Analysis of
Analysis of
The America Plays
Historic cemeteries like Mount Auburn are complex , multivalent sites . As Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story states in “ Consecration ,” they “ gather up ” the “ broken fragments of memory ” to promote “ communion with the dead .” This is evident in “ Man of Vision ” when the distinguished Harvard professor of medicine Dr . Jacob Bigelow and his wife , Mary , offer bittersweet memories of their three dead children . This play also highlights the devastation and sorrow caused by the American Civil War . As Bigelow mournfully states , “ I worry there isn ’ t enough solemnity in the whole world for what our nation has suffered .”
When he commissions a mammoth sculpture entitled the “ Sphinx ” to commemorate the war dead , Bigelow ’ s blindness prevents him from actually seeing it , a disability that also serves as a metaphor for his failure to perceive injustices he has committed . Like Oedipus , Bigelow must be forced to confront ugly truths that he initially resists – a theme that “ Variations on an Unissued Apology ” explores . Bigelow ’ s encounter with the ghost of Dr . Harriot Kezia Hunt , the unlicensed but successful Boston physician and noted woman ’ s rights advocate , forces him to face his prejudice against female doctors . He reluctantly admits he was wrong to oppose Hunt ’ s efforts to attend lectures at Harvard ’ s medical school , but this is small comfort to her . “ To apologies . Never issued ,” she bitterly declares .
The anguish caused by different kinds of betrayal also pervades “ The America Plays .” In “ Rage against the Storm ,” for example , the ghost of the African-American sculptor