the ham funeral
As a novelist, Patrick White made an indelible contribution to the success of Australian Literature, since he was awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature and thus gained an international reputation. However, White is also considered as one of the most remarkable Australian playwrights since his inspiration drawn from European Expressionist precursors such as August Strindberg, also expended naturally into his plays. White didn’t show the slightest inclination for realism and naturalism in his plays. On the contrary, he had a great passion for the spiritual experiences of individuals, and the recognition of basic and potential forces of life. Instead of being the exact reflection of the reality, his plays are seen as poetic, expressionist, symbolic and avant-garde. The success of ‘The Ham Funeral’ is considered as the pinnacle of White’s career as a playwright because the play is representative of White’s dramatic imagination. It was inspired by William Dobell’s personal anecdote and his related painting - The Dead Landlord, which appears on the cover of our copies, and it was initially written in London back to 1947. However, it was finally produced by the Adelaide University Theatre Guild in 1961, after having been rejected by a few organizations and criticized for its obscurity. I’ve read ‘The Ham Funeral’ twice. I believe that it can be really hard to understand at first. But as long as we recognize those connotations and symbols White used in this play, its hidden meanings are easily to be decoded.
Today, I wanna particularly talk about the relation between the young man and the girl in ‘The Ham Funeral’. As the protagonist, the young man is portrayed as a frustrated poet and dreamer, who is isolated from the ‘real’ life. In the prologue, he soliloquizes that his dilemma in the play is how to take part in the conflict of eels, and survive at the same time, which reveals that the whole play is focused on his movements. Even though he is seen as artistic and creative, he is called a ‘windbag’ by the landlady since he is only a poet in theory whose love poems are often found in the trash bin. He is disappointed at his lack of cleverness, at the same time, he despises the prurience of the landlady and the stuffy silence held by the Landlord. Therefore, he usually locks himself in his room, and is isolated from the real-life conflicts happening down the basement. However, the girl plays a very mysterious and ambiguous role in the play, even though her identity is given by the landlady. Because she never meets the young man face-to-face in the play and she always mirrors the young man’s movements. In fact, the girl is a projection of the young man’s ideal self. Without the girl, the young man’s personality is incomplete, fragmented and partially developed. Therefore, as the young man’s subconscious self, the girl often persuades the young man to go down to the basement and act in the play instead of just witnessing it, in order to become sophisticated and integrated. This demonstrates that ‘The Ham Funeral’ actually explores the young man’s journey of self-discovery.
Personally, I think that scene eight from act two plays a very important role in highlighting the theme of ‘The Ham Funeral’ (read) This is the last conversation between the young man and the girl, after the young man’s experienced the sudden death of the landlord, the hilarious ham funeral and the landlady’s seduction. In this scene, the girl succeeds in helping the young man recognize himself. Finally, the young man realizes that even though the landlady ‘raped’ her life, she is the real poet because she shows her great acceptance of senses and she participates in every event of her own life. The young man concludes that ‘at least the landlady’s poem speaks after the fashion of imperfect flesh’ and his own attempts have amounted to little more than acts of self-abuse in an empty room. This scene is seen as the final step of the process of individualizing the young man. This scene shows White’s expressionist and symbolic characteristics. For example, the spray of white lilac symbolizes adolescence. Therefore, the young man crushing the lilac and throwing it away actually investigates an artist’s transition from adolescence to adulthood. In the end, the girl vanishes in the air when the young man breaks the door, which indicates that the girl is portrayed as the anima rather than a real flesh. White used this character to highlight the spiritual before social reality.
What does the house symbolize in the ham funeral?
To what extent do you know think The Ham Funeral is different from the European Expressionist dramas?
Today, I wanna particularly talk about the relation between the young man and the girl in ‘The Ham Funeral’. As the protagonist, the young man is portrayed as a frustrated poet and dreamer, who is isolated from the ‘real’ life. In the prologue, he soliloquizes that his dilemma in the play is how to take part in the conflict of eels, and survive at the same time, which reveals that the whole play is focused on his movements. Even though he is seen as artistic and creative, he is called a ‘windbag’ by the landlady since he is only a poet in theory whose love poems are often found in the trash bin. He is disappointed at his lack of cleverness, at the same time, he despises the prurience of the landlady and the stuffy silence held by the Landlord. Therefore, he usually locks himself in his room, and is isolated from the real-life conflicts happening down the basement. However, the girl plays a very mysterious and ambiguous role in the play, even though her identity is given by the landlady. Because she never meets the young man face-to-face in the play and she always mirrors the young man’s movements. In fact, the girl is a projection of the young man’s ideal self. Without the girl, the young man’s personality is incomplete, fragmented and partially developed. Therefore, as the young man’s subconscious self, the girl often persuades the young man to go down to the basement and act in the play instead of just witnessing it, in order to become sophisticated and integrated. This demonstrates that ‘The Ham Funeral’ actually explores the young man’s journey of self-discovery.
Personally, I think that scene eight from act two plays a very important role in highlighting the theme of ‘The Ham Funeral’ (read) This is the last conversation between the young man and the girl, after the young man’s experienced the sudden death of the landlord, the hilarious ham funeral and the landlady’s seduction. In this scene, the girl succeeds in helping the young man recognize himself. Finally, the young man realizes that even though the landlady ‘raped’ her life, she is the real poet because she shows her great acceptance of senses and she participates in every event of her own life. The young man concludes that ‘at least the landlady’s poem speaks after the fashion of imperfect flesh’ and his own attempts have amounted to little more than acts of self-abuse in an empty room. This scene is seen as the final step of the process of individualizing the young man. This scene shows White’s expressionist and symbolic characteristics. For example, the spray of white lilac symbolizes adolescence. Therefore, the young man crushing the lilac and throwing it away actually investigates an artist’s transition from adolescence to adulthood. In the end, the girl vanishes in the air when the young man breaks the door, which indicates that the girl is portrayed as the anima rather than a real flesh. White used this character to highlight the spiritual before social reality.
What does the house symbolize in the ham funeral?
To what extent do you know think The Ham Funeral is different from the European Expressionist dramas?
