Bold Girls Overall Analysis Dramatic Techniques • In the course of the work on this text you will keep focus on: • plot • themes • Character • Symbolism • Setting • Stage directions • dramatic tension • dramatic irony • Dialogue, soliloquy and monologue. Plot and Structure • In many stories, novels, films and plays, classic narrative technique is used. It can be defined as follows: • A situation is established at the beginning. We are introduced to the key characters and their way of living. • A disruptive force in the form of a dramatic event or a new character upsets the way of living (CONFLICT). • Further problems or enigmas result from this disruption. • The audience are drawn in as these problems bring matters to a climax before they are solved. • Normality is re-established at the end of the narrative, but some things may have changed the characters and their lives radically. Plot and Structure • Write a summary of the plot ensuring you cover the following: • Initial situation • Conflict • Further problems • Climax • Normality re-established Themes Values of contemporary society To what extent does Cassie exemplify the aspirations of young women? What does she want out of life? What prevents her from getting what she wants? Cassie’s story is affected by the Troubles, but in fact she could be any young woman living in any rundown estate in any town in Scotland. Looking at what she tells us in the play: How is she influenced by television and magazines? Are the things she wants within her reach? Themes • Truth and illusion • This is a play about women living in a ‘war zone’, struggling with poverty and difficult social conditions, as single parents. One of the strategies adopted by Nora, Marie and Cassie is the avoidance of truth and the creation of a comforting illusion. Taking each character in turn, and paying close reference to the text, consider what illusions they create and what truths they avoid. • For example, Nora is exceptionally house proud – look at the references to her fabric and to the lamented bamboo suite that was destroyed by the British soldiers. What sort of magazines do you think she would read? What would her favourite programme on daytime television be? If Nora could have a dream come true, what do you think it would be? • On the other hand, what is going wrong in Nora’s life? To what extent does she face up to the truth of this or hide behind a dream? Themes • Bold girls and bold boys: gender issues • Why do you think the play is entitled Bold Girls? • What messages about women’s lives and the challenges they have to face does Rona Munro give the audience? Identify three incidents from the play that illustrate this. • What messages about men’s lives does the writer give the audience? While the men do not appear on stage, identify one thing each of the women tell us about their men (Michael, Sean, Joe and Martin) that illustrate this? Symbolism • Discuss the importance of each of the following: • Nora’s peach fabric • Deirdre’s knife • the birds that are fed by Marie • the pictures (The Virgin Mary and Michael) on Marie’s walls. Setting • ‘I don’t think the battles women fight or the daily struggles they have are different to those in any other area with bad housing or high unemployment except that guns make a difference to everything.’ Rona Munro • In what ways does the setting in time and place contribute to the events of the play? • To what extent does setting the play in Northern Ireland, in a working class community, shape the lives of the characters in terms of their attitudes and their dreams? Dramatic Tension • Much of the tension in the play revolves around the presence of Deirdre. In your groups, discuss how tension is created in the following three incidents. • How is tension created during Deirdre’s opening speech? How is it developed on page 13? • Deirdre comes to Marie’s door seeking shelter. Discuss Cassie’s reaction to her presence (page 18). • In the club we see Deirdre in a different guise. How does she challenge each of the other characters in this scene? • Explain what Deirdre is really looking for. How is her character developed as an outsider? Consider the levels at which she doesn’t fit in. Dramatic Irony • When the audience knows more than one of the characters. • Marie’s coping strategies as a widow and as a single parent depend on an illusion being kept intact. • To what extent does the audience know or suspect more than Marie herself does about what Michael was really like? Dialogue and Humour • In dialogue we have conversation between two or three characters. This allows us to witness how the characters get along with one another and to see tensions between them. Keep in mind that the essence of drama is conflict, and that in a piece of literature everything that is written down is put there for a reason. • Discuss the contrasting attitudes between Nora and Cassie during the retelling of Sean’s arrest (page 26). • To what extent is the use of humour in the narrative appropriate?
