The Sound of a Voice by David Henry Hwang is a sad play about desperation and the desire of two lonely people who are opposites. Hwang successfully manages to pull the interest of the audience in with pity and sympathy for his two lonely characters. The play is set in one lonely house located in a forest which is about two days from the nearest village. Both of the characters in this play are mysterious and complex. All through the play, the woman and the man are building a lovely understanding of one another. The symbolic meaning of their loneliness, change in their attraction to one another, and the end of life, all make for one incredible story with an unexpected union of these two lonely, lost souls.
Plot
The term plot refers to the sequence of events in the story. The first scene is set in a dull kitchen where the woman pours tea for her visitor. The man, who is a transient, has somehow found his way to her house and notices the beautiful flowers on the shelf. They are the only lively things in this drab and boring room, which is just like its owner. They contrast sharply with the rest of the environment. He steals one flower.
Although these two are opposites, they quickly learn that they have one thing in common. They both need some nose to fall asleep. The man needed the sound of the waterfall the previous night to soothe him to sleep while the woman will need to hear the sound of his breathing.
At the end of the second scene, the man prepares to sleep and the woman removes the flowers from the room. He sleeps with the flower he had stolen underneath his pillow. He hears something which is yet unknown to the audience before falling asleep.
After staying for some weeks, he begins to notice that she is becoming attracted to him. She comments about his body on seeing him shirtless and the next day he purposefully works with his shirt on. He tells her that he heard her playing the flute the night before and convinces her to play it for him.
The next day he is practicing his sword. She shows that she too can handle the sword with precision and tells him she “had to pick one up”. This implies that she has in the past had to defend herself. The man finally reveals his intentions for making this journey. To the outside world, this woman is known as a witch. It is rumored that she has very many male guests, none of whom return. She says that she is aware of this rumor and “great glory was to be had by killing the witch in the woods.” This was the purpose of his coming.
In the seventh scene, the man claims to hear voices from the flowers. They sound like imprisoned souls. She loses her temper and demands that he should go ahead and kill her if that is his intention. She is tired of being lonely and is not ready to lose another visitor. It appears the witch has somehow imprisoned the souls of men who tried to leave so as to ward of the loneliness.
Conflict
In literature, the term conflict refers to an inherent incompatibility that exists between the main objectives of the characters or forces in the story. It creates interest and tension in the story by adding some doubt to the outcome.
The man is a soul in conflict. He cannot consolidate his feelings for the woman with his mission. He tries to leave secretly since he is unable to kill her. She is very sad when she finds out and asks him to kill her but not to leave. “This house- my loneliness is etched into the walls. Kill me, but don’t leave. Even in death, my spirit would rest here and be comforted by your presence.”.
In the beginning, it is probable that he could have killed her had he acted immediately. He waited too long and in the process developed feelings for the woman, and this led to the conflict he experienced.
Climax
The term climax refers to the point of highest drama or tension or when the action begins where the solution to the problem is given.
In the last scene, the woman runs to her room and he follows. He tries to play the flute but it makes no sound. This is symbolic of the death of the woman; there is absolute silence. He sees her hanging from the ceiling. This is the climax of the play. It appears that she was a ghost, as she now appears young. She existed only to him as a lonely, lost apparition. He sees her surrounded by very many vases of flowers, with their petals sprawled all about the room, spiraling in the air. The lonely ghost is now gone; the trapped souls of all her visitors are now free.
Themes
The term theme refers to the central topic or topics in a text. One of the main themes is loneliness and isolation. The two characters live away from other people in a world of their own. They do not have much human interaction and the only company they get is each other. The woman is especially lonely and would rather die than lose the only company she has. Another theme brought out in this play is tragic love. When the man and woman finally accept their feelings for each other, they still cannot be together. The man was on a mission which he could no longer fulfill because of his feeling for the woman. The story ends with the death of the woman and the end of the soulful music.
Tone
Tone is the literary element of a story which encompasses the main attitudes or mood toward the subject or toward the audience in a literary work. The tone of the play is lonely, dark and sad. The two lonely strangers are unable to accept true love and it ends with the death of the woman and the man being left all alone.
Symbols
Symbolism is where an aspect of the story represents another. The flowers in the play are symbolic; they represent the trapped souls. The woman is not truly alone. Another symbol is the flute. It symbolizes the loneliness of the woman, as this is the only sound she hears. It is her voice, and upon her death, it no longer produces any sound.
The Sound of a Voice is one deeply moving play which has a surprising ending. The characters must deal with their fears of never finding true love, of growing old, and of never being finding comfort in the intimacy of long, trusted relationships. The dramatic effect of this very short play is deeply felt and also very haunting.
Works Cited
Books Group Staff. Literary Concepts. New York: General Books LLC, 2010. Print.
Hwang, David Henry. "Sound of a voice." Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia. Literature: An
Introduction to Fiction,Poetry, Drama and Writing. 11. London: Longman, 2009.
1752-1765 . Print.
Research & Education Association. CLEP Analyzing & Interpreting Literature. NJ:
Research & Education Association, 2004. Print.
