Genre
Drama
Language
English
Setting and Context
Bill's Courtroom Dream and His law office in London - 1964
Narrator and Point of View
POV is that of Bill Maitland
Tone and Mood
Serious and Dramatic
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist (as well as Antagonist) is Bill Maitland.
Major Conflict
Bill Maitland's life has not become what he hoped for, and he attempts to get through a series of days with more pills and more affairs.
Climax
In the end, Bill's mistress, business partner and wife all leave him. He's left alone in his law office.
Foreshadowing
Bill's dream foreshadows the wreckage of his life that is to come.
Understatement
It is understated that Hudson has left Bill for another firm until Act II.
Allusions
The play is an allusion to someone who has lived their life in a way that has born no fruit, and thought they comprehend that they are the problem they allow themselves to blame others for what they have created. The pills, the sleeping around, the insecurity is all a result of feeling and believing that his life has amounted to nothing and there is no escape.
Imagery
The dream sequence is one prominent example; Bill prosecutes himself for a life lived unwell.
Paradox
Bill has built up a long-term law practice; paradoxically, he knows that he is a failure.
Parallelism
The dream sequence at the beginning of the play parallels the internal battle Bill suffers moment to moment in his everyday reality.
Personification
Bill becomes the personification of a man who has lost his way at the end of the play. He has no one to turn to and nowhere to go. The only place he has left is the emptiness of what he has built, represented by his law office.
Use of Dramatic Devices
Opening scene is set as a dream sequence. It allows the reader to understand the internal conflict within Bill before the reality of the play begins.
Intercut monologues where each character responds to the other, but during their speeches neither is really talking to the other.
