Author Question: Is Soap Opera merely a piece of inspired silliness, or does it have a deeper dimension? What will ... (Read 71 times)

londonang · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

Is Soap Opera merely a piece of inspired silliness, or does it have a deeper dimension?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Where does the climax of the play occur?

What will be an ideal response?

qytan · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Amid all the foolery, we do see a deeper element: the Repairmans quest for the perfection that he finds in the Maypole Ocean IT-40 makes him incapable of accepting the imperfections of human nature. We see that he has learned hisand the playslesson when, after spending most of his life trying to wash the stains out of Mabels clothes, he says about the spot on her dress: Never remove it. It is the indelible Rorschach blot of the human heart (page 1151). And here we see another very interesting factthat there is an infinite number of ways in which any theme may be treated in a work of literature. Ivess theme in Soap Opera, is, broadly speaking, the same one that John Keats engages in his completely serious Ode on a Grecian Urn.

Answer to Question 2

The climax comes at the moment when the Washing Machine is begging the Repairman to take away the burden of my perfection. Make me suffer. Break me. Ruin me, and he has a tool ready (page 1150). How he will act in this situation will determine how he feels about the Machine and about Mabeland about the issues that his relationships with them have raisedand thus will determine which of the two he finally chooses.