Olive Their Dream World example essay topic

Year 12 Literature SAC Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll The play "Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll" is a mixture of people's inability to grow up and let go of dreams, in a typical Australian atmosphere in the nineteen fifties. Ray Lawler focuses on showing the characters finally waking up to their lives and realizing they don't live in "heaven", within in a simple plot. These techniques allow readers to connect and understand the disillusionment suffered by these Australian's in this time. Our setting for "Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll' is a Melbourne suburb, Carlton. Australia in the fifties had just began massive social and economical development. During the war Australia had relied on the United States of America for support, meaning now in post war Australia's main partners had swapped from United Kingdom to them.

With their support came their influence. Australian's some-what simpler, laid back lifestyle was being altered. A new unstable Australia full of uncertainty in social values and morals had evolved. "Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll' questions the previous Australian dream and asks f it can survive in the new country evolving. Carlton "a now scruffy but once fashionable suburb of Melbourne" was an industrial, working class area. Our characters find themselves in the working class status.

Ray Lawler uses a group of friend's, lovers, to show the catalysts of change evolving around Australia at the time. For seventeen years Roo and Barney had been traveling down from Queensland for they layoff season. Waiting for them were their "girlfriends" Olive and Nancy. These four characters each represent a key theme in the play. The ability to link them all together and show their enchanted world crumbling around them is what makes the play one of Australia's finest. Roo and Barney are the typical Australian larrikin's.

They rare the representation of mate ship and freedom in Australia are known for. In the play their relationship acts as one of the first things to fall in their "paradise". Roo's position as head cane cutter was taken by Dowd. Roo finds his masculinity diminished. As most larrikin's he can't accept the fact he is not one of the best. Roo leaves early.

To add to the reality of things, we learn Barney's "girlfriend" Nancy has gone at got married. Their world begins to fall. It is Nancy's marriage that plays a key role in forcing the group to grow up and face reality. She is the first of them to realize she is too old, and can't go on living in a fantasy world for five months of the year. Nancy wakes up and sees Barney has no desire to ever marry her. In this time if women never got married she was labeled a spinster.

Nancy didn't want to be stereotyped in that category. She will no longer wait around for Barney like Olive does for Roo. Her marriage forms a break in the continuing prolonged dream they all find themselves in. Audience learns early on Olive is more of a child then a woman. She is desperately trying to hang onto her past; she wants to remain stagnant in her imaginary world.

It is in here we see the scrambling efforts to remain youthful suffered by the entire group. Olive's only hope of this is to continue her "ritual romance" with Roo. So as any desperate women would do, she attempts to replace Nancy with Pearl. This act displays Olive's true state of mind towards they lay off-season. She needs it to survive. As a barmaid she is already looked down on as it was an un respectable job, but she keeps her self-esteem and belief in her self up by telling everyone about Roo and the times they have.

This imaginary world is what she lives for, and she doesn't care what she had to do to keep it as long as it remains the same. With the attempt to replace Nancy with Pearl audience see more of their dream disintegrate. Pearl is a representation of a "new women". She will not be swept away by the so called romance Olive attempts to convince her she has "I know what I got is... is five months of heaven".

Pearl joins the group reluctantly. At the first meeting she places her suitcase by the door in case she wants to leave straight away. From the start Pearl accepts little from Barney. As she spends time with him it is evident she isn't like Nancy and wont do as a replacement. As from the start she doesn't agree with this type of life style "just because I don't think it's altogether proper". She doesn't accept what Barney has to offer.

She sees him as nothing more than an aging larrikin with difficulty settling down. Pearl only wants security. The main representation of the whole groups grasp on to their youth is the kewpie doll. Although is it Olive who cares for it the most is still holds a place with all of them. With every visit Roo brings one back it assures Olive their dream world will stay alive. In the final scene we see a fight break out between Roo and Barney and the kewpie doll are broken.

This is the final straw for their world, their youth. Olive breaks down and grasps all that is left of her dream, it has all disintegrated. Nothing is left of their world. With nothing left of their once happy world Lawler prepares us for the dramatic end.

As Roo feels he can no longer live up to his previous life her scrambles to build a new one, even if it only slightly mimics the old one. He believes by proposing to Olive they will both still have a form of what they had before, by doing this he shows he knows what they had is over and can never return, he understands that he must grow up. Olive wont allow this to happen. She is still clinging to her world "you " ve got to go back, it's the only hope we " ve got".

She attempts any thing to piece it back together. Emma enters and sees that Olive is gutted; she can't accept the new reality. With the rejection from Olive Roo becomes a beaten disheartened figure. Each character now knows they cannot stay here, they must all move on for good. Ray Lawler concludes the play and has expressed the characters as far as they can go. He created Australia compelled by the demand for liberation of women, but killed by the disintegration of mate ship.

Lawler leaves the audience knowing their dream, their world cannot survive the new Australia, and we must all allow it, and us to evolve. WORDS: 974.