name in scene 4 when she expresses fear of running into him unexpectedly in the garden and thus violating the rule that forbids priests and nuns to cross paths unattended. She describes the senile seventy-nine-year-old Benedict as one who is “otherworldly in the extreme” and probably couldn’t name the current president of the United States.
This incapacity proves to be of vital importance later, since Benedict is the only one in the Church to whom Aloysius can report problems. Because she has no one reliable to help her deal with Flynn, she will have to take matters into her own hands. The absence of help that Benedict represents is thus underscored by his literal absence from the play.
Sister Veronica
The only offstage nun who is mentioned by name, Sister Veronica is secretly going blind. This problem is introduced by Aloysius in scene 2, when she implores James to keep an eye on the old nun “so that she doesn’t destroy herself.” It is reiterated in scene 5, when Aloysius informs McGinn on the phone that Veronica has tripped over a tree limb in the courtyard and fallen on her face. When the accident attracts Flynn’s attention, Aloysius attempts to minimize the problem (“Nuns fall, you know”), fearing that Veronica will be taken away if the priests view her as infirm. While Veronica is not important enough to be an onstage character, she provides an opportunity for the playwright to show Aloysius as one who comes to the rescue of others.
■ TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
Lincoln and Booth live in an isolated room physically removed from everyone else in their lives. The offstage population is dominated by their parents in the past and by Booth’s ex-girlfriend Grace in the present. Though absent, these characters play vital roles in the onstage action.
Moms and Pops
The two most important offstage characters in Topdog/Underdog are the brothers’ parents, who pursued but failed to achieve the dream of having a family and owning their own house. Moms ended up with a “Thursday man,” with whom she ran off so quickly one day that she stuffed her things into plastic bags rather than take the time to pack a suitcase. Pops became a boozer, womanizer, and abuser who liked fine clothes and shined shoes, but vanished just as quickly two years later, leaving behind a closetful of clothes that Lincoln subsequently burned.
Before Moms took off, she gave Booth $500 and told him not to tell Lincoln about the money. Before Pops took off, he gave Lincoln $500 and told him not to tell Booth about the money. These secret displays of parental favoritism and mistrust help explain the competition between the brothers, who otherwise grew up dependent on each other.
Grace
Grace (a.k.a. “Amazing Grace”) dominates Booth’s thoughts and motivates his desire to be a topdog. She broke off a two-year relationship with him and now goes to cosmetology school. Still enamored with her beauty and charm (“She’s so sweet she makes my teeth hurt”), Booth is determined to win her back.
Grace’s physical absence is important to the story because it elevates her to near-mythical status and fuels her power as an impossible dream. This absence gains its greatest impact dramatically in scene 5, when we discover that Booth has been waiting for Grace for over six hours with champagne ready to pour, and it becomes obvious that she will never appear at his door. It is a key turning point in Booth’s dramatic journey and a major step toward the tragic outcome of the play.
Others
Other offstage characters include Cookie, Lincoln’s wife, who threw him out of the house after he lost sexual interest in her; Lonny, Lincoln’s three-card monte partner, whose murder on the street inspired Lincoln’s desire to reform himself; and Lincoln’s Best Customer at the arcade, who “shoots on the left and whispers on the right.” Whispered into Lincoln’s ear are such profundities as “Does the show stop when no one watches or does the show go on?” and “Yr only yrself when no one’s watching.”
■ THE CLEAN HOUSE
As The Clean House unfolds, little is revealed about the offstage world, a writing economy that helps focus the story on the here and now. To diminish the impact of offstage characters, none are referred to by name. The two most important ones, Matilde’s deceased parents, are included
here as “offstage” characters because, even though they are occasionally visible to the audience, they have no dialogue and are presented only as figments of Matilde’s imagination.
Matilde’s parents
Existing somewhere between the worlds of the dead and the living, the real and the imagined, the offstage and the onstage, Matilde’s unnamed parents appear only in her mind, where we can see them but never hear what they tell each other. The funniest people in Brazil, they met late in life through humor, lived in laughter, and both died as a result of a joke: her mother from laughing too hard at it and her father from shooting himself after having caused his wife’s death.
The parents are dramatically important because their deaths represent the greatest loss in Matilde’s life and remain the greatest obstacle to her peace of mind. Matilde continues to mourn them, still wearing black a year after their funerals. By showing her parents as stylized memories of happiness rather than multidimensional characters, Ruhl makes them larger than life, thus adding to the emotional impact of their absence.
Virginia’s husband
Compared to Lane, Virginia feels that she always gets second best, and her husband—whom she never refers to by name—is no exception. While Virginia views Lane’s husband as handsome and charismatic, she sees her own spouse as a functional part of her life, comparing him to “a well-placed couch.” Because he is not too handsome and not too good in bed, she doesn’t worry about losing him to another woman. In a twist on a gendered expression, Virginia attributes her lack of children to the fact that her husband is “barren.” It is the dullness of her marriage to this man that fuels her need to make more meaningful connections with others.
