Our Country's Good Character Analysis

Register to read the introduction… This is mirrored in Act two Scene one with Liz’s black humor, when she answers Arscott’s claim that “There is no escape!” by “That’s English. You know things”, which shows they deeply identify to England. They both tell Caesar, who wants to escape, that he has to “think English”, and realize he is ensnared in Australia. This highlights the characters' identification to England, as they constantly relate to it, and want to build a genuine English society in Australia, in order to recall their roots. Some officers like Tench, for instance, out of cruelty but also customs, say that erecting a Tyburn “would make the convicts feel more at …show more content…
It is Whisehammer, for whom the power of language is so important, who writes: “we left our country for our country’s good”. Thanks to the play, the actors do not feel outcast anymore: they left for the good of England, to set up a new society abroad and are thus benefiting their mother-country, which they have partly build their identity upon. The title Our country’s Good can also highlight that the society they’re building can be innately good as they are now all more equal, more human, and their own identity is now respected and recognized among themselves. This play thus brings a new sense of identity to all actors, thanks to the use of the mise en abyme that gives relief to and makes both characters and spectators think about this main theme, as well as brings about the importance of language in one’s search for identity. The experiment of setting up a play has enabled the convicts to experiment a new way of expressing themselves, and discover another side of themselves that can influence their …show more content…
Indeed, the play is a challenge to the convicts, as they have to find their place as a member of the theater company, and thus need to make their identity evolve so as to be part of the group. Indeed, even though they are linked by the convicts’ code of honor, they are still in conflict at first: Liz and Dabby “seize each other” Act one Scene eight; Dabby and Mary have a disagreement in the same scene; Ketch is rejected because he is the hangman, and the first rehearsal ends in shambles. However, theater managed to bring the company together as a group, and accept each other for who they are, for their own identity. As well as creating a link between the actors, theater also brought together the public both during the Victorian age and at the time the play was written, as it unifies different classes in the same room, who have the same leisure and share the same feelings; it creates a new identity as a group. Therefore, theater is a constant social experiment and has the power of gathering different people into a group, and thus a ‘single’