Ellaina Brown

November 18th, 2010

"True West": Dialogue Analysis

For the dialogue analysis assignment I chose scene 9, two pages preceding the

climax. Mother makes her first and only appearance in this segment of the play. From my

first reading of the play I found this excerpt quite intriguing, although the conversation did

not seem to follow any reasonable pattern or have explicable breaks in identifiable patterns.

The actions and dialogue were obscure to me. However, with the dialogue analysis, the

Mother's significance became apparent, and this dynamic conversation more understandable.

When Mother first enters the decimated room she shows no sign of being disturbed

by its condition; she is un-emotional. Austin asks what she is doing back, and she replies,

“I’m back”. This is a simple statement that begins a series of responses irrelevant to the

problem at hand. This is violating three of Grice’s maxims: Manner, Quality, and Quantity. If

a woman has just discovered her house in shambles, such an impersonal, short, unclear

answer does not seem proper. Within the context one would also expect long complex

sentences and utterances in the form of exclamations and commands, but her words are only

statements and simple sentences. Should she not be enraged? The norm in this situation

would be to completely ignore Austin’s attempt at small talk and move immediately to the

bigger issue. The relevant response to the contextual cue would be to address the bigger

issue, but she doesn’t. This is an interesting Violation of Relation. Overt questions are

looming in the room and she does not address them.

Mother continues her odd responses to cues as she discusses the dead plants in her

house. Taking care of the plants was Austin’s responsibility, so Lee and Austin offer up a

defence for the failure of their upkeep, and she responds with, “Oh well, one less thing to

take care of, I guess”. She is quite indifferent to her wilted plants which, at the beginning of

the play, Austin and Lee agreed was one of the primary reasons Austin was house-sitting in

the first place. The response is a Violation of Quality, since she is giving a very impersonal
answer to something that should have been important. Perhaps her love for plants is a farce

and she only pretended to have an interest in them because she believed they did something

for her (with further analysis this greater purpose will be revealed).

As the dialogue continues, Mother violates the Maxim of Relation in another way, in

response to her own cue. Her dead plants bring to her memory the fact that Picasso is in

town. The two topics, her dead plants and Picasso, really do not have any relation to each

other. What is even more obscure is the quality of what she says, “Picasso’s in town…right

now”. This cannot be true because Picasso is dead, and she completely disregards Austin’s

cue when he tells her “Picasso is dead”. Furthermore, a few lines down she says, “Picasso!

Picasso! You’ve never heard of Picasso? Austin, you’ve heard of Picasso.”. This statement is

a Violation of Relation because Austin had just previously mentioned his opinion on the

matter. However, in Mother’s statement she doesn’t even consider what Austin just told her

previously. The dialogue here indicates that truth is not what is most important to her.

Mother is thrilled at the idea of Picasso coming to visit, giving the impression that she

is quite knowledgeable about the arts. If she is passionate about the arts, as she seems to let

on, would she not have known that Picasso died? The fact that Picasso is not alive leads the

audience to question if anything Mother says is really honest. This is a large clue into her

character, and we can see that it is only the association with the arts she is interested in, and

in reality she has never invested herself in them. She has a fake quality about her, much like

Austin did. Her vacation, her interest in plants, her suburban home, her aspiration to be

considered an art connoisseur, in fact all that she does, points to one thing: the ideal western

life. She, like Lee, is stuck in the mindset that the current American idealized 'west' will give

her happiness.

Her response to the plants is also understandable if this thought development is

followed. Happiness is her greatest goal, which she is trying to achieve through this lifestyle.

Now we can follow her connection: ‘the plants are dead, which is sad and unfitting for my

lifestyle, so I will bring up Picasso, which fits my lifestyle and therefore uplift me’. She will
not sacrifice her attempt at happiness by mourning the plants in any way. She will not face

reality if it is in conflict with her lifestyle.

On the contrary, Austin has an explosion of emotion after his mother goes on about

Picasso. His emotion is evident by the use of exclamations. Before Austin says, “We’re

gonna’ be leavin’ here, Mom!”, Lee and Austin comply with their mother's wishes, only

uttering statements and simple questions, but her statements about Picasso become too much

for Austin to handle, and he breaks from his pattern of statements and questions. Austin,

consciously or subconsciously, could see his mother’s western ideology affecting her words.

The ideal west is exactly what Austin has been trying to escape from for most of the play,

and it is now being forced upon him by his Mother through her ignoring of his statements.

When Mother violates the Maxim of Relation yet again, by not even seeming to listen to

Austin’s statement that they will not have time to see Picasso, he reaches his breaking point.

The opposition to his change has never been more present. Both his mother and Lee are

trying to force him into the mold he is desperately trying to avoid and it enrages him. They

say he is too thin, and not cut out for the desert. To Lee and Mother, they are just stating facts

that seem obvious because of the life Austin has led up to this point in time. To Austin, their

words are insulting, and are actually Violations of Respect. He, therefore, feels he must prove

them wrong. By taking charge through the climactic strangling of his brother, he proves his

own control and freedom from the lifestyle that binds him.

By labelling the utterance types in the dialogue I found similar discoveries. There are

only statements and questions uttered until Mother commands the boys to guess who is in

town. This emphasizes Picasso's supposed arrival and the importance of this idea. Picasso is

a surreal artist who paints dream-like scenes that look like they could be real places, but they

are not. Picasso is not just any artist, but specifically is an allusion to the modern west. The

west is a dream-like ideal that characters can pretend gives them real happiness, but it is only

an illusion. Mother’s Violation of Quality, and Austin’s exclamation’s now make even more
sense. The fact that Austin is the only one who states that Picasso is dead alludes to the idea

that Austin see’s the ideal ‘west’ as dead also.

With a closer look at the responses to the questions and the responses to the

commands, a power struggle becomes evident. When Mother first arrives, she is given

attention and the impression of respect by Lee and Austin, but there is no real substance to

their words or actions. Mother is, in fact, powerless as she is given no respect. When the

conversation intensifies, her statements and commands are completely overlooked. For

instance, she tells the boys not to yell in the house, but no one gives a response to her cue or

listens to her command. She asks if Lee can take the plastic plates out to the desert instead of

the china, but he only makes an excuse, which violates the respect she deserves. Her power is

an illusion, and it becomes clear that Austin and Lee have never had the respect for her one

would assume sons would have for their mother.

No character in this scene is given the desired response to their demands. Each of

Mother's commands is dismissed by the person whom she addresses, and she never complies

with the brothers' commands either. The same is true for Austin and Lee. Both Austin and

Lee give a variety of commands, but neither of them ever receives the obedience or

submission they desire. In their own minds, each character believes they are in control. Each

of the three, Mother and brothers, believe they have the authority to issue commands, but

none are given any respect. Austin believes he has the power to make Lee lead him into the

wilderness. Austin says, “Then we’ll do it on the desert”, but Lee responds with, “Don’t tell

me what to do!”. Lee believes that no one can tell him what to do and that controls his

coming and going, not Austin. Mother believes she is most powerful because they are in her

house, and because she is their mother. She tells them to “Go outside and fight”, but Lee says

he won’t leave, and denies the fact that he is fighting. Each of them feels threatened by the

commands issued to them and they each respond in their own way. Later on, Lee packs to

leave and Austin attacks him. When Mother's house is no longer something that she can

control, she doesn't address the problem but leaves instead. Her son is being murdered and
yet she decides that going to a motel is the suitable response. She runs from every problem,

but while she flees from discomfort she is simultaneously escaping reality. Neither Mother

nor Lee has ever found authentic value in life, but Austin is still searching and fighting. The

question remains: will he ever find authenticity?

The characters do not have any hidden motives that they are aware of, but beneath

their words there is a deeper subtext. Mother is another example of someone who is encased

in the land of "west". She is lost in the surreal American dream, which she believes will bring

her ideal happiness. The audience can see the family dynamic for what it is. They are

struggling for control in their own lives, and by exerting the power they believe they have,

they try to convince themselves of their importance and thereby claim some significance

which is all too apparently missing from their lives.

Austin, Lee, and Mother’s power struggle is only further proof that they are lost in the

world, and this world will only grant them satisfaction if they conform to a certain

stereotype. They might believe they have importance because they are fitting the criteria of a

recognizable class or ideal, but without true satisfaction with one’s self and relations, true

purpose cannot be found.