Buried Child

In Buried Child by Sam Sheppard, there are some realism aspects of this play, but it does not follow the traditional path of realism. There are some aspects that does not match the criteria, such as the lack of dramatic irony. The audience finds out the secrets when the other characters find out the secrets. Such as the secret of the dead baby. It is hinted, which shows some form of ambiguity (more on that a little later), but we do not know the real truth until the very end when Tilden comes from the back yard (or what we assume is the back yard) cradling a skeletal baby in his arms. The facts of this play that comes out is something that a reader or a watcher has to read/see a second time to capture all of the information that is not clearly thrown out there. The irony is hard to see because there is no clear distinction between reality and appearance. As I said before, everything that we do find out is found at the end, and still we don't know everything when it comes to the secrets or mysteries of this play.

A lot of things are left to ambiguity, such as what happened in New Mexico with Tilden, who was really the father of the dead baby(though it is implied that Tilden was the father), who really was Vince, just to name a few. There is some ambiguity that is revealed at the end, such as if there really was a buried child (there was.)

A bit of complexity would be Vince. It isn't until the end that he is remembered by his grandmother, but through out the play we (the audience) wonder if he was just as crazy as the rest of them appeared to be. Another complexity would be Bradley, who appeared all big and bad when he intimidates Shelly, but becomes a weak and pathetic child when his leg is taken away.

This play is most certainly not black-and-white. There are still some things left unknown by the end of the play and while it gives the appearance of ending almost exactly where it starts, there is no true closure except for the existence of the buried child.

Glass of Water

If I had to pick just one person for the protagonist for Glass of Water, (or, at least, I can't think of a reason why it is not useful for the script) I would have to choose Abigail Churchill. With Abigail, we hear of her struggles before we even see her, with Arthur Masham explaining to the Viscount Bolingbroke (Henry St. John) that he was in love with a woman who just lost her job and that he cannot marry her though they are in love due to the person that is sponsoring him. Abigail's struggles continue when we find out that the job posting she came to the palace to apply for has already been filled. But a hopeful situation occurred when a then unknown lady came in whom  Abigail had been kind to before offers her a job. That lady turns out to be Queen Anne, but the news becomes bad quickly for her. The Duchess of Marlborough has the ear of the Queen and also happens to be Abigail's cousin and does not like the scandal of having someone as poor as Abigail relative to her. While Abigail's occupation goes back and forth, she finds out her love, Masham, has killed a man and must go on the run, but before he can leave, he is given a higher station that forces him to stay, all thanks to his secret "sponsor." That sponsor turns out to be the Duchess, and she is in love with Masham. But that is not the only one, the Queen is also in love with him and Abigail tries to stop both of them getting her man. She also has to deal with her friend, the Viscount, getting threaten by (who else) the Duchess. Abigail deals with a lot of struggle in such a short amount of time and it makes it easy to want to root for her. In the end, though, her struggles prove worthwhile when she gets the approval of the Queen to marry her love and that her love does not go to jail for killing a man. Of all the characters in the play, it almost appears she has the most "screen time" and while the some of the characters also suffer from some difficulties, hers seems to be the more pronounced.