Gerte Flashcards
(4 cards)
role
-the climax
-a white woman from Germany.
-her situation parallels with other characters as well as contrasts with them emphasising beliefs on racism]
-accepts Godfrey’s love for FD though questions it links to acceptance ad love theme. also her, perhaps why she hastily marries.
-like everyone, searching for a theme, she too is a foreigner coming for the AMERICAN DREAM
racism and segregation
-‘When I see you I see no colour. I see Lily (she lights a cigarette’ (pg 64) though gerte’s ignorance is endearing in this time it is silly and as a cigarette connotates bad for health it is a metaphor for by ignorance of racism, gerte isn’t doing herself any favours.
-‘gerte’s brightly coloured dress is stained with blood’ (pg 70) brightly adverb contrasts with something dark like blood showing ignorance and attitude leaving but also the fact her dress, something artificial/consumerism (like an armour) is affected but not her unlike godfrey
-‘Gerte tries to take over from LILY’ (pg 72). fact is gerte doesn’t understand like lily does so verb tries demonstrates this as if can’t be done-segregated
searching for meaning, identity
-‘Gerte and Godfrey are basked in a heavenly glow’ (pg 48).adverb heavenly connotates fd, religion, ref to sandra as if they found hope he finds in religion meaning in each other-crumbs
-‘Relish, brisket’ (pg 53) and ‘pudding, dumplings-‘ and ‘Gravy, peas-‘ listing but keeps stopping at two as if overwhelming her emphasising the cultish like ways of FD but also brings out her search for meaning and who she was before—living in poverty? Also creates a rhythm contrarian with excessivenwss
-‘My father the viola and I..I…’ (pg 61) trailing sentence indicator of loss of identity, America changes all.
‘Go West. The pictures’ (pg 62) shortness of sentence, haste or urgency, we feel her need to find herself as a reflection of ernestine, and find identity relatable.
-‘she is so full of ideas’ (pg 75) full presented negatively ref to godfrey;s pockets-being full seen as bad when they r just trying to make out who they r.
romantacism, love
‘Posture of a film star from the thirties and the waning beauty of a showgirl’ (pg 45) waning is a reference to the flickering blue lights we see often, hinting that perhaps meeting godfrey is gerte’s big film and she was searching for him as ernestine does in cinema
-‘I like that he comes home every day at the same time with cookies in his pocket and smelling of sweets’ (pg 63) order, routine in a world unpredictable. cookies are romanticised Godfrey has shared his escapism,-through feeling good and forgetting about problems and past life as shown with ‘smelling of sweets’ as earlier she was lost in memory. sweet stuff are also ironic as also they are escapism they are also what traps him in a limited life-bakery
-‘a bright spotlight hits GERTE as she slowly traipses across the table singing ‘Falling in Love Again’ (pg 540 verb traipses-reluctance. she also repeats this at the end of the play
-‘they struggle wildly’ (pg 76) adverb dehumanises them, however most they have sown passion-emphasises humanity and romantacism
-‘blue, flickering light engulfs Godfrey and Gerte, who kiss passionately, like film stars’ (pg 76) verb engulf negative, overpower and flickering temporary and once again light is being shown as if they are now willingly to accept the temporariness and unpredictability of life with blue representing calm, water life.
‘Lily and Gerte do an elaborate mambo’ (pg 80) off ernestine dramatises everything but mambo represents for lily sexual, freedom but also coping mechanisms and elaborate complicated but ‘and’ brings them together as if they accept that each person is just trying to figure out life
