Overview: Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime explores our relationships with family, much like Henrik Ibsen did in his time with A Doll House. However, Harrison also delves into the ways in which memory shapes our choices and future. By doing so, he attends to the new challenges we face in our psychologically conscious world. Today we read Part I, Scene 1, pages 1-13.
Questions to Ponder: By using the conceit of a Prime, how do the characters reinvent their loved ones into what and who they want them to be? How do the Primes and the living, in turn, reinvent themselves? How are we all like Marjorie, when it come to memory retrieval? How do the ideas of Existentialism apply to these ideas and this play? Are there any questions or concepts you found interesting or confusing that you would like to explore in class?
Majorie reinvents Walter as she remembers him the last time she thought about him or when she last remembers him. She sees Walter as a much younger version of when he last saw him before he passed. Her dementia makes her memories extremely fuzzy as she mainly can remember things when Walter reminds her of their memories. Majorie still has the ability to connect names with faces and she also remembers who they are and their importance to her. We are all like Majorie when it comes to memory retrieval as we remember things as the last time we thought about them. When I was around the age of 4 years old, my family and I went to Disney. I still have the memories from that vacation, however, I only know my perspective as a 4 year old child. If I was to ask my parents or any other family members about the vacation, they would have a more detailed explanation of the vacation as they were much older than me and understood more of what was going on. However, all of our perspectives would be different as we all did some things differently and had different experiences. The ideas of existentialism apply to the ideas in the play as even though Majorie is an older lady who needs help from others, she believes she has a say in her own life and what she wants to do and not what her daughter Tess wants her to do. The only question I had was when did Walter pass? Did he pass at an early age? Or did he too have dementia?
ReplyDelete- Adriana DeSantis
They reinvent their loved ones into the quintessential versions of their loved ones, resurrecting them at a certain point of their life to relive what Marjorie might miss the most. One thing that happens when her resurrected husband brings back all these memories, she too begins to piece back together small parts of what they actually remember about them. And we also embellish some details from our memory. Marjorie could possibly be very underwhelmed or even distraught be what her husband tells her about their old life because maybe it wasnt as good as they once thought. I also was wondering when her husband died.
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