Shared Room On Union Character Analysis

Despite one work being written by a world-renowned author from the Elizabethan era and the other being written by a Canadian author born in the twentieth century, William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Steven Heighton’s “Shared Room on Union” both feature character development as the result of an accident. In both works, character development is most evident in the forms of: greed and irritability. Greed is best exemplified by Shakespeare’s characters Prospero, Antonio and Sebastian, as well as Heighton’s characters of the thief and the stranger. Just as greed is depicted by characters in both works, irritability among Prospero and Alonso from The Tempest as well as Justin and Janna from “Shared Room on Union” becomes evident during and after

Similarly to the effect Gonzalo’s talking had on Alonso, both Justin and Janna quickly become irate with each other. A prominent example of Janna’s irritability during the accident occurs within a short amount of time: “I can’t be in here Justin. I can’t! You knew that, too. That I’m claustrophobic” (62). Even after a short amount of time in the trunk, Janna has already snapped at Justin, as though it his fault that they are trapped in the trunk. Janna once again snaps at Justin when he attempts to console her “You’re going to be fine, Jan.’ How the fuck do you know if I’m going to be fine! You didn’t even remember I’m claustrophobic!” (65). This quote demonstrates how Janna is becoming irater the longer she spends in the trunk, and no amount of consoling from Justin can change that. At one point Janna becomes so fed up with Justin and their situation that she takes to insulting his personality and career: “No, no, you’re not a doctor and it’s lucky. You’ve got no-no-you can never just be together, can you Jutsin? Why can’t you just arrange yourself for once? It makes me crazy! You’re always-” (65). After this, tension rises between Justin and Janna. Eventually Justin also snaps, when the greedy stranger refuses to help them: “Then the man added, ‘Duh!’- and this, for Justin, was the end. This soft little duh. ‘Fuck you! You can take our keys and your phone call and your- shove them up your ass, if you know how to find it. And I’m going to find you tomorrow! The cops are going to-” (71). While Janna became irritable early, it took the stranger insulting Justin before he too snapped, as a result of the stranger’s greed and