'Circus Lady' af Jason Miller, analyse

The play “Circus Lady” written by Jason Miller, is about a woman, who is heavy over weight, and her son who desperately wants to move from home and start his own life. Marie is constantly nervous because she thinks there is a rapist in the block where she lives, and John - her son is very annoyed by the fact that Marie wants him to protect her, when his own dreams is out In the world or more likely in Chicago. Marie is scared to be abandoned by her son because she says she does not have any one else but him.

Marie is like a prisoner in her own home, she feels trapped because she is too embarrassed about her weight to go out, and she is worried that she cannot get up the stairs to her apartment without her heart exploding. Page 57; “no you don’t how could you? Do you know that I haven’t been out of the house for six months because I’m afraid I can’t get back up the steps without my heart exploding? I’m ashamed to walk the streets, because I’m afraid of the laughter. Mr. Stein I’m a freak. My son…” My opinion is that she might have some psychological problems that she has to deal with. She is calling herself a freak and she is always scared. Marie is a nerve wreck and she is constantly worrying about the rapist she claims is in the building she lives in. Every time she hears the tiniest noise that might sound like a knocking hand on the door she freaks out and yells at John that he should come and check at the door. Page 52: “John don’t go out. I need someone to protect me.” Page 54; “I need protection with that maniac roaming the building. You know you’ll just talk to those bums on the corner all afternoon.” When she is not complaining to him about the knocking she is trying to get him feel guilty by telling him how lonely she is going to be when he is moving to Chicago and that she rather saw he did not go. Marie is not wealthy and nether is her son. Marie hasn’t got a job, so she has gotten a welfare check every month the past 18 years. Page 55; “According to your case record you’ve been on welfare almost eighteen years.” Before she got on the welfare she had a job as a waitress. She claims that she was thinner at that point and that does also prove that it is because she is ashamed of her weight that she does not go out more often. The knocking on the door I think should be interpreted like it is her insecurity that is knocking, and it is trying to make her open the door out to the world so she does not have to be afraid any more. And the ending on the storey could be a symbol that she is grabbing herself together and trying to make a new start at her life.