Discuss the themes addressed in Over the Wall and the devices used

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Discuss the themes addressed in Over the Wall and the devices used

to express and examine these themes

The play ‘Over the Wall’ is very interesting and unique, in that

instead of having names for each part, the parts are numbered from

1-9. This removes all pre-conceptions you may have had of the

characters. The characters keep changing to different numbers

throughout the play; this is to highlight the different types of

people in society. Any number can play and the narration may be shared

out.

The play tells the story of an island community living on an island

with a wall running straight down the middle of it. These people like

to keep themselves to themselves and continue with life the way it

always has been led. They have totally no interest in the wall and all

of the questions that go with it. Except for the one! He is the one

asking all of the questions and searching for the answers. This quest

is not shared at all within the island community and everyone chooses

to ignore this ‘nut’. They are all happy to carry on with their daily

routines in their pointless lives and see him as an outsider.

At the beginning of the play it sounds almost like a fairy tale,

“there was once an island”. It then twists this idea by saying, ‘if

you believe it’. However it quickly shows us the real point and

meaning of the play. The narrator comments on many different social

members in this play and in the first narrator speech he makes a

disparaging remark towards the unemployed, “everyone had a day’s work

(which in those times was considered a blessing)”. He also comments on

people’s attitudes in general towards the young and the elderly, “the

old were looked after, as long as they didn’t outstay their welcome.”

The young also were “respected as individuals – within reason.” This

is so true in modern day societies. The young are not respected

because they are seen as immature and the elderly because they are

boring and frustratingly slow.

The narrator’s first speech ends with “for, while they were not

exactly happy they were not exactly unhappy either.” I think this

highlights the fact that people in society are happy with their daily

life being very mediocre. We put up with this because we are afraid of

change. We sit on the same seat on the bus every day; we have the same

routine when we get back from work. There are so many examples of

these day to day rituals because we are unimaginative.

The characters in the play are stereotyped defined by their language.

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