Marion and Arnold: A Comparison and Contrast

             Marion and Arnold: A Comparison and Contrast
             In On Tidy Endings, Harvey Fierstein writes of the devastation and effects on the people close to Collin Redding when he dies due to complications of AIDS. Marion Redding, the ex-wife of the un-seen Collin Redding, whose character makes the play possible, is confronted with his death and brings her to Collin's gay lover's apartment to meet with him. Arnold Beckoff is a self-proclaimed "drag queen" as the audience is told by Arnold's first soliloquy in Torch Song Trilogy. He tells us that he is in search of the "international stud" with which he plans to meet and eventually settle down with. Both characters in these plays are presented with real world problems facing them and become personal in the momentary lives of the audience as their circumstances are meant to hopefully provoke thoughts of reform.
             Neither character shares a common sexual preference but do share an intense love for people tragically struck down by circumstances facing every gay and heterosexual community in America today. Marion Redding is a heterosexual, divorced, forty-year-old woman, mother of an eleven year old boy, and is, at first, portrayed as weak and vulnerable. She is the first character appearing on the stage of On Tidy Endings. Her intolerance of her son, Jimmy's activities and the woman's obvious nervousness of being in the apartment of her dead ex-husbands', begins the tension which is to follow when Arthur, her ex-husband's former gay lover, arrives. Although it does not take too long for her to overcome her feeling of uneasiness and commence to help Arthur rid him of "one less thing to pack" as she checks the "list" she has brought with her and falsely rationalizes her motives. Arthur is the roommate, lover, and caregiver up to the end of Collin Redding's life. Marion is here, at Arthur's home, to meet with hi...

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Marion and Arnold: A Comparison and Contrast. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 08:19, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/8817.html