A Study Of Women’s Growth In Vogel’s Plays

A Bildungsroman is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood. As a story, it usually ends up with the realization (or failure) of the protagonist’s ambition. Paula Anne Vogel, a new emerged notable American playwright, shows a great concern over the growth of American young people, and has had many plays published and performed on the subject. Her works write about the trouble, worries and predicament that the youth have undergone on their way of growth, and care about the influence of the family, the society and some other factors. Though her works are plays, they bear some features of the Bildungsroman. On the basis of the intensive reading of the women’s growth in Vogel’s plays, this thesis tries to explore the present situation and the process of their growth of contemporary American youngsters.The thesis is mainly divided into four parts. Chapter one deals with the Bildungsroman and it focuses on the female Bildungsroman. The female Bildungsroman shares most of the characteristics of the Bildungsroman. The most typical features of the female Bildungsroman may be that it focuses on the need of women and the female protagonists rebel against the gender bias.In the next chapter, the thesis focuses on the analysis of the process of female maturity in some of Vogel’s plays. In Meg, Meg tries to become a winner in the public sphere. But because of some political reasons and the pressure from the family and society, she ends up with the compromise with the patriarchal world. In The Mineola Twins, the twins, born differently, fight for a lifelong time battle. One becomes a stressed-out housewife and the other turns into a dissolute professional woman. In this part, the author of the thesis lays great emphasis on the discussion of Li’l Bit’s growth in How I Learned to Drive. The family and the social environment have great impacts on her in Li’l Bit’s grown-up from a child to an adult. The playwright uses the driving lessons of Li’l Bit’s Uncle Peck as the key word. The play implies Li’l Bit’s maturity in sex from innocence to self-awareness, finally to take control of it. Thus, it reveals the common problems in the female growth in today’s society. Based on the analysis of Li’l Bit’s growth, the thesis points out that Vogel hopes women could try their best to fight for the subjectivity and sex liberation during their growth. And in the process of growth, sex is an issue everyone has to confront. But women should not be fearful, evasive and passive. Instead, they might actively use sex as a way to learn or to gain whatever they desire.Chapter three examines artistic features in Vogel’s plays and argues that the successful management of dramaturgy helps to manifest and strengthen the themes of the plays. Vogel rewrites and reconstructs the classic. And she might change the original heroines’ tragic destiny in her plays. Thus, she gives them new vitality and charisma. Vogel applies non-linear chronology to make the plots more complicated and highlight the themes. Therefore, readers and audiences may sympathize with protagonists sufferings. The serious topics in Vogel’s plays often present in a fantastic and humorous way. So readers and audiences could easier accept those topics.Vogel’s own experience is of great importance to her writing career. Thus, she could create many plays that reflect the growth of American women in reality. And as the Bildungsroman often includes some autobiographical elements, chapter four makes the discussion about the connection between Vogel’s life and her plays and the significance of her plays as well.Vogel describes various women in her plays, they may grow up in the plays and follow their dreams or try to change their miserable life. And she raises unsettled problems in her plays and waits audiences and readers to find the ways to solve them. It is no doubt that her plays are full of the thought-provoking ideas and the question awareness.