Naked Lunch: Play Analysis

Jane Anderson’s The Reprimand and Michael Hollinger’s Naked Lunch both portray how men have power and dominance over women. In The Reprimand, the two ladies are discretely fighting over a man, their boss, but play it off as if they just don’t like each other and don’t work well with each other. In Naked Lunch, the ex boyfriend can’t handle that his ex girlfriend won’t eat meat anymore. Eventually he gets her to eat it. The two plays are different but alike. They both are about the dominance of men but one is about two women, their boss and a workplace while the other is about one women, and a man that has dominance over her with the little things. Men have power and dominance over women even when it is not realized. The Reprimand shows how …show more content…
When Lucy and Vernon go to dinner it seems a little awkward at first. When Vernon learns that Lucy does not eat meat anymore, he gets a little agitated. Vernon finds out that Lucy is a vegetarian when he asks about the steak. He says, “What is wrong with the steak?” (1057). When Lucy tells him that nothing is wrong with it he continues and says, “Then eat it. It’s good” (1057). Throughout the play Vernon keeps pushing Lucy as to why she stopped eating meat. He eventually asks her “Was it because of me?” (1058). She says no and he continues with “You were always fond of cataloguing the careless things I said and did…” (1058). Him saying this proves that women care about what men think and how they really do have dominance over women. Lucy would always care would Vernon said and take what he said to heart, even if it was something stupid that he didn’t really mean. By the end of the play Vernon has Lucy eating some steak. Lucy and Vernon both want to start over but Vernon wants her to eat the steak if they are going to do that. Eventually Lucy gives in with a bite but doesn’t go back to it. She just sticks to her corn. This is another play that shows how women can be victims of a male dominance with the littlest