Overview: Angela Weld Grimke’s, Rachel, was first staged in 1916 and sponsored by the NAACP. This tragic drama portrayed unconventional representations with a combination of political, racial, and emotional concepts. Additionally, her work challenged negative stereotypes commonly depicted and reproduced in media, as she created emotional, realistic, and poignant characters. Seemingly attributable to these deviations, her play was widely criticized for being overly sentimental and exemplifying “race suicide.”
This play centers on Rachel Loving and her family over the course of several years. Rachel’s devotion and tenderness to caring for children becomes obvious, as she cheerfully proclaims that her utmost desire is to become a mother. In the…show more content… Themes centering on the implications of structural violence, oppression, and inequality course throughout the play. Needless to say, these concepts are prevalent, controversial, and often ignored in modern society. A revival of this work would serve to inspire progress and unity in the face of these issues, just as Grimke intended. Another theme is a contrast between the impact of overt violence, such as riots and lynching, vs covert violence, like oppression and discrimination. The play centers on covert violence, and Rachel’s inability to heal the wounds it caused as it became institutionalized. This idea relates to the most important theme of the play; being forgotten and abandoned in a world structured against certain people. This motif is implicitly demonstrated within the cast’s gestures and sentiment, and is essential to the play’s evolution and conclusion. In short, this message refers to the psychological and cultural damage resulting from denying recognition and respect to one group of people while granting it to another. This remains a pressing societal issue, thus presenting this motif could instill a new awareness, introspection, and compassion in its
