"The Conduct of Life" by Fornes

If I only had The Conduct of Life as an example of Fornes’ work, I might conclude judging from the play that in addition to having pared—down sometimes even abrupt scenes that her dramaturgical style also includes a heavy use of monologues.  By this I mean that she uses them much more often than the average playwright does and frankly they are the majority of the play.  For example, scene 1 is a monologue by Orlando and directly after that in scene 2 there is another series of monologues by Leticia and Orlando and this trend continues through out the remainder of the play with some exceptions.  I think that Fornes choosing to do this has a very powerful effect.  For me, it was a direct look into the characters thoughts and feelings without having to go through a filter of dialogue to another character.  They were honest and true with themselves because they didn’t have to hide behind some sort of mask like they did when interacting with others.  They could just be their raw human selves with imperfections, desires, and passions and we got to see them through their eyes and from each character’s perspective.  I believe that the play is called The Conduct of Life because of the play is all about the events that happen in life and having a true response to those things and having to deal with them but also having that drive in the back of your mind that yes life happens and a lot of times it is so unfair and cruddy but life does go on and that we should use these things that happen to us as a growing experience.  In life we tend to forget that other people are people and I think Nena puts it best when she says “I should not blind myself with rage, but I should see them and receive them, since maybe they are in worse pain than me” and that is the way that we should conduct our lives, not be torn down by the adversity but build our selves up and rise stronger from it.