The play “The Devil and Daniel Webster” was boiring as watching grass grow.
The audience struggled to find a comfortable position to stay awake. This disappointing production was stale and went nowhere. Unfortuneltly the audience was unable to develop any emotional relationship with the main characters. THe play predictablitly created an atmosphere of distisfaction.
Stephen Vincent Benet obviously was having a bad day when writing this script. Benet uses his three main characters as symbols of mans struggle with good and evil. Evil was represented by the all mighty Scratch. Usually the devil is the undestructable force that can’t be stopped. Benet did a poorjob portraying that we all struggle with the Scratch’s inside of us. THis is a missed opportunity to develp his characters with traits we could all relate to.
The most honest part of the play was the jury. The twelve men represented Jabez’s weaknesses. They understood is internal need for money and power. The conversatioin between then three main characters helped the audience understand their relationshipfor one another and their daily values. For example, Mary portrayed the little girl next door nrole in the play. Mary was apathetic and devoted to her husband.
At all cost her marriage vowes were very strong and meant a lot to her. Even her commitment to her husband was strong but she still apeared pathetic. Websters powerful commitment to strong morals leaves him exposed and out in the open. You can’t take this story to seriously. For example, what neighboor is going to help someone who made a pakted with the devil.
Theres a lot of unfinished story lines. The disappointing writing of Benet left the story unresolved. The last straw was Scratch getting defeated by the long speech of Webster. The length of the play should be shortened, and shortened by two pages. Benets’ attempt to symbolize ones struggle between good and evil and our moral attempt to symbolize ones struggle between good and evil and our moral choices in life began to brush the surface. This peice would be better off used as kindling.Words/ Pages : 364 / 24
