PDF file: Drama - Higher - Lovers - Education Scotland

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OVERALL DIRECTORIAL INTERPRETATION AND DRAMATIC COMMENTARY
Further illustrates central themes and issues
• Frustrated love: Hannah and Andy get little opportunity to be alone
or to have the same kind of romantic courtship as any other couple.
Their time together is constantly interrupted by Cissy’s nightly visits
and Mrs Wilson’s bell whenever she wants attention or if she is
suspicious of what Andy and Hannah are up to downstairs. Hannah
doesn’t want to take up Andy’s offer of having Mrs Wilson to live in
his cottage because she knows that her mother will not settle for
anything less than being the head of the house in her own home. But
this in turn gives Mrs Wilson continued influence and power over
Andy and Hannah. Andy doesn’t want to be caught in this particular
trap. A future in Mrs Wilson’s household would be one of servitude
and strict adherence to Mrs Wilson’s social and religious doctrines.
• Frustrated Christianity: Mrs Wilson uses the ritual of the Rosary to
extend her control and dominance over Andy and Hannah. We see
her manipulate Andy and Hannah. We don’t see any real comforting
communion or fellowship between caring Christians. We do see Andy
being forced to take part in the Rosary. We witness a lack of truthful
spirituality. The proceedings are a sham.
• Uncertainty about the future: If Hannah won’t live at ‘Riverview’ and
Andy won’t live at Mrs Wilson’s, this raises the question, ‘What kind of
future do they have?’ Until Andy arrived on the scene Hannah’s future
was one of drudgery. Now she has a golden opportunity to escape
this sort of life, but she is not able to see a way forward out of her
predicament.
• The inevitability of repression: Andy and Hannah are forced to go
through the ritual of the Rosary. Although Andy isn’t happy at
participating in this particular charade each night, he does so for a
quiet life. His rhetoric downstairs does not match his actions once he
is in Mrs Wilson’s lair. We see the influence that Mrs Wilson exerts.
Mrs Wilson is depicted as dogmatic and authoritarian. We begin to
appreciate the kind of hold that Mrs Wilson has over her daughter
when we see how she treats her in this particular scene.
• Moral responsibility: Although Hannah ‘. . . clumps around the room,
doing her chores with an ungracious vigour and with obvious ill-will’,
she does do them. Hannah has been aware of her moral
responsibilities ever since she was born. She hasn’t abandoned her
mother although she does have good reason to. She is trapped.
• Over-bearing rigidity and domination of a restrictive environment:
Mrs Wilson’s bedroom is representative of this kind of environment.
Andy is very uncomfortable at being in this room. He is forced to
accept Mrs Wilson’s dictates and must go through the Rosary ritual.
He feels hemmed in by the two old women. Hannah likewise is
affected by this environment. She waits on her mother and is forced
DRAMA