Analysis Of Mud By Maria Irene Fornes - 786 Words

Mud (1983) is one of Maria Irene Fornes s best plays. Like Fefu and her Friends, it is set in the preindustrial society (Savaran 2012, 56); the incidents take place in a small unnamed rural town in the 1930s when feminism was not firmly established, and women were struggling to get their rights. The play revolves around three characters, Mae, the only female character in the play, and two male characters, Lloyd, her illiterate foster brother and former boyfriend, and Henry, her neighbour and new boyfriend. The society in which Mae lives is a patriarchal one where she was previously dominated by her father and later by Lloyd. In such a society women are considered subordinate to and of lower rank than men. They are looked upon as†¦show more content†¦Explaining her relationship with Lloyd to Henry, Mae says: He [Lloyd] has always been here since he was little. My dad brought him in. He said that Lloyd was kind and that he would keep me company. He said he was old and tired [...]. My dad was good but he was sad and hopeless and when my mom died he went to hell with himself. He got sick and died and he left Lloyd here [...]. I don t know what we are. We are related but I don t know what to call it. We are not brother and sister. We are like animals who grow up and mate. (Fornes, Mud 1986, 28) Both Mae and Lloyd suffer from poverty. However, Lloyd is careless; he mindlessly looks after their pig and farms the land. He is highly dependent on Mae; besides, he is satisfied with his own status. On the other hand, Mae toils in ironing clothes in order to support herself and Lloyd; she is the sole breadwinner of the family. Additionally, she prepares food. Mae is unsatisfied with her own conditions; she yearns to improve herself and her life, and plans to escape from the sexual and economic exploitation of Lloyd. She is aware that her aspirations can be achieved through education. Consequently, she attends literacy classes at a school; she as Mala Renganathan expresses it, dreams of educating herself and making herself literate (2010, 8). Lloyd is entirely unlike Mae, he is not eager to learn and improve himself;