This essay will discuss the ways in which the 1986 Australian play Away, by Michael Gow, expresses the concepts of family conflict, grief and loss, and what it means to be an outsider. These concepts will evidently help in answering whether Away is still able to speak to modern Australian audiences. Despite historical references the play still speaks to a modern Australian audience. Gow has used a variety of literary techniques to develop his play such as allusions, colloquial, as well as using minimal stage direction, these help to communicate his message.
Gow plays on the idea of loss and grief in his play, he uses two main families to showcase the effects and the pending effects of this. Away is set in 1967-68, around this time is …show more content…
A Midsummers night’s dream sets up the play, when we know we are going to be experiencing some conflict, and at the end of the play we are going to be finishing off with some reconciliation. Gwen and Jim are key examples in showcasing this. Gwen is uptight and old-fashioned, whilst Jim is more easy going and understanding; this creates conflict between them as they do not always see eye to eye. The key stylistic device that Gow uses when exploring the conflict between Jim and Gwen is flashback, the impact of past experiences on Gwen’s attitudes ‘so you’ll never know what we saw’. What Gwen had gone though as a child still haunts her and she was devoted to never seeing her daughter grow up the way she did, this paints her as a controlling parent, uptight and old-fashioned. In many ways, the conflicts of this family are still apparent in today’s society, there are still couples who don’t see eye to eye, and there are still controlling parents. In modern Australian society, the past hardships of a human, do, still impact the way they behave in the …show more content…
Families still suffer from loss in different ways, there is still conflict within families, and there certainly is a major aspect of being an outsider as more and more people immigrate to Australia. From the techniques Gow has chosen to use, he has been able to communicate these messages of confit, loss and being outsider. Although some allusions are timeless and worked well within the play, others are historical and are difficult are for modern audiences to connect to. This play has layers of complexity; it can be understood on face value as a simple play or when understanding allusions, it can be viewed as more
Gow plays on the idea of loss and grief in his play, he uses two main families to showcase the effects and the pending effects of this. Away is set in 1967-68, around this time is …show more content…
A Midsummers night’s dream sets up the play, when we know we are going to be experiencing some conflict, and at the end of the play we are going to be finishing off with some reconciliation. Gwen and Jim are key examples in showcasing this. Gwen is uptight and old-fashioned, whilst Jim is more easy going and understanding; this creates conflict between them as they do not always see eye to eye. The key stylistic device that Gow uses when exploring the conflict between Jim and Gwen is flashback, the impact of past experiences on Gwen’s attitudes ‘so you’ll never know what we saw’. What Gwen had gone though as a child still haunts her and she was devoted to never seeing her daughter grow up the way she did, this paints her as a controlling parent, uptight and old-fashioned. In many ways, the conflicts of this family are still apparent in today’s society, there are still couples who don’t see eye to eye, and there are still controlling parents. In modern Australian society, the past hardships of a human, do, still impact the way they behave in the …show more content…
Families still suffer from loss in different ways, there is still conflict within families, and there certainly is a major aspect of being an outsider as more and more people immigrate to Australia. From the techniques Gow has chosen to use, he has been able to communicate these messages of confit, loss and being outsider. Although some allusions are timeless and worked well within the play, others are historical and are difficult are for modern audiences to connect to. This play has layers of complexity; it can be understood on face value as a simple play or when understanding allusions, it can be viewed as more