Answer to Question 1
- Like anyone else, he seeks a partner who will complete him by providing him with that which he desires but lacks in himself. As he acknowledges, his attraction to the Washing Machine is fueled by Oedipal and other neurotic compulsions. The machine is alternately seductive and aloof, manipulating his emotions in order to keep him slavishly devoted to it. Each of them feels insecurity and jealousy when the other shows interest in another woman or appliance. Except for the glaring fact that he is a man and she is a machine, its hard to think of any aspect of their relationship that doesnt have some connection to a human love affair.
Answer to Question 2Some of the more ingenious (and/or egregious) instances include:
476 DRAMA
![]()
The sphinx in our Oedipal basement was my mothers Maypole. The old Ocean IT-40. It sat there like a mystical monolith. An ivory soap tower (Repairman, page 1144);
In my experience, everything is a cycle. . . . We run hot and cold (Washing Machine, page 1146);
I was awash in confused feelings. But I sensed that this machine and I were locked in permanent press. And if it was loveit was unclean (Repairman, page 1147);
Do you think I dont see you polishing its knobs when Im not looking? (Mabel, page 1149);
And so we folded (Repairman, on his marriage to Mabel, page 1149).
The frequently outrageous punning helps to establish the plays atmosphere of zany farce. By highlighting the multiple meanings that words and statements can carry, by showing how dissimilar things can be related to one another, it also subtly conveys the sense of a world in which anything can mean anything else, and anything can happenincluding a mans romantic obsession with an appliance.
A closer look at the reproductive cycle of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
Relationship between a diagnostic label and related factor
Types of tissue in the human body.
The Human Visual Cortex
The four routes of entry into the human body for hazardous materials.
Cross-section of a human molar