Ralph: Hello there. What brings you to my campsite just a few days before the apocalypse?
Lane: Hello. Well, my name is Lane and I have just been wandering around trying to find my employer, Algernon Moncrieff.
Ralph: Well, there is really no use in finding him now…on account that there are only a couple more days to live.
Lane: “Well there were no cucumbers in the market this morning”, so I left this afternoon to check the market again, and when I returned Algernon had disappeared (8). As his manservant, I thought it my duty to go search for him.
Ralph: Are you even listening to me? The world is ending in about 48 hours, so I think “you’re free to do what you want”(249). You are not tied down in your position any longer.
Lane: “I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir”(1).
Ralph: Okay…well I was talking to you, so I think it would have been…
Lane: Sorry, “I do my best to give satisfaction, sir”, and did not mean any disrespect by it (18).
Ralph: Alright…well stop calling me ‘sir’ and pull up a chair. “I’ve got the beer”, and take a load off, because chances are you’re not going to find this ‘Algernon’ in time (242).
Lane: No thanks, the “superior quality of…wine” makes me detest beer (1). But I really don’t understand this apocalypse talk. I haven’t heard anything previously mentioned about it. It’s making me rather uneasy. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna get real weird with it being mentioned over and over again like this.
Ralph: Never heard of it? “I don’t mean this to sound rude”, but how is that possible? (249). It quite literally is the most important news in the world right now. Do you listen to any news? “Not much, I’m guessing?”(251)
Lane: Now that you mention it, I believe I heard something about it. But “I never think of it myself”(2)…not too interesting in my opinoin. There is nothing fashionable about depressing talk like that. If you excuse me, I really should continue searching.
Ralph: Wow. Okay, good luck to you.
Lane: “Thank you, Sir”(2).
Carolyn, I like the characters you chose exhibit such different characteristics from very different time periods. I like how even though they meet and interact, their personalities remain unchanged and they continue on as if they never met. However, I feel that if Lane knew this news he would completely forget about his man servant duties and focus on himself.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn, I really like the interactions between Lane and Ralph. Unlike Kathryn however, I agree with you that Lane would not forget his duties. He gets too worked up over the lack of cucumbers to abandon his master for something as trivial as the world ending. Plus, Lane has no family to live for since his marriage did not really work out. I feel that the contrast between the two characters and their priorities parallels the difference in time period. In Lane's time period he cares only for his duties and trivial matters, whereas Ralph just wants to enjoy life and cares about the end of the world.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn, I love the two characters you choose to interact. They have completely different personalities; Ralph does not care about a job, and lives his life to the fullest, while Lane is consumed by his job. Your creative dialogue between the two opposite characters really illustrates the deep contrast between Everything Matters! and The Importance of Being Earnest.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn, I really like how you still kept the personalities of Lane and Ralph through your own lines. I could picture all of those things actually being said by those characters in their books. Your quotes also flowed very well with the rest of the conversation, it definitely wasn't obvious that you were trying to incorporate them because we had to. I love how transfixed Lane is about his job, even though the world is ending in a few days, and that makes this whole interaction very funny.
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