Happy Days is a play introduced by Winnie, a middle aged woman buried up to her waist. However, the play does not explain why Winnie is in that position, and for how long she will remain there. Winnie describes how it is another happy day for her, with the sun shining. She expresses her gratitude because she is able to breathe. The play does not reflect realism because Winnie cannot be optimistic of the day, when she is buried in the sand.
The play does not suggest a positive character to the audience since Winnie, who speaks of optimism, is stuck at the bottom of the hierarchy of needs. The play does not explain to the audience why Winnie is covered in the sand, and for how long she will stay in that state (Beckett 1994). Although it can be used to create suspense so as to win the audience’s attention and curiosity, the playwright does not answer these questions by the end of the play.
This does not reflect realism because the play should depict the real life of the audience. Nevertheless, the play is entitled Happy Days, with the character speaking of a happy day because the sun is shining and she is alive. This indicates that this part of literature was intended to breed optimism in society. However, this cannot be achieved because the audience relates the words of the characters and the situations around them.
Winnie is speaking of a happy day when she is soaked in sand. Happiness cannot be identified and reflected by the characters. Therefore, the play does not impact the audience with a sense of optimism, since the characters are in struggles of survival. Theater will improve when literary artists connect words of characters with their situations on stage so as to create originality and realism to the audience.
On the other hand, The Three Sisters describes three characters, where one of them is a provincial school head teacher. The second character is the head teacher’s wife, while the third one is non committal to marriage. The trio had a purpose to leave their village and move to Moscow. The three girls, with their brother Andrei, live a dream of returning to Moscow, where they hope that life will be charming and stimulating.
From the movie, nothing can surface to replace their hopes of going back to Moscow (Candby 1977). According to the girls, Moscow would change their lifestyles. However, tragedy struck and shuttered their hopes. The play does not fulfill the girls’ dream of landing back in Moscow. This does not reflect optimism since the girls’ hopes were not fulfilled in the play. It also suggests that the play cannot impart optimism to the audience because the characters used did not achieve their dreams.
The audience associates itself with characters in the movie, and when they cannot achieve their dreams in the play, the audience will feel the same. Therefore, the two plays do not show optimism because characters used do not point it to the audience. Literature is used as a mirror of communication to society. Characters used in the plays represent actual scenes in real life, whereby they should be to portray actual lifestyles.
References
Beckett, S. (1994). Happy Days. New York, NY: Grove Press.
Candby, V. (1977). New York Times. The Three Sisters (1965) Film: Egos Beset Chekhov’s sisters.