5/21/2023 0 Comments In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks![]() ![]() The only part of Hester’s identity that she, her children, and society agree on is motherhood. Like Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne and Euripides’ Medea, Hester is a model for motherhood. Even the structure of Parks’ play evokes Greek tragedy. Furthermore, In the Blood’s “thematic questioning of free will in opposition to fate” likens to Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex (Schafer 188). While it is clear that Hester, La Negrita, is an allusion to Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne, Parks’ protagonist is also reminiscent of Euripides’ Medea. In the Blood finds inspiration in classical Greek tragedy. Casting the same actors for all of the characters in the play personifies Hester’s pitfalls, providing a visual representation of the causes for the character’s demise, which leads to eventual filicide, but also to a small sense of liberation. Society ostracizes Hester, her lovers abuse her, and her children break her. Actors play Hester’s children and past lovers, as well as unnamed Others of society, representing the endless cycle of society’s scorn and injustice inflicted on the play’s protagonist. Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks employs double casting to create a more complex story in her play In the Blood. ![]()
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