She talks to Beethoven"and An evening with dead Essex Comparison

In this paper, I will focus on two of her best plays, an evening with dead Essex and she speaks to Beethoven. In both, I will try to compare the historical, political and literary climate. For both plays, violence is a major theme. In An evening with dead Essex, the main character Mark Essex single-handedly kills two hotel guests, three policemen, and a hotel employee. Another two firemen and ten police are wounded in that fracas at the Downtown Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge. Alexander is portrayed as a man who never gets satisfied at all, gets bitter at times and less understanding. Beethoven also gets angered on the mention of Vienna to an extent that he punches the piano so hard that it makes a loud noise (Kennedy).

However, the type of violence differs in both plays. In the play an evening with dead Essex, the culprit Essex has planned his actions and has a reason behind every one of his actions. He carries out this crime believing that he is searching for freedom. Also In the play, an evening with dead Essex, we find Essex is an ex-soldier having served in the marine. He serves the US in the war against Vietnam. He is also at war with his country which does not appreciate service by soldiers (Willis 101). He is also at war with his conscience since he is in a dilemma whether to fight for the US or against it. Finally, he is at war with his race, black people.

He is famous for his work on the colonized patients and also his association with Fanon and Patrice Lumumba. Another common theme is suicide. In the play She speaks to Beethoven, Beethoven’s nephew Kurl tries to shoot himself. He explains the reason behind his attempt being that Beethoven torments him with her demands and expectations. He refers to himself as being broken and miserable because of Beethoven (Kennedy). Kurl a nephew of Beethoven is the victim. Beethoven is also described to be a less understanding person who is very loud and bitter at times. In both plays, we see people striving to achieve peace and harmony. In An evening with dead Essex we see the end of the war brings peace.

The director of the play also emphasizes the expression of peace and uses repetition to emphasize further. The experience haunts him and acts improperly as a way to free himself from the experience. In the other book, peace is experienced after independence. One scene explains how Ghanaians walk in the city playing music. It also tells us on the setting of the room, a picture of Kwame Nkrumah, a photo of David and Suzanne and a painting of scenes of Ghana’s independence. Suzanne is listening to a small radio as she looks from the window. However, the plays differ in the results of adulthood. For Alexander, we can say that he is living to his expectations though it comes with a number of challenges.

Finally, he gets to his feet and is doing very well. He even finds love. For Mark, the case is totally different. The play revolves around mark Essex. Despite mark being guilty of his crime and lacking no solid reason for his actions, we find the actors trying to justify his actions. He is being transferred from being a criminal to being a martyr. The crew try to justify marks actions by the use of bible verses, his childhood moments and to some point deception. It is however very ironical that they use biblical verses to paint a good picture of Mark who at his end times had rejected Christianity (Spencer 38). In another scene, a marine helicopter delivers police marksmen and hover around a city.

There is a gunfight which follows the phosphorus grenade. This displays a scene of mass murder where many people lose their lives. Among the items, Nixon speech is the resume of the bombing which means more killing. This play is realistic because it is based on a true incident which happened in 1973. This shows that the freedom of speech and information is not limited to the citizens. Alexander associates with Pan Africanists such as Lumumba. However, with the murder of Lumumba and Fanons deteriorating condition, he is the last man standing. He takes over from Fanon. The political climate is calm and at the time of Alexanders rescue, the President assures him that his kidnappers have been arrested. There is hate between the two races.