Hay Fever is arguably one of the greatest play of its time as well as its author, Noel Coward. The play’s action transpires in the comfortable, but untidy house of the adorably oddity Bliss family. The family comprises of Judith, the mother and a stage retired actress, David, the father and a novel writer, as well as their two grown-up children, Simon and Sorel. On the surface Hay Fever portrays the bliss family as the protagonists of the play as everything in the play revolves around them. Nevertheless, a close examination of the play reveals Judith as the main protagonist. Her ambitions of making a come back to the world of stage acting drives and directs the entire play.
Judith irrefutably cherishes acting and being on stage. Her love for acting still dominates her everyday life. As the play commences, Simon reveals she in the garden practicing. However, she is not practicing a stage play in this case but learning the names of the flowers in her garden. Nevertheless, she is doing it by her heart, an indication of her love for mastering play scripts. However, Judith has not been in a stage for a while and she yearns her old days as a young adorable and electrifying stage actor. The acting fire has been burning in her for the longest time she can recall which prompts her to make a move towards reclaiming her former glory in stage acting by announcing that she is coming out of retirement to revive her greatest hit, Love’s Whirlwind.
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Judith’s ambitions and obsession with returning to stage acting is an understandable complication, however, the decisions she makes to resolve it are unconventional. She starts by inviting, Sandy Tyrell, who from the play is a young man aged between 25 to 32 years old. Tyrell is a well-built young boxer, who is enamored with Judith. Her association with Tyrell is very unconventional taking into consideration she is a wife, a mother and approximately 20 years older than Tyrell. Irrespective of this massive age gap, Judith befriends the young man for validation. Her fixation with her young years prompts her to seek for someone to constantly remind her that she is not only beautiful, but also desirable, something that her husband, David has been doing. As such, Judith uses Tyrell to build her confidence and repair the punctures that aging has inflicted in her acting career. Secondly, Judith indulges herself into the actual acting by reenacting her favorite scenes of one of her many hits, Love’s Whirlwind. She ensures that she is the center of attention throughout the entire reenactment, but she is disrupted by their respective guests that unfortunately everyone has invited without notifying the others. Nevertheless, she does not stop, but carries on with her play as she now has a larger audience, although, they are just but a drop in the ocean compared to the audience she used to perform as well as those she looks forward to performs to.
It is expected that with such zeal and efforts to resume acting, Judith will transform towards the end of the play. On the contrary, she does not, and things only get worse. After dinner, the Blisses and their guest engage in a charades-like ‘adverbs’ game that quickly overwhelms the quests. Once the game is over, they start flirtatious liaisons with the guests which results in Judith getting cozy with Richard, her daughter guest. Her behavior as well of that of her family members prompts the quest to quietly slip away leaving the Blisses on each other’s throat regarding the geography of Paris. As opposed to impressing and attracting her audience, Judith drives them away indicating that she is on a losing path.
Conclusion
Family is extremely important in the growth of one’s career as it can either build or break one’s ambitions. In this cases, Judith’s downfall is greatly influenced by the dysfunctionality and lack of unity in her family. Her efforts to be in control leads her form worse to worst decisions resulting in leaving of their guests, her first external audience. Therefore, shortcuts are not the right path to one’s success but hard work and endurance.
Reference
Tan, D. (2011, December 01). Hay Fever. US Production. Retrieved February 19, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhkVaW9jCw0&t=424s
