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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page essay that discusses theater during the Depression. The writer argues that it was through the warmth and pathos of comedy that people could forget --if just for a little while--the trauma that was going on around them and that this was a psychologically God-send to the country as a whole. Although George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's The Royal Family (1928) was written during the last years of prosperity, this play was one of the comedies that sustain the nation during the first years of the Depression. Its story of an acting family --the Cavendishes--and the sacrifices that they made for a life in the theater-- was a fantastic distraction from the realities of life during the Depression. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khroyfam.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
going (Widner, 1998). Through the warmth and pathos of comedy, people could forget --if just for a little while--the trauma that was going on around them and this was a
psychologically God-send to the country as a whole. Although George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferbers The Royal Family (1928) was written during the last years of prosperity, this play was
one of the comedies that sustain the nation during the first years of the Depression. Its story of an acting family --the Cavendishes--and the sacrifices that they made for a
life in the theater-- was a fantastic distraction from the realities of life during the Depression. Essentially, The Royal Family is a work that satires the life of actors.
The beginning of the play, for example, plays off the fact that actors tend to get up late for comic effect. A servant comments that Mrs. Cavendish hasnt been sleeping
well lately since shes "wide away at eleven every morning" (Kaufman and Ferber, 1928, p. 17). The audience first meets Herbert and Kitty Dean, who are from a branch of
the family tree that never quite made it big in acting, but nevertheless, loves to aggrandize about their past Broadway roles. Gwen Cavendish is a precocious teenager who is torn
between a life in the theater and the offer of a stable marriage to a sensible stockbroker. Fanny Cavendish is the family matriarch and her daughter Julie, the mother
of Gwen, is a highly successful actress. However, the audience soon learns that Julie made some sacrifices in order to pursue her career. Gil Marshall, a self-made millionaire
whom she let walk out of her life 20 years ago, comes back. Julie, like her daughter Gwen is considering leaving acting. As the play progresses, it becomes clear that
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