Three Viewings

Okay, I seriously doubt no one else will see this common point, but Margaret-Mary Welsh. Not only is the name fun to say (Margaret-Mary, Margaret-Mary, Margaret-Mary) and the fact that I want to switch it around (Mary-Margaret just makes more sense,) but she seems to be an expression of comfort, however small, to all of the three characters. And while the interaction with her is not major, she is there, in the peripheral of the story, like an angel that is always there and watching.

As far as a motif, I think it is deep, personal loss. Yes, they are all set at a funeral home, and they all go to funerals, but the funerals that are most prominent are not the ones that the three characters felt the most at. Ellis, being a mortician, speaks of many funerals, some in great detail. But the funeral of Tessie is only described briefly. He speaks of his love for her throughout the play, sometimes just standing there and saying "I love you" over and over again. With Mac, she would go to funerals to steal jewelry off of the dead one's body, but she couldn't go to the one funeral that mattered, the loss of her family. And with Virginia, her husband's funeral was perhaps the most detailed of the three when it came to the lost loves, but the events that happened afterwards overshadowed. She not only had to deal with the loss of her husband, she had to deal with the possible loss of who she thought her husband was, and even though it had worked out in the end, it was still painful to see (or read) her go through that.

Another motif I just realized is that they all take away something from this, whether it is physical or metaphorical. Ellis took Tessie's pacemaker, which kept her heart going until the accident. Mac took Nettie's ring, though she throws it in the hole later, and Virginia took on the responsibilities of her husband, but was later given 13 written things of his love.