Age Cannot Wither Her, nor Custom Stale Her Infinite Variety Essay

Nor Custom Stale Her innumerous VarietyIn the production n ones of Emily of Emerald pile by Stella Kon, the source uses a Shakespearean quote to describe Emily, Age cannot wither her, nor custom frigid her infinite variety. This quote is coiffeually from William Shakespeares Anthony and Cleopatra, characterization II scene ii, used to describe Cleopatras agelessness and the to a greater extent intriguing qualities she possesses. In this essay, I will aim to analyze the reasons behind the authors choice for using this business officeicular quote to describe Emily and how it is relevant to the portraiture of Emily in the play. The prison termline of this play is not a single, continuous timeline, precisely preferably a broken one that leaps back and forth in time to portray diametric scenes whither Emily reflects and re controls the razets that have come to pass.It is through Emilys reprehension and re reckon of her life that allows us to see how age has not dried-up E mily. No matter what make upts have happened over the years, may it be the stopping point of her son or the death of her preserve, Emily stands strong and is undefeated by them. She tells herself bravely, Its all over now. Its all past, it cant be changed and s coin bank continues to look forward to living. The death of these two people in her life did not make her cling incessantly to the people approximately her, in fear of losing them. Instead, age and experience has taught her to allow go of more or less things in life, one of which is her daughter, Doris, who was supposed to stay with her at Emerald agglomerate. This time, Emilys willingness to let go and allow the children to make their consume choices paid off. She was able to curb a good relationship with her only daughter and is satisfied to get laid that Doris is living happily in America. Her willingness to let go also brought her enveloping(prenominal) to her remaining 3 children, who are willing to come back to Emerald Hill to visit her frequently with her grandchildren even though all of them moved away. Towards the dismiss of the play, Emily seems even more content with her life as she plays with her grandchildren and sees them grow up, even though the house and land she owns is slowly deteriorating. Age has not shrunken her, but rather allowed her to enjoy the bliss of family love. The writer was very allow for in using this phrase to sum up Emilys life, as we see Emily blossom from the unhappy young bride to the loving grandm other(a) whom the grandchildren likes to visit. As Emily ages, her life becomes more fulfilled as she sees her children and grandchildren succeed and prosper in life. In this sense, Emilys charm is ageless as her spirit did not grow old like her body. She remains optimistic slightly the incoming and enjoys every living moment she has with her family.Throughout the play, Emily engages in a one sided dialogue with people that are unseen on stage. Throug h the table of contents of Emilys speech, we are able to determine whom she is talking to and see the drastic changes in the demeanour of her speech. I believe that this is where infinite variety appropriately describes Emily as she assumes opposite speech stances with different people. This brings out the numerous an(prenominal) different sides of Emily, for example the busy housemarried woman of the family, the wellborn lady, the caring takeoff rocket, the loving mother, and many other different roles she has to take up to ensure that the family is well-cared for, like clockwork. The writer chooses to intersperse the conversations in a way that the conversations highly contrast each(prenominal) other and brings the readers to attention the countless varieties of Emily.The interspersing of the conversations is very evident in Act One. In her conversation with Susie, she uses a lot of Singlish, such as Ya-lah and ya as she adapts an extremely casual tone. In the Singaporean context, her manner of speech may be even considered aunty-like, where she sounds like the common middle-aged Singaporean charwoman that we frequently encounter on the streets. From their conversation, the reader learns that Emily is extremely busy with the mansion errands whether it may be big or small. We come to see Emily as a busy housemarried woman that is in charge of all that is freeing on in the house. However, as Emily makes her next call, her manner of speech is altogether different. Not only does she do away with the Singlish, she engages a sophisticated and civilised tone with the hotel staff. She gives off the impression of an educated upper-class lady, which is a vast jump from her previous aunty-like demeanor. Her next phone call goes to her best friend Bee Choo, where she assumes the same manner of speech as she did earlier on with Sophie. If the writer placed these conversations slightly differently, the effect would not have been as striking. The act of th e writer sandwiching the hotels phone call with that of Susies and Bee Choos brings about the first undertone of Emilys varieties. Throughout the rest of the play, Emily generally uses her classy upper-class lady manner of speech to speak to historic guests and the upper-class families she socializes with, while at the same time also retaining her aunty-like and casual demeanor when she is speaking to her family or close friends.As we read on, we discover the many other varieties of Emily, of which there are 2 sides of Emily that stands out and contrasts each other the sly Emily and the dutiful wife. I feel that it is in the convergence of these 2 sides of Emily the highlights the way where custom cannot stale her infinite variety. The first hint of these two qualities of Emily merging together is evident in Act Two, the part of the play where Emily celebrates her first Chinese New Year at Emerald Hill. In this part of the play, Emily slyly makes good use of impost to get her child and brother-in-law to pay back homage to her. This event can be approached from two different perspectives. In the eyes of Emilys mother and father-in-law, Emily is seen as the dutiful daughter-in-law who wants to pay her respects to her elders and make them happy, but in the eyes of Susie and her married man, Emily can be seen as the sly younger sister-in-law that forced them to kneel down feather to her. bandage the act of kneeling down symbolizes respect and reverence in Chinese tradition, in the context of Emilys story, the act of Susie and her husband kneeling down to Emily actually symbolizes the consolidation of Emilys position in the family as the go mistress. It is subsequently this incident that Susies bullying stopped and the whole family came to view her as the woman of the household rather than the unseasoned young bride. In this part of the play, not only did the incorporation of a traditional radiation pattern not stale her, it elevated her charm and brough t out even more captivating sides of Emily.Another event that combines both the sly Emily and the dutiful wife would also be in Act Two, where Emily calls Kheong and tells him to send out the invitations if he still wants to carry on for the big dinner on kinsfolk the fifteenth. This dinner was a family tradition started by her father-in-law to celebrate the end of the Nipponese Occupation. On the surface, Emily is the dutiful wife who is still willing to help her husband host the big event despite his unfaithfulness. However, the hidden message here to Kheong is that no matter how much he wants to be with his mistress Diana Lee, he would never be able to properly present her to any important guests during these formal events as she is not his lawful wife. It is also made readable to him to make a choice between Emily and Diana as he comes to the realisation that he would never be truly free of Emilys unswerving grasp even if he does not live in Emerald Hill anymore. This i s a prelude to Emilys conversation with the audience later, Look after your husband and family, yes do everything for them, wrap them, bind them in the web of your providing, till they cant lift a finger to help themselves so that husband and son and sister-in-law must all depend on you, so that you control them and keep them in the palm of your hand.From the way Emily socializes with her guests at Richards party in Act One, it is clear that people accept and view her as the one and only hostess of Emerald Hill. It is these little things that she does (host parties, does his laundry, cook his food) as a wife to wrap and bind Kheong in her web of providing, even when he is living with Diana. Emily knows this very well, and she uses her status as the well-known hostess of Emerald hill to cement her strong standing as Kheongs publically acknowledged wife. Her conversation with Kheong asking about the invitations may seem innocent, but she is actually slyly reminding him about the imp ortance of her presence inside his life. Again, Emily uses tradition to triumph and win back her husband. Instead of helplessly watching her hymeneals break apart, she made use of the familys traditional event to palliate her marriage. At the same time, she also used her role of the traditional wife who takes excellent care of her family in many different aspects to prove to her husband that she is indispensible in his life, may it be socially or privately. In her own words, she is truly the very devil of a wife and mother, which in itself presents to us infinite varieties of Emily.Age has not withered Emily as her fancy remains youthful and ageless, while custom was not only unable to stale her infinite varieties but had rather brought out Emilys many intriguing qualities. As the material things around Emily deteriorate and diminish in quantity, her spiritual bliss is ever-growing as she remains unforgotten by her children and grandchildren. I look that the Emily now is as sured of her significance and worth in life, and never shocked again of being thrown back into the gutter.1723 WordsBibliography1. http//www.bartleby.com/70/4522.html2. Emily of Emerald Hill by Stella Kon, Writing Singapore, An Historical Anthology of Singapore Literature, Edited by Angelina Poon, Philip Holden & Shirley Geok-lin Lim 1 . http//www.bartleby.com/70/4522.html