Genre
Drama
Setting and Context
A wealthy bedroom, 1991
Narrator and Point of View
POV is of A, B and C, all the same woman at different stages of life.
Tone and Mood
Serious, Dramatic.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist is C. Antagonists are A and B.
Major Conflict
C discovers that her life has very little happiness in it.
Climax
A and B reveal that C's life to come is very hard and lacks happiness. A says that the happiest moment of their life will be the end.
Foreshadowing
A and B's memories foreshadow C's tough journey ahead.
Understatement
It is understated as to whether the son forgave his mother or not.
Allusions
The play is an allusion to Albee attempting to reconcile with his mother and not finding any way to do so.
Imagery
The set of a "wealthy" bedroom creates the imagery that this woman has had a good life as her home looks wealthy.
Paradox
A welcomes her son home, but paradoxically never forgives him for leaving.
Parallelism
The women in disagreement as the the happiest part of life at the end of the play parallels the women disagreeing on how to treat one another in the beginning of the play.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Metonymy, the "end" represents the end of the woman's life that death could also be the entirety of A's portion of the woman's life.
Personification
A becomes the personification of loneliness as we learn that she never forgave her son after his return.
