Monday, November 29, 2010

What does it mean when the apartment is well-ordered but weariness has "won in this room:" What details show this?

In Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, there is an early and extended description of the interior of the Younger family's apartment. This description is where, if I remember correctly, we encounter the statement that the apartment is well-order but full of weariness. These two, somewhat conflicting moods -- ordered and weary -- can be seen in details in that same description. The whole space is cramped but organized. The couch and other furniture are heavily worn and almost entirely covered by materials to conceal the wear. The wallpaper also shows the wear (again, if I remember correctly); when the pictures come down off the walls in one of the final scenes of the play, we're told that dark spots remain where the pictures had kept the wallpaper from fading. A related set of moods or themes -- e.g. hope and oppression -- are also expressed in part through the details of the apartment, such as the small kitchen window.


A Raisin in the Sun is a great play, and the reader (or viewer) certainly gets more out of it when looking carefully not just at the story but also at the setting.

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