Interpreting Characters' Personalities
...ship with Mrs. Wright who is being held in the local jail while the County Sheriff and County Attorney are investigating the death of her husband. Mrs. Hale states “it never seemed to be a cheerful place” speaking of the Wright household. It is also apparent that neither of these ladies is close to one another but Mrs. Hale convinces Mrs. Peters that Mrs. Wright was not a very happy lady in recent years. Mrs. Hale blames the situation on Mr. Wright. She goes into detail as to how happy and cheerful Mrs. Wright was before she was married. When the ladies find a dead canary in a pretty little box that looks as if it might have a broken neck they start to see eye to eye on the situation, and they hide the box under a quilt. When the men ask the ladies about the bird cage they tell the men doing the investigation that they believe a cat killed the bird. The women also agree that they will not tell Mrs. Wright about her canned jams being ruined. They carefully wrap the one jar that is not broken to take to Mrs. Wright in jail to show her that they are fine. These events lead the reader to believe that both Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are knowledgeable, caring, and clever. The only challenge to the reader in this play is how Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters change their tone and what they are talking about when the sheriff and attorney are in the room. Another instance of a play that allows the reader to interpret the characters personalities is “Los Vendidos”, by Luis Valdez. The title translates as “The Sellouts”. In the first three quarters the only personality that the author allows the reader to draw conclusions on is Miss Jiménez. We learn that she is very proper and very picky. She starts out the play by introducing herself, and points out Sancho, the salesperson pronounces her name incorrectly. Then she is trying to pick out her idea of a perfect Mexican robot. Miss Jiménez goes through three different types before she finally settles on the Mexican-American robot named Eric. The first three quarters of the play has the reader believing that the other characters in the store are just models. Once the secretary leaves the store, the story starts to become understandable to the audience. This point in the play allows the reader to ...