Comparison of Willow Pattern by Judith Johnson and Dust by Sarah Daniels

Comparison of Willow Pattern by Judith Johnson and Dust by Sarah Daniels

In this essay I will compare Willow Pattern written by Judith Johnson

and performed in spring 2004, with Dust written by Sarah Daniels and

performed in spring 2003. Willow Pattern was oriental Chinese and had

a very patriotic culture where status and royalty were of great

significance. This was shown throughout the play through dialogue with

the Mandarin or Ta-Jins's mother, in which it was revealed that the

social hierarchy played a major role at the time. Dust was set in

modern times and showed the prevailing culture of the 21st century;

however it also went into ancient roman times and in both time periods

status was also very important. This became apparent through scenes on

the tube as a group of girls ganged up on Flavia and the attitudes of

the audience in the arena.

The main themes running through Willow Pattern were relationships,

true love, power, control and anger. The anger and power were explored

through the character of the Mandarin, the person that everyone but

Knoon-She (his daughter) bowed down to. He constantly and desperately

tried to control his daughter and was livid when she disobeyed him.

The main moral throughout was that true love will conquer all, despite

anyone disapproving or interfering.

A similar theme ran through Dust, although it wasn't true love, a

major theme was the value of true friendship and how this would always

win. This was shown through the true relationship between Flavia and

Achillia, and the false, shallow friendships between Achillia and

Amazon, and Flavia and Chloe. The main over all themes was being true

to yourself and knowing who you are. This was explored by the

protagonist Flavia, who constantly had her personality dictated to her

and was told by Bo and Amazon to be herself despite what others said.

One similarity between the two pieces was the idea of true

relationships, with Flavia and Amazon in Dust, and Knoon-She and Chang

in Willow Pattern. These relationships proved to be the strongest, the