Age Cannot Wither Her, nor Custom Stale Her Infinite Variety Essay

Nor Custom Stale Her Infinite VarietyIn the production nones of Emily of Emerald Hill by Stella Kon, the author uses a Shakespeargonan quote to describe Emily, Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her unconditioned variety. This quote is actu altogethery from William Shakespeares Anthony and Cleopatra, r discloseine II scene ii, used to describe Cleopatras permanentness and the many intriguing qualities she possesses. In this essay, I will aim to analyze the reasons behind the writers choice for using this particular quote to describe Emily and how it is relevant to the portrayal of Emily in the play. The timeline of this play is not a single, continuous timeline, but quite a broken one that leaps back and forth in time to portray antithetic scenes where Emily reflects and reviews the veritable(a)ts that have come to pass.It is through Emilys reflection and review of her look that allows us to determine how age has not withered Emily. No matter what sluicets have happen ed over the years, may it be the destruction of her son or the stopping point of her husband, Emily stands strong and is undefeated by them. She tells herself bravely, Its all over now. Its all past, it cant be changed and still continues to look forward to living. The death of these deuce commonwealth in her life did not depict her cling incessantly to the people around her, in fear of losing them. Instead, age and experience has taught her to permit go of some things in life, one of which is her daughter, Doris, who was supposed to stay with her at Emerald Hill. This time, Emilys willingness to let go and allow the children to make their own choices paid off. She was able to maintain a good relationship with her tho daughter and is satisfied to know that Doris is living happily in America. Her willingness to let go also brought her enveloping(prenominal) to her remaining 3 children, who are willing to come back to Emerald Hill to visit her frequently with her grandchildren even though all of them moved away. Towards the end of the play, Emily seems even more content with her life as she plays with her grandchildren and sees them grow up, even though the house and land she owns is slowly deteriorating. Age has not withered her, but rather allowed her to enjoy the bliss of family love. The writer was very appropriate in using this phrase to sum up Emilys life, as we seeEmily blossom from the lovesick young bride to the loving grandmother whom the grandchildren equivalents to visit. As Emily ages, her life becomes more fulfilled as she sees her children and grandchildren succeed and prosper in life. In this sense, Emilys charm is ageless as her spirit did not grow old like her body. She remains optimistic about the future and enjoys every living moment she has with her family.Throughout the play, Emily engages in a one sided dialogue with people that are unseen on stage. Through the contents of Emilys speech, we are able to determine whom she is talki ng to and see the drastic changes in the demeanor of her speech. I believe that this is where infinite variety appropriately describes Emily as she assumes different speech stances with different people. This brings out the many different sides of Emily, for example the busy housewife of the family, the upper-class lady, the caring friend, the loving mother, and many other different roles she has to take up to ensure that the family is well-cared for, like clockwork. The writer chooses to pose the talks in a way that the conversations highly contrast each other and brings the readers to attention the countless varieties of Emily.The interspersing of the conversations is very evident in Act One. In her conversation with Susie, she uses a lot of Singlish, such as Ya-lah and ya as she adapts an extremely casual tone. In the Singaporean context, her means of speech may be even considered aunty-like, where she sounds like the common middle-aged Singaporean woman that we frequently en counter on the streets. From their conversation, the reader learns that Emily is extremely busy with the household errands whether it may be big or small. We come to see Emily as a busy housewife that is in charge of all that is going on in the house. However, as Emily makes her next call, her manner of speech is completely different. Not only does she do away with the Singlish, she engages a sophisticated and polite tone with the hotel staff. She gives off the impression of an educated upper-class lady, which is a huge jump from her previous aunty-like demeanor. Her next phone call goes to her best friend Bee Choo, where she assumes the very(prenominal) manner of speech as she did earlier on with Sophie. If the writer placed these conversations slightlydifferently, the effect would not have been as striking. The act of the writer sandwiching the hotels phone call with that of Susies and Bee Choos brings about the eldest hint of Emilys varieties. Throughout the rest of the play, E mily generally uses her posh upper-class lady manner of speech to speak to important guests and the upper-class families she socializes with, while at the same time also retaining her aunty-like and casual demeanor when she is speaking to her family or close friends.As we read on, we discover the many other varieties of Emily, of which there are 2 sides of Emily that stands out and contrasts each other the sly Emily and the dutiful wife. I feel that it is in the convergence of these 2 sides of Emily the highlights the way where custom cannot stale her infinite variety. The first hint of these two qualities of Emily merging together is evident in Act Two, the part of the play where Emily celebrates her first Chinese New stratum at Emerald Hill. In this part of the play, Emily slyly makes good use of tradition to get her sister and brother-in-law to pay homage to her. This event can be approached from two different perspectives. In the eyes of Emilys mother and father-in-law, Emily is seen as the dutiful daughter-in-law who wants to pay her respects to her elders and make them happy, but in the eyes of Susie and her husband, Emily can be seen as the sly younger sister-in-law that forced them to kneel down to her. While the act of kneeling down symbolizes respect and reverence in Chinese tradition, in the context of Emilys story, the act of Susie and her husband kneeling down to Emily actually symbolizes the consolidation of Emilys position in the family as the head mistress. It is after this concomitant that Susies bullying stopped and the whole family came to view her as the woman of the household rather than the unseasoned young bride. In this part of the play, not only did the incorporation of a traditional practice not stale her, it elevated her charm and brought out even more captivating sides of Emily.Another event that combines both(prenominal) the sly Emily and the dutiful wife would also be in Act Two, where Emily calls Kheong and tells him to send out the invitations if he still wants to carry on for the big dinner party on September the fifteenth. This dinner was a family tradition started by herfather-in-law to celebrate the end of the Japanese Occupation. On the surface, Emily is the dutiful wife who is still willing to supporter her husband host the big event despite his unfaithfulness. However, the hidden message here to Kheong is that no matter how much he wants to be with his mistress Diana Lee, he would never be able to properly present her to any important guests during these formal events as she is not his lawful wife. It is also made clear to him to make a choice between Emily and Diana as he comes to the realization that he would never be truly free of Emilys firm grasp even if he does not live in Emerald Hill anymore. This is a prelude to Emilys conversation with the audience later, Look after your husband and family, yes do everything for them, turn over them, bind them in the vane of your providing, till the y cant lift a finger to help themselves so that husband and son and sister-in-law must all depend on you, so that you control them and keep them in the palm of your hand.From the way Emily socializes with her guests at Richards party in Act One, it is clear that people accept and view her as the one and only hostess of Emerald Hill. It is these little things that she does (host parties, does his laundry, cook his food) as a wife to wrap and bind Kheong in her web of providing, even when he is living with Diana. Emily knows this very well, and she uses her status as the well-known hostess of Emerald hill to cement her strong standing as Kheongs publicly acknowledged wife. Her conversation with Kheong asking about the invitations may seem innocent, but she is actually slyly reminding him about the importance of her presence inside his life. Again, Emily uses tradition to rejoice and win back her husband. Instead of helplessly watching her marriage break apart, she made use of the fam ilys traditional event to save her marriage. At the same time, she also used her role of the traditional wife who takes excellent care of her family in many different aspects to prove to her husband that she is indispensible in his life, may it be socially or privately. In her own words, she is truly the very devil of a wife and mother, which in itself presents to us infinite varieties of Emily.Age has not withered Emily as her heart remains youthful and ageless, while custom was not only unable to stale her infinite varieties but had rather brought out Emilys many intriguing qualities. As the material things aroundEmily deteriorate and diminish in quantity, her spiritual bliss is ever-growing as she remains unforgotten by her children and grandchildren. I think that the Emily now is assured of her significance and worth in life, and never afraid again of being thrown back into the gutter.1723 WordsBibliography1. http//www.bartleby.com/70/4522.html2. Emily of Emerald Hill by Stella Kon, Writing Singapore, An Historical Anthology of Singapore Literature, Edited by Angelina Poon, Philip Holden & Shirley Geok-lin Lim 1 . http//www.bartleby.com/70/4522.html