by Will Dunne
Aware that there will be cutbacks at work and that he could be replaced by a wax dummy, Lincoln wants to ensure that his Abraham Lincoln routine is in top form. His tactic is to convince Booth to help him practice being “assassinated.” This is a difficult step since Lincoln must acknowledge that he needs Booth’s help. Result: failure. Booth at first has other plans (scene 2) and then, when he does agree to help, gives bad advice that could get Lincoln fired (scene 3).
Save the family. Another of Lincoln’s key strategies is to protect what’s left of his family. A recurring tactic is to let Booth win certain power struggles, just as a card hustler might “lose” a small pot now in order to win a big one later. In scene 2, Lincoln not only surrenders his hard-earned money to cover both brothers’ living expenses but also lets Booth keep the lion’s share of the leftover cash. Result: success. Lincoln continues to have what matters to him most: companionship and a roof over his head.
Another of Lincoln’s recurring tactics is to come to his brother’s rescue. In scene 5, when Booth is devastated by Grace’s rejection, Lincoln tries different tactics to take Booth’s mind off his distress, such as reminding him of the “good times” they had as brothers. This is a difficult step since there weren’t many good times and it forces Lincoln to relive painful memories. Result: success. The brothers make a friendly connection.
Show Booth who’s boss. Though Lincoln wants to protect his last family relationship, he must sometimes use harsh tactics to keep his brother in tow. In scene 6, Lincoln shows Booth who’s boss by beating him at three-card monte and taking away his life’s savings. This is Lincoln’s riskiest tactic since it most jeopardizes his family ties. Immediate result: success. Lincoln wins the pot. Delayed result: failure. He loses his life.
■ THE CLEAN HOUSE
Each of the play’s three protagonists has an important goal. Lane wants to regain control of her universe. Matilde wants to heal from the loss of her parents. Virginia wants to find a meaningful task. Each woman uses a variety of strategies and tactics to deal with the obstacles standing in her way.
Lane’s plan to regain control of her universe
Take charge. As a successful doctor at an important hospital, Lane is used to being in charge. In her quest for control, her most common strategy is to tackle problems head-on by asserting her authority and ordering everyone else to do what she wants. In act one, scene 2, when Matilde grows too sad to clean, Lane’s first tactic is to take her to the hospital and have her medicated. Lane expects this to be an easy solution to the problem. Result: failure. Matilde only pretends to take her pills and still won’t clean.
Deny the truth. When faced with a problem she can’t control, one of Lane’s recurring strategies is to deny that it exists. In act one, scene 13, after her marriage has failed, Virginia offers to help her through the difficult time. Lane responds by insisting that she does not need help. This is especially difficult since nothing could be further from the truth. Result: false success. Virginia leaves her alone and Lane continues to suffer.
Diagnose problems. Accustomed to evaluating medical conditions, Lane at times applies a diagnostic approach to other types of problems as well. In act two, scene 7, her probing skills come into play when Matilde returns from Charles’s new home and Lane pumps her for information about his relationship with Ana. This is a difficult step since it exposes how much Lane still cares for Charles. Result: success. She learns that Ana’s cancer has returned.
Matilde’s plan to heal from the loss of her parents
Become a comedian. Matilde’s parents were both comedians who loved to joke and laugh. One of Matilde’s key strategies to cope with their deaths is to become a comedian like them. When she realizes that her job as Lane’s maid makes her too sad to think up jokes, Matilde stops cleaning. This tactic is easy since it enables her to trade work she hates for work she loves. Result: success. Matilde manages to avoid most of her household duties and is soon rescued by Virginia, who secretly cleans the house for her (act one, scene 7).
Since her parents both died as the result of a perfect joke, Matilde believes she will be better able to understand and accept their deaths if she can think up a perfect joke herself. This is a challenging step, but it becomes her primary tactic to cope with her loss. Result: success. Matilde spends a lot of time alone and eventually thinks up the perfect joke (act two, scene 8).
Keep her parents present. Another coping strategy for Matilde is to keep her parents alive in her mind. She does this by talking about them with others and by imagining them in idyllic moments of great laughter. These tactics are difficult because no one else really understands the depth of her loss and because illusions of perfection are not easy to maintain. Result: success. Matilde’s inward moments with her parents free her from sadness and help her maintain the frame of mind she needs to think up jokes.
Get more involved with others. As the story unfolds, Matilde begins to fill the void her parents left by becoming more involved in the lives of those around her. Her tactics include telling jokes, giving advice, orchestrating the bond that the women form, and, finally, granting Ana’s wish to die laughing. These tactics are increasingly difficult because they require Matilde to spend less and less time in her inner world where everything is perfect. Result: success. Matilde eventually reaches a moment of completion with her parents (act two, scene 14).
Virginia’s plan to find a meaningful task
Keep busy. In her quest to improve her life, Virginia’s primary strategy is to keep so busy that she will not have time to think about her failures. When cleaning her own house isn’t enough, Virginia offers to clean Lane’s house secretly so that Matilde can have more time to think up jokes (act one, scene 7). This is an easy choice since Virginia loves to clean, but it involves the risk of getting caught. Immediate result: success. For two weeks, Virginia indulges her cleaning compulsion while getting an unprecedented look at her sister’s things when she isn’t home. Delayed result: failure. Lane figures out what’s going on and puts a stop to Virginia’s clandestine activities (act one, scene 13).
Lend a hand. To add meaning to her life, Virginia repeatedly tries to help others, especially her estranged sister. In act two, after learning that Lane’s marriage has failed, Virginia launches into help mode. Her tactics include openly cleaning Lane’s house, co-hosting a tense visit with Charles and Ana, bringing Lane a hot-water bottle to help her relax, and offering to make a new slip cover for her filthy couch. Result: failure. While Lane reluctantly accepts the hot-water bottle, she ends up screaming at Virginia for having a weird dirt fetish and meddling in her life (act two, scene 9).
Fight back. As one who usually takes a back seat to others, Virginia decides to try a new approach and stand up to Lane. This is Virginia’s most difficult strategy since she has always been second best to her domineering sister. The strategy gathers strength in act two, scene 9, after Lane screams at her and Virginia fights back: “No wonder Charles left. You have no compassion.” The rebellion reaches its tactical peak when Virginia creates an operatic mess in Lane’s living room. Result: success. Virginia gains stature in her sister’s eyes and forces her to admit that she needs Virginia’s help.
ANALYZING YOUR STORY
Explore the strategies and tactics your characters use to reach for their goals.
FIRST STEP
• The character’s first strategy to achieve his or her superobjective is usually the one that seems easiest, safest, or most logical. What is your character’s first strategy?
• What are the key steps, or tactics, of this action plan?
• How successful is this action plan?
• What does this strategy reveal about your character?
LAST RESORT
• The character’s last resort typically occurs late in the story and is the step that he or she perceives to be most difficult or risky. What is your character’s most challenging strategy to achieve his or her superobjective?
• What are the ke
y steps, or tactics, of this action plan?
• How successful is this action plan?
• What does this strategy reveal about your character?
KEY INTERMEDIATE STEPS
• What are one or two other strategies that your character tries between the first strategy and the last resort?
• What are the key steps, or tactics, of these action plans?
• How successful is each action plan?
• What do these intermediate strategies reveal about your character?
STRATEGIES IN SEQUENCE
• Look at the strategies in chronological order. Does this sequence feel logical and true for this character? If not, how might these steps be revised or rearranged?
• Are the character’s strategies truly different or only variations of the same theme? If the strategic approach feels redundant, how can you make it less predictable?
POINTERS AND PLANTS
The effectiveness of a story depends on how actively the audience is engaged in the dramatic journey and how willing they are to believe the events that occur. To keep audience members leaning forward in their seats, dramatic writers use two types of preparation tools:
Pointer. A pointer is a character trait, speech, action, image, or object that overtly paves the way for a future story development by suggesting it might happen. The purpose of a pointer is to create suspense by making the audience anticipate an outcome. In Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, for example, a woman and her daughters wait at a Florida seaport for the arrival of a new hire for the family’s cigar factory: a handsome lector from Cuba who will read to the workers. As the women study his photograph and speculate on what he will be like, we wait in suspense with them to find out how this newcomer will change their lives.
Plant. A plant is a character trait, speech, action, image, or object that will make a future story development understandable and credible to the audience by discretely paving the way for it. The plant does this by introducing information that will become important in retrospect when the development occurs. Unlike pointers, which draw attention to themselves, plants conceal their true purpose when they first appear. Plants are especially critical when a dramatic event is so unusual, difficult, or extreme that the audience may have a hard time understanding or believing it.
In The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman, for example, a woman watches her wealthy husband having a fatal heart attack but does nothing to help him because she knows he is planning to cut her out of his will. We are prepared for her coldhearted response because of several plants earlier in the story that establish her ruthless greed, such as forcing her husband to discuss a lucrative business opportunity even though he is in poor health and obviously exhausted.
Whether the preparation process involves a pointer or plant, it has two basic steps: setup and payoff. In each case, the setup is what makes the payoff work. More often than not, the payoff then becomes the setup for another payoff later on.
■ DOUBT: A PARABLE
Examples of pointers
Provoking statement. In scene 2, as Sisters Aloysius and James discuss school business, Aloysius reveals that there may be a problem brewing at the school but will not explain what it is: “I’m sorry I’m not more forthright, but I must be careful not to create something by saying it. I can only say I am concerned, perhaps needlessly, about matters in St. Nicholas School.” This provoking statement is a pointer that generates suspense by raising questions about what might be wrong and why she is being so secretive.
Revelation about the past. In scene 4, James reports that she may have smelled wine on an eighth grader’s breath after he visited Father Flynn in the rectory. This revelation about the past creates suspense by raising questions about whether something inappropriate happened between the priest and the boy. It is not until the end of the play that we realize the question will never be answered with certainty. In the meantime, our anticipation of an answer is one of the driving forces that keeps us engaged.
Statement of willful intent. At different times in the story, Aloysius suggests future story developments by announcing what she intends to do. These statements of willful intent are pointers that raise questions about what will happen next. In scene 4, for example, after learning that Flynn may have given wine to an eighth grader, Aloysius says, “I’m going to invite Father Flynn to my office on an unrelated matter.” This statement signals that a meeting between Aloysius and Flynn is imminent and prompts us to wonder what will ensue.
Examples of plants
Trait that will motivate future behavior. Doubt focuses on a nun’s campaign to drive away a priest who may be a child predator. The campaign is based on circumstantial evidence rather than tangible proof that abuse occurred. The character who launches such a campaign must have a suspicious nature and a view of the world that does not bend to doubt once a conclusion has been reached.
These defining traits of Aloysius are planted in scene 2, when her first response to a student’s nosebleed is not concern but, rather, the insinuation that the boy purposefully induced the bleeding to get out of class. As Aloysius lectures James about how to manage students, the scene also establishes her authoritative and rigid belief system. Such plants prepare us for the end of scene 5, when Aloysius refuses to believe Flynn’s claim of innocence or to interrogate a caretaker who might corroborate Flynn’s story. When she leaps to the conclusion that Flynn is guilty, we are prepared to believe that this is how this particular character would respond and to know that she will not change her mind.
Loaded object. In scene 5, when Aloysius brings Flynn to her office on the pretext of discussing the school Christmas pageant, their differences escalate into an openly adversarial relationship. Several factors, large and small, contribute to this divide. For example, when Flynn takes out a ballpoint pen to write in his notebook, we know without any words of explanation that he has just given Aloysius another reason to dislike him. Our insight is the result of a plant three scenes earlier when we learned that Aloysius blames ballpoint pens for the destruction of American penmanship and has banned them from the school.
Trait with hidden significance. In scene 5, when Aloysius is about to drop a lump of sugar into Flynn’s tea, she notices the length of his fingernails. She says only, “Your fingernails.” The stage direction goes further: “She is appalled but tries to hide it.” The subtext suggests that she views his idiosyncrasy as a sign of vanity and perhaps something far worse. We are prepared to understand her reaction because of a plant two scenes earlier when Flynn bragged to the basketball team about his fingernails and we learned that they are unusually long.
Statement with hidden significance. In scene 4, after James reports her concerns about Flynn, Aloysius begins to plot a way to incriminate the priest. James reminds her that she is supposed to report problems to Monsignor Benedict, but Aloysius rejects the idea of going through regular channels. We understand her decision because of plants earlier in the scene, such as Aloysius’s reference to the monsignor’s erratic walks through the garden and her description of him as a senile man who is “oblivious” and “otherworldly in the extreme.” It is no wonder that she does not see him as a reliable ally to help her deal with Flynn.
Ritual that will be important later. In scene 8, Flynn storms into Aloysius’s office and slams the door, leaving the two of them alone. While such an entrance might be disturbing under any circumstance, it has added impact here because of certain plants earlier. In scene 4, Aloysius decided to ask Flynn to her office so she could interrogate him about his relationship with Donald Muller. In demanding James’s presence, Aloysius introduced the rule that governs meetings between priests and nuns: “I can’t be closeted alone with a priest. Another Sister must be in attendance.” In the next scene, when Flynn arrived for the meeting, the third-party rule was reinforced: we saw that he could not set foot in the office until James arrived. All of this set up the showdown in scene 8 that begins with Flynn’s door-slamming intrusion.
■ TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
Examples of pointers
Provoking trait. Among the pointers that generate suspense, the character names—Lincoln and Booth—are foremost. With echoes of Abraham Lincoln and his assassin, John Wilkes Booth, the names suggest a violent end to the story even before it begins. When Lincoln appears in scene 1 dressed as the former president, it becomes clear that this choice of names is not arbitrary.
Provoking action. When Lincoln first enters in his Abraham Lincoln outfit, his startled brother pulls out a gun and nearly shoots him. The image of Booth pointing the gun at Lincoln makes a lasting impression that leads us to expect violence later.
Loaded object. The gun itself is a pointer that adds to our anticipation of violence between the brothers, especially since we are reminded of the weapon throughout the play, as in scene 3, when they discuss guns as a requirement for card hustling, and scene 5, when Booth reveals that he always keeps his gun on him.
Provoking statement. Throughout the play, Booth says things that reflect his violent nature and suggest trouble ahead. In scene 1, when he scolds Lincoln for wearing his Abraham Lincoln outfit home, Booth warns, “You pull that one more time I’ll shoot you!” Later, after declaring his new name to be 3-Card, he offers another warning: “Anybody not calling me 3-Card gets a bullet.” In scene 3, as he helps Lincoln practice his work routine, Booth pretends to be an arcade customer shooting the president and in jest says, “I am the assassin! I am Booth!” The menace of his declaration is underscored moments later when the brothers discuss the phony pistols used by arcade customers to shoot at Lincoln. “You ever wonder if someones gonna come in there with a real gun?” Booth asks. “Someone with uh axe tuh grind or something?” He thus unknowingly forecasts his own actions in the final scene.
