The Conduct of Life

In 'The Conduct of Life', the audience is left with a lack of detail and information on the characters or overall story. Maria's writing delivers more of a raw and tension-filled story line, with short yet gripping scenes. A certain dramaturgical route that was selected to take dealt mainly with empathy. It is quite difficult to relate or have any connection to a story unless there is some sort of emotion pull or somewhat relatable circumstance. Maria chose to stage this story in a more personal, intimate, and very raw fashion. For example, the more personal scenes with the dialogue between Olimpia and Nena are very likely to draw the audience in closer and certainly spark some empathetic connections from the audience. Maria could have completely cut those heart-felt scenes out, but chose to keep them and stage them near the end of the story. This way,  the audience gets a full picture of just how beautiful of a person Nena is and really has them (as spectators) picking a side. Nena, being only 12 shows great wisdom far beyond her years, " ...And if someone should treat me unkindly, I should not blind myself with rage, but I should see them and receive them, since maybe they are in worse pain than me."  I believe that Fornes decided to put these more lengthy and internally based monologues in the script because it really gets the audience feeling confident in the story line and how they feel about it. They pick a side and wholeheartedly support it. When setting a play on more of a raw and emotional manner, the playwright risks a bunch but also has the ability and potential to gain even more. By going on this sympathy-drawn route, Maria, I believe, has the power to gain the complete and utter vulnerability, emotions, and consciousness of the audience. With this raw and very extreme emotion, the characters have those powerful words to work off of from. These haunting monologues make for a very memorable and heart wrenching story line and set of characters. Overall, I believe how Maria is telling 'The Conduct of Life' is just about as raw and real as it should be, and that is moving.