IndexAnalysis of the game elementsThe plotTitleThemesCharactersSettingConclusionAnalysis of the game elementsTerrence Mcnally's career began in the off-off-Broadway boom of New York at the end of the years '60. Most of his 60s comedies aren't really relevant, although some are funny. However, during the 1970s, his works began to gain recognition. Nowadays, his works are performed in off-Broadway theaters and he is known as the author of tragicomic works, full of breadth and depth. He still lives in New York and is one of America's best playwrights. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay He is the author of numerous plays, including Master Class and Love! Value! Compassion! (both winners of the Tony Award for Best Play), The Ritz and Frankie and Johnny in Claire de Lune, which became a film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer, and the books for the musicals The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical Book. Other hits include Lips Together, Teeth Apart and The Lisbon Traviata. Other Terrence McNally comedies include: Andre's Mother; Corpus Christi: a play; It's just a comedy; !Cuba yes! Bringing it all home, last gasps; and Where Did Tommy Flowers Go. McNally has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is also vice president of the Dramatists Guild, the American organization of playwrights, composers and lyricists. His works have been adapted into many languages ​​and performed in several countries. The plot The play concerns a two-week trip to India by two rich, middle-aged women, who seem empty and frivolous. Both have indifferent and painful memories of the death of their children. Despite having been friends for many years, it is only on this journey that the two get to know each other (and themselves) while experiencing the humanity of India. Katharine Brynne, one of them, is a mother who lost a homosexual son, killed by a homophobic man, and is haunted by the fact that she rejected him. Katharine is also a woman who must deal with her racism, fueled by the fact that the men who killed her son were black. She is also a feisty, open-minded woman, willing to take risks and accept the reality she sees about herself. Unlike Katharine, there is Margaret Civil, who is more reserved, conventional and maternal. Margaret is not only dealing with a lump on her breast, which doesn't seem to go away, but also with the secret - which she shares neither with her best friend Katharine nor with her children - of the death of her four-year-old son, more than twenty years ago, but even more so, her husband's betrayal. Together they embark on this inner journey, guided by Ganesha, the smiling Indian god. Ganesha is the storyteller, the commentator and a God who works enigmatically for the best possible for all. He is also other characters, witness and stage magician, but above all their spiritual guide. In addition to these three characters, we have minor parts of Margaret's husband, the tourists, the ghost of Gabriel (Margaret's son), the ghost of Walter (Katharine's son), and other characters who are all played by the same actor, called man in the comedy. The story begins in a slightly comical way. These two women, stereotypes at this point, placed in a totally foreign environment, make the show entertaining with their ignorance and Americanism. However, as each of their dark secrets is revealed, the plot becomes very emotional, with an intense tone. TitleGanesh, or Ganesha, is part of theHindu mythology and a very important god in India. As the play also explains, he was the son of Shiva and Parvarti. Ganesha prevented his father Shiva from entering the bathroom where his mother was taking a bath. Shiva, furious, cut off Ganesha's head and Parvarti, devastated, begged Shiva to help Ganesha. Then Shiva cut off the elephant's head and put it as the boy's head. The image of Ganesha has an elephant head and also four arms. In one hand he holds a conch shell, in the other a disc, in the third a club and in the fourth a lotus flower. He is the destroyer of obstacles, god of knowledge, wisdom, literature, fine arts and good luck. Included in the work, Ganesh is also the image of Ganesha found in every home, large or small, and sold as a souvenir. Katharine searches for a perfect one, buys a dozen, never finding it, but always sure that such a perfect Ganesh exists. The objects that the image of Ganesha holds in his hands symbolize, in the show, motherhood as protection (seen through the conch), repression (through the club), fun (through the disc) and love (through the lotus flower) . Since Ganesha mainly represents the love between mother and son, we can say that Katharine was looking for a perfect son, one she could accept, or a perfect relationship between the two of them. Margaret does not need to find a perfect one, since her dead boyfriend would grow up to be a prince among men with gorgeous blonde curls (McNally; 1993, p. 197). Her son was already perfect for her. And it is through the memories of women's children that they are led to resolve their obstacles and gain wisdom and knowledge. Themes The main theme of the play is the spiritual journey of Margaret and Katharine and the healing of their souls, seen through their process of revealing secrets and slaying the demons within them. Traveling to India is a way for them to be alone, away from responsibilities. However, alone in a totally foreign environment is where they will find each other, get to know each other and face their ghosts. Katharine has started her recovery before, through unreliable methods such as self-help audiobooks where she has to repeat what she has chosen. be happy, healthy and good. Furthermore, it is known that she had attended lectures on Nurturing the Inner Child, but it was only in dialogue with her dead son, shouting his taboo words (faggot, queer, nigger), forcing her to remember her son even more than she was . she already cannot forget and asks for forgiveness because the process of erasing her son's death brings results. It is always with the help of Ganesha - be it a puppeteer or an Indian child - or the man who sings his son's favorite song, that his healing process exists as psychoanalysis. She must return to her past, interact with the past, tell the past and hear herself tell the past to resolve this internal knot. While Katharine already knows what her problems are and what she needs now is the solution to them, Margaret's pains seem to be much more internal and solid than Katharine's, probably due to the time gap or due to her own personality which does not it allows her to expose her problems. Her way of dealing with her son's death is to forget about it, not to talk about it, not even to her husband. And as the show goes on, the only person it talks about is Ganesha, dressed as a Japanese woman. Margaret, however, manages to overcome some obstacles: she manages to tell Katharine about the lump in her breast and also about her husband's love story. She no longer becomes a reserved woman, which is part of the learning process about her. Another theme that appears in the play is theugly Americanism, which suits the purpose of the play, as it is greatly exaggerated. It's a minor issue, however. As we see throughout the play, Margaret and Katherine refer to other people, those who are not Americans, as lepers, Japanese, or blacks or even ask foreigners to improve their English. Their American guide tells them not to drink water, even as ice, and eating Indian fruit is also dangerous. Katharine thanks foreigners with a gracias, because for her all those who are not Americans are Caribbean. Another theme that appears is India itself. The show is a window into this mystical world, and even in some theaters where it was performed, the production of the show filled the theater foyer with information about the elephant-headed god, Ganesha statues and even, Indian music is was played before, after and during the intermission of the show. Not only are we guided through the landscapes of India, but we also learn about the Gateway of India, the Towers of Silence, the Ganges River, and the Taj Mahal, sometimes narrated by Ganesha, sometimes by man. Characters As it was said before, Margaret and Katharine's personalities and also their evolutions belong to the main theme of the show. Both are well-rounded characters with a lot of depth and integrity that makes them believable and likable. Both are the same age, both have the same background, their husbands earn the same living and both are indifferent, both have lost a child. and both have prejudices. However, they are very different from each other. Katherine is an extravagant woman who speaks loudly and is full of prejudices. However, she is concerned about her reality, knows where her fears are and what her goals are. She says she went to India to be healed, rediscovered, and also to satisfy a childhood willing to hug and kiss a leper. She is much more spontaneous than Margaret and doesn't delude herself. He knows he has prejudices against African Americans and wants to overcome them. Her prejudice stems from her son's killers, who were (to her) all black. But on this journey, she manages to heal, when she says the taboo words across a river, this brings her an alternation of her hatred for Walter's killers. Margaret is more reserved and tells herself that everyone thinks she's a bully. bitch, but behind this mask there is a woman with fears and sadness. He goes to India because he doesn't want to spend another vacation in the Caribbean islands. He doesn't feel Katharine's hatred and doesn't feel guilty. She can't even forget her son, but that brings her no such remorse, since she saw the pain in her son's killer, a black woman whose car hit her son, Gabriel. It seems that through the pain of the killer she felt comforted. However, it did not resolve the issue of this loss, and she and her husband thought that not mentioning the episode again would make her forget. What he didn't know is that people have to work on their own suffering. However, his pain could not be healed as the show was over and he was not exposed. She may share the discovery of a lump in her breast, but we cannot assume that this honesty will allow her to be healed, since in Hindu cosmology, where opposites are eternally paired, what matters less is the sick or afflicted body than the restless soul. It seems that Margaret's story is more difficult and painful than Katherine's, and this is why she does not show her true identity to anyone, neither to Katherine nor to her husband. The other two characters, who are actually different characters, are Ganesha and man. Both take on different roles, however, there is a difference between the characters played by Ganesha and those played by man. The characters of..