Crimes Of The Heart
Crimes of the Heart A-D A. Where is the play?
1. Hazlehurst, Mississippi USA 2.
The scenes take place in the home of
the Magrath sisters. (Actually it's their
grandfather's house, but it is
cared for and inhabited primarily by Lenny
Magrath.) 3. The house is old,
the exact age and condition is not described. B.
When is the play? 1. The
play takes place in the summer sometime during the late
19 70's to early
1980's. 2. The play takes place soon after the birthday of
Lenny Magrath,
which has a special significance to the characters. C. Who is in
the play?
1.The 3 Magrath sisters, Lenny, Babe, and Meggy, are the main cluster
of
characters. The other three characters are Chick, a Magrath cousin,
Barnette,
Babe's attorney, and Doc Porter, an old friend of Meg and
Lenny. A character
that is often talked about is Granddaddy, yet he is never
seen. 1. The Magrath
sisters complete the different portions that fufill
society's image of an
ordinary woman. Each of these women play the roles that
a normal woman plays
such as wife, mother, daughter, and sister. Barnette is
a lawyer who is
defending Babe, whom he is infatuated with. Doc Porter is a
father of two and a
husband who once wanted to be a doctor, who now
apparently owns a small ranch,
he also spent time as a house painter.
Granddaddy is an old man who is in the
hospital. 2. It seems that all the
characters have a mutual respect for each
other, aside from Chick who has
strong opinions concerning Meg. As I have
mentioned the character of Barnette
is infatuated with Babe. Babe and Lenny both
feel that Meg has always been
treated better by their Grandmother and
Grandfather. 3. Lenny has a poor
self image. 4. The Characters all live in a
democratic nation. 5. The
characters pay no attention to religion, it is rarely
mentioned in the play.
6. The prevailing attitudes of the characters are that
family is important,
sex is not considered a bad thing. They seem to consider
anything that can be
rationally justified as ethical. They seem to live within
these attitudes
quite peacefully. D. What Happened before the play began? 1.
Long before
the play began the Magrath sisters' mother apparently hung herself
along with
the her cat. 2. After the mothers death the grandparents took custody
of the
girls. 3. The grandmother died. 4. The Magrath sisters were taken care of
by
the grandfather solely after that. 5. Meg abandoned Doc Porter in
Biloxi
during a hurricane. 6. Babe Married Botrelle. 7. Lenny met her man
from Memphis.
8. Babe shot Botrelle. 9. Lenny wired Meg telling her to
come home.